For anyone who is interested in playing SMAC/SMACX in OS X. It was written by Brad Oliver. Better hurry, my 60 day trial registration is ticking.

http://homepage.mac.com/triari/FileSharing1.html

Just curious, is this a patch that updates SMAC to OSX?

Originally posted by grshaner
Just curios, is this a patch that updates SMAC to OSX?

Yes, it allows one to play SMAC/SMACX in OS X.

Sweet! I look forward to downloading it when I get home! This site is even more helpful than I had hoped! Thanks for the great work!

It tends to crash unexpectidly - especially after the movies or when saving. Be nice if Brad had some spare time to work on it, but at least we have what we have.

Yeah, disable the movies by holding down the option key at start-up. Also, be careful with Air Interceptors. Any time that a Shift-L automatic air defence occurs the game will crash -- that's my experience.

I had ordered it at a french shop, but I got an email telling me that they are out of stock :cry:
And I cannot seem to find it anywhere else...

Try ordering it from the states, if the trade laws allow it. Aspyr Media has both, they published it.

http://www.aspyr.com

Trade laws are not a porblem, but shipping costs ARE.
On Aspyr's site, I can buy SMAX for 5$, but I then have to pay 20$ for shipping :mad: , and that's plain too much.
Amazon has reasonable shipping charges - it's often cheaper to by a CD in the US and ship it than buying it in France - but Aspyr's are way too high. Grrrr.

Hey, at least you don't have a PC! Alien Crossfire is sold out and I saw it on eBay the other day for nearly $50 all by its lonesome (with several bids!). Now THAT would hurt the pocketbook!

Having problems getting the game to start. I hold down the option key and turn off movies. Then click "ok" and my screen goes dark for a few sec--then my OSX screen fades back in. Nothing happens. Any help?

you must have the data from SM alpha centauri...

Thank you Brad for writing this and dojoboy for distributing this! I just bought both Alpha Centauri and Alien Crossfire today (I own the PC versions, and I've misplaced the Alien Crossfire CD). This is really great. Alpha Centauri was only $10 and Alien Crossfire was only $5 from Aspyr's website (shipping was $7.50). Thanks!

-Jim

I just purchased both online at aspyr's website as well. 22.50 is not a bad price for 2 games!

Originally posted by senecasax
I just purchased both online at aspyr's website as well. 22.50 is not a bad price for 2 games!

Here's a web site that is very informative.

http://firaxis.com/smac/

Also, if you can get your hands on a copy of "Vel's SMAX Guide, version 4.0" by Chris Hartpence, do it. It is by far the best strategy guide ever published. You may be able to find out where to order it at the Apolyton website (www.apolyton.net). Vel (Chris Hartpence) even has a thread over there for a game he's working on.

Man, I'm going to reinstall SMACX tomorrow.

Chairman Yang, reborn! A new era has begun, unnoticed by the masses.

Originally posted by Sid
Yeah, disable the movies by holding down the option key at start-up. Also, be careful with Air Interceptors. Any time that a Shift-L automatic air defence occurs the game will crash -- that's my experience.

I keep getting crashes when I try to save a game. Anybody else?

sometimes, but not always. just relaoad either autosave 1 or autosave 2

David, above, is spot-on. I often play Iron Man (saves restricted to Exit) and find I get less "Unexpectedly Quit"'s. I have not been able to continue a game with Interceptors set to 'Auto'. Now, I play with no orders set on hostile borders and spacebar through the units.

BTW: check out 'The Network Node' from the Links page of the site that dojoboy has posted above. It's run by a Mac person, has a very funny CNN-satire, and has some great Custom Factions.

This Game Rules. Just got it today. I'd say the best part is building my own units! And i get to name them cool things :-)

Originally posted by senecasax
This Game Rules. Just got it today. I'd say the best part is building my own units! And i get to name them cool things :-)

It is really cool. Did you find the patches? I guess I can upload them to my .mac page. There are a couple for SMAC and one for SMACX. Not talking about the carbon patch.

Two SMAC patches uploaded to my .mac public page; hurry - 45 days left of my trial period.

http://homepage.mac.com/WebObjects/FileSharing.woa/wa/default?user=triari&templatefn=FileSharing1.html&xmlfn=TKDocument.1.xml&sitefn=RootSite.xml&aff=consumer&cty=US&lang=en

Oh, go on. A man who can afford Jaguar must surely be able to deny his kids food so that he can purchase a dot.com membership.:lol:

Originally posted by Sid
Oh, go on. A man who can afford Jaguar must surely be able to deny his kids food so that he can purchase a dot.com membership.:lol:

You would think so, eh? I actually bought it on eBay for $72, which made me quite happy. Then, a week later, I was notified through my school's tech department that Apple was giving it away free to teachers. :mad: I mean :) ! So, now I have two copies. ;) ;) I keep meaning to place one back on auction at eBay.

I'm playing in X, so I assume the Apps are patched. I just installed the extra stuff that came with it.

Originally posted by senecasax
I'm playing in X, so I assume the Apps are patched. I just installed the extra stuff that came with it.

Good point. I know an Alien Crossfire patch fixed a bug where rioting cities wouldn't flip in SMACX, I think. I bet Aspyr has it.

