Biosys - An excellent survival game for GOG to provide.

How many of you are aware of Biosys?
And of those aware, how many of you have played it?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosys

Here is a good YouTube clip of gameplay to give others some idea of the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg9iAeWPImA

Vote for it here - https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/biosys

My understanding, is that it was never released in America.

I bought it here in AUS, back in the days when I was using a Win 98 SE computer, and it impressed me, though I never did complete the game.

I've since been able to get it running on Win XP, Win 7, Win 8.1 and even to some degree on Win 10.

Supposedly it is quite a challenge to get running on those newer Windows OSes.

I ripped the two CDs to ISO files, and load them via WinCDEmu, a free CD emulator.
https://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/

I load the SETUP CD first and install the game from that virtual drive.
Then I eject that and load the PLAY (or GAME) CD into WinCDEmu, and then run the game from that.

It was a bit tricky with both Win XP and Win 7, but ran immediately with Win 8.1.
With Win 10 I had some visual abberations.

Win XP
1. Disable DirectX (two registry settings).
2. Reduce Hardware Acceleration level or turn it off (registry setting & DLL call).
3. Shutdown Windows Explorer.
4. Use Administrator Permissions (Registry changes and Folder/File permissions).

Win 7
1. Disable DirectX (two registry settings).
2. Shutdown Windows Explorer.
3. Use Administrator Permissions (Registry changes and Folder/File permissions).

Win 8.1 (wife's laptop)
Nothing needed. I did this a couple of days ago.

Win 10 (son's laptop, upgraded form Win 7 to Win 10)
I tried a bunch of things, and was never really happy with the result. Be interesting to hear if others were successful and what they did. I did this a few years ago, and not tried since then. Done after my son moved back and had no success running it himself.

Anyway, a few years ago I made up some helper executables to do the installing, setup and play. In fact, it was around the time I joined GOG in May 2017. I shared those executables and knowledge with some online friends, and with my oldest lad who lived out of state at that time. One of those friends led me to Shadow Warrior for free at GOG, and the rest is history.

- Aware? Yes. (I read a review in a German games mag when the game saw release)
- Played? Nope. "Myst-likes" are not really my type of game.

Apparently, there was a sequel planned, called "Mission to Mars", but I guess low sales numbers of "BioSys" hindered that project from coming to fruition.

While some kind of dismissed Biosys as a sort of Myst clone, I found it to be quite different, more advanced and alive.
You get a lot more ambiance and there is the rain, and everything is quite visually different to Myst, sounds too.

In fact, I found it so different to Myst, that I never even thought to compare the two. It is certainly more technically advanced. A shame that never happened, and I'm not sure why Biosys never made it to America, except that like the Wikipedia article says, that type of game had fallen our of favor by the time of release. Of course, quite a few years later it made a resurgence, and could be quite popular again now, but it seems to have missed the boat, and not many, especially in America, were ever aware of it, and probably not many copies in circulation.

So I'd probably call it an undiscovered gem for most, perhaps a classic even, that got overlooked ... and just perfect for GOG to re-introduce to the world.

I have the retail version, but I've never installed nor played it.

So yeah at least I am aware of it. I recall I bought it from some bargain bin a long time ago as I recall reading some favorable review of it on some gaming magazine.

No worries.
The two online friends I introduced it to (one in India, the other in USA) acquired copies of the CDs and were able to get it running following my instructions, and quite enjoyed playing it. We even kind of played it together for a while, or should I say, played it at the same time, as its not multiplayer or co-op. All three of us are coders though and working on our own projects, so we eventually got diverted back to them. Tough life being a coder and a gamer, as you are often forced to choose between one or the other. Pretty sure I also grabbed it cheap from some bargain bin, as the whole concept appealed to me. In fact, the concept set it apart, so that I did not even think to compare it with Myst. The whole bio dome thing really appealed to me, so I guess you go in knowing that much, whereas Myst was more secretive and mysterious and you are starting with much more of a blank canvas. Plus of course the survival element, which plays a major part. I thought it was really well done, and it appealed to me more than Myst, which I had also tried.