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Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

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Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri cover
Developers
Firaxis Games
Publishers
Electronic Arts
Mac OS Aspyr Media
Linux Loki Software
Release dates
Windows February 12, 1999
Mac OS (Classic) February 2000
Linux August 2000
macOS (OS X) January 24, 2013
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri on Wikipedia

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

Official Website
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
DRM-free
The game will run without the CD if you have performed a full install.
Error: key type '{{{5}}}' not recognised
Error: OS parameter cannot be empty
Amazon.com
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
Error: key type '{{{5}}}' not recognised
Error: OS parameter cannot be empty
GOG.com
DRM-free
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack. Windows and OS X.
Error: key type '{{{5}}}' not recognised
Error: OS parameter cannot be empty
Origin
Origin
Error: key type '{{{5}}}' not recognised
Error: OS parameter cannot be empty
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.
Windows
Mac OS
Linux

Essential improvements

In-game general settings.
In-game general settings.
In-game advanced settings.
In-game advanced settings.

Patches

Unofficial patches

The most up to date information on improvements and patches tends to be available on the alphacentauri2.info wiki at Unofficial Patches. Download links are kept more up to date there as well.

The following is a copy of the content on that page made 19th August 2015.

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 solved.

Recommendation: You should install Yitzi's patch if you're using SMAX and kyrub's if you're using SMAC. It is safe to install both.

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.

  • Yitzi's patch (SMAX only) - Built on scient's patch and including all his fixes, also fixes more bugs and adds many more alphax variables. Replaces the original terranx.exe, alphax,txt and helpx.txt files. Includes PlotinusRedux's PRACX graphical patch and 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 (still recommended for new players) but also fixing some bugs. SMAX version has only minor AI improvements and is superseded by Yitzi's patch, SMAC has many but is still a work in progress.
  • scient's patch (SMAC and SMAX) - Fixes a large number of crashes, bugs, and exploits. No longer actively developed.

Yitzi and kyrub's patches are both in active development and new releases are announced on the Chiron News Network. All published versions of the patches are available in the patches download directory. As of July 2015, the latest versions of all patches are linked from this wiki.

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

(End copy)

If you use SMAX, you're best served by Yitzi's patch, otherwise you should use kyrub's. The 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.

This page is not updated with the latest releases of these patches. scient no longer works on the patch project, but kyrub and especially yitzi are both still active with a couple of releases a month from Yitzi in 2014 and two releases from kyrub in that year.

Latest patches can be found on the alphacentauri2.info downloads page (scroll down). Patches are developed in the Bug and patch subforum and elsewhere on ac2.

Official patches

Note: these are for the retail version of the game only. The GOG.com version already has the official patches, you should strongly consider installing an unofficial patch, though.

Now you can install the unofficial patch of your choice.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

Save game data location

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Origin

Video settings

In-game audio/video settings.
In-game audio/video settings.

Template:Video settings

Widescreen resolution

Try PRACX, a modified renderer for Alpha Centauri with a number of other improvements. Included in versions of Yitzi's Unofficial Patch since version 3.4, also available separately.

Warning PRACX and/or SMAC are incompatible with Windows 10. Not yet clear.

Instructions

Input settings

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
7
Online play
7

Issues fixed

The game hangs

Try the Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri#Unofficial patches 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.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 95, 98
Processor (CPU) Pentium 133 MHz
System memory (RAM) 16 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 60 MB
Video card (GPU) DirectX-compatible
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
Hard disk drive (HDD) 2 GB

References