Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Developers | |
---|---|
Firaxis Games | |
Mac OS (Classic) | Aspyr Media |
Linux | Loki Software |
Publishers | |
Electronic Arts | |
Mac OS | Aspyr Media |
Linux | Loki Software |
Release dates | |
Windows | February 9, 1999 |
Mac OS (Classic) | February 2000 |
Linux | August 2000 |
macOS (OS X) | September 25, 2003[Note 1] |
macOS (OS X) | January 24, 2013[Note 2] |
Reception | |
Metacritic | 92 |
IGDB | 91 |
Taxonomy | |
Monetization | Expansion pack |
Modes | Singleplayer, Multiplayer |
Pacing | Turn-based |
Perspectives | Bird's-eye view, Isometric |
Controls | Point and select |
Genres | 4X, TBS |
Themes | Sci-fi |
Warnings
- The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.
General information
- alphacentauri2.info - Active Alpha Centauri modding, patching and multiplayer community. Perhaps the last on the web.
- Civilization Wiki - A detailed wiki for all Civilization games and their spin offs
- Apolyton Civilization Site's Alpha Centauri section - A huge forum dedicated to all Civilization games and their spin offs.
- GOG.com Community Discussions
- GOG.com Support Page
Availability
Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
---|---|---|---|---|
Retail | The game will run without the CD if you have performed a full install. SecuROM DRM otherwise. | |||
GOG.com | Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack. | |||
Origin |
- Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack includes the base game and the Alien Crossfire expansion.
DLC and expansion packs
Name | Notes | |
---|---|---|
Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire | Included with Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack. |
Essential improvements
Patches
- The GOG.com version already has the official patches, but you should strongly consider installing an unofficial patch.
- For the original SMAC (Alpha Centauri) release install the Alpha Centauri v4.0 update and then the XP Compatibility patch.
- For the original SMAX (Alien Crossfire) release install the Alien Crossfire v2.0 update and then the XP Compatibility patch.
- For the Planetary pack or Laptop pack just install the Compatibility patch.
Unofficial Patches
- The original .exe is filled with exploits and prone to crashing. The patches below will fix the vast majority of crashes and bugs.
- Yitzi's patch (SMAX only) - Built on kyrub's SMAX patch and scient's patch, and contains even more fixes. v3.4 includes PlotinusRedux's PRACX graphical patch, but you need to install PRACX separately as it wasn't packaged properly.
- kyrub's patch (SMAC, SMAX version not recommended) - Aimed primarily at improving AI performance but also fixing some bugs. SMAX version has only minor AI improvements and is superseded by Yitzi's patch.
- scient's patch (SMAC and SMAX) - Fixes bugs, crashes and exploits and includes text file improvements.
Recommendation: You should install Yitzi's patch if you're using SMAX and either kyrub's or scient's if you're using SMAC.
Yitzi's patch breaks backwards compatibility for alphax.txt. 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.
To use any patch, extract the zip file into the installation folder and overwrite the existing files.
The patches' AI improvements won't make the AI too hard for new players, and instead aim for a reasonable level of challenge at "Librarian" difficulty. Tweaks mostly involve teaching the AI how to do not-terribly without cheating.
Patches are primarily developed on the Alpha Centauri 2 forum.
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
System | Location |
---|---|
Windows | <path-to-game>/Alpha Centauri.ini[Note 3] |
macOS (OS X) | |
Mac OS (Classic) | |
Linux |
- It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.
Save game data location
System | Location |
---|---|
Windows | <path-to-game>\saves[Note 3] |
macOS (OS X) | ~/Library/Application Support/GOG.com/Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri/saves |
Mac OS (Classic) | |
Linux |
Save game cloud syncing
System | Native | Notes |
---|---|---|
GOG Galaxy | ||
Origin |
Video
Graphics feature | State | WSGF | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Widescreen resolution | See Widescreen resolution. | ||
Multi-monitor | |||
Ultra-widescreen | See Widescreen resolution. | ||
4K Ultra HD | See Widescreen resolution. | ||
Field of view (FOV) | |||
Windowed | See PRACX graphical patch. | ||
Borderless fullscreen windowed | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
Anisotropic filtering (AF) | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
Anti-aliasing (AA) | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
Vertical sync (Vsync) | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
60 FPS and 120+ FPS | |||
Color blind mode | An official separate color palette adapted for color-blind players was released. Mirror available here. Included in the GOG.com release. |
Widescreen resolution
Try PRACX, a modified renderer for Alpha Centauri with a number of other improvements. v1.06 is included in version 3.4 of Yitzi's Unofficial Patch, but lacks an essential file and won't work properly unless you've already installed PRACX. You should probably install PRACX separately from its release thread. PRACX Release Thread. PRACX Source Code
PRACX + Official Alien Crossfire doesn't work, you need to install an unofficial patch first. Yitzi's 3.3 patch has been tested to work.
