Week 26 - Free Game for the Weekday - System Shock

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Week 26 - Free Game for the Weekday - System Shock

(40 posts) (9 voices)

Started 15 years ago by wizzard_of_ozz2004
Latest reply from Whiterabbit-uk

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wizzard_of_ozz2004
Games Master

Today's game should need no introduction. System Shock is the spiritual predecessor of one of today's most popular games, Bioshock. Without further ado, the following is a quick synopsis of the game provided by abandonia:

"The game takes place somewhere in a dark future. It starts off with an anonymous hacker, who just managed to hack into TriOptium company's network. However, before he can get anything out of it, the TriOptium security guards bust him. Instead of giving him a life sentence in some prison or putting a bullet in his head, Edward Diego, a TriOptium Executive, gives this hacker an opportunity: hack into Citadel Space Station's AI (called Shodan) and he will be released from all the charges and also get valuable military grade neural implants as a nice bonus. The hacker, of course, takes the offer and succesfully hacks Shodan. Diego keeps his promise and after they install the implants, the hacker (you, the player) enters a deep healing sleep.

"The game starts off six months later. The player wakes up and finds out that the whole station has gone haywire. The AI Shodan, who has developed a god-like persona, has taken control of station and slaughtered all the humans aboard, leaving only mutans and his robotic servants to wander the hallways. As there's no one to control him, Shodan plans on unleashing the space stations weapons on planet earth. Its up to you to take out Shodan and get out of there alive.

"In a nutshell, System Shock is a roleplaying game with puzzle solving and FPS elements. You wander around the station in first-person perspective, pick up tons of items, fight against mutants and monsters, solve puzzles and problems and fight against Shodan's evil plans."

System shock is definitely worth a 10 in my books. If you've never played this game, you need to quit reading and download now. The download comes in at 120mb, a rather small game for such a huge magnitude. Do yourself a favor and download it now. The game does require dosbox so you will need to download dosbox if you haven't yet.

Download:
http://abandonia.com/en/games/24684/System+Shock.html

Posted 15 years ago #
midori
Member

*gulp* I shall heed your order immediately, sir!

Posted 15 years ago #
wizzard_of_ozz2004
Games Master

at ease soldier! lol

Posted 15 years ago #
notblocklox
retired

aye-aye, Sir!

Posted 15 years ago #
Lester (Chip)
English Mod

Sir Yes Sir! ;]

Posted 15 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

Nice one Wizzard. I finally bought Bioshock several weeks ago. I wasn't sure about it when I first tried the demo when it was first released, so held off until the price was right. :) (Bioshock 2 is in development at the moment) I'm looking forwards to checking out System Shock. I never bothered with it when it was released, so it'll be an interesting voyage of exploration considering the statement you made about it being the precursor to Bioshock. Thanks for he game.

WR

Posted 15 years ago #
Jorpho
Member

I'm sure it is a good game and everything, but no one ever explicitly, legally released this game as freeware, no? Yes, it's been fifteen years since its release, Looking Glass Studios is completely kaput, and redistributing the game at this point hurts no one. But nonetheless, unless I'm gravely mistaken it wouldn't be right to call it "free" just because someone put it up for download somewhere.

Posted 15 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

The fact that you stated that the developer is kaput and as far as we know no one has claimed the rights to it - I've made a brief foray into the net and found nothing to imply that the game was taken on board by anyone else (though it was only a brief search), I've not got the time to research it further at the moment as it's time to watch Dr Who with my children before they go to bed :), If no one appears to own it and no one has come forward with proof that they own it then it's regarded as abandonware and therefore fair game.

The sites we trawl for these games are in the main good sites that will remove games that are later discovered to be commercial. Until someone can prove that this game is being sold 'officially' by a distributor that owns the gold discs (or probably in this case the Taped masters)it can be considered free due to its abandonment.

Do you know any more details about Looking Glass Studios demise? Sometimes these small developers are bought out by bigger developers, so the gold masters go to them and they are legally entitled to any profit made by the game.

