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Original 'System Shock' Code Open Sourced, More Updates Promised (kickstarter.com)
"The folks at Nightdive Studios this week released the source code for a Mac version of Looking Glass Studios' 1994 classic System Shock," reports Gamasutra. Friday the game's new owners unveiled on GitHub "the original, unaltered source code that was discovered by OtherSide Entertainment and graciously shared with us a few months ago... We have been hard at work updating this code and plan to release a new version of System Shock: Enhanced Edition as well as the code in the near future."
We've gone back to the original vision we shared with you at the start of our Kickstarter campaign -- this time with more reliable performance and higher fidelity visuals thanks to the Unreal Engine... We have been able to re-use the majority of work we've done over the past year and we're making significant progress in a very short amount of time. With that said we'll be inviting our highest tier backers to privately test the game beginning in September at which point we estimate that the game will be fully playable, from start to finish. The majority of the art won't be finished, but we'll be ready to start high-level testing.
Going forward there's even a Twitch component. "In an effort to remain transparent throughout development we're going to begin streaming on a regular basis and inviting the backers to join us." And the audio department has also revealed some of the music from the medical deck.
After their Kickstarter was funded, Nightdive had explored making a "bigger, better game" after receiving a verbal commitment from a game publisher, but then "were left high and dry after making crucial, consequential changes in staff and scope... We still have the funds necessary to complete the game, but the timeline will inevitably move back with our shift in direction..."
"This will be closer to a 1:1 remake with updates to the weapon/character designs but without altering the core gameplay of the original."
Going forward there's even a Twitch component. "In an effort to remain transparent throughout development we're going to begin streaming on a regular basis and inviting the backers to join us." And the audio department has also revealed some of the music from the medical deck.
After their Kickstarter was funded, Nightdive had explored making a "bigger, better game" after receiving a verbal commitment from a game publisher, but then "were left high and dry after making crucial, consequential changes in staff and scope... We still have the funds necessary to complete the game, but the timeline will inevitably move back with our shift in direction..."
"This will be closer to a 1:1 remake with updates to the weapon/character designs but without altering the core gameplay of the original."
"After their Kickstarter was funded, Nightdive had explored making a "bigger, better game" after receiving a verbal commitment from a game publisher, but then "were left high and dry after making crucial, consequential changes in staff and scope..."
Holy cow has nobody learned their lesson about Kickstarter?
1. MAKE THE THING YOU SAID YOU WERE GOING TO MAKE.
2. DO THE EXTRA STUFF.
People seem to always skip to step 2 and never manage to hit step 1.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
I appreciate the work of the Starcraft team. to let us play the game with better graphics and the same gameplay. I bought the full upgrade for my Brother and I as it wasn't a burden cost-wise.
I can only hope this ends the same way....
https://shamusyoung.com/twenty...
TL;DR - In the pitching/fundraising stage the demo appeared to demonstrate a clear, plausibly attainable vision of what a System Shock remake should be.
Then, well into development, the vision inexplicably changed from a faithful remake to a soulless clone of every other AAA shooter, with time wasted on cutting edge graphics (engine change from Unity to Unreal) and features (like a gun to freeze and shatter enemies, something that wasn't even in System Shock). They were also producing lots of high-quality concept art (again, well into development).
From the available evidence, Young suspects they were trying to attract a "savior" publisher to fund the project, instead of delivering on the Kickstarter goal of an earnest remake. But as he points out, there isn't enough of a fanbase for System Shock to be a AAA game:
If you spend fifty million dollars making System Shock then you’ll never get a return on your investment. This game is only viable as a low / mid budget title, and Nightdive has made it clear they’re not interested in making that sort of game, even if they somehow got another infusion of cash.
So the only hope was the modest budget title which these guys promised they were going to do, and then they essentially betrayed the backers.
System Shock 3 needs to be good!
I picked it up from Google about a month ago. Once I figured out the controls, I was immersed.
Seriously a very addictive game. How did I miss this?
Yeah the graphics are dated and what amazed me in design of the space station has begun to irritate me.
Still a great game. Speaking to my whole afternoon trying to begin the reactor self destruct. Well worth a playthrough!
I fondly remember the original game. It showed how a rich narrative could be realised with a FPS engine. And what a great story it was!
A remake with modern graphics without touching the story is perfectly sufficient.
Interesting choice. GitHub apparently doesn't recognize \R line endings, which is understandable, considering \R line endings are brain damaged. At the end of each line, let's direct the cursor to the beginning of the line! Not to the next line. To the beginning of the current line. Think different! Really brings back memories. The last time I compiled Mac OS classic sources was 19 years ago, when "mac weenies" had currency, and hockey-puck mice were a thing. Cooperative multitasking in the gulag, ZIP drive click 'o death, Soft|Image for Windows NT. The writing was on the wall: cash in your x86 chips, turn in your crapintosh, stop support contract payments on your SGI, because Merced would soon exponentially eclipse all else. Any day, now, analysts said. It's a brave new world free of UNIX dicks! GARTNER PREDICTS!
#define loopLine(num,code_line) code_line
So yeah my C knowledge of function like macros is pretty crap. Can anyone give me the easy explanation of whats going on here? Here's an example invocation of this macro:
if (_change_flag&AMAP_BUTTON_EV) { loopLine(AL|0x3, fsmap_button_redraw()); }
where AL is defined as:
#define AL 0x2200
So the args to this macro in the above example are 0x2203 and fsmap_button_redraw(), I just dont understand what effect that has with the loopLine macro. I'll keep googling but Im hoping someone else can point me in the right direction.
Else you're going to produce a disaster.
First, System Shock (the first) was a nightmare to control. The controls were stiff, very clunky and a far cry from today's expected fluid and responsive controls. They were closer to Wolfenstein 3D than Quake Arena, if that makes sense. Because it WAS closer to W3D than QA. We're talking about a game that was released close to Doom.
Even if you remade SS2 you'd be going for disaster. Because what made those games unique back then is old today.
System Shock was one of the first games where you would "craft" your character, where you could replay the game with another set of skills. You had variable gravity and a basic physics engine that let you destroy stuff that then fell to the ground. You had two "levels" of play where you would switch from real to virtual space and affect the real world with what you did in virtual space. And finally with SHODAN you had an adversary that had character and personality rather than just having an endboss that differs from the rest of enemies mostly by its different texture and number of hitpoints.
This is not new anymore. This is basically the basic stuff today, that's considered a given. You expect more out of a game today. And unless you deliver more than this, you'll create just another "meh" game.
With really crappy controls.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I have it in my arcade retropie https://retropie.org.uk/ system, perfectly working under Dosbox, available after a launch time of a few seconds... nothing beats playing the original