Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (aka 半人马座, SMAC) is a video game published in 1999 on Windows by Electronic Arts, Inc. It's a strategy and simulation game, set in a managerial, sci-fi / futuristic, turn-based and 4x themes, and was also released on Mac. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (sometimes abbreviated to SMAC or Alpha Centauri) is a turn-based strategy computer game created by Brian Reynolds and Sid Meier in 1999 for the company they created along with Jeff Briggs, Firaxis Games. The story entails the colonization of a planet in the Alpha Centauri star system. It picks up where Meier and Reynolds' earlier titles, Civilization.

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1. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Windows - 1999

Also released on: Mac

Description of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Windows

On SMAC's official website, we learn of an unexpected reactor malfunction aboard the colony ship (christened U.N. Unity) that wakes everyone from cryo-sleep and damaged the communications equipment and contact with mother Earth is lost. The travelers splinter into 7 ideological factions and when Alpha Centauri is finally reached, each one grabs an escape pod and abandons the crippled ship. As leader of a faction of your choice, your goal is to colonize, explore, and expand-all in the fine tradition of '4X' space strategy games.

The basic gameplay is nothing new to fans of 4X games: build cities, explore the land, research new technologies, make peace or war with other factions. What makes SMAC an outstanding game as opposed to merely a 'good' game is the near-perfect play balance that fans of Civilization know and love. Each of the seven factions has unique advantages and disadvantages which offer excellent replayability. For example, if you play as Morgan Industries, your best strategy is to build your cities and avoid war in the early portion of the game until you can buy your way to the top with amassed fortune. In contrast, as the leader of the Spartans, you will want to attack early and often and avoid letting your neighbours build in peace.

Although SMAC inherits the very limited diplomacy model from Civilization 2, the strong economic, technology, and combat models more than make up for this weakness-so much so that you can win the game most of the time without caring too much about your diplomatic stance towards other factions. In addition to dozens of intriguing futuristic technologies you can research, there are also many sci-fi elements that liven up the game considerably. Not only must you deal with other factions, but you must also contend with the mind worms-- one of the planet's most lethal alien life forms. You will also come across parts of the U.N. Unity (which can contain anything from new units and technologies to more mind worms), and encountering strange alien monoliths which can have unexpected effects on your units.

SMAC also features an overarching plot, which develops by way of the 'Interludes from the Book of Planet' that are woven seamlessly into the game, giving it an excellent fantasy/sci-fi overture reminiscent of Ursula LeGuin stories. SMAC offers many possible conclusions, all of which are directly related to the ideology and goals of your faction, as well as actions you perform throughout the game.

With a strong AI, excellent play balance, virtually limitless replayability, and overall polish, SMAC is a true successor to Civilization 2 that deserves a permanent home on everyone's hard drive. In a welcome change from today's trend of flimsy manuals that are actually 10-page CD inserts, SMAC comes with an excellent 240+ page manual that does justice to the game's complex, yet accessible gameplay. Three alien thumbs up!

Review By HOTUD

External links

Captures and Snapshots

Screenshots from MobyGames.com

Comments and reviews

Tek2019-07-071 point

It probably used to be abandonware, but more recent a deal was struck with GoG for redistribution.

Alpha Centauri For Mac Osx

LeCarre2019-03-090 point

If I have to buy it on GOG then why is it on an Abandonware Site?

Write a comment

Share your gamer memories, give useful links or comment anything you'd like. This game is no longer abandonware, we won't put it back online.

Buy Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is available for a small price on the following websites, and is no longer abandonware. GoG.com provides the best release and does not include DRM, please buy from them! You can read our online store guide .

Other Releases

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri was also released on the following systems:

Mac

• Year:2000
• Publisher:Aspyr Media, Inc.
• Developer:Firaxis Games East, Inc.

Similar games

Fellow retro gamers also downloaded these games:

By far the easiest place to get the game is Good Old Games. To buy the games, visit GOG's Alpha Centauri page.

(original game only) became available for download DRM-free on GOG.com in June 2011, and starting in December 2012, the bundle also included (the game's only expansion, Alien Crossfire). Users who had purchased the solo game previously through GOG.com were entitled to the expansion for free. This version of the game is updated to the latest official patch, and might include some mysterious compatibility updates by GOG for modern windows.

Windows installation

This version has been tested under Windows XP, Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit) and Windows 8.

1. Purchase game through the link above. If you didn't have a GOG account before, it will be created.
2. Log-in with your GOG account and navigate to the 'My Games' section. SMAC (among other free goodies!) should be there. Click on the game cover.
3. Download the windows installer (503 MB file) (as of 25/02/2013, the filename and version is setup_sid_meiers_alpha_centauri_2.0.2.23.exe).
4. Run the file, accept the EULA, and follow the instructions in the installer.
5. Run either 'Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri' or 'Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire' recently created links to play SMAC (original game) or SMAX (expansion)
6. Now go get the unofficial patches.

Mac installation of Windows Patches (GOG)

1. Go to the place you installed the game (probably in your Applications Folder, it's called 'Alpha Centauri Alien Crossfire.app' or just 'Alpha Centauri.app' if you don't have the expansion - if you can't find it, push CMD + Spacebar to open spotlight and search for it).

   If you would like to keep a vanilla version of the game, copy the 'Alpha Centauri Alien Crossfire.app' to another location and rename it. You can copy it back to your applications folder after it is renamed.

2. Right click on the application you wish to mod and say 'Show Package Contents.'
3. There will be an alias for 'drive_c' - double click it.
4. From here, just go into the 'GOG Games' folder and you will find the 'Alpha Centauri' directory.
5. Install as you would on windows! (in case you don't know, you just need to copy the relevant files into the 'Alpha Centauri' directory to install)

WINE/Linux installation

The GOG installer and patch installers work fine in recent versions of WINE and give a better result than the old Loki version of the game.

