6 ms·

Alpha Centauri

211 points by doppp 1y ago

0xDEAFBEAD 1y ago
>Only the most disciplined security squads can overcome their fear long enough to trigger the flame guns which can keep the worms at bay. Clearly you will have to tend carefully to the morale of the troops. This is an interesting lesson in game design. The reason the mind worms fight using morale rather that conventional combat is because otherwise they wouldn't scale as your troops get stronger. Supposing the mind worms had fixed conventional strength--on par with that of an ordinary early-game scout, for example. Then as soon as you get proton missiles or whatever, mind worms would no longer provide a challenge. But if you made mind worms challenging for the late game, then they'd be impossible in the early game. Hence the creation of a parallel combat strength scale, to better manage the mind worm difficulty curve.
yongjik 1y ago
> Other additions are of more dubious value. Brian Reynolds names as one of his biggest regrets his dogged determination to let you design your own units out of the raw materials — chassis, propulsion systems, weapons, armor, and so on — provided by your current state of progression up the tech tree, in the same way that galaxy-spanning 4X games like Master of Orion allowed. It proved a time-consuming nightmare to implement in this uni-planetary context. And, as Reynolds admits, it’s doubtful how much it really adds to the game. All that time and effort could likely have been better spent elsewhere. Huh, I'd never have guessed. I thought that was the best part! Felt much more "organic" than Civilization's pre-constructed units.
simonebrunozzi 1y ago
SMAC is from 1999. It's now 2025. Would a gen AI be able to build a similar game from scratch? Perhaps improving the few things that need improving? And would it breach copyright if doing so?
wing-_-nuts 1y ago
If gog ever manages to get the rights to rerelease civ II, I'd gladly pay $80 for a copy I could just click and run on windows and linux. Yes, there are copies on abandonware sites, but the sound is almost always jank, the soundtrack is gone and the advisors don't work (they really added a lot of character to the game!). The nostalgia of childhood is broken. I've tried everything, up to and including running win 3.1 with sound blaster drivers on dosbox to no avail. This is my white whale
- glimshe 1y ago
  Is this an emulation problem or are the online copies corrupted? You can buy an original copy of the game on eBay and run it in Dosbox-X or Dosbox-staging, both well ahead vanilla Dosbox in features. Also, I bet the Internet archive or exoDOS will have a perfect copy. The latter is a one click experience. Check the laws in your country for whether these are legal.
- mirashii 1y ago
  There's a number of active communities about still playing the game, including /r/alphacentauri on reddit, a discord server at https://discord.gg/7BkcvXUX https://discord.gg/7BkcvXUX , and https://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=community https://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=community I know the last time I picked it up, there were a well respected set of patches from scient (a quick google pointed me to https://github.com/DrazharLn/scient-unofficial-smacx-patch https://github.com/DrazharLn/scient-unofficial-smacx-patch ). Somewhere in here is a pre-done distribution you can just click and run with for modern windows.
- piltdownman 1y ago
  Run The Macintosh edition CivII Gold using PPC Mac Emulation on Windows (Basilisk or whatever you find easiest) or run it on x64 Windows using the civ2xp64patcher that you can find online. You can get a full image including soundtrack/advisors on a variety of abandonware sites.
- toast0 1y ago
  I'm sure it's not worth the effort, but I would love to see remakes of these games. The simplicity of early Civs with a modern, fully baked interface. Maybe with hexes instead of squares if that doesn't break the game. FreeCiv exists, but it doesn't feel modern either.
  - NooneAtAll3 1y ago
    I honestly don't get the love for hexes
    - 1y ago
ptmcc 1y ago
SMAC was a really great game, ahead of its time in many ways and laid some groundwork for ideas later worked into Civs 3+. It's a shame the totally-not-a-SMAC-sequel Civ: Beyond Earth did not not do it justice.
- georgeecollins 1y ago
  I agree! With all the debate about Civ vii vs Civ vi, the group I play civ with sometimes debates what was the best version of civ. SMAC might be my choice! It was only a single player game but as a single player game it had great balance and strategic choices. The map art was a little ugly and customizing units was not that interesting.
