alpha centauri patches

[vi_lontano]

HI

new here....but not to alpha centauri..except now running on vista

have original smac disc...got it to run initially on vista with no problem...but now having crashes (now that i have planes attacking)....it just freezes...

so i thought i'd patch....but how?

people talk about patch 4 (do i need 1,2 and three or just 4?)....and then there is a patch that is supposedly for vista...

then of course a number of "unofficial" patches....

so if anyone could tell me
> do I need to unistall to start patching
> what patches should i install and in what order
or
is this freezing an issue due to something else, with a different fix...

thanks, any help appreciated....

 

[Petek]

Hey vi_lontano,

Welcome to CFC and the Alpha Centauri forum!

So you have the original version of SMAC (Ctrl-F4 in game shows version 1.0), right? In that case you want to install the SMAC 4.0 patch (you don't need the earlier patches), the Windows 2000/XP update and scient's unofficial 1.0 patch (in that order). The 4.0 patch may be found here. The other two may be found here. Doing that should fix most crashes and freezes. If your game continues to freeze after installing these patches and updates, please post again and we'll see what we can do.

The above links point to other unofficial patches by kyrub and yitzi. Kyrub's patch improves the AI. Yitzi's patches work only with SMAX, so won't be useful for you. I suggest that you install the patches listed in the first paragraph of this post and make sure that your game runs correctly. You can then decide whther you want to install kyrub's patch. Additional discussion of these patches may be found here.

Hope this helps.

 

[Lagoon 59]

Started playing SMAC again after a couple of years absence and wanted to bring the game up to date with the latest unofficial bug fixes. I found this thread and tried to install the Windows XP/2000 patch (I am actually running 7 Home Premium but I assume that was correct) and then scient's unofficial patch 1.0 in that order (I already had 4.0 installed).

Something has gone horribly wrong as the game won't run at all nowl. I get an error message "Your cpu is not supported. You may attempt to play the game anyway; however crashes are possible" , and then it kicks me back to the desktop. My cpu is an Athlon II X2 2 although I suspect that won't be the problem.

Help please!

 

[Petek]

Sorry to hear that you're having a problem. Are you running just SMAC (the original game) and not SMAX (the expansion pack)? If so, then you appear to have installed the correct patches in the correct order. It's possible to eliminate the CPU not supported error by editing the ini file. However, scient's patch is supposed to suppress that message altogether, suggesting to me that something went wrong during the patching. The first thing I would check is that you installed the correct version of scient's patch. He created different patches for SMAC (terran.exe) and SMAX (terranx.exe). If you installed terranx.exe, then you wouldn't be running his patch for SMAC and you would get exactly the error message that you described. Please post again this suggestion doesn't help, or you need more advice.

(You are correct that the Win 2k/XP update should be applied to all modern OSs.)

 

[Lagoon 59]

Hi Petek
Thanks for your quick response and suggestions. I am only running SMAC and only installed the terran.exe patch so it sounds as though I have done something else wrong in the install. I wasn't able to check which version I was running before installing the 2K/XP update (I couldn't get the version number to display on screen), but as I had downloaded the v.4 patch a year or so ago (it is still shown in my downloads list) I am 99% sure that I had successfully patched the game at that time. Is there an obvious crash or error that I would have seen if I hadn't patched to v.4?

If that is not it, I assume I will have to uninstall and start over again (if my disc still works, of course). Any other suggestions gratefully received!

 

[Lagoon 59]

I managed to get the game running again and it looks as though the problem is that the 4.0 patch was downloaded but not properly installed last year. The game version number shows as 1.01i.

I've tried to install the 4.0 patch again but I get an error message when I unzip it:
"Can't create output file: c\Program Files\ Firaxis Games\ Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri\terran.exe"

Sorry to be dim, but can you let me know what I'm doing wrong please?

 

[Petek]

The "Can't create output file" error points to a permissions problem. Since you reverted back to version 1.01i, it sounds like you reinstalled the game from the original disc. Is that correct?

 

[Lagoon 59]

No, I didn't reinstall. I have now moved beyond he "can't create file" issue by changing my account to give administrator permissions. I think the problem must be that I haven't installed the 4.0 patch properly. The individual files all show a last modified date in 1999, which is probably too early for 4.0 but I'm struggling to see what I've done wrong. As far as I can see 4.0 overwrites the existing files when it is unzipped and I've done this three times but the game still shows v.1.01i.

 

[Petek]

The 4.0 files are indeed dated in 1999. Terran.exe from this patch is dated 6/8/1999. Is that what you've got in your SMAC folder?

 

[Lagoon 59]

It is, but the version number within the game definitely shows 1.01i.

 

[Petek]

What happens if you launch the game by double-clicking on the terran.exe referred to in the last two posts?

 

[Lagoon 59]

Thanks for your patience with this. If I try to launch from terran.exe the screen goes black, flashes once or twice as if a light coloured page is displayed momentarily, reverts to black and then leaves me looking at the Alpha Centauri file I.e. it won't run). I now have both versions of terran.exe in the folder and swap between them using temporary "original" and "scient" extensions but the result is the same, as above. The game does play if I launch it from the desktop shortcut, which is something, although it still shows v.1.01i.

 

[Petek]

I think that I've reproduced your problem. The 4.0 patch (file named smacp4.exe) installs, by default, to the folder C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. However, The default installation folder for SMAC is C:\Program Files (x86)\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. You probably have two installations: The "real" one in Program Files (x86) and a partial one in Program Files. When I run terran.exe from the partial installation in the Program Files folder, I see exactly the same behavior that you described.

Try running smacp4.exe again, but change the path to Program Files (x86). Then install the Win 2k/XP update and scient's patch to the correct folder. If this doesn't work, then you need to uninstall/ delete everything and start from scratch, assuming that your original installation disc still works.

(The smacp4.exe file probably defaults to the Program files folder because Program Files (x86) came later.)

 

[Lagoon 59]

It worked! Now shows version 5.0. Many thanks for sticking with this and sorting it out for me. Definitely above and beyond the call.

 

[Beeblbrox]

Hello, I have the Planetary Pack and have patched SMAC to 4.0 (17-May-1999) on my old XP box and with the VOxel-Old-Algorithm set to 1 it *seems* to run fine. Is there any real benefit/change to updating to the version I have installed from GoG (v5,.0 July 2002) on my new box? Is there any point installing the win2000/XP & Scient's patch? Or is the gameplay in 4.0 the same? The screen seems more 'solid' in the GoG version (there are some really fast refresh flickering aspect to my old version) will the patches make it more like that? I haven't checked the SMAX version yet... I ask because I am very much worried about avoiding reinstalling/breaking my installation, but I DO want the last word in the native game version....

Thanks for your time....