Sid Meier´s Alpha Centauri

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yeehi
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Joined: Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:44 am

Sid Meier´s Alpha Centauri

Post by yeehi »

I can get this game to install and launch, but it does not run properly or at all.

I have:

Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope AMD64 Alternate
Wine 1.1.18
Cedega 7.1.1
Sid Meier´s Alpha Centauri and Alien Crossfire CDs (Sold Out version)

The game is best played with the expansion pack, Alien Crossfire. Alien Crossfire and Alpha Centauri are both available in linux versions, if you can find them.

There are official patches for the game http://www.firaxis.com/smac/downloads.cfm.

Googlyboogly has datalink patch too, http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=291246.

These fixes have helped solve Alpha Centauri with other systems/OSs, but I haven´t had success so far:

1)
alpha_centauri.ini

Navigate to Firaxis Games => Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri => alpha_centauri.ini

change the line

Code: Select all

ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=0
to

Code: Select all

ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1
If this line is not present, add it, if you are having problems.

2)
alpha_centauri.ini

Navigate to Firaxis Games => Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri => alpha_centauri.ini

change the lines

Code: Select all

ds3d=1

eax=1
to

Code: Select all

ds3d=0

eax=0
This will eliminate some sound effects which can throw the user out of the game at the end of turn.

2)
Move the Firaxis Games folder to C:\
Some older games have difficulty running in other locations, even in C:\Program Files, I read.

3)
Change Windows Compatability.
I have read different accounts of this, one stating use Windows 95, another stating use Windows 2000.

4) Popuiate alpha_centauri.ini
The game needs to be run once, even to the CPU not supported crash, if this occurs, in order to populate the alpha_centauri.ini file. For your information, here is the content of my file:

Code: Select all

[]

[Alpha Centauri]

ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1

ds3d=0

eax=0

MainFontSize=16

InterludeFontSize=16

Prefs Format=11

Difficulty=4

Map Type=2

Top Menu=0

Faction=3

Preferences=10111011111000011101110110110110

More Preferences=1110100111000101101000

Semaphore=00000000

Announce=111100001110101001

Rules=1101000001110

Customize=1

Custom World=2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,

Time Controls=1

Latest Save=

Latest Scenario=
5) Compatability Pack
I tried to do the following in linux, but it didnt work for me, but you might find it useful. I installed winetricks onto my system to help me install the .net framework that is required to get the windows application compatability pack to run.
1 - Install the game as normal (note that it appears in the Game Explorer!)
2 - install the update4 patch (available around the web) - note: right-click
and "run as administrator"
3 - install the xp/2000 compatibility patch (available around the web) -
note: right-click and "run as administrator"
4 - set the executable to run as administrator (right click on program,
select properties, then security). Note, the compatibility modes are not
used.

At this point the XP community fixes the .ini file and everything is ok. On
Vista, note that the key .ini file is empty, this won't be populated until
the game runs once and it crashes in TERRAN.EXE

5 - install the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0 and run the
Compability Administrator with admin privleges (right-click and select "run
as Administrator"), note: there is a pre-installed Alpha Centauri fix but it
does not work under Vista
6 - create a new Application Fix in the Compatibility Administrator, select
the "terran.exe" file in the Alpha Centauri folder as the key file.
7 - Alpha Centauri requires the following Compatibility Modes to run:
APITracing
Win95
8 - Run Alpha Centauri from the Compatibility Administrator. This will
generate a "CPU not supported" msg and populate the .ini file before it
dies.
9 - manually edit "alpha centauri.ini" file as follows:
change line: ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=0
to read: ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1
note: since the .ini file is inside the "program files" super-security area,
it cannot be edited directly, even by an administrator. Instead, save to the
desktop and then drag-and-drop into the folder to save the changes.

10 - the game should work correctly under the Compatibility Administrator
now. the drawback is that it asks for the location every time.



For a permanent fix, do the following

save the Compatibility Administrator application fix file as "Alpha Centauri
in Vista.sdb" in the default game location (c:\program files\firaxis
games\sid meier's alpha centauri)

1 - Start a command prompt by: StartOrb - programs - accessories - command
prompt
2. Type: sdbinst "C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Alpha
Centauri\Alpha Centauri in Vista.sdb" (note the double quotes are
required)

this installs the sdb file into the system so whenever the game is run, it
will use the appropriate compability modes.

it should run correctly from the Game Explorer now!
6) Display
Set it to 256 colours

7) Mouse
scroll mice - particularly those that come with some special monitoring software. If your mouse comes with some "microsoft mouseware de-luxe" software or similar try uninstalling it and if it helps get a newer version or scrap it. If possible see if you can find some old mouse with no scroll button and try that one.
8) Run in windowed mode:
You can put this line in the [Alpha Centauri] section of the Alpha Centauri.ini file...

