System Shock Enhanced Edition released on GOG

[664a0d7074855Dj 127]

Voodoo, I'm referring to a couple of tries to rebuild SS in a different engine like Black Mesa for Half Life, that were sent C&D letters by EA.

Even if they don't shut down such a remake, doing this with a modern engine will take a lot of time and won't be manageable without proper schedules. Black Mesa had a huge team of programmers, modelers and the like and were aided by some of Valve's developers themselves and it still took a lot of time, so I'm not too enthusiastic on such a remake working out.

Just bought it, and haven't rebooted into Windows to try it out yet, but I notice there are two versions: "Enhanced" and "Classic." The latter has a substantially larger install size. Anyone know what's up with that?

Image: http://i.imgur.com/D5YObpP.png

It's because the Classic edition includes both the floppy and CD version.

[664a0d7074b96Vegoraptor]

The General MIDI standard was developed by the MIDI Manufacturers Association, not Microsoft.

He was talking about Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth (your standard soundfont on Windows) I think. And I agree, it sounds pretty horrible.

[664a0d7074d20ZylonBane]

If so, then he meant Microsoft's implementation of the General MIDI standard.

[664a0d70750ceMarvin]

The General MIDI standard was developed by the MIDI Manufacturers Association, not Microsoft.

Forgot a " one". What vegoraptor said.

The question is still open.

[664a0d70753a2unn_atropos]

http://www.weeklygamingrecap.com/2015/09/22/shodan-is-life-system-shock-enhanced-edition-pc-released-on-gog-com/:

Join Stephen Kick (Founder and CEO of Night Dive Studios) and Paul Neurath (Creative Director at Looking Glass Studios, and industry veteran credited on System Shock 2, Thief, Neverwinter Nights and more) for an in-depth, roundtable discussion on the System Shock phenomenon and its many influences in game design to date – on http://www.twitch.tv/GOGcom – September 23, 6:00 PM CET, 4:00 PM GMT, 9:00 AM PDT, 12:00 PM EDT.

[664a0d707550dmiracle.flame]

WOW! Looks like I am going to finish this one after all...

[664a0d70755f1Marvin]

You never finished System Shock? 

[664a0d70756f6miracle.flame]

No, not really... I played SS2 prior to SS1 so that probably caused a lot. I really could not take the interface and controls while being so sluggish at some parts.

[664a0d70757c7xdiesp]

Livestream on GOG's Twitch in 30 mins.

[664a0d70759f0Olfred]

I'm wondering who did the finishing touch on SHLINK.
Was it someone related to Night Dive, or was it Malba Tahan?

[664a0d7075b3cunn_atropos]

Looking at the stream, did they not include SS1 Gigaquad Enhanced log texts mod ? 

[664a0d7075d97Marvin]

Looking at the stream, did they not include SS1 Gigaquad Enhanced log texts mod ? 

Nope.

[664a0d7075f08Kolya]

@Olfred: As mentioned in the first post, Malba Tahan is the one responsible for the enhancements.

[664a0d7075ff8Skafsgaard]

Does this version basically include all of the improvements from SSP and what Malba Tahan has done, then?
The only thing lacking would be a sync of the spoken and written text?

[664a0d7076170voodoo47]

yes, with the exception of the true2audio mod, GOG EE is the ultimate SS1 edition, with all the improvements that have been available so far and some more that are new and exclusive. it should be more stable, faster and smoother than anything that has been available up to this point.

[664a0d70762dfKolya]

SSP included a few other things, but nothing you're going to miss much, I think. (original setup files, CPU brake for the endboss fight, true to speech mod, scaled up object textures mod, infos)
One weird thing is that the Enhanced Edition is apparently missing the German and French language files, which I had once outsourced into separate archives for SSP because of download size. That shouldn't matter on GOG and indeed I hear that these files are included in the "Classic" version available on GOG.

[664a0d7076439Skafsgaard]

@Voodoo47: That's exactly what I wanted to hear - thank you!

@Kolya: Oh... well, that lowers my elation somewhat. Besides the "true to speech" mod, those scaled up textures sound really nice. What's the CPU brake you mention? The original setup files and the infos don't sound like they'll impact the actual game.
In any case, you're the author of SSP, right? Thanks for all your work! Maybe you can talk to Night Dive about implementing those last few features from your SSP - or make a patch yourself, that's compatible with the GOG release, that adds those features back in.

As for the "true to speech" mod, would that be possible to install on the GOG version of the game as it is now?

[664a0d7076563Kolya]

Most likely, yes. I added links to these mods in my previous post.

[664a0d7076642Skafsgaard]

That's fantastic - thank you so much! Finally I'll be able to have the ultimate SS experience!

[664a0d7076745Kolya]

The CPU brake is (or used to be?) necessary to beat SHODAN in the final level, because the time in which she fills the screen is tied to the framerate, if I remember correctly. So on a modern system this would give you little chance to beat her. Would be interesting to know if Malba fixed this. I guess we'll know soon.

[664a0d707683cSkafsgaard]

Ah yeah, I see. Things being tied to framerate has been known to cause some quirks when run on modern computers, in quite a few older games I've played.

But yeah, I can't imagine they'd release the game without being able to properly fight the end boss.

[664a0d7076b17ZylonBane]

Besides the "true to speech" mod, those scaled up textures sound really nice.

They're just the original textures batch-processed through an HQX filter (or similar), so they look blobby and rounded instead of sharp and pixelated.

[664a0d7076c20Kolya]

Gigaquad explained the creation of these scaled up textures himself thoroughly.

[664a0d7076d9cvonhapen]

Damnit, too late...