  - TheCycoONE 1y ago
    SMAC had network and hot seat multi-player. It didn't come with a server or any form of matchmaking but I remember playing some games over the internet in the early 2000s. Probably through MSN Gaming Zone but I can't be certain.
swyx 1y ago
so like, i know there are some civ clones out there... has anyone tried to make an OpenAlphaCentauri? i'd love to hack on this but i dont have the time or gamedev experience to take it 0 to 1....
- mirashii 1y ago
  https://github.com/afwbkbc/glsmac https://github.com/afwbkbc/glsmac
- Quarrelsome 1y ago
  most civs have a mod for SMAC. I remember Civ 4's one being particularly decent and it even integrated with the original game files if you had them so you'd get the audio when completing techs. They also did something novel in auto-spawning the expansion factions when completing particular techs.
- derivagral 1y ago
  This project improves the AI, but might not be quite what you want? https://github.com/induktio/thinker https://github.com/induktio/thinker
swyx 1y ago
> Alas, today Alpha Centuari feels far more believable than Civilization and its sang-froid about the inevitability of perpetual progress. These days, Alpha Centauri’s depiction of bickering, bitterly entrenched factions warring over the very nature of truth, progressing not at all spiritually or morally even as their technology runs wild in a hundred different perilous directions, strikes many as the more accurate picture of the nature of our species. People play Alpha Centauri to engage with modern life; they play Civilization to escape from it. wow. ive never understood why AC worked while Civ5/6 fell off the map for me, but i think this was it.
b112 1y ago
I recall a C64 game(or Amiga, but I'm fairly sure C64) where you settled the solar system. The Moon, Mars, Venus, Titan, etc. You even had to genetically engineer your colonists, so they could withstand the environments. Fun game, but I can't find it via Google. If anyone knows this game, please share. I'd love to play it again.
- swyx 1y ago
  teaching you to fish: https://chatgpt.com/share/6855db77-b474-8012-863e-8cf8d6e41543 https://chatgpt.com/share/6855db77-b474-8012-863e-8cf8d6e415...
  - teddyh 1y ago
    Clickbait rescue: “Millennium 2.2 (1989) — and possibly its 1991 sequel, Deuteros: The Next Millennium.”. Not released for C64, but (among others) for the Commodore Amiga.
    - b112 1y ago
      Yes! That's it. Thank you.
      - swyx 1y ago
        interesting the details you misremembered... enough that i doubted itw as a match
- ethan_smith 1y ago
  The game you're describing sounds like Millennium 2.2 (released as Deuteros in North America), a 1989 title where you colonize the solar system and genetically modify colonists for different planetary environments.
GauntletWizard 1y ago
What really set Alpha Centauri apart for me was the fictional history and how it is presented. Civilization's tech tree is a form of human history, accompanied by famous quotes contextualizing the importance of the discoveries. Alpha Centauri presents its tech to you the same way, but it's inventions are science fiction, and likewise the quotes [1] are fictional, from the important characters, the major players of the various factions within. You get a real sense for the groups involved and the major players from such. You get a sense of the civilizations involved, sometimes presented in their folklore or humor. For example, the militaristic Spartans quote a variation of an old marching cadence - "I don't know but I've been told / Deirdre's got a Network Node / Likes to press the on-off switch / Dig that crazy Gaian witch!" My favorite, though, and feeling ever more prescient: "As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master. Commissioner Pravin Lal U.N. Declaration of Rights" [1] A good compendium of them - https://www.generationterrorists.com/quotes/smac.html https://www.generationterrorists.com/quotes/smac.html
- Quarrelsome 1y ago
  I find that Lal quote quite ironic, given how the free flow of information has backfired somewhat in the modern world by devaluing journalism to the cost of nothing. This has resulted in misinformation proliferating online and the general population perhaps becoming even less informed than previous generations.
  - marcosdumay 1y ago
