System Shock : the hacker's guide to sin
-A complete mental breakdown of System Shock-
Since the screenshots were originally taken on the 4th of January 1998, it seems the page is now 10 years old!
To commemorate this, and because I still have the original files, I've upgraded all the screenshots to their original, 640x400 versions
since most people are now surfing at 1024x768. Have fun!
0. This page contains dark humour. You have been warned.
1. I do not advocate the use of real drugs.
(In fact I am teetotal and do not smoke.)
2. I do not advocate the use of violence as entertainment in real life.
The last such act I took part in was in 1990 when I was 14 and we laid all these fish out
over a busy road and watched each one get squashed by passing traffic.
3. I do not advocate ruthlessness or evil as a means to an end.
Except in computer games ;-)
System Shock is like a cross between Ultima and Doom. It is a first-person 3D shooter, with tons of features, combined with the depth, detail and overall quality of a good Ultima game.
It also bears more than a passing resemblance to Fred Pohl's SF novel 'Age
of the Pussyfoot' (1968) and has distinct parallels with 'Painwise' by
James Tiptree Jr in the collection '10,000 light-years from home'.
It requires a 386 or a 486, and also a CD-ROM drive, unless you can get hold of the original 3.5" disk release.
System Shock can run in 320x200, 320x400, 640x400 or 640x480.
If you have access to an old Win95/98 machine, you can run it natively
(note that the game will go funny if it sees more than 16MB). A P200
or above it recommended for the high-res 640x480 mode, a P75 for 320x400,
or anything else for 320x200.
If you're trying to run it on a Windows XP-class machine, or Linux, your best bet
is to try and run the game inside DOSbox.
Bear in mind that DOSbox is emulating the entire machine, which is not quick.
It will probably require a machine rated around 2 AMD gigahertz (or 3 Intel gigahertz) in order to be playable.
What? You don't want a plot?!? Get back to the Doom page then.
Here is the streetwise guide to Trioptimum's line in Stuff:
Berserk
Sight enhancement
Genius Mind-Enhancer
Reflex
Detox
Stam-up stimulant
Medical
There's quite a lot of them lying around, but you can score some off the mutants.
Just dot one on the head with the pipe and it should easily surrender its stash.
Most of the time you can take drugs on the move, but once in a while you feel the need for a little privacy.
Find a small cupboard, or preferably an elevator shaft where no-one can disturb you.
The following is a transcript from Mr. Gibbon's black box recorder.
He is stalking a Security-1 robot and is very low on health:
JPM: Got to take some drugs.
<Mr. G shoots a few medical patches>
IDM: It has seen you. You are going to die. It will kill you. There is no way you can survive.
JPM: Laser rapier.
<bang slash bang slash slash silence>
IDM: Incredible: you're not dead. That was totally unexpected!
JPM: Oh dear, now I've got to take some more drugs again.
IDM: Yes.. it's called addiction.
A cursory examination of the hacker reveals that he is not human.
(He is capable of subsisting entirely on hard drugs and blue smarties)
So what is he?
In fact, the hacker has these wonderful gibbon arms that are thirteen foot long.
Try this for yourself, start a new game and play with the Healing Suite.
Now interestingly, the hacker can't reach across a gap.
For example, later on in level 1, the hacker goes to blow up the CPU nodes.
(This is 'normally' done by running in there, and lying on his belly in between the nodes, then suddenly banging a live frag grenade on the ground using his teeth. SHODAN announces that he'll kill you, but the robots are already mopping up the juice.)There is a warrior cyborg standing on a tower, one space away from you.
The idea that you can't reach is out of the question. The problem is the gap between the two of you.
It seems we are looking at a hacker with 13 foot long, boneless tentacles that snake across the ground but are unable to support their own weight.
However, as of July 2005, I believe I have finally discovered Mr. Gibbon's race.
I present my solution to this riddle below.
So my player is called PNP man (plug'n'play man) whenever he's not called Mr. Gibbon.
