Alpha Centauri Game Download Mac

Sid Meier, the man who came up with a little computer game called Civilization that became a PC gaming institution, has managed to reinvent the strategy game genre. For those unfamiliar with Civilization or its sequels, Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri begins where Civilization leaves off: your colonists, last seen blasting off into space toward the nearest star, are now building a new civilization on a planet orbiting the star Alpha Centauri. While Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri superficially resembles Civilization, the game incorporates such sweeping changes to the latter’s civilization-building model as to give this game a completely new feel.

Life on a New World

Once the game is finished downloading, right click the.zip file and click on “Extract to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri™ Planetary Pack.zip” (To do this you will need 7-Zip, which you can get here, or you can use the built in windows extractor). Double click inside the Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri™ Planetary Pack folder and run the setup. By far the easiest place to get the game is Good Old Games.To buy the games, visit GOG's Alpha Centauri page. SMAC Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (original game only) became available for download DRM-free on GOG.com in June 2011, and starting in December 2012, the bundle also included SMAX Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire (Cross = X) (the game's only expansion, Alien Crossfire). This is the official demo of the Macintosh release for Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. This is the demo of Alpha Centauri for the Macintosh, developed by Aspyr Media (www.aspyr.com). Please note that Firaxis does not support this product; all sales and support of this product are provided by the publisher, Aspyr Media. Download now Description These are official additions to the Macintosh release of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, including additional scenarios and the palette for players who have red/green colour blindness (both mirrored from the Windows release).

Alpha Centauri’s interface is reminiscent of Civilization, but with a more futuristic bent. (Click on the image to see a larger version.)

Alpha Centauri presents a complex view of the future. Those colonists, while en route to their new home, separated into seven factions. These factions are not based on arbitrary notions such as nationality, but rather ideology. The central crisis of the game is that each faction leader would like to see the new planet developed along their own ideological lines. As a player, you assume the role of one of these faction leaders and work to develop the virgin planet to your satisfaction, all the while attempting to buy, cajole, force, or even beat cooperation from your neighbors as you compete with them for the planet’s precious resources.

One of Alpha Centauri’s strengths is the amount of work that obviously went into the political models underlying the game. They show a sophisticated understanding of political and economic theory — while never losing the elegance and humor necessary for a good game.

Alpha Centauri allows you to select your government and economic types based upon all of those in the world today, and a few that have been suggested in literature. You might have a free-market democracy or you could have a centrally planned police state. Additionally, the economic system is treated separately from the political system, leading to wonderful combinations like free market fundamentalist states or planned economy democracies. Dozens of distinct paradigms are possible for organizing your people to face the threats of life on an alien world.

New Technologies, New Perils

Alpha Centauri has far more technologies and wonders to discover than those offered by the Civilization series. Many of these technologies come from science fiction, but others are taken from contemporary philosophy and the most advanced speculations of modern science. As developments like self-aware machines and superstring theory become available to your faction, the philosophies of Nietzsche and Kierkegaard seem to fight over new beliefs and their applications to the social fabric.

As the technology becomes more impressive, the timbre of the game becomes more frightening. Just as human equality and earthly paradise become possible, forces within the game conspire to ensure that you can control people more completely. Additionally, the game suggests that more and more control is handed over to machines and questions the viability of that option.

As in Civilization, you can produce both combat and non-combat units to perform basic tasks for your faction. However, Alpha Centauri’s method for pricing and creating units is far different. In Civilization, when you develop a new technology, a new unit becomes available at a fixed cost. In Alpha Centauri units are created using all available technologies–no one technology produces a totally new unit. For example, you can go to the workshop and select a new weapon type for your infantry, or new armor for your hovertanks. As you develop new technologies, new unit options become available. Each unit cost is based on a formula that values all options selected. Just like in the real world, new units have prototype costs, and using cutting-edge technologies or multiple functions carries a hefty premium.

Alpha Centauri’s graphics seem to have been chosen to accentuate players’ anxieties about the future. The game looks dark, with duller colors chosen for graphics and video clips.

Oh, yes, video clips. Alpha Centauri is a full multimedia experience, with movies that play upon completion of secret projects, aural feedback — the game talks to you — and user interfaces designed to move and beep for your entertainment. Older Macs will be slowed down by all of these features, but you’ve got the option of turning off most of the multimedia whiz and bang for quicker play. While the Windows release of Alpha Centauri has been criticized for its the dark colors and spartan graphics, I found the choices made in designing the game quite appropriate. Additionally, considering the game’s premises and ultimate goals, the color scheme and graphic design of the game work to stimulate the imagination and provide for an overall enhanced game experience.

You control the action with an easy-to-use on-screen console — quite a feat considering the complexity of the rules and the number of features under your control. While not perfect, and in no way Mac intuitive, the pop-up menu controls in the console window allow you to handle loads of data and options efficiently. Additionally, you rarely need to leave the console in order to play.

Macworld’s Buying Advice

Sid Meier has done it again. Alpha Centauri allows armchair diplomats the opportunity to manage a society. All of our world’s debates about government, economics, ecology, and research are addressed within the game, and it’s refreshing to not have any ideology presented as preferred or overly powerful. Alpha Centauri is well balanced, and ultimately becomes an interesting test of your own intellectual integrity. It’s also an extremely complex game and includes excellent reference material both in print and online, as well as tutorials. It isn’t hard to play, but it will take time to learn to play well. It’s simply the next generation of strategy gaming.

RATING:PROS: Engrossing sci-fi plot; addictive game play with both single- and multiplayer options; sophisticated and detailed social modeling. CONS: Level of detail may be overwhelming for players new to this type of game; rich multimedia features can tax older Macs. Company: Aspyr Media, Inc. (512/708-8100, www.aspyr.com ). LIST PRICE: $50.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Windows - 1999

Alpha Centauri Game Download Mac Os

Also released on: Mac

5 / 5 - 7 votes

Description of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

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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

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Captures and Snapshots

Screenshots from MobyGames.com

Comments and reviews

Tek2019-07-072 points

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

LeCarre2019-03-091 point

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

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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 Torrent

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.

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