Mike89 on 11/10/2004 at 20:21
OK, I dusted off my old System shock 2 disk (surprised I still had it, heh heh), figuring I'd try the game again with those improved textures. After repeated attempts to get this thing to work on XP Pro (I also have sp2 installed), taking suggestions from this thread and trying various ones, I finally got it to work. This is what I did.
To start, the install went fine, no error messages of any kind.
I then patched the game and added the two enhanced texture mods (make sure to read the instructions on those mods cause the steps in one of them is pretty involved).
When trying to start the game for the first time, I got an error saying the correct codec was not found. I clicked on the more info button and found that the Indeo codec was needed and there was a link to the Codec site. I went ahead and sprung for the $15 for the XP Indeo codec. I figured what the hell, I might as well make sure I got the right one, probably would need it later for something anyway. I have had problems in the past using the so called free codecs from other sites and didn't want to take any chances. (BTW, there are codecs on the CD which is "IV5Play.exe" but when I was going to use that instead, I saw in the list of things being installed was "Explorer 3." I wasn't comfortable with that and cancelled out of the install and bought the Indeo Codec instead).
I put a no cd crack in and tried the game. It went right in, and even let me play the intro. When trying to start a new game though, it went all the way through the loading bar and then bam, black screen.
I then read this forum some more and got those two files mentioned (one of which includes the no cd crack which was the same size as the one I already had but I went ahead and overwrote the old one anyway in case it was different).
I did not change the compatibility mode for the .exe at all, left it alone.
I also added that line "safe_texture_manager" to both the cam.cfg and shock.cfg.
As mentioned in this thread, the CD needs to left in even when using the no cd crack. I found this was necessary because leaving it out still resulted in the black screen when trying to load a new game. For some reason (on my system at least), the no cd crack needed to be used. If I tried to run the game using the stock exe, I would see the loading screen saying it was checking the CD for verification and then I would get a message like sorry had to close or something like that.
So now the game worked but I found one additional thing happening that almost caused me to un-install the game. For some strange reason when playing the game, it would keep going to the CD every few seconds and during this time it did that, was tremendous slowdowns. Ruined the gameplay big time (btw I did install the full game).
Well I figured I would try one last thing. I started the game with the CD in the drive. Then loaded either a new game or a save. When the game loaded, I then took the CD out of the drive. It worked, the game ran fine from then on with no pauses, and any subsequent loads worked fine (as long as you didn't exit the game). So with my setup/combination, the CD needs to be in the drive to start the game but then can be removed during the game (after it loads for the first time) to eliminate the pauses (CD seeks). That's kind of funny actually. Need a no cd crack to play the game but still need the CD to start the game. Wonder what the no piracy advocates think of that one. Heh heh.
Anyway hoped that helped cause I know a lot of people were having the same problems I did.
Bluefrog on 14/10/2004 at 02:44
When I try to run the setup.exe to install I keep getting
"C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\AUTOEXEC.NT The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications. Choose Close to terminate....."
Both Close and Ignore buttons do nothing.
P4 2.8GHz
Radeon 9200 128Mb
512DDR RAM
Anything I can do to get it to work?
This error also occurs on other games too.
Bluefrog
ESpark on 16/10/2004 at 16:30
I can run the game itself fine in XP, but I have no sound.
And the game crashes if I try and make the install mod-friendly by putting all the .crf files into a /res folder and changing the cfg file...
Jonesy on 16/10/2004 at 16:42
Do you have no sound period, or do you have no sound just during the game. If it's the former (might work for the latter as well), if you have XP (Might work on something else), open up the volume setting and just move the dial a little so that you hear a beep. My headset's been a little fluky lately, but that's how I fix the problem real quick.
Oh, and make sure you didn't drag a .cfg file into the res folder. A friend of mine did that, and it took us half an hour to figure out why it wasn't working: Shock.cfg was in the res folder.
ESpark on 16/10/2004 at 17:01
Well, I had it working, but now it doesn't work anymore.
