Just where are the save files?

[Marlowe13]

I'm sure this is an extremely dumb question, but does anyone know just where the save files for SMAC can be found under Vista? I've just started playing this again after many years and would like to delete some extraneous saves--but I can't find them! The ingame load screen clearly indicates that they are in a file named "saves" in the SMAC folder, but no such file appears to exist on my computer. I've run multiple searches for the saves, from the SMAC folder up to the whole C drive, with no luck. (BTW, it's annoyed me since Civ2 that Sid games do not allow you to delete saves ingame.) I know I am likely revealing my relative computer illiteracy, but can anyone help with this? Oh, and despite the dated graphics (which bother me hardly at all) and the the horribly unfriendly UI compared to subsequent Civs (which does), SMAC, is still a wonderful game.

 

[GooglyBoogly]

I am pretty sure that Vista has nothing to do with where the saves are located, since the game is so old. On my WinXP system, the saves are just in the ...\GAMENAME\Saves folder, as you would expect. Your file structure may have been corrupted at somepoint and this is preventing you from seeing the files. In that case I would recommend running a full scandisk, with the option to scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors selected.

 

[Bllasae]

I am pretty sure that Vista has nothing to do with where the saves are located, since the game is so old. On my WinXP system, the saves are just in the ...\GAMENAME\Saves folder, as you would expect. Your file structure may have been corrupted at somepoint and this is preventing you from seeing the files. In that case I would recommend running a full scandisk, with the option to scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors selected.

Either that or maybe it's a hidden folder. Go into your Folder Options in the Control Panel and change it from hidden to show.

 

[Petek]

Look in your Alpha Centauri.ini file. There should be a line that begins with Latest Save=. The rest of that line should display the path to the save files.

HTH

Petek

 

[ninebullets]

I have the same problem on vista. There are no hidden files and the "Latest Save=" line in Alpha Centauri.ini doesn't say anything else.

 

[Cutlass]

 

[Marlowe13]

I have the same problem on vista. There are no hidden files and the "Latest Save=" line in Alpha Centauri.ini doesn't say anything else.

Thanks. This tells me that I am not completely crazy or ignorant (or, if so, I'm not the only one ). After starting this post, I noticed that a saves folder had magically appeared in my SMAC folder. Unfortunately, the only thing it contained was an empty auto folder. The .ini file (which, BTW, was initially blank, since I looked at it after reading a possible way to get widescreen reolution for SMAC) but now had some settings. None of these settings included the path of the last save (or the setting which might allow widesrceen). FWIW, my folder options already were set to show all hidden folders, and a complete scan of my HD did fix one corrupted sector, but had no effect on the SMAC saves.

But wait. There's more. Thinking my initial install might have been bad, I completely deleted SMAC. Twice. But when I started to play, I found that the saves were all still there ingame (though could not see them and even the unhelpful the saves folder had gone completely missing again) and the changes I had made to default settings were still there (though the .ini folder was once again completely blank). So the saves and .ini settings appear to be somewhere other than the SMAC folder (though it makes no sense, especially in a game of its era). Then I proceeded to play a long game (I'm a turtler), winning a transcendence victory with the Peacekeepers (after passing up an earlier diplomatic victory). Since I didn't want to clutter up my drive with more undeletable saves, I depended on the autosave and overwriting existing saves (which meant the year was wrong in the save name). After over 300 turns, there was still no saves folder and the .ini file was totally blank. I can only guess that there is something in the structure of this old game that Vista and/or my computer just doesn't like.

BTW, playing SMAC is still a blast.

 

[DBear]

Check your compatibility files. That's where they tend to be on older games with Vista.

 

[IdaGno]

For a jaw-dropping surprize, ya might wanna run ToniArts EasyCleaner - Unnecessary Files - to see what a mess Firaxis makes of one's HD & registry.

http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm

 

[robert-ns]

Same thing happened to me. Found them here. Windows Vista premium home Edition 32 bit.

Go into tools select View and change donot show hidden files to show hidden files.
them navigate to
C:\users\Your computer Name\App Data\local\Virtual Store\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri\Saves\

 

[Gray_Lensman]

Easiest way to avoid "Where's My Files?" questions in Vista and now Windows 7, is to override the program/game installation folder to eliminate the .../Program Files/... placement. Microsoft in one of their normal flashes of stupidity thinks that they know better where to locate items in commonly named folders such as .../saves/... and tends to relocate them to the "My Documents" folder.

Depending on the program/game, this can just be an inconvenience or it can totally inhibit the ability of the program/game to even find it's own saved files. Why a company would design an operating system that would deliberately relocate a program's saved files is beyond me, but then that's our wonderful Microsoft! This did not happen under WinXP (or earlier) when the great majority of games were initially designed, so program/developers had no way to know that Microsoft was going to dislocate the location of pertinent files in later versions of Windows. At least they (Microsoft) only apply this stupidity to programs installed in the .../Program Files/... folder, but most users, not knowing any better, do not alter the default installation path of their programs.

 

[Kilkakon]

And people call me silly for not upgrading to Vista/7.

 

[beevis]

Just been having the same problem, another reason to hate vista even more than I already did.