I've seen this situation previously and after researching the subject discovered that the abandoned game had in actual fact been purchased by another developer who went on to become yet another developer and that the game was actually still being sold. In that case the game was pulled from these forums. Only the other I week found a great game that I downloaded from a site (which is still available), but also discovered that it was still a commercial game so did the right thing; I'm all for supporting our game developers. I buy virtually all of my own games (usually one or two every week).

If at any point someone decided to claim the copyright to this game and wanted to re-sell it (as there is a market still for these old games)we would immediately take it off this forum as we are law abiding citizens who only want to promote good FREE games which by defenition 'abandonware' is in my book.

I realize there's no legal standing for abandonware, but it is a grey area, so until things are made much clearer I think we should enjoy these gems rather than try to negate the positive vibes were trying to promote here. Especially now in the economic downturn that's closing many wallets.

To all enjoy these games. :)

regards

Whiterabbit

Posted 15 years ago #
wizzard_of_ozz2004
Games Master

abandonia is considered to be the place to get legal abandonware games. They stay current on what is and isn't legal and just recently announced that this game is now free.

Posted 15 years ago #
Jorpho
Member

Abandonware is a legally meaningless term, and certainly doesn't have anything to do with whoever owns the "gold masters". Abandonia's FAQ cites http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abandonware and states in no uncertain terms: "The distribution of copyrighted software however is, and will allways be, illegal!"

As you say, sometimes a smaller company gets bought out, and legal rights get transfered. And then documents go missing, and then no one really knows what is going on, and nobody thinks it is worthwhile (much less profitable) to go tracking down the paperwork associated with some ancient piece of software just so that someone else can freely redistribute it.

Link to it and give it away as you like, but don't put it in the same category of "free" as Terrafire or Mr. Stump's Dentures. That's my opinion, anyway.

Posted 15 years ago #
wizzard_of_ozz2004
Games Master

true, but copyrights run out and when companies don't renew them, they become "abandoned."

I have already removed one game from this project because the site illegally identified it as abandonware. I have not used that site again because I don't trust them. You can look through abandonia's site and see that not all of the games they have on there are open to the public to download for free. Up until recently, System Shock was one of those. They follow the strict ESA (Electronic Software Association) guidelines on what is morally legal and what isn't.

Posted 15 years ago #
midori
Member

Hi, Jorpho... Now please. How could anyone put System Shock in the same category as Mr. Stump's Dentures. &:-B
But seriously, if it bothers you, please don't download it from here or the hundreds of other sites out there that offer it as 'freeware,' even tho the term itself is debatable, I agree. I tend to trust the friends on here who DO do the research before they haphazardly post something as what it's not, as well as the abondonia site itself. As I understand from all the reading and cross-referencing I've just done myself on it: when Looking Glass went under, EA took over the rights to the NAME 'System Shock,' as if they were planning to release sequels. However, the last thing Looking Glass did before they died was put it up on their FTP and 'encourage all their fans to download it.' Regarding SS2, Irrational has explicitly stated that SS2 is not abandonware and asked that people kindly don't warez it... quite different from their feelings on SS1.
Of course it's a gray area, as pointed out, and one could argue till the cows come home. Yet the people on this site have gone out of their way, removed links, apologized, etc., if anything was questionable. So I tend to draw the line where they do, in this respect.

Posted 15 years ago #
Jorpho
Member

For the record, I really don't think Abandonia put the game on their site just because something suddenly happened to the legal status of System Shock recently. Also, copyrights take many decades to run out.

But I hadn't heard this "encouragement" story before. Pity there doesn't seem to be much testimony about it.

Posted 15 years ago #
midori
Member

Yes it is a pity, but perhaps there is. I read it after looking at approximately five to ten sites on a technica openforum about this same subject, and everyone agreed on the haziness of abandonware, and that was an example. I really didn't have the choice to spend the evening trying to pin it down elsewhere.
But I think we all tend to do what we feel comfortable with, and I tend to think most of us are honest people... I know the game posters/sharers on this site are very much so. And if I thought for one moment something was illegal, I certainly wouldn't do it. Obviously, you're very upset by this, as you just joined today and have only posted on this thread. So I can understand your side also. But perhaps it also speaks of your unfamiliarity of the honesty of those who post here, and the self-volunteered time they take to post free games for others to enjoy, since the giveawayoftheday team isn't posting a game each day anymore.

