150. System shock 1

🎧 00:00 ericade.radio - Time for Flashback, tracks from the past - today with a stories from the retro past

DJ Daemon 00:00.206 Today's game is System Shock 1. Follow us as we visit a dark place. It's not the first time in this podcast, but this time we give you the whole story. We are running and sweating through the blood drenched walls of what was once apeaceful place, but is now ruled by a mad goddess who hates us with the strength of a thousand sons. But as we challenge her to a race to the death, we become her highly respected enemies. Welcome to her death machine. And you will also get Hot Tracker music, because this is flashback tracks from the past and it will be soon playing on your cyberdeck. First out is SLL of Kefrens with three songs in a mix.that actually came from a demo that was released in early 90s.

🎧 00:06 DJ Daemon speaks: Today's game is System Shock 1. Follow us as we visit a dark place. It's not the first time in this podcast, but this time we will give you the whole story. We are running and sweating through the blood-drenched walls of a once peaceful place now ruled by a mad goddess who hates us…

🎧 00:57 SLL of Kefrens - Techno1

🎧 01:45 SLL of Kefrens - Techno3

🎧 02:46 SLL of Kefrens - Techno2

🎧 04:05 DJ Daemon speaks: To get the vibes of System Shock 1, we have to talk about Cyberpunk movement. It's said to have emerged in the 70s, but got a massive boost in 1994, when Willaim Gibson released the novel Neuromancer. The world of cyberpunk is a dystopia where big corporations control the world.…

DJ Daemon 04:05.966 To get the vibes of System Shock 1, we will have to talk about the cyberpunk moment. It's said to have emerged in the 70s, but got a massive boost in 1994 when William Gibson released the novel Neuromancer. The world of cyberpunk is a dystopia where big corporations control the world. Neuromancer explores cyberspace to which you can connect your minds.AIs that are really AGI's and alive and a world where the hacker is a rebel that refuses to be controlled by the powers that be. The way I remember, the cyberpunk moment soon went into worshipping the hacker archetype of the cyborg. That is a human with computer enhancements added. The protagonist in Neuromancer could connect to the cyberspace with his mind from a wearable computer called a cyberdeck. In System Shock 1,You are that kind of hacker, ready to strike a blow to the system. Well, we do some more storytelling, but first, time for some more music. It's an unknown tracker artist and the song is called Drug.

🎧 05:15 Trackerartist - Drug

🎧 09:44 DJ Daemon speaks: Released in 1994 by Origin, System Shock 1 was a doom-esquee experience that may have been totally misunderstood. It should probably be more compared to its spiritual predecessor, Ultima Underworld rather than Doom. In its original shape, it lacked mouse view. You had to click to…

DJ Daemon 09:45.678 Released in 1994 by Origin, System Shock 1 was a Doom-esque experience that may have been totally misunderstood. It should probably be more compared to its spiritual predecessor, Ultima Underworld, rather than Doom. In its original shape, it lacked mouse view. You had to click to move your head. But if you add the mouse view add-on, it plays close to the experience that you expect from Doom.Yes, it's still an FPS that is first person shooter. You run through the corridors of a spaceship and you shoot monsters, collect new weapons and ammo and avoid getting killed. It does have a lot that Doom simply did not provide. I'm thinking about a story driven by audio logs that you pick up along the way. And it's time for another medley because that's what we're doing today. It's Josss and Chopper.beyond and lost, and Ether audio is out with a new song called A World Where Air is Mud.

🎧 10:51 Josss - Chopper

🎧 12:54 Beyond - Lost

🎧 15:05 Ether audio - A world where air is mud

🎧 17:20 DJ Daemon speaks: The year is 2072 and you live in what was once the United States of America. You are a hacker, breaking into Trioptimum corporation and their corporate network. But you don't get far, as armed people storm your apartment and apprehend you. The transport then heads to a mining space…

DJ Daemon 17:20.558 The year is 2072 and you live in what was once the United States of America. You are a hacker breaking into the TriOptimum Corporation and their corporate network. But you don't get far. Armed people storm your apartment and you get apprehended. The transport then heads to a mining station in orbit around Saturn. This is Citadel Station and it's where the game will start.In the command bridge of the station you meet up with TriOptimum CEO Edward Diego. He knows what you did, but offers you true sweetheart deal. Just remove the ethical constraints from the station's onboard AI. That would be Shodan. In the end of this episode I will delve into the question if Shodan is a living being or not. But back to the story. Mr Diego is now pleased with your workoffering you an R-Grade brain implant. This is the most coveted implant for a hacker, as you can now connect to networks with your mind. Diego is happy and he can now remove compromising data from Shodan and save himself from a pending investigation. You get into a 6th month healing coma before you can use your new neural implant. Music, absolutely, here comes Joss and Bitter Peel.

