Welcome to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri! Please read the file "Alpha Centauri Demo Quick Start" for an introduction to playing the game.
System Requirements:
• MacOS 7.6 or later.
• A PowerPC Macintosh, 180MHz 603 or better.
• 32 Megabytes of free memory (you may need to enable virtual memory).
• A monitor and video card capable of 800x600 at 256 colors.
• DrawSprocket 1.1.4 or later. DrawSprocket is availabe from Apple's website at http://asu.info.apple.com. Search for "sprocket" to get to the download page.
• QuickTime 3.0 or later. Note that SMAC uses QuickTime 4 to play some sound files, so it is highly recommended that you get the latest version.
Optional:
• QuickTime 4.0 or later is strongly recommended. You can upgrade by visiting Apple's webpage at http://www.apple.com/quicktime.
• A monitor and video card capable of 1024x768 at 256 colors.
• A 2-button mouse. For best results, program the right button to generate a control-click using the configuration program that comes with your 2-button mouse.
• DrawSprocket 1.7 or later highly recommended.
• NetSprocket 1.7 or later for network play (release version only).
Ordering:
Alpha Centauri is available at all your favorite Mac resellers, on-line at WWW.ASPYR.COM or by calling us toll-free at 888-21-ASPYR (888-212-7797). International customers please call 512-708-8100. You can also use the bookmark file which comes in the demo distribution called "Aspyr Media".
Tech Support/Reporting Problems:
This demo of the Macintosh version of Alpha Centauri is intended to give you an introduction to the gameplay and give you an idea of what the full version of Alpha Centauri will be like.
While every attempt has been made to assure that the demo you are playing will be a pleasant experience, be aware that there may be some issues which haven't been caught yet because the game is not yet final. As such, you may notice things in the demo which behave differently from the shipping version, and vice versa.
If you encounter a problem with this demo version of Alpha Centauri, we encourage you to report it so that we may improve the product and try to resolve any issues which may come up. The following are ways you can report problems with the demo of Alpha Centauri:
e-mail: info@aspyr.com (Aspyr tech support)
e-mail: bradman@pobox.com (Brad Oliver, programmer for Westlake Interactive)
phone: 512-708-8100 (Aspyr phone support)
Known Issues and Troubleshooting Tips:
We know of a few issues of which you should be aware.
• Some sounds may chop off at the very beginning. If you experience this problem, turn "Virtual Memory" off in the Memory control panel, located under your Apple menu. If you have RAM Doubler™ installed, disabling it will also alleviate this problem.
• The game displays visual anomalies around the edges of the display or the game is not centered on the monitor. This is due to the resolution and frequency that SMAC runs in. If you experience this, most likely you have never run your monitor using that res or frequency. If your monitor supports adjusting the size and centering of your screen, you can adjust them and it should take effect automatically each time you run SMAC from here on out. If that doesn't work, you may need to alter the monitor settings manually by holding down the "option" key when SMAC starts up.
• You get a black screen at startup. If you encounter this, hold down the "option" key while Alpha Centauri is starting up. When you see the "Options" window, try choosing a lower refresh rate for your monitor instead of "Auto."
Version History
1.4b6 DEMO - 27 January 2000
• Double-clicking or dragging a save file onto the application will autostart that saved game.
• Added watch cursor to startup/shutdown.
• SMAC copes much better with low memory situations. Now it gives you a fighting chance to save your game before it run out of memory.
• Fullscreen (DrawSprocket) mode now supports screenshots via Command-Shift-3.
• Fixed problems with crashing/lockups on startup. Also removed necessity for text files to be in DOS format, so you shouldn't have to tinker with the Stuffit file conversion settings (although it won't hurt to have it never convert).
• Increased speed and responsiveness across the board. The game should perform much better in most cases now.
• Fixed issue where it would crash your Mac hard in mid-game, usually when it was preparing to throw up a message window (e.g. contacting a faction or working in the design workshop).
• Fixed issue where on some multiple monitor systems, you had to click on a different monitor to have the mouse clicks register in the game window.
• Fixed problems with anti-aliased text drawing poorly. If you still experience this problem and you use ATM, the only solution is to disable the feature from within ATM.
• Added code to set the refresh rate for those systems that cannot determine the proper rates or those which switch to invalid screen settings. Hold down the "option" key when SMAC is starting up to adjust this.
• No longer generates a "logfile.txt" file.
• Quickstart games now remember and use the settings of the last game played.
• Fixed an issue with auto-saves, and included a "Saves" folder in the demo distribution to take advantage of this feature.
• Shortened the default save game name to fit in the Mac's 31-charater filename limit.
• Fixed missing crash animation when using DrawSprocket and 800x600 fullscreen.
• Fleshed out the code to run SMAC in a window. It plays nice with others, but the Mac menubar is pretty much a wasteland. This option will likely remain unsupported for the near future until full QA is done on it.
• Fixed issue with dragging game windows in DrawSprocket off the edge of the screen. They render properly now.
• Machines without hardware cursor support (some PowerBooks and older PowerMacs) would leave blobs when rendering while DrawSprocket was active. Added workaround that should prevent this, at the cost of some minor flickering in the cursor.
