Very interesting. Personally I'm more interested in the classic edition. I will have to read up on the forums what sorts of modifications have been applied and if there are improvements or gameplay changes.

I think we all knew this day was coming. I'll have my website updated in a few days or so with the new GOG link on my ADG video for the game. 😀

GoG and Night Dive have definitely done stellar work for this release. Floppy, DOS CD and Windows Executable, there is some real class there.

As far as DOSBox being slow, I guess that individual is not running a very fast machine. System Shock in 640x400 runs very smoothly for me on my Core i7 from two years ago at max DOSBox cycles. 640x400 is the resolution you should run it at, you get faux widescreen as well.

Sadly, it looks like the GOG version can't be completed. It seems like the end boss fight in the game is timed via the host PC's framerate (or so the game thinks), and so running it on a modern PC confuses the game's timing, making it impossible for the player to win.

Source: and http://www.gog.com/forum/system_shock_series/final_boss_bug

Quote: [Deleted by me, as it's a spoiler, but basically the end of the game's boss fight], the screen is filling up WAY faster than in the original (or in the Portable/DOSBox versions). It's supposed to take about 30 seconds, but in the enhanced edition it's more like 10 seconds.

I guess there is a CPU timing issue? The rest of the game runs at normal speed, looks like it's just an issue with the screen filling thing.

EDIT: I double checked it with both SSP and Youtube videos of the DOS version. The screen fills up about three times faster in the enhanced edition, which makes the fight pretty much impossible. Unquote.

It's sad that even the re-release of a twenty-one year old game can't be done properly, as even then you'll need to download a later patch to make the game completable.

Great Hierophant wrote:

GoG and Night Dive have definitely done stellar work for this release. Floppy, DOS CD and Windows Executable, there is some real class there.

As far as DOSBox being slow, I guess that individual is not running a very fast machine. System Shock in 640x400 runs very smoothly for me on my Core i7 from two years ago at max DOSBox cycles. 640x400 is the resolution you should run it at, you get faux widescreen as well.

System Shock Portable (the DOSBox version running System Shock) runs fine at 800 x 600 on my single core 2GHz laptop. 1024 x 768 is jerky though.

Kerr Avon, there are lots of users on the GOG forum complaining about issues and getting refunds. On my Windows 10 machine the game works great, but it seems that the wrapper or whatever it is, still has a few bugs that need fixing.

But seeing this is an important release, I do expect fixes to come through fast.

And worst case, just play the classic version in DOSBox. It works great! Though I wonder if max cycles might also trigger than issue with the final boss.

philscomputerlab wrote:

Kerr Avon, there are lots of users on the GOG forum complaining about issues and getting refunds. On my Windows 10 machine the game works great, but it seems that the wrapper or whatever it is, still has a few bugs that need fixing.

But seeing this is an important release, I do expect fixes to come through fast.

And worst case, just play the classic version in DOSBox. It works great! Though I wonder if max cycles might also trigger than issue with the final boss.

Oh, the bug (and any others I might encounter) aren't going to put me off this (and even if I have to use SSP for ever because I can't run the GOG version, buying the GOG version still makes me 'legitimate', since I now own the game), and they will be fixed/patched sooner or later. It's just annoying that seemingly every game you buy nowadays is seemingly bugged and untested.

With the Enhanced Edition I can now play System Shock on a weak Atom N280 eee-PC. It runs smooth at 800x600 with sound an music 😀 . No way I could do that with Dosbox/Pure DOS/NTVDM on such a system. Makes you wonder if this Enhanced Edition wrapper can support other games. But I read that it is specific for a Watcom 9.5C tweaked and recompiled program or game.

Just finished the medical level without issues and have to say what a kick-ass hack getting it running natively on modern Windows.

The only real benefit you get from resolutions above 640x400 is something like anti-aliasing on edges. Considering the performance impact and the rather ugly impact it has on the UI, the low resolution textures and 2-D objects and enemies, the benefit is questionable.

Normally I would agree. The reason I ran it at 800x600 on that netbook, is because the screen itself is 600 pixels in height, and quite small as it is already. Using 640x400 it would be running in a smaller window or I would have to settle with screen upscaling.

Indeed the 800x600 mode shows a tiny UI font for one. The 1024x768 font is better, better then I remember, did they rework the 1024x768 font since, I wonder?
In all fairness, the benefit of higher resolutions is not just the edges though; The 3D world textures will render more accurate/sharp.

Wish there were new levels for this game. The original levels are great but I played through them too often already.

gerwin wrote:

Wish there were new levels for this game. The original levels are great but I played through them too often already.