Alien Crossfire 1.2.1 is now uploaded to my .mac public page.

yea. their ftp site had both downloads. I got em, for what good it did. SMACX rules too! I want to try out some multiplayer (i'll have to switch back to 9 to do that... and with a 40 day uptime on my machine...)

The package of SMAC/X came yesterday evening. It wouldn't install in Classic mode (damn), but it works. The carbon version of both games looks great (I played both for about 20 minutes). I won't get a chance to play it for a while (damn work is piling up). So far, it looks great.

-Jim

Who would like to take part in a PBEM game? We can do this w/ SMACX, can't we?

PBEM, sounds cool, count me in. However, I'm going home on spring break friday afternoon, and won't be back until the following sunday (so i'm pretty sure i don't want to start until then).

Can i be Morgan? I'm a money-grubbing industrialist at heart :-)
(after all, I voted republican)

Originally posted by jbouklas
It wouldn't install in Classic mode (damn), but it works.


Huh. I had no problem installing it in classic mode. Maybe you had a permissions error - I highly suggest running all installers through Psuedo or logging in as Admin. OS X's permissions structure can be a pain, especially with the guarded Applications folder (even when I change the permissions, each apple update resets them)

I'm up for PBEM. In SMAX, bags Pirates or Planet Cult; in SMAC, bags Gaians or Peacekeepers or University. Now you know all about me.

djb: I vote for the Standard-sized map of Planet to start, at Talent or Librarian levels (or lower). All default Rules to apply.

Originally posted by Sid
I'm up for PBEM. In SMAX, bags Pirates or Planet Cult; in SMAC, bags Gaians or Peacekeepers or University. Now you know all about me.

djb: I vote for the Standard-sized map of Planet to start, at Talent or Librarian levels (or lower). All default Rules to apply.

Sounds good. Maybe Librarian since we "could" gang up on the AI. ;) I prefer SMAX myself, all the factions are still available. I'm in for playing anyone. Would we want the Aliens involved? I don't think I do, because they can't be part of the council which is where a lot of the fun is.

Okay we've got two players, me and Sid. Anyone else? Oh yeah, I guess we'll have to play this in classic, right?

djb: don't forget senecasax. Why do we have to play Classic?

Originally posted by Sid
djb: don't forget senecasax. Why do we have to play Classic?

I don't know. I guess I was thinking about stability. How do we get this started? One person sets up the game, assigning the chosen factions, then plays his turn?

ok heres the deal - I'm not gonna play this time around b/c spring break means I go home, and at home, my computer is not there. (my dad's G3 has no space for games, its for his photography work, and my siblings homework). I would love to play a game though, as soon as I get back :-)

djb: watch your in-tray; I'm Planet Cult, you're The Human Hive
senecasax: we'll catch you later.

I've played it for about five hours across this past weekend. It works great in OS 10.2.4, with one execption: it crashes about 90% of the time when I try to save. VERY ANNOYING! Otherwise, it's great. It will crash if it tries to play a movie and the CD-ROM isn't in the drive. Personally, I made a disk image of Alien Crossfire and just mount it before playing.

-Jim

Jim: if you disable the movies, via the Option key when launching, you'll minimise some of the crashes. However, if you havn't played the game before, they are a huge part of the enjoyment and scene-setting.

It is truly a great game and playing around with the various factions has always given me insights into how various ideologies affect life on this planet right now. [Yeah, I know: it's just a game]

Actually, I've played both games extensively before. I bought both right after they came out for the PC (bought a Mac in 2000). I've since moved a few times and lost my Alien Crossfire PC CD and managed to scratch up my SMAC CD. The game is amazing. The diplomacy is incredibly realistic. It's just like the UN in my opinion. I am playing a game right now and I have the largest military, and I'm focusing research/economy/etc on my military. The result: most of the world resents me because of my large forces. They let me know this directly ("you may fool others by your quest for "knowledge," but I know it's just a face for military spending," or something). It's very interesting. It blows away the Civ3 AI. It is really a completely different game than Civ3 (fairly similar to Civ2, which I bought when that came out also). In AC, we can play a civilization that knows basic modern aspects of government/economy/etc, and there is, therefore, much greater flexibility in choosing an economic structure, etc. I would really like to see an Alpha Centauri 3, maybe with an interface more like Civ3 (brighter, more visible, better advisors). The game has so much potential. It's a shame they just gave up on it. Overall, it blows Civ3 out of the water.

-Jim

Spot on, Jim.

An interesting aspect for me was the notion that I was creating a new society on a'greenfields' planet. Of course, Planet had its own ideas about that.

If we ever get a SMAC/X 3, I think some of the advances in graphics, the interface, and AI programming could make for an awesome experience. As I see it, the problem would be more one of design. SMAC is more of a Brian Reynolds' game than a Sid Meier game; SMAX has a lot of Tim Train in it. Pity those guys are off making Rise of Nations for the PC. But they may venture into space when they've finished proving that they can make an RTS Civ3. In the meantime, I don't think that MoO3 will have quite the feel of Alpha Centauri.

Okey! I'm back and ready for a game. Let me know who else would like to play! I'll play any race but the hive (I like that democracy a bit too much).