What could be done about it? Well the Hacker's got a head full of firmware, so adding just a tiny bit more won't hurt much:
Just imagine! No more limp, floppy corpses to pick up!
With the new rigor-mortis chip, you're guaranteed to go stiff as a board the moment you die..
The hacker freaks out and locks himself in a small cupboard, (such as a lift) assuming the lotus position and surrounded by a large pile of high explosives.
The hacker then consumes all the berserk, genius and sight patches at once getting himself higher than the Pope.
Totally stoned, he bangs two live frag grenades together.
Later on some robots come past and wonder why the lift doors are bulging out like that.
They find your body and give it new life. As a cyborg you will serve SHODAN well.
I wonder how?
Q: What's green but turns red at the flick of a switch?
A: A frog in a blender
Now imagine the frog was 3 feet long. This is what the lift looks like at the moment. How can we possibly resurrect that?
They find the pieces and give them new life. As a cyborg's kneecap you will serve SHODAN well.So how is it done? Let's take a loook at the General Resurrection Machinery.
Now, what is that man-shaped hole? There is only one thing it can be. A jelly-mould.
Of course. How simple. All the resurrection problems are solved in one stroke.
For example, the hacker decides to stick his head in one of the matter-converters to see if the robots can cope with that.
The robots scrape off the little wet bits and pour them into the mould.
After a while they put him in the fridge until he sets and they let him go again.
Red blood cell count 100% normal....
Cybernetic life support deactivated....
Brain activity satisfactory....
Recovery completed....
IM: He ran into the heart of a nuclear reactor.
The robots fished out his body and patched him up.
Then he got away and ran back into the reactor and died.
And then as soon as he has the chance, he goes off and does it AGAIN,
but it still says 'Brain activity Satisfactory'..
Fortunately it's relatively easy to change the strings with a hex editor, they are in DATA\CYBSTRNG.DAT on your hard disk.You can change them to something more appropriate:
Brain activity corrupted.... Recovery Failed....Pad the end of each line out with spaces to make sure it's the same length.
JM: Ugh! Who am I? Where am I? What am I? IM: You're Mr Gibbon, You're on level 5 but we don't really know what you are. JM: Umm.. I was in.. SHODAN's trap. That way. IM: No, no, this way. JM: That way IM: No! This way. JM: Oh yeah.DANGER: Post-Mortem confusion often turns into Pre-Mortem confusion..
Sometimes there are live landmines mixed in with explosives caches, so look carefully before picking one up :-)
..No! But why won't it let me point the gun at myself?
The pipe is what you will start with. It works fine on serv-bots and mutants and it never runs out of ammo.
Your first Good Gun, but be sure you know where the nearest wall-socket is.
Your second Good Gun. Keep hold of it, you can use it on cameras later on.
One of the Best guns. Never let this one go.
You will need this!
A pretty good weapon.
You must have this one!
Only useful for weird things
A reasonable replacement for the sparq beam.
Excellent tool for vapourising corpses.
Try it, you might like it.
It's brilliant for smashing cameras and even more decadant than the magnum.
IDM: What is a railgun anyway?
JPM: An experimental weapon using magnetic fields to propel a projectile at colossal speeds.
It doesn't work in practice because you have to increase the field strength as it goes down
the barrel. As it approaches the muzzle you get a plasma and the coils burn out.
IDM: You mean it's like a hand-held linear accelerator?!?
JPM: No! A FULL-SIZE linear accelerator! They built one in the desert.
You have to wait for the target to get in range.. a hand-held one is pure fantasy.
This is useful for tight spots, but can sometimes let you down.
"Once I accidentally put 300 watts into a 60 watt light bulb. The filament detatched itself from the two connecting wires and drifted around inside the bulb, white-hot. Then it hit the side and bounced away. The glass was glowing cherry-red where it had touched." -PDM, 1992Now you can do something similar to the walls of the citadel station.
