System Shock on Android

[67426ec384e0fKolya]

I'm using gDOSBox. So far I haven't managed to get the actual game running. It hangs after activating the Start button on the config screen.
It might just be a matter of using correct dosbox.conf settings, or it might not work at all.
Anyway, since I haven't seen anyone try this yet, I thought I'd share these photos.
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[67426ec384fb9Kolya]

Got it. I switched to a different app (DosBox Turbo) which made things quite a bit easier. Mouselook works and rendering is smooth though I'm still at the lowest res. MIDI doesn't work yet, but I'm confident to get that running as well. I'll later post instructions or a specially packed SSP version. The device used here is a Sony Xperia Z1 Compact.
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[67426ec3850feJoin2]

Look at you, Hacker.

[67426ec38527cKolya]

Mouselook would be nice but switching isn't as comfortable when you have to bring up a virtual keyboard first. And when you have mouselook on, you can't move, because you have no keys.

Strangely LG's arcane controlling options are proving useful now, which are completely useless when you have a mouse and keyboard at hand: I'm gliding around with the cursor-arrow method and changing my view up and down by tapping the 3-status panel in the top left. (Options screen is in the top left corner!)
Moving and turning is very imprecise because it all depends on how long you hold the screen. But hey, I managed to kill 3 medbots and a camera. Not without breaking a sweat though. 

Unfortunately joystick support doesn't seem to be working. Tomorrow I'll try some custom keyboards (gamepad beta, hacker's keyboard).

Oh yeah, MIDI works.

[67426ec3853f6Roarkes]

Oh yeah, MIDI works.

How ? Can you please make a tutorial ? I don't know if your first photo was intentional, but the white cable give the image a scifi look. If it works on a tablet, i will try to run the game with a keyboard attached. Because my serioux tablet can run with a keyboard.

[67426ec385503Kolya]

I've put up a System Shock mobile version including instructions last night.
That white cable is just a regular USB mini cable. Came with my wife's Kindle I think.

[67426ec385611Tricky]

Cool stuff, I have been looking for something like this. Android games are a lot of meh, altogether. Say, you said you use the mouselook mod, but wouldn't touch screens actually be the perfect platform NOT to use that on? Minecraft PE already works exactly like the old System Shock.

[67426ec385717Kolya]

IIRC I used mouselook mod because I could bind mouse input to a touch-movement-cross that was overlayed on the screen.

[67426ec3857f3Tricky]

Ah, makes sense.

[67426ec385914Mr.Khaos]

Hi,

Sorry if im necrobumping but I posted an alternative way for setting SS-touch screen for Windows.

https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=9910.msg117661#new

Regards

[67426ec385a96ZylonBane]

The title of this thread is "System Shock on Android". Explain why you spammed this thread with a link to another thread that has nothing to do with Android.

[67426ec385c41MrKhaos]

ZB,

 My post starts with "Sorry to necrobump...", english is not my mothertongue,... sorry for not chosing the appropiate words...
 
Back to the topic... On my post i explained an alternative solution which does involves a method to support TOUCH devices for System Shock, applied to a Windows tablet ... If you are not interested at all on windows, no need to read my post. By Ill make this topic the same questions that i made to achieve my solution on WINDOWS...

 Is there a HID driver for Android that could emulate the touchscreen-to-mouse movements?
 Is there a similar patch for "SDL.dll" on android that could emulate the touchscreen-to-mouse movements?
 Is there a gamepad-to-keyboard binding overlay on-screen for Android to apply the WASD input over screen?

If i have the time ill search the resources for myself and comment HERE the results for ANDROID... Meanwhile im satisfied with my results on WINDOWS as NOWHERE on the Internet GAVE A SOLUTION FOR THIS ON ANY TOUCH-PLATFORM type

Hope you understand that i would love to play the game on Android or i wouldnt spend the time giving silly impressions, ...

Good luck,

@B^)>
 

[67426ec385dc3icemann]

I have a hard enough time working out why some people prefer playing FPS games on consoles. To even consider playing SS1 on a touch screen would just be complete madness.

[67426ec38641cJDoran]

I have a hard enough time working out why some people prefer playing FPS games on consoles. To even consider playing SS1 on a touch screen would just be complete madness.

First person shooters are fantastic on consoles. A joypad is easy to use, has everything ergonomically within reach, and has no trouble offering an easy and well designed control setup for both action gameplay and non-action (such as inventory manipulation) gameplay. Plus a console has it's own advantages of not having to worry about incompatible hardware, or the host machine  being too slow to run the game, or problems running the game due to other software or operating system issues (these  three area of problems being sometimes the case on a PC*).

Yes, the joypad isn't as fast or accurate as a mouse, but console games usually compensate by being slower, or having auto or sticky aim. And whilst a mouse is fantastic for playing FPSs, I don't like the keyboard at all, the joypad is much better, giving you an analogue control for movement, plus an analogue trigger, a bumper button, and a D-pad, whereas on a keyboard you're stuck with digital buttons, and even then you're limited to what your left hand can easily and blindly (if you don't take your eyes off the screen) reach.

Plus to me the four best first person shooters ever (Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, Timesplitters: Future Perfect, and Timesplitters 2) are all console executives, though you can play them on the PC via emulation.

I love PC gaming, and FPSs on the PC are fantastic (and especially the mods for classics like Deus Ex, the Half-Life games, the Unreal Tournament games, etc). but I personally prefer to play on a console.

Sadly though, I too can't play games on a touch-screen. I do have an Android tablet with physical built in controls (two analogue sticks and lots of buttons), and it's great for 2D stuff, but thanks to this tablet, I now know how important ergonomics are when it comes to game controllers, as for some reason playing 3D games using the tablet's controls just doesn't feel right, but for 2D games it's fine.