    The modern world devalued almost every valuable thing into nothingness, and values only a handful of well-controlled items at impracticable levels. This is a very general problem, and doesn't detract much for any idea about any one thing in particular.
  - 1y ago
Quarrelsome 1y ago
my favourite game of all time. However without the "plot" and the voice acting I wouldn't rate it anywhere near as highly. The "meat" of the plot was the audio snippets that would pop up whenever you researched a tech, built a facility for the first time or finished a secret project. Most of them were quite fascinating and had a haunting beauty to them [0]. The way that Chairman Yang half-laughs when discussing the genejack, how adament Morgan is about the right of present generations exploiting fossil fuels, Lal's horror at the outcomes of Mind/Machine interface. This game was the first time I had encountered the art of telling stories through crumbs, instead of one fixed and full narrative like most stories. I agree with the article in that the mechanics of the game weren't ideal. Personally as someone that LOVES 4x and has spent _way_ too much time playing them, I think the format is fundamentally flawed and cannot be saved (e.g. expanding is too overpowered, games become too dull to close out - given the win was effectively gained hundreds of turns ago, AI being too costly to implement and difficult to balance). IMHO the best 4x game that will come out at some point in the future won't actually follow the 4x format. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hou-Iwv1GvM&list=PL3DDD41A3E572E02A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hou-Iwv1GvM&list=PL3DDD41A3E... Particularly good ones: 1-22 fac : 9:13 - Chairman Yang - Genejacks. 23-38 fac : 3:22 - Project PYRRHO 0-24 techs : 1:16 - Nwabudike Morgan - The Ethics of Greed. 0-24 techs : 8:06 - Sister Miram - We must dissent 25-49 techs: 2:17 - Chairman Yang - Looking god in the eye 25-49 techs : 4:26 - Prokhor Zakharov - For I have tasted the fruit 25-49 techs : 6:03 - Commissioner Lal - Mind Machine Interface
- bigstrat2003 1y ago
  I don't personally think that the 4X genre needs to get away from the formula it has now. I keep buying, and enjoying, those games because I like the formula. I don't particularly agree, for example, that the late game is uninteresting in most 4X games. It's not as challenging, certainly, but it's great fun to watch the earlier strategic choices pay off as I come in for a victory landing. I think it's fine if people don't like what 4X games are like currently, but I don't think that doing something different should be at the expense of those who do like what exists. One of my great frustrations with Civ VII was that they were attempting to solve a problem I don't agree the game had (boring late game), using methods that took away what I did enjoy about the game (building up a civ over time).
sandspar 1y ago
For several days I gave custom instructions for ChatGPT to speak like different Alpha Centauri faction leaders. ChatGPT seemed to enjoy speaking as Zakharov best, often giving the longest responses in his voice.
- zo1 1y ago
  I got Grok to speak wonderful quotes in the same style/tone. "The mountain stands eternal, watching all. Did you, yesterday's self, feel its silent gaze upon your deeds? Did you carve truth into its stone or merely scatter dust? Speak, for the mountain remembers what we forget." — Lady Deirdre Skye, "Planet Dreams" "The keyboard is but a crude interface, a mechanical bridge between flesh and the machine's cold logic. The soul of the machine, if it exists, lies not in the clatter of keys but in the dance of electrons, where thought and code entwine. Fingertips? They are mere conduits, sparking the connection, yet they carry no more divinity than the wires beneath. To seek the soul, look deeper—past the surface, into the patterns of data that pulse like a living mind." — Academician Prokhor Zakharov, "For I Have Tasted The Fruit" "A cup of wine may seem a mere vessel, but its depths hold the folly of men who seek oceans in fleeting pleasures. Drink wisely, lest you drown in your own excess." — Sister Miriam Godwinson, "The Blessed Struggle" "Solace in profit? A fleeting comfort, like coins slipping through fingers. Power? A heavier chain, binding the soul to ambition’s treadmill. Both are but shadows of true wealth—a life of wisdom and harmony with Planet’s pulse. Seek not to own, but to understand, and solace will bloom eternal." — Lady Deirdre Skye, "Conversations with Planet"
smeeger 1y ago
[flagged]
octernion 1y ago