It kills whatever it touches but it often touches you.
Diego is a cyborg of SHODAN but he kept his personality, and he is armed with Laser Rapiers. He teleports away when you beat him.
Edward Diego appears at three points in the game, but you have ample time to prepare a little surprise for him each time.
Hint: when blowing up the CPUs on the Exec level, place two emp grenades either side of
the main CPU.
Go back to the tunnel and shoot a single round at the autobomb to annoy it.
Lead the Bomb into the computer room and let it attack you.
Et voila! SHODAN's little toy has just blown up some valuable equipment for you.
If he doesn't step on the pile, (or if you do) reload and place the land mine in a slightly different place.
Otherwise you should hear:
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG(depending on your CPU speed)
..followed by a brief swooshing sound as he turns red and vanishes.
Place all the explosives on the central triangle of the floor, with a live landmine.
Now go about your business. When you try to escape the reactor detonation, Diego will email you a death threat.
However, by the time you've read the threat he will have appeared, exploded and disappeared again without you even seeing it!
As proof of his impending divinity, SHODAN demonstrates his power by appearing unto you in a Holy Vision.
Diego should now be on the floor in a heap. His body cannot be vapourised, otherwise it would have done so by now.
Extract the little red card and carry on with the game.
Here's a neat little trick that allows you to screw up the Death Machine..
First, get yourself lots of bombs. You need about 9 frag grenades and at least 1 Landmine.
Next, get yourself lots of detox. Yes, I know it ruins your trips but you need it against the radiation.
Now, look for this little hole. It's through the door on the right, starting from the lift (facing left).
Make sure you are at full health, and consume some drugs if you aren't.
Now, jump down the hole, and you'll see this big blast door (marked 'Radiation! No! Go away!' etc..). Open the door.
You are now within a few metres of the Reactor Core and getting sleeted with gamma rays, so hurry up.
You should see another blast door from your vantage point.
Go through the door and consume some Detox.
You should now be going up a repulser plate into a small grey room. This is the back end of the Death Machine!
If there is a Security-1 robot there, kill it and enter the door.
Now SAVE. Get on your belly, and remember not to cross the middle of the room, or you'll have to load back.
By just lying in the southern half of the room, you can throw bombs into place.
Throw an INACTIVE frag grenade at each door, so that there a bomb in front of each one.
Place some more bombs and things in a chain connecting them, so that all the devices will explode if one goes off.
Save (in another slot if possible) and place a LIVE landmine in front of one of the doors.
It should look like this:
Consume enough drugs to get you back to full health, and switch on your Shield.
Walk across to the North, and all the doors will open.
If you've done it right, all the monsters should die instantly!
Inside are three Warrior Cyborgs. Kill the first one quickly and silently using the Laser Raper.
If you look out from where the cyborg was, You should now see this:
Before we get to the fun part we must first capture the druuugs otherwise they will be destroyed in the explosion.
First save. Now, switch on your Skates and do a running jump across the room, so that you land on the drugsss and can pocket them.
If you hear a babbling sound then they have seen you, and you must reload or it won't work.
Now. You should be sitting on the drugs ledge. Switch off your skates and jump onto the floor. Again, make sure they don't see you.
Throw the following items onto the repulsor lift:
In about 3 seconds you should get a BIG bang and two dead cyborgs.
While destroying the Earth I noticed that you can still move around while SHODAN is giving you the party invite.
Wondering if there was any way to prevent myself getting kicked out of the game, I did the following.
It's dependent on timing, so it will only work on the CD version and a relatively fast processor (like my P200).
Follow this exactly and it ought to work:
"If you go into the room on level 1 that has the monitor that looks down on the CPU nodes for that level, you can take the SPARQ beam and destroy the nodes by double-clicking on the screen, and then using ENTER on the keyboard to fire."I tried this, and it's strange.
The other item is a little bug.
On level 2 there's an area with an X-ray machine and a radiation door.
