PS1 Release:

This one is the easiest and most accessible, however it is slightly inferior to the PC version.

First, you have to get the game CD images. Usually in the *.bin *.cue format. You can find them online (or rip from your copy if you have it and a CD drive).

Then, you'll have to download a PS1 emulator. The one I recommend using is DuckStation. You can find how to download it on your system of choice on the website.

It will ask for a BIOS, which you can find here.

You don't have to configure anything except for your controller, if it doesn't pick it up automatically.

When you'll be prompted to change the disc after level 3, open the menu with ESC and choose "Change Disc"

Very straightforward

PC Release

(I don't use Windows 11 and don't guarantee it will work for you, but it probably will)

The first thing you have to do is to get the game disc image - in a *.iso/*.bin, *.cue format.

Then you need to mount it, so your system sees it as a real disc. For this, I would recommend the program Daemon Tools. Or an open source alternative. You can try both, but WinCDEmu caused me problems with the US release for some reason (and worked fine with the EU release!).

At this point, you should be able to launch the game, but only in full screen. To fix this, there are three programs: DxWnd, D3DWindower, or dgVoodoo. Once again, you can try out all three, but most people use DxWnd and have no issues with it, so you should try that one and only look into the rest if it causes problems.

If your gamepad doesn't work with the game, that's most likely because it's a modern XInput compatible gamepad. The game expects an old DirectInput compatible gamepad. To fix this, I recommend AntiMicroX, a program that translates your gamepad inputs into keyboard buttons.

You will have to mount the disc image and run AntiMicroX every single time you want to play the game, which is cumbersome. That's why the PS1 release is more accessible, and you should look into that one if this is too much fiddling for you.

HoDe:

This is just a side note. HoDe (Heart of Darkness engine) is a reverse engineering of the game's engine, ported to multiple platforms. It is a bit buggy, and I'm not sure if playing with it allows your run to be in the leaderboard. Still, if you really want it, here's how to set it up:

If you're trying to use the Windows build, initially it won't work without SDL2. Download it from the link I provided (make sure you're downloading SDL2, not SDL3) (and the x86/32-bit one, not x64/64-bit) and place the SDL2.dll into the game folder.

The game still won't launch, though. It needs the assets from the game, since it doesn't come with them. From the already installed original game folder, copy the "Setup.dat" file and every single *.lvl, *.mst and *.sss and optionally the "SETUP.CFG" file that contains your save data into the HoDe folder. And don't forget to also copy the "hod.paf" file from the game CD.

And now you can play it! Also, you can adjust some settings in the hode.ini config.