SPEEDSET. Run a search. And the problem with the sound skipping on the intro is well-documented and unfixable.

Originally posted by wissa With Mok's patch and VDMSound I've got System Shock's cd-version running - but with some sound problems. During the intro I'm encountering irritating sound skips with about two second interval (the interval varies).

Like Snover said, the audio in the intro is more difficult to work with than the in-game audio. You can try tinkering with settings in order to smooth things out:

Use MIDI for music, rather than AdLib/SoundBlaster (not quite sure if you're doing that already).
Disable any VDMSound feature that's not being used: Joystick, AdLib Emulation, etc...

If nothing else works, you can force (both the game and VDMSound) to use a basic SoundBlaster for digital audio (SoundBlaster 1.x). Of course, that would be low-quality 8-bit Mono audio as well.

I haven't really started playing the actual game, but it seems that the midi-musics do not skip as the intro does. However, it sounds like the background musics wouldn't quite keep in tempo.

This sounds suspiciously like an OPL3 problem. While Vlad's emulation handles the 16-bit audio of the SB16 just fine, it does not properly emulate the OPL3 (AdLib/FM) music chip from that card (yet).

The work-around for that is to set emulation to that of the early "SoundBlaster Pro" which causes it to use the earlier OPL2 chip. Also, (if the game's setup supports it) you can try configuring music to play through the (emulated) MIDI at port 330. It usually results in much-improved music and smoother game operation. Just make sure to change the MIDI device (under the "Advanced" button) to "Microsoft GS Wavetable", as the default is "MIDI Mapper" (which usually sounds rather "crummy").

Also understand that some games simply won't play properly on an NT OS like XP. Timing issues make a resolution rather difficult.

details about my computer:

If you place these in your profile, you don't need to post them in your message (unless it's part of a specific problem description). We can pull the data from your profile easily.

I've tried all the different configurations for the sound cards in the install file, and yes, although at first I had autodetected the IRQ to 5, now the configuration goes as follows: I/O 220H, IRQ 7, 8-bit DMA 1, 16-bit DMA 5.

Basically, you match it with whatever audio emulation you are using.

For XP's "native" SB emulation, that would be:
Basic SoundBlaster (2.0): I/O 220H, IRQ 5, 8-bit DMA 1

For VDMSound:
SoundBlaster 16: I/O 220H, IRQ 7, 8-bit DMA 1, 16-bit DMA 5

BTW, don't bother trying XP's emulation unless you're really desperate. It usually fails auto-detect, sounds poor, and sometimes just fails completely.

I'd really appreciate any help, I enjoyed System Shock 2 greatly and would really want to have SShock 1 running smoothly...

Concentrate on the game audio, not the intro. The video playback portions of the game are harder on audio than the game itself (especially if you're using the SVGA video).