And the goodies just keep on coming. We have just received word from Josh 'Robotkid' Randall, concerning the System Shock 2 soundtrack:

"Josh Randall here. I was the producer for Thief and System Shock 2 back in the day. I was also the guy who did the electro bits of the System Shock 2 soundtrack.[...] I decided to post the original multi-track recordings that made up some of the songs from the SS2 soundtrack. I also posted some thoughts about each track, and the gear I used. I hope you and your readers enjoy!"

The files can be found on Josh's site, and you can discuss this on our forums.

Thank you very much, Josh!

We just got some delightful news: a new unofficial patch for System Shock 2 has surfaced! This is huge! The patch (along with a similar patch for Thief II) was announced by a mysterious user named 'Le Corbeau' on the French forum Ariane4ever. The list of changes introduced by this patch is simply amazing, making both games fully compatible with modern hardware and Windows releases, and opening new horizons for the modding community.

A small sample of changes and fixes (from the release notes):

• Added windowed mode
• Added single display mode option - no resolution change between menus and game
• Added ingame support for all common resolutions, including widescreen
• Added support for 32-bit color
• Textures can now be automatically promoted to 32-bit, improving quality and effectively eliminating the palette limit
• Added UI framerate cap option to avoid GPU fan spinning up in UI
• Added DDS/PNG image support
• Added full 24/32-bit TGA/BMP image support
• Increased the maximum number of frames allowed in animated textures from 20 to 99, and increased the allowable filename length for animated textures (before the underscore) to support more than 7
• Animated texture rate can now be specified via a material file for that texture
• Fixed a bug where Transparency property didn't (correctly) apply on objects that contain transparent polys

• Replaced video player lib with an FFMpeg based one to play cutscenes. LGVid.ax or other codecs are no longer required
• Option to use OpenAL (if available) instead of DirectSound. Includes support for audio effects in Windows 7 without an EAX-enabled driver (e.g. ALchemy)
• Added "head_bob" config var to control amount of head bob
• Added mousewheel support to options menu
• Fixed player ground contact tracking when walking off an object (caused footstep sounds to get "stuck" on previous material)
• Fixed sound cap per schema type bug and upped max sound channels to 48
• Changed screenshot output format to BMP and also added support for PNG screenshots
• Changed mouselook sensitivity to be resolution independent
• Added check to avoid trying to open files with reserved system name like com ports
• AIs now breathe from their head instead of their stomachs. They will no longer drown when up to their waist in water.
• Lowered player crouch height by a tiny fraction so he's less likely to get stuck on 4 unit tall spaces
• Added better support for binding actions to the mouse wheel (can bind wheel up and wheel down as separate actions, with modifier key support)
• Fixed star rendering
• Added "log_player_pos" command that dumps current player pos to log file (when enabled)
• Added the ability to detach from ladders by crouching
• Improved mantling a bit and added optional new mantling algorithm with lower failure rate
• And much, much more...

Join the discussion at our forums, where we have threads dedicated to both Thief and System Shock 2. There you will also find links to download the patches and respective demos.

We still don't know who is the author of this amazing work, but whoever you are, there aren't enough words to thank you for this!

Back at our forums, Devin has announced his excellent effort in compiling a list of all the stuff that has been left out of the final release of good old System Shock (yes, it could have had even MORE goodies). Even though seventeen years have passed since its release, we can still find out new stuff about it.

So if you're curious to find out a bit more about the unused content that Devin has been digging out of the game's resource files, you can just head over here.

Great work, Devin!

For the nostalgic people out there, I've just found this awesome and pretty detailed Ancient DOS Games review of good old System Shock, on Pixelmusement.

The newest version of ADaOB - Anomalies, Discrepancies and Outright Bugs was just released.

This is the first version to include ZylonBane's SS2 Enhanced Monitor Package (SHEMP).

A full list of changes is listed below.

• Inclusion of SHEMP high resolution terrain textures (mostly screens and other tech displays)
• Fixed light switch in Med/Sci corridor over training stations
• Med/Sci armoury note is now correctly ticked off
• Added shields on shuttle ports on the training stations and in the Command deck shuttle bays
• Added targets to the shooting range on Ops
• Added ceiling glass to a room in Rec that previously opened out into space
• Realigned many textures and fixed many object placements
• Re-added a small number of French-Epstein devices and Auto-repair units on Impossible difficulty
• "Plasma" pistol changed back to laser pistol. Significantly decreased degrade rate for non-overcharge shots
• Auto-repair units and French-Epstein devices can now be recycled (for 20 nanites)
• Hazard suit now makes you completely immune to toxins from worm piles
• Removed ejecting casings from blast turrets because they looked too strange
• Shrank physics model on a Rickenbacker turrent that was very hard to walk past before
• Fixed the hole between the pipes in Rickenbacker Pod 2 where you could easily fall to your death
• Localised Pyrokinesis now deals 1 damage / 400ms instead of 5 damage / 2000ms
• Replaced elevator music with high-quality full-length version from SS1
• Various minor tweaks

The file can be downloaded from Filefront. You can discuss any technical issues on the related thread in our forums, or in the main thread at Strange Bedfellows.

Thank you to Nameless Voice, Zylonbane, and everyone involved in this excellent work!

A new FM from Christine is now available! It contains three levels. This is not a typical SS2 campaign, rather it is a "Funmission", so don't take it too seriously. You are on vacation. There are no keycards, codes, security cams or respawns, and sometimes sneaking may be better than fighting.

