System Shock Enhanced Edition released on GOG

[6663a3a2ceaafRocketMan]

SSP included a few other things, but nothing you're going to miss much, I think.

I miss it already.  This new release has nothing new that I need and omits a few things I rather liked.

[6663a3a2ced04Kolya]

Oh hush, Malba has managed to make this DOS game fully run on modern windows without emulation. That means huge computational effort has simply been sidestepped and the game will run smoother just for that.
I regret that he didn't release it here as he did with earlier versions of SHLINK, but that may still happen.

One thing though that I forgot: The original setup of System Shock included the now famous speech of SHODAN ("Look at you Hacker..."). It was simply the audio card test. In SSP I included a command to simulate this, since it is a historical connection with SS2, where this speech was repeated.
I haven't had a chance to look at the Enhanced Edition, but I fear that this may have been omitted.

[6663a3a2cf100Olfred]

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

Ah, I thought it was only referring to his prior work.
Then I'm glad to hear that he got involved and there was no one who just took his work and tweaked it a bit to make a profit out of it.
I wish him a good payment for this.

[6663a3a2cf3c5Skafsgaard]

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.

That's cool - I usually vastly prefer HQX filters over the original pixelated look in my classic games, but that's just a matter of taste, of course.
Anyway, I can confirm that both mods work flawlessly for the GOG version of the game!

[6663a3a2cf7f7Marvin]

I regret that he didn't release it here as he did with earlier versions of SHLINK, but that may still happen.

Same feeling here. Did he reach out to you at any point? I first thought it was him that prompted you to delete the post about a possible GOG-SHLINK release but that's not the case it seems.

[6663a3a2cf978voodoo47]

they probably have him working on a patch at the moment. but yeah, also hoping that SHLINK EE will get a standalone public release - without that, the proposed SS1tool wouldn't get anywhere.

[6663a3a2cfa68plasma discharge]

so this actually is shlink with music now?

[6663a3a2cfbb7voodoo47]

what EE has? yeah, pretty much.

also yeah, the final shodan bug makes a reappearance. SHLINK EE will probably need frame capping, if this can't be screwed around by messing with vsync.

[6663a3a2cfcf1Marvin]

Apparently, MIDI support did not change at all, so all the old tricks still apply.
voodoo, you might want to link to Xenoneo's excellent guide in the starting post:
https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=3188.0

[6663a3a2d00cfJDoran]

This is *fantastic*!!!!!!

Not only can we now legally own the game, but it's native to Windows too (sort of). SSP was and is fantastic, and all credit to the hard work and ingenuity of Kolya and co. for making SSP, but this will bring the game to an even bigger audience.

Is it terrible I'm happy that Everything is out of EA's hands purely so we don't have some shitty mobile game?

Oh, don't even joke about it. I can imagine "System Shock 3", or rather "System Shock", as it will be a 2017 reboot, and EA will claim it "Contains all of the atmophere, depth, and innovative mechanics and originality of it's predessor". And when we get it, it will be a linear first person shooter, with cover-based action, a self-recharging health bar, non-skippable non-interactive cut scenes ever fifty metres, quick time events everywhere (i.e. when  an enemy get's close, you'll get "Press [randomly chosen key] to melee" type prompts), an onscreen arrow pointing to the next objective, on-screen prompts every time you can open a door or throw a switch, and the emphasis will be on the on-line multiplayer and not the (three hour long) single player campaign.

Basically, think the Thief Reboot from a year or two back, where they somehow managed to leave out everything that made the original Thief games so wonderful.

[6663a3a2d0387JDoran]

what EE has? yeah, pretty much.

also yeah, the final shodan bug makes a reappearance. SHLINK EE will probably need frame capping, if this can't be screwed around by messing with vsync.

Oh.... I just read this post. I have to say I'm disappointed that Night Dive Studios presumably didn't playtest the game all of the way through. Even if this wasn't possible to fix in the Windows Enhanced version, then they should have let players know that the game can't be completed, both on the GOG page, and as a readme.txt file in the download archive.