Posted 15 years ago #
ibwebb
Member

In my personal opinion.. it seems every now and then (more and more often lately) when one of these wonderful people that find, thoroughly research (did I mention THOROUGHLY research), describe, review, find screen shots, find video on, give their personal opinions on, and then post all of it here (on the OWN time WITHOUT compensation) comes across a game that someone seems to think is too good to be free; we get someone that has to start posting 'challenges' about if it is legal to offer. I personally trust these people and NONE of them have ever steered me wrong. I do remember the game that WhiteRabbit mentioned about finding wasn't being given out legally. With a quick search you can still find that game on a few sites. What I am getting at is this.. unless you can prove that they are doing something wrong.. you need to get off your soap box. Dont download it if you dont feel comfortable about it, but dont go off saying they are doing something wrong unless you have proof. If (as midori stated and I have found myself) it was encouraged to be given freely at some point then it would be incredibly hard to reclaim it and ask people to pay for it.

I dont know, maybe I am not in the majority here, but I see the Wizzard stamp of approval and the WhiteRabbit stamp as well... it is good enough for me. If they come back later and say they found some mistake; I will delete with no hesitation. In the words of Mr. Gump.. Thats all I have to say about that.

ibwebb

Posted 15 years ago #
ringo2312
Member

Hi all
I've a little problem with this game. Extracted the file, moved to Dosbox and installed. Then ran setup but I can't get the game to load! I'm quite familiar with dos based commands but can't seem to figure out how to launch it. I've tried the usual suspects (sshock.exe etc.) wont work.
Any help is appreciated.

Win XP Pro SP2
Thanks :)

Posted 15 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

Let’s not argue semantics please. As I already said Abandonware has no legal status which I would say means exactly the same as, and I quote your own words "Abandonware is a legally meaningless term"

Thanks for the support from our regulars here. All I can say at this juncture is please do enjoy your stay in these forums. I appreciate your worries. I think it admirable that you feel so strongly about this issue, but let me assure you that we do research our sources and would never knowingly post software that was still considered shareware or for that matter full blown commercial. Lets just agree to disagree about the status of abandonware; (We’re all aware of the Wikipedia definition) I'm just sorry you feel you have to argue over such an issue, but that's your perogative.

I think we should close the issue and concentrate on posting about the game. I was tempted to lock these forums; however I won't be doing so because ringo requires an answer to his query and this is still a thread about System Shock and not about the where's and wherefores of legal software.

Sorry I can’t answer your query at this time ringo, I’ve not booted up the game yet as I’ve been busy writing this weekends game giveaways. Though have you followed the instructions on how to set up DOSBox with Norton Commander that Wizzard posted several weeks ago; it’s a sticky so should be easily found? (I realize you are familiar with DOSBox, but perhaps that familiarity has stopped you from bothering to read the thread?

You’ll find details of the Norton Commander/DOSBox combo’ HERE

Posted 15 years ago #
wizzard_of_ozz2004
Games Master

I'm sorry for continuing this issue rabbit but I've got just one thing to say because I thought about it all night at work and I think the general public who doesn't contribute to the forums should hear it because I know it offends me.

Rabbit, reverseorder, albesir, pavid, and myself all contribute to this "side project" on our own free time as ibwebb stated. The whole point of this project was to provide freely available games legally to the public because the site shut down the daily giveaway. I know rabbit, reverseorder, and I all spend quite a bit of our free time researching games for everyone. We get no kind of compensation for our time. The only thing that keeps me going is the regular's and rabbit's appreciation for what I do. But, when someone who has not contributed at all to the forums, let alone the project, steps in and insinuates that we post games hap-hazardly without checking on the sources it offends me. The least you could do is type a simple thank you and then voice your worries. I know rabbit feels the same about appreciation because he stated so in a post earlier on in the project.