You may need to install sox.

1. Have a recent version of wine (tested on wine 3)
2. Run the GOG SMAC installer with wine
3. Fix crackling audio by running a script (below)
4. Fix poor font rendering (partially) and create a script to start the game (below)
5. Install any other patches with wine (recommended: Scient v2, PRACX)

Fix crackling audio

Expand me -->

Save this as fix-crackles.sh and point it at SMAC's fx directory:

Fix font rendering

Put this in ~/bin/smac or wherever and chmod +x:

Change terran.exe to terranx.exe for ~/bin/smax.

Ubuntu Linux installation with PlayOnLinux

PlayOnLinux is a Wine (Windows compatibility layer for Linux) frontend which intends to simplify and provide some default configuration for windows software running under modern linux distributions. It's safe to say that is the most simple way of installing most of window's software in Ubuntu. And fortunately, PlayOnLinux has a database entry for GOG.com's version of SMAC.

You may need to change the wine version suggested by the PlayOnLinux database entry. If that doesn't work try the instructions for WINE/Linux install above.

1. Download the GOG.com version of SMAC. Please have a look to the windows installation section if you have any doubt.
2. Install PlayOnLinux and the Sound Exchange (needed for SMAC) packages:

   ~$ sudo apt-get install playonlinux sox

3. Run PlayOnLinux. After the software packages has been updated, click on 'Install +' and look for 'GOG.com - Alpha Centauri'. Select the item and click on 'install'.
4. You will be prompted to an installation wizard. Click on 'next', select 'Use a Setup file in my computer', and click next. Now browse to the 'setup_sid_meiers_alpha_centauri_2.0.2.23.exe' file that you downloaded, and click next.
5. Setup will start and will download any missing linux packages. Once this is done, the standard GOG installer will prompt. Accept the agreement and follow the instructions.

Improving your game

Now that you've got the game, let's bring it up to speed with the various improvements players and programmers have made over the years.

Graphics engine enhancement

PlotinusRedux wrote a great graphics mod for SMACX that replaces the old map drawing code. The new code supports smoother scrolling and zooming behaviour, more graceful window switching, and a number of useful overlays for the map, including territory maps, resource yield, raininess, rockiness, altitude and more.

Release thread. Github. Github releases

Unofficial .exe patches

It is highly recommended that you use a patched .exe, the original is filled with major exploits, and prone to crashing. A fully patched game will very rarely crash and almost all the major bugs are fixed.

Recommendation: You should install Scient's v2.1 patch first and then (if you play SMAX) optionally either Thinker if you want harder AI, or Yitzi's patch if you want to mod the game more. It is safe to install these patches simultaneously.

Alpha Centauri For Mac Os

The only caveat is that Yitzi's patch breaks backwards compatibility for alphax.txt and overwrites it. If you use old scenarios that require a custom alphax.txt this means that you may need to manually move the changes over. This will not be a concern for most users. Not using Yitzi's patch means that some newer scenarios and custom alphax.txt will not work for you.

• scient's patch (SMAC and SMAX) - Fixes a large number of crashes, bugs, and exploits. v2 includes and expands on GooglyBoogly's Datalink Upgrades and fixes issues with some misnamed fonts, images, and sounds.
• Yitzi's patch (SMAX only) - Built on scient's patch and including most of his fixes (install scient v2.1 first to get all the fixes), also fixes more bugs and adds many more alphax variables. Replaces the original terranx.exe, alphax,txt and helpx.txt files. Compatible with PlotinusRedux's PRACX graphical patch and includes Guv'nor and GooglyBoogly's Datalinks Upgrades from version 3.4.
• kyrub's patch (SMAC, and a very early SMAX version) - Built on scient's patch and including all his fixes, aimed primarily at improving AI performance but also fixing some bugs. SMAX version has only minor AI improvements and is superseded by Thinker and Yitzi's patch, SMAC has many but was a work in progress.
• Induktio's Thinker (SMAX only) - This patch goes even further on improving the AI in many significant ways while taking inspiration from some of the AI improvement ideas provided by kyrub. Includes the fixes provided by scient's patch. Even though SMAX is the only supported binary, this patch includes SMAC-in-SMAX mod support to play a game as similar to SMAC as possible.

New releases for most of the patches are announced on the Chiron News Network. All published versions of the patches are available in the AC2 Forum patch download directory with the exception of Thinker only being available from Github.

To install a patch, typically download the zip file and extract it into the game directory, overwriting the pre-existing files.

Other improvements

• Datalinks upgrade - Adds to and corrects many things in the datalinks. (Included in Scient's patch v2 and Yitzi's patch >3.4)
• Sound fix - Some sound effects never play in SMAC v2 and higher. This fixes that. (Included in Scient's patch v2)

Travel Time To Alpha Centauri

Tweaking your settings

`Alpha Centauri.ini` in the root game directory hosts most of the presentational settings.

`alpha.txt` and `alphax.txt` let you mod the game, find out more about that: Modding, Alpha(x).txt_editing.

Known Issues specific to GOG version

• Resolution will be 1024x768. However you can set DirectDraw=0 in the [Alpha Centauri] section of 'Alpha Centauri.ini'. Then the native resolution of your monitor will be utilized, i.e. widescreen on modern laptops.
• Alt-Tab is disabled. You can use Ctrl-Alt-Tab instead or rename your terran/ terranx to another name (thanks, Petek) or create and run a simple batch script as described on the gogwiki.
• PRACX fixes both of the above issues.
• (Sounds issue? Confirm)

Troubleshooting

Alpha Centauri For Mac High Sierra

Having issues? Try the troubleshooting page, or ask on the forums.

Alpha Centauri Game Mac Os X