More details and screenshots are available at Christine's homepage. The FM itself can be downloaded (~135MB) from the following location.

Important note: This campaign uses custom scripts by Nameless Voice, so make sure that the file NVScript.osm is in your SShock2 directory.

Thank you for your excellent work, Christine!

At long last, Zylonbane has announced the release of SHTUP (Shock Texture Upgrade Project) Beta 6

Here are a few details regarding this new release:

• Download size: 15.7 MB
• Uncompressed size: 43.1 MB
• Updated Object Models: 252
• Updated Object Textures: 715
• Updated Terrain Textures: 121

• Several dozen most excellently updated/retextured pipe models (IceNine)
• Updated "annelid goo" models (IceNine again)
• Updated plant models (Black Boe)
• Updated Earth skybox (Black Boe again)
• Redrawn Xerxes face (Eldron)
• Updated world model wrench textures (Ichu)
• Several fixed object models (the inimitable Esh)
• Updated "annelid goo" textures to complement IceNine's updated models
• Updated basketball hoop, basketball court (same res, but should look a little more natural now), and basketball inventory icon
• Re-Updated the MedSci "VB" door texture. This was one of the first textures I updated back in 2003, so it was looking a little rough. Thanks to Esh tweaking the door model, it's now a full 256x512 texture. Also, finally updated the damaged version of this door.
• Made some tweaks to the HUD graphics so the edges don't change when switching between Use/Shoot mode anymore.
• Cleaned up all the square warning signs with the horizontal color stripes. They should all look much more consistent now, with the stripes always on the same side and no weird Z-fighting issues. Also, the signs that used to have a flashing white stripe will now have a flashing red stripe. Turns out it was always supposed to be red, but a palette mismatch caused it to appear white instead.
• Updated all the "big red letter" signs so that each letter is its own 256x256 texture. Super sharp!
• Updated most non-square signage to use TGA textures. This means that all edges will now have a smooth, anti-aliased appearance. This is especially noticeably on signs with text.
• Updated all blood splats and blood scrawls to use TGA textures as well. In addition to the edge-smoothing effect, variable transparency was used to give the blood a nice gory smeared appearance.
• Cleaned up the Rickenbacker logos on the Rickenbacker map screens.
• Trash cans now have actual trash in them.
• The snow-covered floors now actually look like snow.
• Wedge lights now have a texture that actually looks like something, instead of the old blank white texture.
• Rickenbacker deck A/B/C signs inverted to match the Rickenbacker's deck layout (A at the bottom, C at the top).
• Three out of four stim unit faces upgraded (still can't figure out who that second guy is).
• Recreation deck room signs height slightly increased so VB logo is round now.
• Piano console screen upgraded. Name that tune!

Screenshots are available at the SHTUP site.

The file can be downloaded here. Please discuss any technical issues on the related thread at our forums.

And a big 'thank you' to all the SHTUP team for their excellent work!

Once more, Christine has produced yet another SS2 campaign: UNN Facility Polaris-32A0. It consists of six levels, and we can only expect more of the quality work that Christine has already got us used to when coming from her.

You can get a few more details and some screenshots at Christine's homepage, and discuss anything related to this new FM in its dedicated thread, over at our forums.

This new FM can be downloaded (~77MB) from any of the following locations:

• Location 1
• Location 2
• Location 3

Over at our our forums we were pleasantly surprised when MysteryDev posted this thread regarding the 'real' System Shock 2 soundtrack. How real? Well, according to MysteryDev's words, 'real as in ripped from a CD that Eric Brosius burned'.

A few more details regarding this soundtrack:

• These are the real arrangements created by Eric himself, authored as full soundtrack songs and burned as an album. It's not a fan interpretation or anything else short of the real songs from the real composer.
• This was personally crafted by Eric Brosius from the original audio, meaning that unlike the 22khz audio files from the shipping game this release is CD quality.
• The audio quality is much higher than what's out there; this was ripped from the original CD and encoded at 320 q0 mp3

Basically, this is not only the best quality version of the soundtrack, it's the version of the soundtrack that Eric Brosius himself created. It's not a fan compilation; this is the real deal.

At last, Christine has announced that the longly awaited sequel to her Ponterbee Station FM is now completed.

You can download the new FM, UNN Nightwalker, from this link. Screenshots are available at Christine's homepage, and you can discuss any issues concerning this new FM at our forums.

And Christine has pulled out of her hat yet another excellent fan mission: Shocking Ruins. This is a conversion of her last Thief 2 fan mission, Bloody Ruins. Screenshots are available at Christine's homepage.

You can download the fan mission here, or discuss anything related to it in the dedicated thread on our forums.

Thank you Christine!

Zygoptera has announced on our forums his new fan mission: Arena. Here's a brief feature list:

• Combat rather than story oriented
• Enemies and goodies are spawned randomly
• Rebalanced upgrades and weaponry
• Full automap (few rough edges to give 'Spatially Aware' purpose)
• Hackable, neutral, cameras
• New enemies, with new powers
• Plot, meek and inoffensive
• Following completion you can get a list of various statistics (shots fired, hits, nanites received, enemies slain etc.) in the final area
• Fully MP compatible
• Much more...

You can download this FM from Strange Bedfellows. If you'd like to discuss any details from this FM, you can do it in the related thread on our forums.