Edit Alpha Centauri.ini[citation needed] |
---|
|
Input
Keyboard and mouse | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Remapping | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | |
Mouse acceleration | ||
Mouse sensitivity | ||
Mouse input in menus | ||
Mouse Y-axis inversion | ||
Controller | ||
Controller support |
Audio
Audio feature | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Separate volume controls | ||
Surround sound | ||
Subtitles | ||
Closed captions | ||
Mute on focus lost | ||
EAX support | EAX support was added with 2.0 update[2] |
Localizations
Language | UI | Audio | Sub | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
English | ||||
French | Retail only. | |||
German | Retail only. German text/audio/video files have to be copied over from the retail version. Due to game values and display texts being in the same file, many unofficial patches will overwrite German retail files. | |||
Italian | Retail only. | |||
Spanish | Retail only, download |
Network
Multiplayer types
Type | Native | Players | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Local play | Hot seat Requires the v2.0 Update or later.[3] |
|||
LAN play | 7 | |||
Online play | 7 |
Issues fixed
The game hangs
Try the latest copies of Yitzi or kyrub's patches.
Otherwise, might be related to a bug with automated artillery units (though I think Yitzi might have fixed this one sometime). Try turning off automation and see if it helps. More info here.
AMD/ATI compatibility
GOG.com recommends using Catalyst 13.4 or earlier but the game also works with 14.x or earlier.
Alt-Tab not functioning
- Applies to GOG.com distribution only
Disable compatibility shim[4] |
---|
Notes
|
Other information
API
Executable | PPC | 16-bit | 32-bit | 64-bit | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Windows | |||||
macOS (OS X) | Intel support only available in the 2013 GOG release. | ||||
Linux | Alpha workstation support is also included. | ||||
Mac OS (Classic) |
Modifications
Using SMAC/X Mod Manager[citation needed] |
---|
Allows the installations of mods for the game.
To remove mods:
|
smac-in-smax
- Allows the content of the original game to be played in the SMAX engine.
- Source code for the latest version can be found here
- Allows SMAC to take advantage of the bugfixes and unofficial patches for the SMAX engines
- Allows the use of mods that are designed for the SMAX engine.
SMACX Thinker Mod
- An AI improvement mod for Alpha Centauri: Alien Crossfire.
- This mod has been tested to work with the GOG version of Alpha Centauri.
- The developer of the mod recommends the use of PRACX and smac-in-smax with this mod.
- Increase Challenges in the Single-Player due to AI improvements
- Provides many gameplay enhancements.
- Includes the Scient patch v2.0.
- May not be suitable for New Players due to increase difficulty
- Network multiplayer is not supported[5]
- Some custom scenario rules in "Edit Scenario Rules" menus are not fully supported.
SMACX AI Growth mod
- Overhauls many game mechanics.
- AI improvements that allow it to play better
- Rebalance the various factions to make them work better with the improved AI.
- Includes additional map sizes (80x160 and 128x256)
- Compatible with the Scient patch v2.0
- Other tweaks to gameplay are listed in the mods homepage.
- Not fully compatible with some mods such as Yitzi unofficial patch
- Does not support unofficial binary patches. Use the Unofficial Binary patches at your own risk.
OpenSMACX
- Open Source engine recreation for Alpha Centauri/Alien Crossfire.
- Source code can be found here
- Project still in alpha.
System requirements
Windows | ||
---|---|---|
Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | 95, 98 | |
Processor (CPU) | Intel Pentium 133 MHz | Intel Pentium 200 MHz |
System memory (RAM) | 16 MB | 32 MB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 60 MB | |
Video card (GPU) | 2 MB of VRAM |
macOS (OS X) | ||
---|---|---|
Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | 10.6.8 | |
Processor (CPU) | 1.8 GHz | |
System memory (RAM) | 512 MB | 1 GB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 2 GB |
Notes
- ↑ Original Carbonized release.
- ↑ Second digital release for Intel processors.[1]
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below
%PROGRAMFILES%
,%PROGRAMDATA%
, or%WINDIR%
might be redirected to%LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore
on Windows Vista and later (more details).