I’m not quite sure if this is the right forum as it’s more technical then artistic. I want to play System Shock 2 again but I can’t get it to run under Windows 2000. I checked out Irrational Games and under their FAQ they give me the following instructions on how to get it to run.
"How do I install System Shock 2 under Windows 2000?
Open a command prompt. Change the directory to your CD and type
setup –lgntforce
This should allow you to install the game as normal. "
Unfortunately I have no idea what that means. Can anybody help?
Go to start, run, and just type “command” and hit enter.
Get to your folder using the CD command (like “cd games/syshock”).
If it is a really, really old game you might need to look into slowing down your puter, but I am guessing if the game still has an official site, you should be good to go
Thanks for your help Iteki. I actually got the game installed but it won’t run for some reason. It does’t give me any error messages it just doesn’t run when I click on “Play” or when I try to run it in DOS. Ah well, I’ll check and see if there’s a patch somewhere. It is kind of an old game having been released in 1999 and folks who made it, Looking Glass Studios, are no longer together.
I have spent countless hours trying to run one old game or another on my new computer. It is a very frustrating experience. I remember spending a week troubleshooting XCOM Apocalypse and I still haven’t played it yet. I suspect System Shock 2 is trying to acess the harddrive directly and Windows XP/2000 doesn’t like programs doing that.
First, let’s try the system shock forums. Post your question over there and wait for some feedback. This thread in particular seems like a good place to start.
While your waiting for feedback, or if that thread doesn’t help, try DosBox. I believe they have a tutorial on their site if you need help using it. It’s not exactly like Dos inwhich you just go in and type “cd game\ss2\ss2.exe” (for example). I’ll try to help you if you have any problems.
I also seem to recall reading somewhere that a fan had created a rather extensive patch to overhaul graphics and such. He might also have fixed your problem so it’s worth searching for. I wouldn’t be much help with this particular (possible) solution since I don’t know much about it. Hopefully another doper will be along shortly.
Remember, the goal right now is just to get the game to run so don’t be discouraged if it starts up and there’s no graphics or something. You have to troubleshoot it one step at a time. Trust me, I’ve had to do this before.
Thanks Cletus. I finally got the program to successfully install and I downloaded a patch that would allow it to run under Win 2000. The program started up and I got to see the opening movie but when it tries to load up it boots me back out into Windows. I’ll have to see if I can get this problem fixed.