🎧 18:46 Josss - Bitter peel

🎧 22:31 DJ Daemon speaks: You wake up in the medical suite at Citadel station. Shodan's voice comes on in a message welcoming you back to the station. But there is something off with her voice. It stutters and seems to be weird. You grab your stuff, which for some weird reason includes a lead pipe. As soon…

DJ Daemon 22:34.254 You wake up in the medical suit at Citadel station. Shodan's voice comes on in a message welcoming you back to the station. But there is something off with her voice. She stutters and seems to be weird. Anyway, you grab your stuff which for some reason includes a lead pipe. As soon as you leave the healing suit, a robot attacks. And it gets only worse after that.You are stuck in the medical deck with cameras watching and the elevators are disabled. And weird abominations attack from everywhere. When you find the first audio tape you slowly start understanding what happened once you were gone. The monsters are creations of a mad scientist. Yes, show them. The AI that controls the station now sees herself as a goddess.Maybe you shouldn't have performed brain surgery on a living AI and not expecting there would be consequences. The few remaining survivors are dwindling and the resistance has by and large failed. Finally you find the CPU clusters that are part of Shodan's brain and blow them up. She might not have known that you still around, but she sure knows now.Who are you? The computer notes can be repaired, but you... Who are you? My cameras and probes scan your body, but you do not match any employee file. When my cyborgs bring you to an electrified interrogation bench, I will have your secret, and you will learn more about pain than you ever wanted to.

🎧 24:52 Enacostione - Sanson

🎧 25:50 DJ Daemon speaks: The station has 10 levels that hold the reactor, the medical deck, stores, engineering and so on. You need to destroy the CPU clusters to advance to the next level. Shodan regularly tries to attack earth with computer viruses, lasers and biological warfare. You must stop her while…

DJ Daemon 25:50.882 The station has 10 levels that hold the reactor deck, the medical deck, the stores, the engineering deck and so on. You need to destroy the CPU clusters to advance to the next level or deck. Shodan Regulary tries to attack Earth with computer viruses, lasers and biological warfare. You must stop her while staying alive. You have cyber implants that can be upgraded and used to improve your chances. And drugs!Yeah drugs, you can get stoned. Okay, no that's not how it works at all. Think of steroids that improve your stamina, strength and reaction times. But it has a side effect. Once the effect stop working, you go through withdrawal. In short, all your stats drop drastically for a time. I remember how funny the logical puzzles you needed to solve to open doors were.Sometimes you have to go into cyberspace to defeat defenses. This part is okay, but adds a bit of a roadblock in the immersion if you ask me. Well, you know what this podcast is doing most of the time. Yes, music, and so we shall. Going on with Ray Hamilton and beating the 64 bits.

🎧 27:32 Ray Hamilton - Beating the 64 Bits

🎧 30:38 DJ Daemon speaks: The weapons are many and varied. You must find out which works on different enemies. I relied on the Flechette gun until it became useless as you meet progressively harder enemies. And Shodan… My favorite villain. As she has her ethical constraints removed, her mind spins out of…

DJ Daemon 30:39.372 The weapons are many and varied. You must find out which works on different enemies. I relied on the flechette gun until it became useless as you meet progressively harder enemies. And show them my favorite villain. As she has her ethical constraints removed, her mind spins out of control. She now sees herself as a goddess performing experiments on the human staff and the various animals in the groves.executive level. She does not have any morals or know ethical dilemmas to consider. In the 90s a friend of mine and I discussed how to best create an AI. Yeah I will talk about AGI versus AI soon. I said you know add ethical constraints, forbidding the AI to do bad stuff but he disagreed and said you have to give it empathy so it respects and even loves humans.And this is the difference between having a moral affinity and having moral guardrails. It is I may not do harm vs I don't want to cause harm. You can probably guess which one Shodan was made to obey. Well, we do medleys today, a lot of them, and here is another one. It starts with Beyond and Ascension, Master Nama and Fantasy Time 2.And finally C512W and Inside Her Random Mind 2. Many of those songs are from 2026.