DirectDraw=0

What it does is force Alpha Centauri to run at your desktop resolution... It looked a bit funny in the default videomode (the layout of the bottom bar looks odd, most noticably), but works pretty good in the 1024*768 videomode...
9) In case you are a windows user and just want it to work, try these:

inability to handle modern processors there are extra steps as well. Here are my steps: 1 - Install the game as normal (note that it appears in the Game Explorer!) 2 - install the update4 patch (available around the web) - note: right-click and "run as administrator" 3 - install the xp/2000 compatibility patch (available around the web) - note: right-click and "run as administrator" 4 - set the executable to run as administrator (right click on program, select properties, then security). Note, the compatibility modes are not used. At this point the XP community fixes the .ini file and everything is ok. On Vista, note that the key .ini file is empty, this won't be populated until the game runs once and it crashes in TERRAN.EXE 5- install the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0 and run the Compability Administrator with admin privleges (right-click and select "run as Administrator"), note: there is a pre-installed Alpha Centauri fix but it does not work under Vista 6- create a new Application Fix in the Compatibility Administrator, select the "terran.exe" file in the Alpha Centauri folder as the key file. 7- Alpha Centauri requires the following Compatibility Modes to run: APITracing Win95 8- Run Alpha Centauri from the Compatibility Administrator. This will generate a "CPU not supported" msg and populate the .ini file before it dies. 9- manually edit"alpha centauri.ini" file as follows: change line: ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=0 to read: ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1
note: since the .ini file is inside the "program files" super-security area, it cannot be edited directly, even by an administrator. Instead, save to the desktop and then drag-and-drop into the folder to save the changes. 10- the game should work correctly under the Compatibility Administrator now. the drawback is that it asks for the location every time. For a permanent fix, do the following save the Compatibility Administrator application fix file as "Alpha Centauri in Vista.sdb" in the default game location (c:program filesfiraxis gamessid meier's alpha centauri)
1 - Start a command prompt by: StartOrb - programs - accessories - command prompt
2.Type:sdbinst "C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri\Alpha Centauri in Vista.sdb" (note the double quotes are required) this installs the sdb file into the system so whenever the game is run, it will use the appropriate compability modes. it should run correctly from the Game Explorer now! I hope that helps anyone trying to get this great old game to run Mark

32bit / 64 bit:
The installer is 16 bit, which means the installer won't run under x64.
The best way to handle it is find someone with WinXP 32-bit, install it, copy the directory to a flash drive, and then copy them back to your x64 machine (SMAC doesn't need any registry keys, oddly enough).
10)

Bad disk:
The crash is probably from a bad install source - this happens VERY frequently with pirated versions of the game.
11) Run terran.exe directly
Navigate to the game´s folder and double click the terran.exe file (or terranx.exe in alpha centauri alien crossfire) in order to launch the game directly, rather than from a menu

12) in-game options menu
Disable resolution changes and set no movies to be played

13) API tracing
There is some issue regarding this, I cant track it down at the moment.
DrazharLn
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Joined: Sat Mar 12, 2011 6:33 pm

Getting SMAC(X) working with less fuss.

Post by DrazharLn »

Where SMAC(X) stands for Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (Alien Crossfire)

I've been running a copy of SMACX installed in Windows on my C:/ partition from linux (Ubuntu 10.10).

After mounting the windows partition I only had to make the following changes to Alpha Centauri.ini to play the game:

Code: Select all

eax=0
ds3d=0
ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1
I haven't tested it much at all, but it seems to run with the minimum of errors. I noticed that the fonts in many dialogue boxes are either the wrong font or the wrong size (maybe both, couldn't tell) and certain orders that produce a click tone for confirmation cause that tone to be played repeatedly for the rest of the turn, you can stop the clicks by toggling the SFX volume slider.

In SMAC (without expansion) sounds don't seem to work at all, videos don't work in either game.

Playable, though.

Didn't test network multiplayer, hotseat/PBEM seems to work.[/code]
Charles Davis

Sid Meier?s Alpha Centauri

Post by Charles Davis »

On 3/12/11 4:54 PM, DrazharLn wrote:
Where SMAC(X) stands for Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (Alien Crossfire)

I've been running a copy of SMACX installed in Windows on my C:/ partition from linux (Ubuntu 10.10).
Glad to hear that it's working, but it might run even better if you just
installed it directly in Wine.

Also, you should post information like this to the AppDB, not the forums.

Chip
DrazharLn
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Joined: Sat Mar 12, 2011 6:33 pm

Post by DrazharLn »

Looks like I can't edit posts.

Also of possible interest, I was using v1.0 of the unofficial patch by scient, available here. However, I don't suspect that made a difference. If I get round to more thorough testing I'll add a version and some more notes to the appDB.

Comments welcome.
James McKenzie

Sid Meier?s Alpha Centauri

Post by James McKenzie »

On 3/12/11 5:21 PM, DrazharLn wrote:
Looks like I can't edit posts.

Also of possible interest, I was using v1.0 of the unofficial patch by scient, available here (http://www.weplayciv.com/forums/downloa ... ile&id=240). However, I don't suspect that made a difference. If I get round to more thorough testing I'll add a version and some more notes to the appDB.
Please do not link to non-Wine fixes for Wine. They tend to 'age' and
are not kept up to date causing problems. If this is a patch from the
software producer, that would be fine but please annotate this such.

Thank you.

James McKenzie
DrazharLn
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Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Mar 12, 2011 6:33 pm

Post by DrazharLn »

Alpha Centauri is a very old game and hasn't received any love from the developers in a long time. The rights for the game are disputed as well, meaning future support is doubly unlikely.

So I don't think the unofficial patch will age any more than an official patch would.

I still haven't done any meaningful tests of the game running in wine (started one game, played a multiplayer turn), so I didn't want to put anything in the appDB about it.
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