What worked for me (and I tried pretty much everything posted in this thread) was downloading and using the something called the Koyla Tool

http://www.strangebedfellows.de/index.php/topic,392


Now, I downloaded it and ran it after I had made all my changes (messing with the cfg file, new exes, and a bunch of other stuff), and it didn't work. However, after I did as it said and ran it after a clean install, it worked.


I don't know exactly what my problem was, but I've got a hyperthreaded P4 running on an XP machine which SS2 doesn't seem to like either, but I did everything the guides said to fix those things and nothing worked. This thing fixes a large number of problems; and all that I care is that I can play SS2. I'm not going isolate the variable I changed to make it work. Try it and see if it works for you.

This message was edited by HyperSniper on Aug 30 2007.

Well I had most of the problems some of you had getting SS2 to work in XP but finally got it going a few hours ago.
I have an overclocked e6600 @3.3GHz, OC'ed 8800 GTX, XFi Extream Music sound card and a fully updated Win XP w/SP2. System shock 2 runs beautifully
@ 1600x1200 resolution with SHTUP and Rebirth mods. Got alot of good info and files at http://www.strangebedfellows.de/index.php.

Installed SS2 with the x:\setup -lgntforce to C:\Sshock2.
Ran SS2Toolv2.3 from above web site..selected all options except for the mods.
Ran SS2 Mod Manager from above site.
Installed SHTUP.beta6 and Rebirth mods...mod Manager makes everything for you automatically.

The graphics are terrific; a lot better then I remember when I played SS2 when it first came out (the cutsceans are still low res).

Between the SS2Tools and SS2 Mod Manager all necessary files needed are installed in the correct places including the proper "install.cfg" and "safe_texture_manager " and updates.
Anyway, it solved my black screen problem and before that the something "odinal in kernal32" error message.

Hope this helps.

I just saw this whole page, and I'm letting everyone know, if they're interested, the reason it does not run (SS2) is because of hardware, not operating systems. You can run it fine with XP, with an nVidia TNT 2 (16mb) a 1ghz cpu (cos it has no hyperthreading, which ss2 doesn't support) and 512mb RAM.

I suggest anyone wanting to play ss2 give up.
You will get the same experience taking some kind of new-age methamphetamine. It's just hiding in shadowy corners of a spaceship terrified out of your mind. i couldn't sleep for weeks after playing it.

Installed it again and played through twice..One of the best game ever made for the PC!! Looks great on XP @ 1600x1200.