one of my favorite games growing up; fascinating to read the history and inspiration for such a great game. i love that one of my favorite parts of the game (designing your own units) was the game designers' least favorite parts. hah! i never read the pandora sequence that inspired it - thank you for sharing this article!
burnt-resistor 1y ago
Please don't go. The drone need you... they look up to you.
- spiritplumber 1y ago
  I wonder what they call small unmanned flyers in that timeline.
  - burnt-resistor 1y ago
    R/C planes and helicopters ;)
  - jhbadger 1y ago
    Or male bees!
- burnt-resistor 1y ago
  drones*
Pxtl 1y ago
A good article. If anything it understates how obviously influenced the designers were by Frank Herbert's novels. The little vignettes of quotes are a common device in his books. The transhumanist themes too. And of course, there's the obvious parallel between the Human Hive and Herbert's book Hellstrom's Hive.
spelunker 1y ago
One of my favorite games of all time. Like others have said, the quotes/videos/etc presented during secret projects or research breakthroughs left quite a mark on my young mind. That and the X-COM: UFO Defense opening cinematic lol
- spiritplumber 1y ago
  WARNING! WARNING! UFO DETECTED!
- sgt 1y ago
  Ah X-COM! That brings back memories.
- zabzonk 1y ago
  Strange thing is that none of the aliens in the intro appear in the game! Not that I mind - completed it twice. Also done Enemy Unknown. Stuck on XCom 2, though.
spiritplumber 1y ago
https://paeantosmac.wordpress.com/2016/02/02/base-facility-genejack-factory/ https://paeantosmac.wordpress.com/2016/02/02/base-facility-g... This is a very cool blog that analyses SMAC, Bryan Reynolds comments in a few places, too.
- bjelkeman-again 1y ago
  Thanks. That was surprisingly in depth about the different factions and specifically about genejacks
colechristensen 1y ago
One of the best parts of SMAC was the game manual that came with the physical copy, sometimes I wonder if it's still hiding in a junk box somewhere in my parent's house. It wasn't only the expected kinds of controls documentation but mixed with game lore was real science. >If Alpha Centauri inspires a few young scientists and astronauts; if it convinces a few more citizens to write to their congressmen and work to rejuvenate our space program, humanity’s space program, that will surely be its greatest and most lasting accomplishment. I'm thinking given the comments here it succeeded. https://oldgamesdownload.com/wp-content/uploads/Sid_Meiers_Alpha_Centauri_Manual_Win_EN.pdf https://oldgamesdownload.com/wp-content/uploads/Sid_Meiers_A...
- colkassad 1y ago
  One of those youtubers that goes to old stores (Retail Archaeology or something like that) came across a boxed version of Alpha Centauri at a thrift store or something and bought it because he thought it looked cool. I couldn't believe his luck. I would really like to have that manual again. If I remember correctly, it was more than just a manual...it had a lot of backstory and whatnot.
  - Apocryphon 1y ago
    Here you go: https://archive.org/details/Sid_Meiers_Alpha_Centauri https://archive.org/details/Sid_Meiers_Alpha_Centauri
    - colkassad 1y ago
      Nice, thank you!
- somat 1y ago
  The alpha centari manual was a beast, a regular novel at ~250 pages. Your comment stirred a memory in the back of my head and I jumped up to check, and I still have it! I found it on my book shelf! Baldurs gate 2 had a similarly impressive manual, if I remember correctly, it was spiral bound so it would lay flat and had tabbed sections. can't find it however.
d_silin 1y ago
The little clone of Civilization still up and available! http://c-evo.org http://c-evo.org
- LargoLasskhyfv 1y ago
  I rarely play games anymore, but on the rare occassions I do, I prefer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeciv https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeciv / https://freeciv.org https://freeciv.org It's playable in all sorts of ways (against AI, Humans, real-time, long-turn) via https://www.freecivweb.com https://www.freecivweb.com in the browser, without having to install anything. There are many different rule-sets now, the most modern and balanced seems to be https://freeciv.fandom.com/wiki/Multiplayer_II_Dragoon_Summary https://freeciv.fandom.com/wiki/Multiplayer_II_Dragoon_Summa... https://freeciv.fandom.com/wiki/Design_Log.mp2d https://freeciv.fandom.com/wiki/Design_Log.mp2d https://freeciv.fandom.com/wiki/Multiplayer_II:_Dragoon,_Game_Manual https://freeciv.fandom.com/wiki/Multiplayer_II:_Dragoon,_Gam... Be warned, it can be a massive time-sink!
rijal30 1y ago
[dead]

