uk_john on 26/8/2007 at 12:32
Quote Posted by Some_twerp
I've been trying to use that but been getting random close-to-desktop moments. Which sucks.
If you have followed the instructions on this thread and set up VDMSound and everything and then gone to the StrangeBedFellows and followed there's you may have some grief. Either delete all the folders relating to this thread's instructions, then just go to StrangeBedFellows and download each of the files they recommend and follow their instructions, or just make sure you download and use the StrangeBedFellows programs/files from completely different folders.
All they have done at StrangeBedfellows is take many years work from other people, done a little work themselves brining it all together and then putting information spread over many pages on this thread onto one page. They have done some coding for the game to run on a PC portable, but mostly it's just bringing other people's works together.
Given that me and Bern are both running this game in XP at 1024x768 means that if you keep trying you will get it working, as the programs and files must work, given we have two working examples! :)
Good luck - and keep at it, this game is well worth it. For example, personally, I thing the email voice messages in System Shock are better than the one's in Bioshock! :)
Sykle on 29/8/2007 at 15:12
Thank you very much for all the wonderful help keeping such an awesome game alive.
Tricky on 30/8/2007 at 21:49
Hi First post.
Im falling at the first Hurdle. Ive installed VDMSound, and I have the cd copied to the hard drive. I right click on the initial.exe in the "inst" directory. It makes some file and then just crashes out. When I try and run initial on its own Dos4gw crashes out. Every time I try and run the short cut it makes it just dissapears.
On running "dosdrv" from a dos window it does something, says its loaded a DLL and then nothing else.
So Im a but confused :erm:
uk_john on 31/8/2007 at 06:28
Tricky, try DOSBox, a utility to run DOS games. Also try running the cdshock.exe directly and finallt, if you havent, go to the above strangebedfellows page and download their cdshock.exe and try that one.
xBrandxBlandx on 2/9/2007 at 01:15
Hi,
I'd very much like to play System Shock for the first time, but I can't get it to run. I've followed the directions of the OP to a tee, but I still haven't cracked the surface of this game. My problem is that I get the same "COM2" message that a lot of people seem to get, but when I press "ignore," the game doesn't start up again, it just dies.
My CDSHOCK.BAT file looks like this:
@echo off
C:\SSHOCK\nolfb.com
C:\SSHOCK\MOUSE2KV.EXE 640 480 8 8 C:\SSHOCK\dos4gw.exe CDSHOCK.exe
If anyone could help me play this game, I would be very grateful.
xBrandxBlandx on 2/9/2007 at 01:19
You know, I just thought of something that might make a difference. My resolution is currently 1440x900. Would that cause the game to crash?
EDIT: Eh, I just tried it at much lower resolutions and the same thing happened.
Tainted on 2/9/2007 at 08:19
Yo, been a while.
I've recently got system shock and I've been trying out loads of old games using Virtual PC 2004. I've got syshock all set up and with sound, intro works and music/sound effects and stuff running.
Thing is, it's giving me the "Not enough memory to make the Email Cursor" message as soon as I try to start a new game. Can anyone assist me?
I'd rather use the Virtual PC as opposed to getting it to run on XP at the moment.
uk_john on 2/9/2007 at 11:34
xBrandxBlandx and Tainted, assuming you have XP, I can only suggest doing what I said above. Even if you have the original game, go to strangebedfellows.com and download their System Shock, their fixed cdshock.exe and their high res pack for 1024x780 and copy them into a CLEAN System Shock folder. NOT into a folder where you have already done a lot of mucking around to get the game working!
Having doe that, just try double clicking the fixed cdshock.exe and seeing if that works as is. It does on my PC.
If it doesn't, then try running the game in DOSBox from the above folder.
If that doesn't work, run the Install.exe IN DOSBOX and if it only gives you options to reconfigure you know it is happy with the folder and files. Set the soundcard, etc and then try again, running CDSHOCK.exe inside and outside of dosbox.
At this point if still no joy, try adding the mouse 2k as advised, and then try again. Try after each single change, rather than making all the changes then trying. maybe I wouldn't be running System Shock if I had installed the VDMSound or the nolfb.com maybe it wouldn't have.
All I will say in closing is that I do not even have a CDSHOCK.COM inside my System Shock folder. I have a CDSHOCK ms-dos shortcut, but whether I right click the ms-dos shortcut or right click the fixed CDSHOCK.EXE I downloaded from strangebedfellows the game starts for me.
If it will help you my C:\Shock\Res folder looks like this:
DATA Folder
GEN Folder
SOUND Folder
cdshock.exe (fixed XP exe from strangebedfellows)
cdshock VDMSound shortcut
CDSHOCK ms-dos shortcut
CYB (Configuration file (make sure this point to the right directory!)
dgvesa (ms-dos application)
dgvoodoo (glide wrapper)
dgvoodoo setup (glide wrapper)
Glide2x.dll (glide dll)
glide2.ovl (glide wrapper)
mouse.exe (mouse driver)
mouse (ms-dos shortcut)
mouse2kv,exe (mouse 2k)
ResPack800x600_v0.6 (in case the 1024x768 resPack didn't work!)
ResPack1024x768_v0.6 (the 1024 ResPack worked for me!)
SSP.BAT (the strangebedfellows System Shock uncompiled code)
SYSTEMSHOCK_Portable_v0.6 (The original zip file I downloaded of System Shock. I am using this 61mb code rather than my original CD, as it works!)
vesa.exe (VESA XP graphics helper)
vesa (ms-dos shortcut)
I don't use the dgvoodoo and Glide files, I don't use the 2k mouse (with it activated the mouse moved too slow) I can use the VDM shortcut, the CDSHOCK ms-dos shortcut and the CDSHOCK.EXE in order to start System Shock successfully. As you can see, I tried many things, but ultimately I got the game running without using any of my original CD!
Hopefully from the above you can see what I tried and how I got it working and do the same yourself.
Good luck, because this game really deserves to be played! I play it more than I do System Shock 2, for example! :)
Tainted on 2/9/2007 at 17:39
Well, that's me got the game running at long last. Running at 1024x780 seems to slow the game down a bit, so I'll try using the lower res.
God bless those fellows who brought us this release!
uk_john on 2/9/2007 at 19:37
Quote Posted by Tainted
Well, that's me got the game running at long last. Running at 1024x780 seems to slow the game down a bit, so I'll try using the lower res.
God bless those fellows who brought us this release!
Well done! If it's the mouse that is lagging, and you are using 2kv mouse driver, try disabling it. I found my game lagged with that running!
Other than that, the hours we put into getting this game to work is well worth it, because the game is just so brilliant! I am playing this puppy better than I ever did back in the day when my PC struggled with it even running ant 320x200! :)
