DOS

System Shock

Trivia

It is hinted in Wing Commander and Crusader games that they are set in the same universe as System Shock. For example, an article in a "newspaper" from the Crusader: No Remorse box mentions an artificial intelligence and the Citadel station.

System Shock was named #98 overall among the “150 Best Games of All Time” by Computer Gaming World Magazine (15th Anniversary Issue--November 1996).

Contributed by PCGamer77 (3025) on May 02, 2008.

There is a reference to the movie Soylent Green in the game (although it's spelled slightly different). In level 3, Maintenance, there is a relay panel in the northern section called "Soylant Green Filtration".

The Hacker's employee number, 2-4601, is a reference to the inmate number of Jean Valjean, the protagonist in the novel Les Misérables.

The CD version of this amazing game contains the most amazing easter egg I have ever found. In the game you can collect games for your cyberwear (leading to a wonderful meta gaming moment as your in-game character hides in some dark corner from Shodan's minions while playing a game instead of trying to rescue the stations doomed inhabitants. So you can be in the game, feeling bad about taking some time off to play a game in the game...)

Anyway, somewhere in cyberspace, I no longer remember exactly where, there is a section with black walls which makes it very hard to tell where you are against the black background. If you run up against those walls you can find an opening into a black walled passageway which will eventually lead you to a software node protected by some very powerful ICE. Defeat the ICE, claim the software and you will find a game, a fairly involved parody of Wing Commander (which was co-produced by Warren Spector).

You can fly around in 3d shooting down enemy ships which come in various flavors, there's a plot and even mission briefings - the first several of which include still pictures acted out by the System Shock development team (I assume). I spent quite some time hiding in corners trying to finish this game but I never did, it's got lots of missions and gets quite repetitive, it is an early 90's PDA game after all.

I'm always amazed no one mentions this egg when talking about System Shock...

System Shock's engine was derived from that of Ultima Underworld, from 1992. Nonetheless it was more advanced that that of Doom or Duke Nukem 3D, featuring sloped surfaces, variable gravity, realistic physics, '2.75d' environments (with limited 'sector-on-sector', but otherwise 3D), functional camera viewscreens, weapon recoil, leaning and several other clever things.

In the end sequence, the hacker breaks in the corporate network of a corp. called 'Tetracorp'. In System Shock 2, the name tetracorp is printed on a generic two-state switch. Kinda rough change of business.. :-)

If you engage the mining laser BEFORE activating the station's shields, then you'll destroy earth!! And guess what? Shodan sends you an e-mail thanking you and inviting you to a celebration!! The e-mail also includes a nice picture of a city being incinerated, but unfortunately the game restarts afterwards, so no robo-party :(

During the end-game sequence, you hack into another corporate computer to grab some data. The data is info on some powered battle armor, which made its way into Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri.

System Shock was voted #43 overall in PCGamer Magazine's Readers All-Time Top 50 Games Poll (April 2000 issue).

Contributed by PCGamer77 (3025) on Jan 22, 2001.

The CD-ROM version adds SVGA modes, full speech for e-mails and logs, slightly improved intro/end sequences and a few other adjustments and additions.

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There were rumours of a possible sequel, soon after System Shock's release, but fans had to wait five years for System Shock 2.

Contributed by Sam Jeffreys (3316) on Jan 06, 2000.