211 points by doppp 1y ago

>Only the most disciplined security squads can overcome their fear long enough to trigger the flame guns which can keep the worms at bay. Clearly you will have to tend carefully to the morale of the troops. This is an interesting lesson in game design. The reason the mind worms fight using morale rather that conventional combat is because otherwise they wouldn't scale as your troops get stronger. Supposing the mind worms had fixed conventional strength--on par with that of an ordinary early-game scout, for example. Then as soon as you get proton missiles or whatever, mind worms would no longer provide a challenge. But if you made mind worms challenging for the late game, then they'd be impossible in the early game. Hence the creation of a parallel combat strength scale, to better manage the mind worm difficulty curve.

yongjik 1y ago

> Other additions are of more dubious value. Brian Reynolds names as one of his biggest regrets his dogged determination to let you design your own units out of the raw materials — chassis, propulsion systems, weapons, armor, and so on — provided by your current state of progression up the tech tree, in the same way that galaxy-spanning 4X games like Master of Orion allowed. It proved a time-consuming nightmare to implement in this uni-planetary context. And, as Reynolds admits, it’s doubtful how much it really adds to the game. All that time and effort could likely have been better spent elsewhere. Huh, I'd never have guessed. I thought that was the best part! Felt much more "organic" than Civilization's pre-constructed units.

simonebrunozzi 1y ago

SMAC is from 1999. It's now 2025. Would a gen AI be able to build a similar game from scratch? Perhaps improving the few things that need improving? And would it breach copyright if doing so?

wing-_-nuts 1y ago

If gog ever manages to get the rights to rerelease civ II, I'd gladly pay $80 for a copy I could just click and run on windows and linux. Yes, there are copies on abandonware sites, but the sound is almost always jank, the soundtrack is gone and the advisors don't work (they really added a lot of character to the game!). The nostalgia of childhood is broken. I've tried everything, up to and including running win 3.1 with sound blaster drivers on dosbox to no avail. This is my white whale

glimshe 1y ago
Is this an emulation problem or are the online copies corrupted? You can buy an original copy of the game on eBay and run it in Dosbox-X or Dosbox-staging, both well ahead vanilla Dosbox in features. Also, I bet the Internet archive or exoDOS will have a perfect copy. The latter is a one click experience. Check the laws in your country for whether these are legal.
mirashii 1y ago
There's a number of active communities about still playing the game, including /r/alphacentauri on reddit, a discord server at https://discord.gg/7BkcvXUX https://discord.gg/7BkcvXUX , and https://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=community https://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=community I know the last time I picked it up, there were a well respected set of patches from scient (a quick google pointed me to https://github.com/DrazharLn/scient-unofficial-smacx-patch https://github.com/DrazharLn/scient-unofficial-smacx-patch ). Somewhere in here is a pre-done distribution you can just click and run with for modern windows.
piltdownman 1y ago
Run The Macintosh edition CivII Gold using PPC Mac Emulation on Windows (Basilisk or whatever you find easiest) or run it on x64 Windows using the civ2xp64patcher that you can find online. You can get a full image including soundtrack/advisors on a variety of abandonware sites.
toast0 1y ago
I'm sure it's not worth the effort, but I would love to see remakes of these games. The simplicity of early Civs with a modern, fully baked interface. Maybe with hexes instead of squares if that doesn't break the game. FreeCiv exists, but it doesn't feel modern either.
- NooneAtAll3 1y ago
  I honestly don't get the love for hexes
  - 1y ago

ptmcc 1y ago

SMAC was a really great game, ahead of its time in many ways and laid some groundwork for ideas later worked into Civs 3+. It's a shame the totally-not-a-SMAC-sequel Civ: Beyond Earth did not not do it justice.

georgeecollins 1y ago
I agree! With all the debate about Civ vii vs Civ vi, the group I play civ with sometimes debates what was the best version of civ. SMAC might be my choice! It was only a single player game but as a single player game it had great balance and strategic choices. The map art was a little ugly and customizing units was not that interesting.
- TheCycoONE 1y ago
  SMAC had network and hot seat multi-player. It didn't come with a server or any form of matchmaking but I remember playing some games over the internet in the early 2000s. Probably through MSN Gaming Zone but I can't be certain.

