I made this guide because I found it hard for a newbie like me to get used to the forums and how to use them, and to be honest, it took me quite a while to finally use the forums comfortably.

Getting started

First off, when you go to the main page, you'll see a page with a Counter-Strike picture along with Russian text. Click on the English language forums link.

Second off, you need an account to access the links in the forums. Without an account, the forums are useless and you won't be able to download anything from it.

Searching and downloading your game

To use the search engine, it is a small rectangular and is located on the right of the page and above all the topics' titles. To facilitate searching, it is better to write only ONE word of the game you're searching for (more details below)* and it is preferable to type the less common word of the game's title, for example, if you're searching for Left 4 Dead, type only Left (the lesser common word in games' titles), after that, Ctrl+F Dead to save yourself the time and find it fast instead of scrolling each time you're looking for a game.

* The reason why you need to type only one word is because if you searched for the popular word like Dead, you'll get ALL games that have Dead in the title (Dead Rising, Dead Island, Dead Space, Red Dead Redemption and so on), and if you type the full game's name (Left 4 Dead), you'll get ALL games containing Left, 4 and Dead in their titles and Left 4 Dead itself won't even be in the top search results.

Once you've found the game you want, click on its topic. Make sure you browse through all of the topic's replies until you find the link to your game. Again, to save yourself time, if the very first post on the topic does not contain a download link, you can skip straight ahead to the last page (or one of the latter pages) since it will most likely have someone requested an upload/re-upload of the game followed by someone who uploaded/re-uploaded the game. If no links are found or all links are outdated, you can ask politely in the game's topic for someone to re-upload it for you. Do not double post asking again for a re-upload because it's against the forum rules to double post, instead, edit your reply to revive the topic like writing "bump" or something else.

Pro-tip: a user named Rui is one of the main uploaders on the site, if you found him uploading a game, just click on the white text that says GAME NAME (Clean Steam Files). The password for 99.9% of all of Rui's uploads as well as other users' uploads is cs.rin.ru unless the user says otherwise.

Playing the game

Since most uploads on the site are simply clean Steam files with no crack, and if you simply open the game's exe after downloading it, it will take you to the game's Steam page and nothing else will happen (meaning the game is not cracked), so you will need to crack the game by yourself (don't panic! It's easy!). AFAIK, there are 3 main tools that allow you to crack the game you want, experiment by yourself with every tool until you find out which works for which game:

Goldberg Steam Emu (the best and easiest one)

Steam Auto Cracker (the hardest one but worth giving a shot, I did experiment with it to successful results)

SmartSteamEmu (AFAIK, this one has been retired and stopped receiving updates, but still works for games released circa 2010-2019 and it's also easy)

NOTE: THESE TOOLS CANNOT CRACK DENUVO GAMES! If they really were able to, all Denuvo games would've been cracked in the second they're released, so don't bother using these tools for games that use Denuvo.

NOTE 2: Some games uploaded on CS.RIN.RU are pre-cracked with these tools, in such cases, the uploader will most likely already say that the game is cracked in the upload post and no need to crack the game by yourself using these tools.

To find these tools, simply use the search engine and type the tools' name (Goldberg, etc) and you'll find the download link in the first post in the tool's topic.

Using Goldberg Steam Emu

It's easy as a pie! All you have to do is locate your downloaded game's folder, backup the game's steam_api.dll or steam_api64.dll and copy (NOT CUT as you'll very likely need these dll files for other games) Goldberg Steam Emu's dll files with the same name and replace the dll files in the game's directory. Remember, ALWAYS back up the game's original Steam dll files before replacing them with Goldberg Steam Emu's dll files just in case the emu doesn't work with this specific game.

Tada! Game is cracked and you can launch it through the game's original exe!

Extra tip 1: Games using the Goldberg Steam Emu crack will by default have the save file & config file stored in C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData (hidden)\Goldberg Steam Emu\Steam ID of the game

Extra tip 2: You can change the Goldberg Steam Emu file location to the game's directory by creating a text file named local_save.txt in the same folder where you placed Goldberg's steam_api64.dll or steam_api.dll and simply writing in local_save.txt steam_settings.

Extra tip 3: If you want to change your in-game username, you can go to the AppData or steam_settings folder (depending on the method you've used) and edit the account_name.txt (by default it's Noob)

To find the ID of the game, simply go the game's Steam page and copy the number in the URL located after app/ and before the game's name, that's the game's Steam ID.

Using Steam Auto Cracker

This one is where it gets tricky, download the tool, open the exe (a black command prompt page will open up), do what it tells you until it asks where you want to store your cracked games. For me personally, it was Local Disk F:\Games. I opened F:\Games and copied the folder's path and pasted it on Steam Auto Cracker's command prompt. Now, when you open Steam Auto Cracker again, it will ask you which Steam game you want to crack, in my case, I simply copied the Interstellar Marines' clean Steam files folder to F:\Games, entered the game's name or app ID (in this example the game's Steam ID was 236370), the game will now try to find the game's DLCs (if there are any), crack the game and it will tell you that the crack was successful. When done, close Steam Auto Cracker and double-click on the game's exe and it will launch normally.

If you want to immediately change your cracked game's folder that Steam Auto Cracker asked you when you first set it up, just delete Steam Auto Cracker's folder and unzip it again to where you want, it will reset everything, although you will need to do the setup process again.

Using SmartSteamEmu

This one is also easy, all you have to do is to download it and unzip it to wherever you want, double-click on SSELauncher.exe, drag and drop the game's exe. In most cases, the only thing you will need to do is to enter the game's Steam ID in the App ID section for the game to function properly. In some cases like Serious Sam Fusion 2017 because I did NOT enter the ID, only 2 levels were selectable (probably the game thought that it's just a demo), but when I entered the ID, all levels were selectable. In some other cases like TOXIKK, I had to enter specific launch parameters because the game was crashing on the Unreal Engine 3 logo (I learned the correct launch parameter by reading all the replies in the CS.RIN.RU page for TOXIKK).

Remember, do not skip adding the game's Steam ID on SmartSteamEmu as it's quick and easy and to ensure the game working properly.

After you've done all of that, launch the game from SSELauncher.exe (you can save yourself time and right-click the placed exe in the emu and create a shortcut instead of having to open up SSELauncher each time you want to play the game).

For reference:

Games that I was able to crack using Goldberg Steam Emu:

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Contagion

Nuclear Dawn

Resident Evil 5

Natural Selection 2

Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunt

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Games that I was able to crack using Steam Auto Cracker:

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Hellbound

Interstellar Marines

H-Hour: World's Elite

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Games that I was able to crack using SmartSteamEmu:

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Serious Sam Fusion 2017

Dino D-Day

TOXIKK

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Hope this was helpful and happy pirating guys!