Jorpho obviously has been following the project due to his/her knowledge of past games. Did he/she stop to thank us for our time and effort? No. He/She immediately made it seem as though we were doing something intentionally illegal. That is the whole reason he/she joined the site.

Please people, your worries are fine but don't forget that we are all just like you. Here on our own free time. Topic closed as far as I am concerned.

Posted 15 years ago #
wizzard_of_ozz2004
Games Master

As for ringo, I'm not sure what the problem could be. Perhaps a fresh install of the game? As rabbit said, if you havn't checked out my tutorial on setting up dosbox, you should. I'm curious though, you said you ran setup...I'm not seeing a setup exe. You should be able to play the game without doing a setup anyway. If you can get it up and running, please use cdshock exe. This version is an enhanced version of the original game. The other sshock exe is the original.

Posted 15 years ago #
Jorpho
Member

Ahem. I would suggest that you instead Google for "System Shock Portable", a download which packages the game with a neatly pre-configured version of DOSBox, all set up and ready to go in XP or Vista.

And it probably isn't technically "free" either. Nyah.

Posted 15 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

Thanks for the info Jorpho. Here's the easily found and posted link:

http://www.strangebedfellows.de/index.php/topic,211.0.html

Posted 15 years ago #
wizzard_of_ozz2004
Games Master

Something tells me that jorpho isn't going to be a very welcome addition to the forums if he continues to condescend the other members. We're here to help each other and get along not make snide remarks to each other.

Posted 15 years ago #
notblocklox
retired

Sorry, people, that I'm late again in the discussion; however I have to put in my
2 €cents.
Jorpho you dropped some hints "but no one ever explicitly, legally released this game as freeware..." without any evidence. What was this? A try to cast a damning light on our Master-Gamers-Crew? Did you just enjoy to play troll? An academic discourse?
Okay, the show is over, I hope in future you will have as much fun in our games-corner as we have. Your input is welcome, your concrete input (to be precise).
Now I'm going to download the pre-configured portable version. Even my last reserve against dos-box is melting down as I have recognised that the strangebedfellows are Germans. sorry - I had to mention this though it makes no sense :)
graylox

Posted 15 years ago #
notblocklox
retired

Wizz I should have reloaded the site, haven't seen your last post.
I back you to 100%, everybody who likes to condescend or insult other members is not welcome in these forums and will not find any friends.
However there is a good custom to grand a second attempt...
graylox

PS: even when I don't write every day and don't try every game - I am happy about our Games-Master-Gang, and thank you, and you, and you, and you and not to forget you and you ...
gaminglox

Posted 15 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

Thanks, lox of many names :)

Posted 15 years ago #
midori
Member

Do bagels and cream cheese come with that? &:-d

Posted 15 years ago #
notblocklox
retired

hmmmmmmmm - sometimes

Posted 15 years ago #
Jorpho
Member

Since people continue to comment, I will add that I came across the link to this thread while browsing the comments of the latest Giveawayoftheday. I was actually kind of curious if something had in fact happened to the legal status of System Shock recently since it was being called 'free'.

Posted 15 years ago #
midori
Member

And I can see how that peaked your curiosity. But I guess something indeed happened. One of the biggest sites for abandonware released it as free, where before it didn't consider it so; I realized after exploring your comment a bit that no one is "selling" it, and that the company that developed it encouraged fans to download it for free as long as they could keep their servers up, as someone else wanted rights to the name only. A trusted game poster put the abandonia link here for those who were unaware of it. That's what happened. And I do think Looking Glass would smile if they thought some where enjoying their game, which is what they intended. &;-)

Posted 15 years ago #
Jorpho
Member

You miss the point: stuff on Abandonia isn't necessarily 'free' either. They say so themselves in no uncertain terms. System Shock was probably not there before simply because they had not gotten around to putting it up. (You don't see _them_ calling it free anywhere, do you?)

If you (or anyone else) wishes to discuess this further, perhaps it is indeed best that we avoid cluttering this thread further and that we take it to PMs.

Posted 15 years ago #

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