swyx 1y ago

so like, i know there are some civ clones out there... has anyone tried to make an OpenAlphaCentauri? i'd love to hack on this but i dont have the time or gamedev experience to take it 0 to 1....

mirashii 1y ago
https://github.com/afwbkbc/glsmac https://github.com/afwbkbc/glsmac
Quarrelsome 1y ago
most civs have a mod for SMAC. I remember Civ 4's one being particularly decent and it even integrated with the original game files if you had them so you'd get the audio when completing techs. They also did something novel in auto-spawning the expansion factions when completing particular techs.
derivagral 1y ago
This project improves the AI, but might not be quite what you want? https://github.com/induktio/thinker https://github.com/induktio/thinker

swyx 1y ago

> Alas, today Alpha Centuari feels far more believable than Civilization and its sang-froid about the inevitability of perpetual progress. These days, Alpha Centauri’s depiction of bickering, bitterly entrenched factions warring over the very nature of truth, progressing not at all spiritually or morally even as their technology runs wild in a hundred different perilous directions, strikes many as the more accurate picture of the nature of our species. People play Alpha Centauri to engage with modern life; they play Civilization to escape from it. wow. ive never understood why AC worked while Civ5/6 fell off the map for me, but i think this was it.

b112 1y ago

I recall a C64 game(or Amiga, but I'm fairly sure C64) where you settled the solar system. The Moon, Mars, Venus, Titan, etc. You even had to genetically engineer your colonists, so they could withstand the environments. Fun game, but I can't find it via Google. If anyone knows this game, please share. I'd love to play it again.

swyx 1y ago
teaching you to fish: https://chatgpt.com/share/6855db77-b474-8012-863e-8cf8d6e41543 https://chatgpt.com/share/6855db77-b474-8012-863e-8cf8d6e415...
- teddyh 1y ago
  Clickbait rescue: “Millennium 2.2 (1989) — and possibly its 1991 sequel, Deuteros: The Next Millennium.”. Not released for C64, but (among others) for the Commodore Amiga.
  - b112 1y ago
    Yes! That's it. Thank you.
    - swyx 1y ago
      interesting the details you misremembered... enough that i doubted itw as a match
ethan_smith 1y ago
The game you're describing sounds like Millennium 2.2 (released as Deuteros in North America), a 1989 title where you colonize the solar system and genetically modify colonists for different planetary environments.

GauntletWizard 1y ago

What really set Alpha Centauri apart for me was the fictional history and how it is presented. Civilization's tech tree is a form of human history, accompanied by famous quotes contextualizing the importance of the discoveries. Alpha Centauri presents its tech to you the same way, but it's inventions are science fiction, and likewise the quotes [1] are fictional, from the important characters, the major players of the various factions within. You get a real sense for the groups involved and the major players from such. You get a sense of the civilizations involved, sometimes presented in their folklore or humor. For example, the militaristic Spartans quote a variation of an old marching cadence - "I don't know but I've been told / Deirdre's got a Network Node / Likes to press the on-off switch / Dig that crazy Gaian witch!" My favorite, though, and feeling ever more prescient: "As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master. Commissioner Pravin Lal U.N. Declaration of Rights" [1] A good compendium of them - https://www.generationterrorists.com/quotes/smac.html https://www.generationterrorists.com/quotes/smac.html

Quarrelsome 1y ago
I find that Lal quote quite ironic, given how the free flow of information has backfired somewhat in the modern world by devaluing journalism to the cost of nothing. This has resulted in misinformation proliferating online and the general population perhaps becoming even less informed than previous generations.
- marcosdumay 1y ago
  The modern world devalued almost every valuable thing into nothingness, and values only a handful of well-controlled items at impracticable levels. This is a very general problem, and doesn't detract much for any idea about any one thing in particular.
- 1y ago