When you press the lever, the door is unlocked and can be opened.
Once the door is opened, you get bombarded with heavy X-rays from the radiation source in the cupboard.
But if you go inside the cupboard you find that it's perfectly safe.
It's all wrong. The room outside has 'become' radioactive and the radiation source isn't really radioactive at all...
What we discovered was that with the skates on, the angle got much steeper.
If you made the hacker run around in a tight circle, you could make him do a Wall of Death by using the LEAN controls at the same time, and the angle would reach 90 degrees!
Can't do that anymore though :-(
Also, if you went into the nearly-final room on level 1, there's a small narrow bit you can only get to by going in on your belly. Inside is a skeleton, another pipe and a concussion bomb.
If you go in on your belly, but suddenly enable the Skates, he forcibly stood up and projected his head into absolute Nothing, It was really strange..
If you switched on lots of equipment and had the helmet-light on, by switching off the other stuff, you could set the energy usage to 0 even through the light was still on..
Finally, if you put one of the big blue smarties or a battery on the ground, held an object in your hand and tried to use the battery/smartie, you would increase your power or health without consuming it.
It has taken ten years, but I have finally found out what the Hacker is.
Mr. Gibbon is an incubus as found in the DMFA strip by Amber Panyko.
Mature incubi have, when suitably angered, boneless tentacles which which come out of their backwings. These can be stretched to approximately 13 feet long, and terminate in small heads which are capable of picking up small light objects, or pressing buttons, but not rifling through corpses across a gap to retrieve large, heavy weapons.
Although the tentacle heads are generally controlled subconsciously, it is possible, through will and experience, to control them directly. Since a smart incubus trapped aboard Citadel Station would use their tentacles to see around a corner before exposing their head, this would also explain why the Hacker appears to have no feet.
Mature 'cubi do not usually eat, but feed on emotions as their prime energy source. Pain is a common energy source (plenty to go around in Citadel Station!), however 'cubi usually also have a favourite physical food such as ale, or in Mr. Gibbon's case, drugs and smarties.
18/11/06 - update Ben Karnow writes with a different theory:
"Unfortunately, it's just come to my attention, after playing the CD Version of System Shock 1... that the Hacker's gibbon arms are actually not boneless. The warrior cyborg on the tower near the medical CPU node actually CAN be searched, if you stand on the grav lift.
"So I propose a different solution- The hacker is actually a "Diclonius" from the anime "Elfen Lied".
"He's a creature with two regular and two telekinetic arms... which perfectly explains his propensity to rummage through anything and everything and never need a wet-nap to wash off the blood. It also explains how he's able to manipulate circuit boards and suchlike without getting an electric shock, and probably also explains why he's such a wuss at throwing grenades."
It has taken four years to gather enough material to write about, and even that is scarce. But here it is anyway.. a list of stuff to do.
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In fact, there's not a great deal of point in having the PSI HACK ability at all: it's far less efficient that the real thing. It's only really useful for remotely detonating security crates, as you can hack them from anywhere within line-of-sight.
Inside the crate is about 70 nanites, a hit of antiradiation druggies
and one of the useless worm-mind implants. Nothing that will be
sorely missed if the crate were to have an 'accident'.
If you already opened it the first time you visited the Bridge, a wrench will also
make short (and very messy) work of Korenchkin.
The only way to make them snap out of it (what?!? Are you insane?)
is to save and then re-load within their field of vision, which
usually involves your death.
If you make sure you always save out of their sight, they should
remain docile indefinitely.
Like the drunkenness in Deus Ex, when you change map, the glowing will stop, but when you go back into the other map, you'll once again have the yellow glow.
Note that it costs something like 130 cybermodules just to GET the teleport ability, so don't bother with this unless you need 5th order PSI powers for something else as well.
Daniel Ti'Fiona, and DMFA is copyright (C) 2000-2005 Amber Panyko.
System Shock is a trademark of Electronic Arts.