[6663a3a2d0678Marvin]

Not only can we now legally own the game, [...]

You could do that for the past 21 years.

[6663a3a2d0894JDoran]

You could do that for the past 21 years.

Yes, but for most of that time it meant being very lucky on ebay/Amazone/local charity shops, etc.

[6663a3a2d0b14Marvin]

Yes, but for most of that time it meant being very lucky on ebay/Amazone/local charity shops, etc.

True, used video game prices can be strange. I got System Shock dirt cheap (15€ total for both versions) because I bought the german version (which of course has all languages on the CD).

[6663a3a2d0e5cunn_atropos]

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.

Right now

[6663a3a2d0f96voodoo47]

confirmed on twitch - star insurance is out of the game.

[6663a3a2d11a5Hikari]

Someone get Kevin Levine on the phone.

In all seriousness though I'm not sure if a sequel is possible or even desirable given everyone will claim to want SHODAN back, but if she's back she's suddenly not a threat. She's... retread.

However the world at large is interesting.

[6663a3a2d1447ZylonBane]

However the world at large is interesting.

Not really. System Shock's world is a fairly generic cyberpunk mishmash. There's very little world-building in the games themselves.

[6663a3a2d1688Marvin]

Someone get Kevin Levine on the phone.

To what purpose, except to further fuck up the Shock legacy?

[6663a3a2d1913Hikari]

There is enough there to build off of.

Like the fact as a society they've gotten enough of a mastery and comfort with nanotech that those are both currency and the devices that assemble them INTO things are everywhere and ubiquitous to the point that they exist even in really crappy neighborhoods, along with recycler things that ALSO exist everywhere to convert THINGS into nanites.

You have psychics that get brainwiped and given a new personality for the sake of infiltrating groups only to have their real selves resume control to make that one nudge needed to bring groups down. Plagues, War, solar-system wide travel.

There is a lot of potential there even if at first blush it's 'generic cyberpunk hellhole.'

[6663a3a2d1c68ZylonBane]

There is enough there to build off of.

"Nothing" is also enough to build off of, so that's not saying much. Anyone trying to build out SS's universe would have to do most of the work themselves.

[6663a3a2d1e52Valet2]

Oh shi... guys... that was so unexpected... got questions:

- so every right to the franchise are gone to Night Dive? If so that means that they are in charge of a green light to other games called System Shock?
- there's an "enhanced" and "classic" versions. What's the technical difference?
- Night Dive asked that guy who made shlink to contribute, but he couldn't tell us about that?
- is there a recording of that chat on GOG's twitch with ND and Paul? Please a link, I'm stupid.
- no source code to be found yet? All the work done is reverse-engineering only?
- who called Ken, and is there a recording or something?

[edit]

I think I've found the recording on twitch. Sadly I wasn't there, otherwise I would capture the live chat as well!

http://www.twitch.tv/gogcom/v/17387762

[6663a3a2d1f5cvoodoo47]

yeah, System Shock IP now belongs to Night Dive. see the first post for the info on EE. classic is the plain CD version. no source code so far, but they are looking.

[6663a3a2d2c0aunn_atropos]

- so every right to the franchise are gone to Night Dive? If so that means that they are in charge of a green light to other games called System Shock?

First question: yes, 2. question: Of course they wouldn't say "We will make System Shock 3. Release date 17th April 2016". But they didn't deny to maybe make it at some point in the future.

- there's an "enhanced" and "classic" versions. What's the technical difference?

enhanced has all the improvements, classic is basically the original game without alterations

- Night Dive asked that guy who made shlink to contribute, but he couldn't tell us about that?

Don't know if he was allowed to. They mentioned their "good collaboration with the System Shock community" though. I have no details.

- is there a recording of that chat on GOG's twitch with ND and Paul? Please a link, I'm stupid.

Don't know. I hope someone made a recording.

- no source code to be found yet? All the work done is reverse-engineering only?

They seem to be still searching but right now they do not have it.

- who called Ken, and is there a recording or something?

Noone, 'tis was a joke man.^^