Quarrelsome 1y ago

my favourite game of all time. However without the "plot" and the voice acting I wouldn't rate it anywhere near as highly. The "meat" of the plot was the audio snippets that would pop up whenever you researched a tech, built a facility for the first time or finished a secret project. Most of them were quite fascinating and had a haunting beauty to them [0]. The way that Chairman Yang half-laughs when discussing the genejack, how adament Morgan is about the right of present generations exploiting fossil fuels, Lal's horror at the outcomes of Mind/Machine interface. This game was the first time I had encountered the art of telling stories through crumbs, instead of one fixed and full narrative like most stories. I agree with the article in that the mechanics of the game weren't ideal. Personally as someone that LOVES 4x and has spent _way_ too much time playing them, I think the format is fundamentally flawed and cannot be saved (e.g. expanding is too overpowered, games become too dull to close out - given the win was effectively gained hundreds of turns ago, AI being too costly to implement and difficult to balance). IMHO the best 4x game that will come out at some point in the future won't actually follow the 4x format. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hou-Iwv1GvM&list=PL3DDD41A3E572E02A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hou-Iwv1GvM&list=PL3DDD41A3E... Particularly good ones: 1-22 fac : 9:13 - Chairman Yang - Genejacks. 23-38 fac : 3:22 - Project PYRRHO 0-24 techs : 1:16 - Nwabudike Morgan - The Ethics of Greed. 0-24 techs : 8:06 - Sister Miram - We must dissent 25-49 techs: 2:17 - Chairman Yang - Looking god in the eye 25-49 techs : 4:26 - Prokhor Zakharov - For I have tasted the fruit 25-49 techs : 6:03 - Commissioner Lal - Mind Machine Interface

bigstrat2003 1y ago
I don't personally think that the 4X genre needs to get away from the formula it has now. I keep buying, and enjoying, those games because I like the formula. I don't particularly agree, for example, that the late game is uninteresting in most 4X games. It's not as challenging, certainly, but it's great fun to watch the earlier strategic choices pay off as I come in for a victory landing. I think it's fine if people don't like what 4X games are like currently, but I don't think that doing something different should be at the expense of those who do like what exists. One of my great frustrations with Civ VII was that they were attempting to solve a problem I don't agree the game had (boring late game), using methods that took away what I did enjoy about the game (building up a civ over time).

sandspar 1y ago

For several days I gave custom instructions for ChatGPT to speak like different Alpha Centauri faction leaders. ChatGPT seemed to enjoy speaking as Zakharov best, often giving the longest responses in his voice.

zo1 1y ago
I got Grok to speak wonderful quotes in the same style/tone. "The mountain stands eternal, watching all. Did you, yesterday's self, feel its silent gaze upon your deeds? Did you carve truth into its stone or merely scatter dust? Speak, for the mountain remembers what we forget." — Lady Deirdre Skye, "Planet Dreams" "The keyboard is but a crude interface, a mechanical bridge between flesh and the machine's cold logic. The soul of the machine, if it exists, lies not in the clatter of keys but in the dance of electrons, where thought and code entwine. Fingertips? They are mere conduits, sparking the connection, yet they carry no more divinity than the wires beneath. To seek the soul, look deeper—past the surface, into the patterns of data that pulse like a living mind." — Academician Prokhor Zakharov, "For I Have Tasted The Fruit" "A cup of wine may seem a mere vessel, but its depths hold the folly of men who seek oceans in fleeting pleasures. Drink wisely, lest you drown in your own excess." — Sister Miriam Godwinson, "The Blessed Struggle" "Solace in profit? A fleeting comfort, like coins slipping through fingers. Power? A heavier chain, binding the soul to ambition’s treadmill. Both are but shadows of true wealth—a life of wisdom and harmony with Planet’s pulse. Seek not to own, but to understand, and solace will bloom eternal." — Lady Deirdre Skye, "Conversations with Planet"

smeeger 1y ago

[flagged]

octernion 1y ago

one of my favorite games growing up; fascinating to read the history and inspiration for such a great game. i love that one of my favorite parts of the game (designing your own units) was the game designers' least favorite parts. hah! i never read the pandora sequence that inspired it - thank you for sharing this article!

burnt-resistor 1y ago

Please don't go. The drone need you... they look up to you.