Seeing as how my attempts to load a new game give me a blank screen, I'm guessing its a case of me getting the Strangely Done CFG File thing to say what SS2 wants it to say, so it knows which folder everything is.
edit: screw it. I'll find a rom of Smash Brothers instead.
iand on 19/10/2004 at 11:42
Hello
This is not spam, I promise you. I've had many excellent hours playing System Shock 2 but in the end it becomes time to move on so I'm selling my copy on eBay. If you have one of those unreliable downloaded copies I've read so much about on these boards now might be your chance to pick up the real thing for a decent price. I'm not a dealer or anything like that.
It's for sale here:
(
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=8139467186&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT)
Closing date 26th Oct. It's going for 1p at time of writing this.
Cheers.
BooWaah on 19/10/2004 at 22:20
Here's what I have tried to do to install this game:
1. Install normally (double-click on setup)
[INDENT]Effect:"C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\AUTOEXEC.NT. The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications. Choose 'Close' to terminate the application.[/INDENT]
[INDENT]After trying clicking 'Close' and 'Ignore', I came here and tried other methods.[/INDENT]
2. Install through Run (in start button)
[INDENT]Effect:Same problem in #1[/INDENT]
3. Install by placing a shortcut to the setup, trying the "-lgntforce" & "-ntforce" parameters seperatley and with all combinations of compatibility
[INDENT]Effect:Same as effect in #1[/INDENT]
4. Copied the contents of the CD to a folder and tried methods 1-3.
[INDENT]Effect:Same as effect in #1[/INDENT]
Is there any other method I can try to install SS2 on my computer? :(
Specs:
Using the original SS2 CD [not Classic version]
Win XP (SP 1 [uninstalled SP 2])
P4 3GHz w/ HT
1 gig DDR ram
120 gig hard drive (about 60 gigs left)
Ati Radeon 9800 PRO 128 DDR (Driver: Catalyst 4.9)
Creative SB Audigy 2 Sound Card
------------------------
NEWS FLASH:So after some frantic searching (i love this game), I came upon (
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324767) this microsoft tech page
I followed the instructions and BAM, SS2 installs (though I had to do a Run method with -lgntforce).
No hiccups, holds, etc. during installation either.
For those with similar problems, you might want to try this new method.
Sonance on 19/10/2004 at 23:09
Up until now I've been remarkably lucky with my installation of SS2. I didn't have to use the lgntforce switch during installation, nor apply any of the other fixes. (I have applied the official patch though, to the original version CD.)
However, since I've been on Deck 3 (Hydroponics), I've noticed that the game occasionally freezes if I hit my quicksave key. The saved game actually remains intact, the game just decides to freeze. This doesn't happen every time I quicksave, but it's now getting to the stage where it's happening perhaps 20% of the time, whereas on previous levels I was quicksaving like a demon and the game wasn't crashing.
I can still save via the menus fine, with no crashes.
Intel P3-700
512Mb RAM
ATI Radeon 8500 LE (latest Catalyst drivers)
SoundBlaster Live! Platinum
DirectX 9.0b
Win XP Pro (SP1)
I edited the binds file to quicksave to savegame slot #10, rather than the regular quicksave slot (which is overridden by the autosave).
I've applied the safe texture manager fix (seeing as that cured a problem I was having with saving in Thief 2), but no such luck here. Someone previously mentioned a save game fix that was bundled into an illegal rip of the CD. Is there any way to acquire this fix without having to download the rip package?
Edit: It's possible the save game file for slot #10 has become corrupt, so I'll try binding my quicksave to a different slot and see what happens.
eightbitnintendo on 21/10/2004 at 03:09
I'm trying to run on Windows 2000 SP4, with an Nvidia GeForce4 Ti4200. After some shenanigans, I've gotten through the new game cutscene (SHODAN talking smack, and an advert for the Von Braun) and to the loading screen. Once it gets to 100%, I get a blackscreen. Upon alt+tabbing out, I see the following error message: "Your video hardware is not supported by System Shock 2."
Has anyone else received this message? Have you managed to get rid of it? Things I've already tried:
1. Running in different compatibility modes (Win95 and 98)
2. Adding safe_texture_manager to the end of shock.cfg and cam.cfg
3. Replacing the executable with the shock2_xp_2000 executable.
stealthy on 21/10/2004 at 13:56
I too am having problems with the in game audio... there isn't any. This only began after I installed SP 2. Any ideas on an actual fix for this, or am I going to have to uninstall the service pack?
