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System Shock

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games

This page is for the original version. For the 2015 remaster, see System Shock: Enhanced Edition. For the 2023 remake, see System Shock (2023).

System Shock
System Shock cover
Developers
Looking Glass Technologies
Publishers
Origin Systems
Current Night Dive Studios
Release dates
DOS September 22, 1994[1]
Mac OS (Classic) September 22, 1994
Windows (DOSBox) September 22, 2015[2]
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person
Controls Direct control, Point and select
Genres Immersive sim, Shooter, Metroidvania
Art styles Realistic
Themes Cyberpunk, Horror, Sci-fi, Space
Series System Shock
System Shock on HowLongToBeat
System Shock guide on StrategyWiki
System Shock on MobyGames
System Shock on Wikipedia
System Shock
System Shock 1994
System Shock 2 1999
System Shock: Enhanced Edition 2015
System Shock (2023) 2023
System Shock 2 Enhanced Edition TBA
System Shock 3 TBA

System Shock is a singleplayer first-person immersive sim, shooter and metroidvania game in the System Shock series.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions
SystemShock.org, the biggest forum about the game.
SHODANPEDIA - A wiki for the System Shock series

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
3.5" floppy version or Enhanced CD Version
DOS
Mac OS
GOG.com
DRM-free
Bundled with System Shock: Enhanced Edition. Includes both the floppy and CD versions.[3]
Windows
Steam
DRM-free after installation through Steam client (notes may include more details)
Bundled with System Shock: Enhanced Edition as Classic Edition.
Windows
A demo is available for the floppy version.

Version differences

Bonus tracks.
Bonus tracks.
The classic Mac OS version was substantially improved during the porting process. It features high-res (640x480 vs DOS's 320x200) menus, fonts & UI elements. It also had 3 studio quality bonus tracks.[4] It was used as the basis for the Source Port Update of the Enhanced Edition.

Essential improvements

Run in DOSBox

To improve DOSBox performance make the following changes to the DOSBox configuration file:

  • Change output=surface to output=opengl
  • Change memsize=16 to memsize=32
  • Change core=normal to core=dynamic
  • Change aspect=false to aspect=true
  • Change fullresolution=original to fullresolution=desktop

Gigaquad's Enhanced log texts mod

Gigaquad's Enhanced log texts mod matches the audio and text dialogue.

DOS32A

DOS32A is a more advanced extender and open source replacement to DOS4GW. It can improve both performance and stability of System Shock.

System Shock has DOS4GW bound to each of its executables. Use the command sb /r sshock.exe or cdshock.exe to replace it.

System Shock Portable/SSPTool

A useful tool for those who don't own Enhanced Edition. Was formerly a community made abandonware package of the full game, though this was later changed to require the user to provide the game data after the game was released on GOG.

Easy to use configuration utility.
Provides all the above mods already in the package.
Has an installer that can easily find cd data.
Requires Windows, does not work on Mac nor Linux. Config files and mod components can still be used.
Still not native, unlike the Enhanced Edition. Also included DOSBox components may be out of date.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\CYB.CFG
Mac OS (Classic)
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/410700/pfx/[Note 2]
Some data is stored within the save files.

Save game data location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\DATA
Mac OS (Classic)
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/410700/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

Video settings.
Video settings.

Graphics feature State Notes
Widescreen resolution
4:3 resolutions only.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
For DOSBox toggle with Alt+ Enter (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
For DOSBox use an unofficial build (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
60 FPS
120+ FPS
Color blind mode
Alternate HUD colors avalible by right-clicking on fullscreen button.

Input

Audio

Audio settings.
Audio settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Music, Digital FX, Audio Message Volume.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Toggle Messages setting under Audio Options. Words are not exact representations of audio. Fix available in the from of Gigaquad's Enhanced log texts mod.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
For DOSBox change the priority background value in the DOSBox configuration file.
Royalty free audio
General MIDI audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Voiceovers only available on the Enhanced CD version
French
Voiceovers only available on the Enhanced CD version
German
Voiceovers only available on the Enhanced CD version
Russian
Fan translation by «Dark Fate Team»

VR support

VR support

Headsets State Notes
SteamVR
Oculus VR (LibOVR)
Windows Mixed Reality
Forte VFX1
CD version only.[5]
Devices
Tracked motion controllers
Forte VFX1 Cyberpuck
See Input for details.
Traditional controller
See Input for details.
Keyboard/Mouse

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DOS video modes VGA, SVGA Allows MCGA but for low-res cutscenes only. 256 Colors only.
Utilizes DOS4GW for extended memory & 32-bit support.

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Emetic Dynamics Modeling System Developed by Looking Glass's Seamus Blackley.[6]
Audio Miles Audio Interface Library Original/floppy uses 2.0, Enhanced CD version uses 3.0.
Support for the Gravis Ultrasound was removed in the transition to the CD version due to the inclusion of the Miles AIL3 audio library. A patch to re-enable it can be found here.
Enable custom patches with AIL3[citation needed]
To enable the custom gus patches included with System Shock (located in the \Gravis directory), edit the "CUSTOM.GUS" file included with the drivers above and add the following lines:
[Ultrasound]
PatchDir=SOUND\GRAVIS

[Melodic Patches]
73=ssflute
28=ssmutgtr
29=ssodgtr
39=sssynba2
80=sssqrwav
30=ssdisgtr
107=sskoto
84=sscharng
87=ssbasled
109=ssbagpip

[Drum Patches]
35=sskick2
36=sskick1
38=sssnar1

Source Ports

The source code for the Mac OS version is publicly available.
Name Description
Shockolate Source port focused on delivering a near-vanilla experience with some quality-of-life improvements.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
System Shock: Enhanced Edition Commercial source port using Kex.
Windows

System requirements

DOS
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) MS-DOS 5.0 or compatible
Processor (CPU) 486DX/33 MHz
System memory (RAM) 4 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 20 MB
Video card (GPU) 256-color VGA
Mac OS
Minimum
Operating system (OS) System 7.1
Processor (CPU) PowerPC 601 80 MHz
System memory (RAM) 8 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 22 MB
Video card (GPU) 256 Colors
Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 7, 8, 10 (runs in DOSBox)
Processor (CPU) Intel Core i3 1.5 GHz
System memory (RAM) 128 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 File/folder structure within the installation folder reflects the path(s) listed for DOS game data.
  2. 2.0 2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/410700/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (410700) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. News from origin BBS - last accessed on 2023-12-30
    "On the Origin BBS, there was an announcement that both Wing Commander Armada (disk and CD versions) and System Shock (disk version only) had both shipped from Origin."
  2. Release: System Shock - GOG.com - last accessed on May 2023
  3. SystemShock Enhanced DOS?, GOG Community Discussions for the System Shock series
  4. System Shock 1 unique MAC OS OST - last accessed on May 2023
  5. System Shock on the VFX-1 | Pix's Origin Adventures
  6. System Shock Kickstarter - April Update - last accessed on April 7, 2018
    "The game is mostly written in C, except for the physics library written by Seamus Blackley (EDMS, the Emetic Dynamics Modeling System)"