spiritplumber 1y ago
I wonder what they call small unmanned flyers in that timeline.
- burnt-resistor 1y ago
  R/C planes and helicopters ;)
- jhbadger 1y ago
  Or male bees!
burnt-resistor 1y ago
drones*

Pxtl 1y ago

A good article. If anything it understates how obviously influenced the designers were by Frank Herbert's novels. The little vignettes of quotes are a common device in his books. The transhumanist themes too. And of course, there's the obvious parallel between the Human Hive and Herbert's book Hellstrom's Hive.

spelunker 1y ago

One of my favorite games of all time. Like others have said, the quotes/videos/etc presented during secret projects or research breakthroughs left quite a mark on my young mind. That and the X-COM: UFO Defense opening cinematic lol

spiritplumber 1y ago
WARNING! WARNING! UFO DETECTED!
sgt 1y ago
Ah X-COM! That brings back memories.
zabzonk 1y ago
Strange thing is that none of the aliens in the intro appear in the game! Not that I mind - completed it twice. Also done Enemy Unknown. Stuck on XCom 2, though.

spiritplumber 1y ago

https://paeantosmac.wordpress.com/2016/02/02/base-facility-genejack-factory/ https://paeantosmac.wordpress.com/2016/02/02/base-facility-g... This is a very cool blog that analyses SMAC, Bryan Reynolds comments in a few places, too.

bjelkeman-again 1y ago
Thanks. That was surprisingly in depth about the different factions and specifically about genejacks

colechristensen 1y ago

One of the best parts of SMAC was the game manual that came with the physical copy, sometimes I wonder if it's still hiding in a junk box somewhere in my parent's house. It wasn't only the expected kinds of controls documentation but mixed with game lore was real science. >If Alpha Centauri inspires a few young scientists and astronauts; if it convinces a few more citizens to write to their congressmen and work to rejuvenate our space program, humanity’s space program, that will surely be its greatest and most lasting accomplishment. I'm thinking given the comments here it succeeded. https://oldgamesdownload.com/wp-content/uploads/Sid_Meiers_Alpha_Centauri_Manual_Win_EN.pdf https://oldgamesdownload.com/wp-content/uploads/Sid_Meiers_A...

colkassad 1y ago
One of those youtubers that goes to old stores (Retail Archaeology or something like that) came across a boxed version of Alpha Centauri at a thrift store or something and bought it because he thought it looked cool. I couldn't believe his luck. I would really like to have that manual again. If I remember correctly, it was more than just a manual...it had a lot of backstory and whatnot.
- Apocryphon 1y ago
  Here you go: https://archive.org/details/Sid_Meiers_Alpha_Centauri https://archive.org/details/Sid_Meiers_Alpha_Centauri
  - colkassad 1y ago
    Nice, thank you!
somat 1y ago
The alpha centari manual was a beast, a regular novel at ~250 pages. Your comment stirred a memory in the back of my head and I jumped up to check, and I still have it! I found it on my book shelf! Baldurs gate 2 had a similarly impressive manual, if I remember correctly, it was spiral bound so it would lay flat and had tabbed sections. can't find it however.

d_silin 1y ago

The little clone of Civilization still up and available! http://c-evo.org http://c-evo.org

LargoLasskhyfv 1y ago
I rarely play games anymore, but on the rare occassions I do, I prefer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeciv https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeciv / https://freeciv.org https://freeciv.org It's playable in all sorts of ways (against AI, Humans, real-time, long-turn) via https://www.freecivweb.com https://www.freecivweb.com in the browser, without having to install anything. There are many different rule-sets now, the most modern and balanced seems to be https://freeciv.fandom.com/wiki/Multiplayer_II_Dragoon_Summary https://freeciv.fandom.com/wiki/Multiplayer_II_Dragoon_Summa... https://freeciv.fandom.com/wiki/Design_Log.mp2d https://freeciv.fandom.com/wiki/Design_Log.mp2d https://freeciv.fandom.com/wiki/Multiplayer_II:_Dragoon,_Game_Manual https://freeciv.fandom.com/wiki/Multiplayer_II:_Dragoon,_Gam... Be warned, it can be a massive time-sink!

rijal30 1y ago

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