Alpha Centauri Re-released by GOG

[Petek]

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (SMAC) has been re-released by Good Old Games. The game may be purchased and downloaded from this page and is free of DRM. This thread in the Alpha Centauri forum contains additional information and may be used for discussion or to pose questions. The Alien Crossfire add-on is not included with the download.

 

[dojoboy]

I own it, and expansion, for the Mac. Great game! Still play it throughout the year.

 

[GamezRule]

Hmm, I'll have to get it.

 

[RD-BH]

Already own SMAC/X x3 (a family favorite).
... crossfire is harder to find.
... why is it never included?

Don't own it? .. Check it out 8)

 

[Rub'Rum]

I was super happy when they announced the game was coming to gog. They almost always sell "gold" editions that include every x-pacs. So many years later, there is no point separating releases anymore. Very disappointed to see this is just the original game without the expansion.

 

[BSPollux]

Well xFire wasnt good anyway. AC is way better without all that trash added.

 

[CivCube]

They'll probably release it separately. GOG knows they've got a golden goose here, so why not make people pay twice?

 

[Rub'Rum]

Well xFire wasnt good anyway. AC is way better without all that trash added.

Some people think so but it's a minority opinion if you go look at the comments on gog.com

They'll probably release it separately. GOG knows they've got a golden goose here, so why not make people pay twice?

They have a LOT of golden geese and they usually don't separate x-pac from vanilla.

 

[White Elk]

I'm so very glad that SMAC is on GOG!

Clearly people want SMAX as well. There is much conversation about that. If GOG can get it, I'm sure they will. I'm just guessing, but from GOG's history versus EA's history, it seems to me that EA is holding it up. Who knows what goes on in the minds of those people. Idn't it better to sell it than sit on it?

Here's my take on whats happened...

 

[Rub'Rum]

lol, nice one

 

[mamba]

Well xFire wasnt good anyway. AC is way better without all that trash added.

Actually I quite liked it. I did like the alien factions and esp. how they communicated. If they bundle it / make it available, I probably will buy it, otherwise I won't.

Does anyone know if this is the original game or if they changed it to work with Win 7 ?

 

[Petek]

Actually I quite liked it. I did like the alien factions and esp. how they communicated. If they bundle it / make it available, I probably will buy it, otherwise I won't.

Does anyone know if this is the original game or if they changed it to work with Win 7 ?

GOG's SMAC is the original release, patched to version 5.0. Some, but not all, Win 7 systems have problems running the game. It runs on my Win7 x64 system fine.

 

[Broken Hawk]

Finally and for only 6 bucks!!! Why fuss over the exclusion of SMAX? I'll gladly pay for it at a similar price.

 

[Rub'Rum]

Finally and for only 6 bucks!!! Why fuss over the exclusion of SMAX? I'll gladly pay for it at a similar price.

Price isn't the question. I'd rather see SMAC/SMAX at 10$ than just SMAC at 5$. And as far as I know, they don't split releases of old games (you won't see on gog.com a game and its expansion pack as different buyable things). That's because they're oldish games and there is often no point playing them without the expansions since the x-packs often have patches and fixes to the vanilla version.

I've bought games on gog.com that I already had solely based on the fact that I could stop worrying about CDs and DVDs and patching, just have backups on my hard drives. Ease of install and carry, on the fly "let's install this". Not gonna happen if the X-packs are missing. gog.com is also known to provide "gold" or "complete" editions of almost every game they release. Why an exception here? EA.

 

[skdyer]

I have two "conspiracy" theories on this:

#1: EA is launching their own digital distribution store soon. Maybe they are keeping the complete version for their own platform.

#2: As many of you are aware, prior to this re-release on GOG, the only source of SMAC was from Sold-Out software (which can be had via Amazon). I wonder if EA signed some sort of "exclusive" distribution agreement with sold-out and the only way to get around that was to only allow GOG to sell SMAC without SMAX.

I guess I am a bit skeptical of theory #2 though since GOG does not seem to be releasing expansion packs for any EA games, even though not all of them are sold through Sold-Out.

So perhaps greedy, greedy, evil, evil EA is holding out the complete version for their hopefully terrible Origin platform?

Any other theories?

 

[RD-BH]

Just one more theory
... a problem getting clear title on the the SMAX property.

 

[TheDS]

It's been so long since I played, I remember playing SMAC a ton, and not long after I got SMACX I stopped playing. All I recall is that it added 7 more factions, two of which were aliens, and all of which were unbalanced. Any other changes of significance?