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Fancy playing System Shock 1 using an open source game engine that's cross-platform? Give me some Shockolate [GitHub].

Based on the Mac PowerPC source code release from Night Dive Studios, developer Chad Cuddigan has been hacking away at the code to enable it to run on more modern systems (like Linux).

I've been silently following it, however, Cuddigan recently emailed in about it as it seems it's further along than I had realised. Here's what they told me:

Lately I've been working on a cross platform source port of  System Shock 1 that I'm calling Shockolate: https://github.com/Interrupt/systemshock

It's going to be in the style of Chocolate Doom - a modern cross platform source port of the original game but with some new features added like modding support and better controls, eventually.

It's at the point now where it runs the game pretty well, even with some basic sound support. It has some big missing features to dig up though like getting it to play the movies and audiologs from the original DOS version of the game, since the source code that was released was for PowerPC Macs.

Some background: after finishing up Delver I was planning on taking a bit of a break from game development, but then Night Dive went and released some source code for System Shock 1 that someone dug up. SS1 is one of my top ten games, so getting a chance to hack on this engine has been really fun and it's been quite the puzzle box keeping me up late at night trying to revive it.

Really do love seeing games be revived with open source projects like this.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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11 comments
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Luke_Nukem Jun 13, 2018
Awesome! I remember this puttering along at 10fps on my old 486SX50.

I might actually finish it now...
Samsai Jun 13, 2018
I built it quickly and got it to work. Keep in mind that the game wants the System Shock Enhanced Edition files to function. I loaded it up with Classic edition files and that just yielded some segfaults. So, to play you need to download the Enhanced Edition, innoextract the Windows installer and copy the app/res folder to where-ever you built Shockolate. Still seems a bit crashy and on Arch at least there isn't any sound (didn't build my own SDL2 stuff) but it renders pretty smoothly at least.
sub Jun 13, 2018
Quoting: SamsaiI built it quickly and got it to work. Keep in mind that the game wants the System Shock Enhanced Edition files to function. I loaded it up with Classic edition files and that just yielded some segfaults. So, to play you need to download the Enhanced Edition, innoextract the Windows installer and copy the app/res folder to where-ever you built Shockolate. Still seems a bit crashy and on Arch at least there isn't any sound (didn't build my own SDL2 stuff) but it renders pretty smoothly at least.

Thanks!

That sounds very promising.
ripper Jun 13, 2018
Does this have the same improvements as the Enhanced Edition, i.e. higher resolutions and mouselook?
razing32 Jun 13, 2018
Wait.
He's the dude who made Delver ?
I think I saw Samsai stream that tough.
Have to remember to pick that up.
no_information_here Jun 13, 2018
This is great! Lots of respect for people who do this kind of thing.
ProfessorKaos64 Jun 14, 2018
How does this compare to System Shock Classic that I have in Steam? While it's no longer available for sale, I believed it showed up when I purchased the enhanced edition, can't remember. That does have a Linux binary b


Last edited by ProfessorKaos64 on 14 June 2018 at 12:57 am UTC
rea987 Jun 14, 2018
Quoting: ripperDoes this have the same improvements as the Enhanced Edition, i.e. higher resolutions and mouselook?

Yeah, I would like to give this a go but I need proper mouselook feature. Has anyone tried it? I ask it, because the GIF doesn't look like a native mouse look.
sub Jun 14, 2018
Quoting: rea987
Quoting: ripperDoes this have the same improvements as the Enhanced Edition, i.e. higher resolutions and mouselook?

Yeah, I would like to give this a go but I need proper mouselook feature. Has anyone tried it? I ask it, because the GIF doesn't look like a native mouse look.

Looks like it:

https://twitter.com/cuddigan/status/1006789909267537920


Last edited by sub on 14 June 2018 at 8:28 am UTC
rea987 Jun 14, 2018
Quoting: subLooks like it:

https://twitter.com/cuddigan/status/1006789909267537920

Cool, I will definitely play it once the music is fully implemented. Cause, George Weidman praised its music for being great;

[url=Retro Review: System Shock 1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vnh0l_Ecpx4&t=21s[/url]
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