See, I've had this thought for the longest time. It's not like the level format in System Shock is even that complicated. Every level is made up of squares on a grid which can be solid, cleared, or diagonally cut in half. From there, you have a floor and ceiling which can be flat or angled. I THINK it might be possible to have multiple floors and ceilings but I'm not remembering this clearly at the moment. From there, everything else is merely an object, regardless of if it's made of sprites or polygons. Even doors are nothing more than objects if I'm remembering this correctly.

But, the more I thought about the coolness of a level editor, the more I began to realize, "Wait... where would these new levels physically be if Space Station Citadel were real?" o_O

And then I realized that you'd basically have to have new locations, more textures to account for that, new eMails... making more levels make sense requires a level of modding that the game wasn't built for, not just simply new levels.

I think the only way you could make an exception to this would be to completely redesign the existing levels while keeping the same story and everything, but even then you'd have to modify the story triggers and everything... it would be a mess to try and do. x_x;

So yeah, neat idea having a level editor but probably a LOT more trouble to use than you'd think. :P

Agreed, I expect this game to be pretty much hardcoded around the citadel station scenario. It is just the desire for new levels that is there, especially after being spoiled by Doom and its megaWADs.

I cannot say that after comparing resolutions, that the textures really look that much better in 1024x768, lines aside, than they do at 640x400 once the aspect ratio has been corrected.

If you look at the screenshots I took below using DOSBox and the high definition mod, its hard to tell much difference. The screenshots are ordered by resolution, 320x200, 320x240, 640x400, 640z400 4:3, 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768.

Well I prefer 1024 x 768. The image is just sharper.

Now that System Shock is out on GOG we REALLY should try to stay on topic here. :)

Great Hierophant wrote:

I cannot say that after comparing resolutions, that the textures really look that much better in 1024x768, lines aside, than they do at 640x400 once the aspect ratio has been corrected.

To show an example where this is most obvious, look at the decal 'BETA' in the distance and the trioptimum logo above it. The 1024x768 mode has much more pixels to define edge and texture details in this area. It is the same in the rest of the 3D world, just less obvious.

Still the improvement from 320x200 to 640x400 is certainly bigger then that of 640x400 to 1280x800.

System Shock Enhanced Edition Left=1024x768 / Right=640x400:

System Shock Enhanced Edition 640x400:

System Shock Enhanced Edition 1024x768:

I can see that, there is a subtle but noticeable difference in this resolution. I'm not persuaded that the tradeoff is worth it for systems where there is a major performance issue.

I play at 640x480, since it's a perfect integer scale (to 1920x1440) for me. 1024x768 isn't a that huge improvement and custom resolutions mess too much with text spacing.

Gemini000 wrote:

See, I've had this thought for the longest time. It's not like the level format in System Shock is even that complicated. Every […]
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gerwin wrote:

Wish there were new levels for this game. The original levels are great but I played through them too often already.

See, I've had this thought for the longest time. It's not like the level format in System Shock is even that complicated. Every level is made up of squares on a grid which can be solid, cleared, or diagonally cut in half. From there, you have a floor and ceiling which can be flat or angled. I THINK it might be possible to have multiple floors and ceilings but I'm not remembering this clearly at the moment. From there, everything else is merely an object, regardless of if it's made of sprites or polygons. Even doors are nothing more than objects if I'm remembering this correctly.

But, the more I thought about the coolness of a level editor, the more I began to realize, "Wait... where would these new levels physically be if Space Station Citadel were real?" 😮

And then I realized that you'd basically have to have new locations, more textures to account for that, new eMails... making more levels make sense requires a level of modding that the game wasn't built for, not just simply new levels.

I think the only way you could make an exception to this would be to completely redesign the existing levels while keeping the same story and everything, but even then you'd have to modify the story triggers and everything... it would be a mess to try and do. x_x;

So yeah, neat idea having a level editor but probably a LOT more trouble to use than you'd think. 😜

The problem was that Looking Glass Software (who wrote System Shock) never released the tools necessary for modding the game, and by the time people got around to reverse engineering the game enough to understand it's workings, most people have moved on and left the game behind, especially since SS was cursed with being very hard to run on Windows machines (well, not very hard, just hard, but difficult enough to put off people who had grown used to Windows 95, or who had never had to create a specific config.sys setup to run a demanding DOS game).

At least we did get mods for System Shock 2, though. See:

https://www.systemshock.org/index.php

for details and downloads.

BTW, regarding System Shock, the upcoming fan remake, The Citadel (http://www.indiedb.com/games/citadel) is designed to be moddable, so maybe we will see some mods made for the game. And thankfully this is one of the few fan remakes that looks likely to actually be released, since the (one person!) working on it has proven to be both capable and determined. He posts regularly on the https://www.systemshock.org/index.php about progress, too.

The speed / timing related bug that can cause the final boss to become unbeatable, is this something the DOS version also experiences when played on a fast computer?