Users of two Aspyr Media Mac game releases now have new versions of the titles to download. Both Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and Sim Theme Park have been patched to fix various problems with each game. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is a sci-fi strategy game for Mac. Main features: - Includes the Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire expansion. Great spin-off of the legendary Civilization series, in a refreshing Sci-Fi setting. Design your own units. Balance their speed, power, and toughness to suit your current tactical needs.
A Quick Stroll Around Firaxis' Officesx-Com 3: Apocalypse Was Simply Described In Our July in Washington is enough to explain why Sid Meier chose to break his partnership with MicroProse and form his own company. As I w'alk from one office to the next it's interesting to see that everyone I meet is relaxed, happy and incredibly enthusiastic about their new project, Alpha Centauri. No one's in any hurry to get the game out the door and one and all cite the Firaxis philosophy that a game is only released when it's finished to their satisfaction and not before.
My first port of call is the office of Brian Reynolds, Vice President of Software Development. I asked him the question that a multitude of Civ fans have been asking PC over the last couple of months: Alpha Centauri, we all know it's going to be Civ in space, but is that it? Alpha Centauri is going to be much more than an upgrade to Civilization,' says Brian. 'One of the key changes from the original Civ game is the ability to design new units. An average ship with an average laser can be upgraded to use better lasers and better armour for example, making it much more efficient in battle. This will obviously come at a hefty cost of course, but you've got to offset the expense you'll incur against the advantages you'll gain during the game. You can also select a special ability, thus creating a sort of supervehicle as it were. There are 20 or 30 of these in the game at the moment but this may grow as we continue development. An example of the kind of special abilities at your disposal is the stealth option, which when selected will place a deep radar on your vehicle thus allowing that particular ship to move around the play area undetected.'
All change
The ability to create your own units will obviously change the way you play the game to a large extent, but Brian is very keen to stress that this is not the only major change in the game design: 'Although there were many different ways to achieve success in Civ 1 and II, the easiest way was to build up your military arsenal to the point where you could simply wipe out all the other players, and that's the way most people chose to play the game. You won't be able to do that quite so easily in Alpha Centauri. Many of the units will have psionic powers which will make it very difficult for players to take them out by normal means. This will encourage you to find other ways of gaining the upper hand over the opposition, be it through economical pressure, diplomatic use of alliances or whatever other means the player can find. I'm not saying players won't be able to win through military conquest, I'm just saying it won't be nearly as easy to do this as it was in Civilization I and 2. This should make for a much more challenging game.'
Fancy that, a peace 'em up from the makers of some of the most confrontational and violent games ever. Whatever next? How about throwing in a few elements of Populous to stir things up a bit? As it happens. Firaxis are about to do just that. Brian explains: 'Another really cool feature in the game is the ability to terraform. This allows the player to raise or lower the land as they see fit, depending on the situation at hand. You can use terraforming to your advantage in many ways. If for example you've got a mountain with rain on one side and desert on the other, and you don't like the fact that you've got a desert in that particular place, you can lower the mountains which will cause rain to fall on the other side of the mountains. This reflects real-life weather patterns, which is something we're particularly proud of. Another reason you might want to build a mountain is military units get a bonus if they're on high ground. This will take a few turns but it's worth it for the advantages it gives your army. For this reason terraforming near enemy lines is considered to be an act of war, so don't do it anywhere near races you've got alliances with, unless of course you want to break that alliance.'
There are far too many new features planned for Alpha Centauri for us to go into any great detail in two pages: we could fill these pages just by explaining the incredibly detailed unit building, which is so intricate you can mix and match components from all your different units to make completely new ones. Fear not however, as we'll give you the full gen when we returnto the project as it nears completion next year.
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Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack
Windows - 2000
Also released on: Mac - Linux
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Description of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack Windows
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack is a video game published in 2000 on Windows by Electronic Arts, Inc.. The game is set in a compilation / shovelware theme, and was also released on Mac and Linux.
This game has no in game-capture, you could maybe send us some screenshots ?
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Buy Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack 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 Planetary Pack was also released on the following systems:
Mac
- Year:2002
- Publisher:Aspyr Media, Inc.
Linux
- Year:2001
- Publisher:Loki Entertainment Software, Inc.
![Alpha Alpha](/uploads/1/2/8/3/128370159/580399038.jpg)
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