* Not that these problems are anywhere near as pervasive on the PC as they were in years gone by, of course. Now is the best time ever to be a PC gamer, since it's lost many of it's flaws, and even a half-decent (and cheap) PC can run 99% of the PC's thirty-plus year long library, and thanks to Steam, and GOG, etc, getting games to run is much easier than it sometimes was (and thanks to DOSBox, virtual machines, and fan-made patches and fixes, just about any PC game that objects to modern Windows versions can still be played on your PC).

Granted, PC's still have the perpetual problem of bugged game releases, meaning that we're all unpaid beta testers for the new games, but nowadays that's par for the course on consoles too (at least the PS4 and XBox One, I don't know about the Switch). And today's consoles have, to me, lost their individuality and 'feel', and are just closed platform PCs with few of the advantages of a real PC. Who'd have thought that consoles, which existed just to play games, would one day need regular, mandatory firmware/OS updates? And would have all sorts of 'features' that most people don't want on a console, like Facebook stuff>

Edit: And one other popular feature of console first person shooters used to be splitscreen mltiplayer (which was never a feature in most PC FPSs, sadly). But that's just one more console advantage that's pretty much died off this generation, since the games developers prefer you to play online, rather than splitscreen, since online means every player uses his own console and therefore each player has to buy his/her own copy of the game, whereas with splitscreen then two to four players can play on just one copy of the game.

[67426ec38720bMrKhaos]

I have a hard enough time working out why some people prefer playing FPS games on consoles. To even consider playing SS1 on a touch screen would just be complete madness.

Sorry to disagree,  I enjoy the range of SS-derivatives you could find nowadays, but ALL of them recognise and praise their origins with RESPECT, call it Bioshock/Fallout/...

Just two points to remark:

 1) I managed to "mobilized" my personal SS portable... I am playing relaxed at my couch, at the bus, during a breaking-coffe... For my experience and my kind of work i feel stressed when i have to play at the same place that im working...
 2) We are not talking about any other FPS, we are talking about  SYSTEM SHOCK    , its an FPS? an RPG? Im still on the first level playing at my pace and enjoy every second of gameplay calmly, i dont care about playing it at 350FPS! I enjoy the perfect imperfection of  THIS GAME played on EMULATION, at hand ...

* Not that these problems are anywhere near as pervasive on the PC as they were in years gone by, of course. Now is the best time ever to be a PC gamer, since it's lost many of it's flaws, and even a half-decent (and cheap) PC can run 99% of the PC's thirty-plus year long library, ...
(...)

Who'd have thought that consoles, which existed just to play games, would one day need regular, mandatory firmware/OS updates? And would have all sorts of 'features' that most people don't want on a console, like Facebook stuff>

I totally agree, and i decided to break down with all that stuff... Dont want to give a old-man speech, but i personally own a collection list of games ALREADY BOUGHT on-hold due to time/space/real life bussiness/ unaffordable-PC-Specs ... But  i realized that the "Nintendo-way-of-play" is the correct "HOW" of gaming,... As an example, should the Wii-U/Switch with its tablet-to-TV dynamic, offered retrocompatibility with GameCube i would have jumped into it, but  as this wasnt their bussines, i decided that it wouldnt be mine either... And this goes for the rest, Im having my time at work while waiting for Windows updates and dont want to repeat the process at  my spare time, thanks...

...
Now that im thinking about it, i have been trying to  play  System Shock on some handheld for the last eight or nine years!! First using the Gp2X handheld, later on NDS, then on a Froyo tablet, later on a PSP,... failing on all attemps, mainly to the hardware-low spec and also plenty of stopped ports of the Dosbox on those devices,... I was eating my nails thinking about the Pandora Handheld, but as i recently grab this modest-spec tablet/laptop with windows this is enough for me, at least for now

I know that i am finally diverting the post, ... I tried PSX-classic on PSP "Defcon-5" and despite the big differences, i think it deserves a topic as a valliant attempt to approach the SS universe 


Regards,

@B^)>

[67426ec3873eeicemann]

Note that I have played FPS games on consoles as well. I'm a HUGE fan of the Resistance games as well as the first Darkness game on PS3. Those were fantastic.

It's just that the control scheme just doesn't sit well with me. If I sit down on a PC and jump into FPS I'm right at home controls wise and am able to jump right into it. On consoles I need a good 5-10 minutes to adjust every time.

I should note also that thanks to Steam Big Picture you can now use a controller to play a FPS or whatever whenever you want. I did that with Dead Cells (not a FPS). Just plugged in and good to go.

[67426ec387534JDoran]

No fair enough, I'm not criticising of course. We all have different likes and tolerances - for example, I still play on games on the N64, which means I'm used to the frame-rates of 3D games of that era, which by modern standards are virtually slide-shows (in some games they can be less than 20 frames per second, and not just the consoles of the time, even the lower PCs of that era with a 3dfx Voodoo card could go dangerously near single figure fps) but for anyone used only to more modern machines (PC or console) they might well be unplayable.

[67426ec387672icemann]

My first play through of Quake on PC due to only having a 486 meant that the game only ran at like 20-30 fps. I played through the whole game. That's dedication for you :p.

It made the game easier since you had more reaction time. A bit like if you were to play through all of Max Payne in that bullet time mode.

[67426ec387845JosiahJack]

Ah quake at 20fps...with arrow keys instead of mouselook.  Brings me back.  But ya, touch screen only on SS is crazy.  With a gamepad at least you could do radial pie menus, though that can be a bit awkward sometimes (Diablo III's radial inventory for instance has too many options for it to be useful in a game where radial menus don't pause the game so fair warning for assigning too many options to one radial.)