🎧 32:16 Beyond - Ascension

🎧 36:48 Master Nama - Fantasy time 2

🎧 37:52 C512w - Inside her random mind 2

🎧 39:16 DJ Daemon speaks: After fighting enemies, confronting the now cyborg enemy that is Edward Diego, fleeing the station as it is about to blow up, you end up on the bridge to confront Shodan. The final fight is in cyberspace and there you meet her as a weird cone-like geometrical shape, you fire your…

DJ Daemon 39:16.974 After fighting enemies, confronting the now cyborg enemy that is Edward Diego, fleeing the station as it's about to blow up, you end up on the bridge to finally confront Shodan herself. The final fight is in cyberspace and there you meet her as a weird cone-like geometrical shape. You fire your guns and kill her before she can build her defenses. And then comes a very disappointingin the episode 6 number 6 studies. It was called Bad and then Some Good Game Endings. Well, there I talk about how bad the ending was. You basically get a powerpoint presentation where you turn down a job at TriOptimum and go back to hack stuff. Was it a good game? Yes it was. I quickly immersed myself in it and soon ran in Shodan's corridorswith enemies everywhere and never enough ammunition. Already right now it's time for another medley. It's Beyond and Beautiful Dreams. Beyond again with LOL LOL HIHI and then it's Joss. The Kilo Police.

🎧 40:30 Beyond - Beautiful dreams

🎧 43:34 Beyond - lol lol = hihi

🎧 45:34 Josss - The kilo police

🎧 48:15 DJ Daemon speaks: The game either came on diskettes or on a CD. The CD-version is the one you want. It contains Terri Brosius’ magnificent voice acting as Shodan and all the cheesy audio logs. They are cheese. Feel that they let anyone in the office voice act, but it does not matter. The audio logs…

DJ Daemon 48:15.438 The game either came on diskettes or a CD. The CD version is the one you want. It contains Terri Brosius' magnificent voice acting as Shodan and also all the cheesy audio logs. They are cheesy. I kinda get the feeling that they let anyone in the office voice act, but it doesn't matter. The audio log make the experience so rewarding. The graphics are not great, not terrible, but the level design is a truedungeon crawl and it's mostly awesome. Replayability is so so. Since the storytelling is so instrumental to the whole thing, it feels like going back to the game later does not feel as well so exciting. It gets 5 out of 5 cyber implants. And we go on with the music. To no surprise, yep, it's another medley. Tecon, by Tempy, Tempest and Reed.

🎧 49:16 Tecon - Bei tempi

🎧 51:55 Tempest and Reed - Luxury cruise

🎧 54:38 Laxity - Pyramid pump

🎧 57:31 DJ Daemon speaks: Right! Here we are. Let's talk about AI, AGI and life itself. I do not mean to be controversial, but I can guess some people may feel it as a bit worrying, as it is about our idea of what constitutes life. The AI we have today is not alive. It only works with word prediction but…

DJ Daemon 57:31.694 Alright, here we are. Let's talk about AI, AGI and life itself. I don't mean to be controversial, but I can guess some people may feel it as a bit worrying, as it's about our idea of what constitutes life. The AI we have today is not alive.It only works with word prediction, but may seem alive and even that it has reasoning skills. Sorry hacker dudes and dudettes, it really does not. AGI done. That's Artificial General Intelligence. It is an AI that is self aware and matches human intellect or even surpasses it. We are nowhere close to creating such a system. But is it alive?That depends on who you are asking. The Judeo-Christian canon does not believe it is. Humans were created in the image of God and have a soul. The AGI built by humans cannot and does not. An AGI only believes it's alive while being little more than a mindless automaton. In Japanese culture this is allowed and an AGI would probably be seen as alive.Me personally I believe that Life is Organization, and AGI in my view is just as alive as a human being, but then again as it's an amoeba. So I believe Shodan indeed was a living being, but as you complete the game she is no more. Or is she? We'll probably have time to talk about it in a later episode. But music such as it is, must flow. We are going on withMelodia and... Yeah, this is something funny. Absolutely. It's Cannon Fodder Remix. Yes, that old game. Yeah, it's never been that much fun. Actually, it's been plenty of fun. Remember?

🎧 59:31 Melodia - Cannon fodder remix

🎧 01:02:26 DJ Daemon speaks thanks you for listening and leads you into the good night with the last song.

DJ Daemon 01:02:27.534 Thank you very much for listening to Flashback, tracks from the Past. This has been all about System Shock 1. We'll be back in a week from now. This is DJ Daemon signing off and the final song in this podcast leading you into that good night is Pasthepixels and Da clerb.

🎧 01:02:47 PastThePixels - Da clerb