Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
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 |
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 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Amazon.com | ||||
GOG.com | Windows and OS X. Includes Alien Crossfire expansion. | |||
Origin |
Essential improvements
Patches
Unofficial patches
- Scient's patch mirror
- Scient's bug fixing patch for SMAC and SMAX.
- "SMAC 444 version p" - Kyrub's patch for SMAC
- Based off scient's, improves AI behaviour and fixes a couple more bugs. SMAC only.
- Yitzi's patch for SMAX v3.2
- Based off scient's and kyrub's, fixes a load of bugs, improves moddability, slightly improves AI. SMAX only.
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 list 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.
- If you have the original release without the expansion pack install the Alpha Centauri v4.0 update and then the xp compatibility-patch.
- If you have the Planetary pack or Laptop pack only install the compatibility-patch.
- If you have the original Alien Crossfire release install the Alien Crossfire v2.0 update then the xp compatibility-patch.
Now you can install the unofficial patch of your choice.
Run Without CD/DVD
The game will run without the CD but only if you have performed a full install.
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
Save game data location
Save game cloud syncing
System | Native | Notes |
---|---|---|
GOG Galaxy | ||
Origin |
Video settings
Widescreen resolution
Instructions |
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Input settings
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 | Pentium 200 MHz |
System memory (RAM) | 16 MB | 32 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 | 1 GB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 2 GB |
References
- Windows
- Mac OS
- Linux
- OS X
- Invalid template usage (Infobox game)
- Games
- Invalid template usage (DRM)
- Invalid template usage (Availability)
- Invalid template usage (Save game cloud syncing)
- Invalid template usage (Fixbox)
- Invalid section order
- Missing section (Video)
- Missing section (Input)
- Missing section (Audio)
- Missing section (Localizations)
- Missing section (API)