NightDive Studios, who specialize in releasing updated old classics, as well as the developers of a System Shock reboot currently in progress, just released the source code for the original System Shock on Github. The code is released under the GPL license and with one pretty series downside… it’s the Mac port of System Shock. This means building it is going to be a virtual nightmare for most people, as it requires a chip hardware ( Power PC ) that is no longer available as well as a compiler (CodeWarrior for Mac) which is no longer sold. The release is also code only, so none of the data files are provided.
Details from Github:
A project file for Metrowerks Codewarrior is provided in ShockMac/Shock.µ
You will need a PowerPC to build the Mac version of System Shock. Fortunately, there are emulators out there that are able to run PowerPC Mac Applications, like SheepShaver. You also need Metrowerks CodeWarrior 10 Tools to build the project and Stuffit Expander to unpack the project files and source code. The game was initially built with an older version of CodeWarrior, but we tested it with CW 10 Gold Tools (IDE 1.7) and it was able to build a working executable. Things you will need:
- A PowerMac or an emulator like SheepShaver;
- CodeWarrior for PowerPC (CW 10 Gold Tools works)
- The original Mac System Shock data.
So obviously this is mostly useful as a code reference. It will be interesting to see if the community does anything with this, System Shock is one of the all time greats.