Did you know that System Shock 1 was not the first FPS RPG? It was the first full 3D one and the first one on DOS, but the real first FPS RPG was Bungie's Pathways into Darkness on Macintosh computers in 1993, with some elements merely inspired by Ultima Underworld and Wolfenstein 3D.

System Shock 1 heavily ripped off Pathways into Darkness's sequel, Marathon, but it is possible for it to get away with it due to LGS being forced to release the 1994 floppy version first which came out before Marathon, a year before SS1 was properly finished as the CD copy.

I fully understand if you don't believe me at first because it was on Macs and even though it has had a modern rerelease in 2013, it still remains Mac only unlike Marathon which can be played on Windows, modern Macs and Linux too through the Aleph One engine. Even I hadn't heard of Pathways until I started playing Marathon, and that was after playing Halo and Bioshock.

Marathon was released after System Shock.

But I applaud your Bungie fanboyism.

And if I recall correctly, System Shock's design document was fisnished in '93, after which development started. So even any comparison to Pathway into Darkness would be a bit misguided. Besides, even System Shock wasn't exactly the firsrt game which threw notes around the game's world to tell a story - it just massively polished the idea and told various story arcs trough the logs, while the logs also being the primary source of written lore.

I love Bungie and played both Pathways & Marathon when they came out. I had a copy of System Shock for the mac too, but couldn't cope with the controls.

I don't see many similiarities between Marathon and System Shock to be honest, other than the sci-fi theme. I guess the gameplay between Pathways & System Shock is similiar but I strongly doubt there was any ripping off going on.

Having a blast with System Shock Enhanced now though and I wish Pathways had been ported to the PC so more could get to play it. I played it again a while ago using a mac emulator.

There are Marathon's Pattern Buffer's in both System Shocks and the first 2 Bioshocks that function as a cross between them, the Save Rune's in Pathways and the Sapling of life in UU1.

The SS2 psi powers were more based on UU's magic than PID's isfet Crystals but it does take place in orbit around Tau Ceti V whereas Marathon 1 took place in orbit around Tau Ceti IV. SHODAN is much like the genius of Durandal with the gender of Leela and personality of Tycho's Pfhor-made clones.

Whether it really was ripping off or not, I don't really care as they are both fun in their own way. More people had heard of System Shock than Marathon and Pathways because Marathon used to be Mac only and PID remains so, and from a serious gaming standpoint, Macs aren't very good computers in that department.

The only reason to get one back then before DOS and Windows games were ported to it was to play Bungie games which were more awesome than their id counterparts, Wolfenstein 3D and Doom.

Example of this appear here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNIPzkxftm4 in a video one of the other Marathon fans made theorising what's up with Destiny's story.

I had played Marathon a couple of years after Bioshock but before I played System Shock 2 then 1 Portable and just over a decade after Halo. Pathways I played in 2014 on an emulator as well. I hope Night Dive and Man-Up get to make a windows version for GOG and Steam. plus a Windows port of Minotaur: the Labyrinths of Crete.

Haha, when I wrote my last post I didn't even consider the focus on rampant AIs in both games :). So I guess they share some of the same themes, but they play so differently I never even considered it.

I can imagine it would be hard to port Pathways as it seems so dependent on MacOS functionality. As for Minotaur; I never thought it was very special. It's designed for multiplayer and might be a wasted effort. What I would love to see on GOG.com is the Myth-series. I think I love them above anything else Bungie did.

I haven't played Myth. I've had trouble early in the first Dungeon Keeper which is sad because they're great games.

Minotaur might work as it looks like a multiplayer version of Ultima 1 through 4 but I think they should try and add a less shit single player option with bots for those who haven't been able to set up a netgame, so people like me who have trouble convincing their friends and brother or sister to get it themselves for Friday night matches after dinner can still enjoy it, like Unreal 1's multiplayer botmatches.

EDIT: on a similar note, the Cortana level in Halo 3 might have been inspired by the body of the Many in System Shock 2, not to mention the Flood and the Many are inspired in part by the Xenomorphs from Alien.

If you were put off by Myth due to Dungeon Keeper, I suggest you give it a try, they play very differently. Myth never gets as hectic for example, there is no building involved and you can also slow things down if necessary.

There are fan-developed patches for Myth:TFL & Soulblighter to get them running on modern machines. I haven't tried them on Windows 10, but they worked fine with 8.1.

I wasn't put off Myth by Dungeon Keeper; I love Dungeon Keeper but I suck badly at RTS's. I just haven't got Myth though it looks nice and I first heard of it due to Siege of Madrigal and it's Easter Eggs in Halo and it's soundtrack.