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Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri™Technology behind Mac version(9 posts)(9 posts)
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Posted February 15, 2013
Alpha Centauri was originally released as a Windows game right? What technology is behind the Mac port here?

Most of the Mac games on GoG are DOS games, running in the really rather elegant Boxer. Is this as nice?
Posted February 16, 2013
How would I know, I don't have a mac.
I also don't think Alpha Centauri could be made into a DOSbox game.
Post edited February 16, 2013 by BlaneckW
Posted February 17, 2013
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BlaneckW: How would I know, I don't have a mac.
I also don't think Alpha Centauri could be made into a DOSbox game.
No, that's the point. If it's a Windows game. it won't run in DOSbox. Hoping someone who does have a Mac can say something about the quality of the port.

And, if I'm honest, hoping if this can be done then Planescape, The Longest Journey and System Shock 2 might be possibilities also.
Posted February 17, 2013
Not knowing much about Mac, maybe you can install a linux variant and play games on that.
I imagine that the port is decent enough. Otherwise you can help them smooth it out. They seem to be helpful enough.
Post edited February 17, 2013 by BlaneckW
Posted February 17, 2013
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somnolentsurfer: Alpha Centauri was originally released as a Windows game right?
It was also released on Mac and Linux.
Posted February 17, 2013
I'd only played the Windows version of this (using BootCamp) since I wasn't sure the Mac version included Alien Crossfire. Anyway, this post got me curious enough to download the Mac version and fire it up. It appears to be the Windows version of both SMAC and SMACX (you pick which to run when it starts up), running in a Wineskin wrapper. It is fairly elegant, and appears to look as nice as what Windows users get (being the same version) though nowhere as pretty as Boxer or Boxer-based GOG Mac games.

I haven't played it enough to compare performance between the two (so far I've only played through part of a scenario on the Mac side just to check that the game runs), but it seems as responsive to me as the Windows version (note the first launch of the game seemed slow, but subsequent launches were quick enough).

While this means none of those gorgeous shader effects we enjoy from Boxer, I did manage to enable the tweak that Windows users can use to make the game run at native resolution. To do this with the Mac version requires a couple of extra steps, but is still fairly easy:

[Sorry, GOG's forums are rejecting my detailed instructions, saying "You cannot post any links at this moment". There are no links in my instructions--what gives, GOG? Anyway, short version: open the application package; inside is the Wineskin application; launch that and change the screen settings to Current Resolution (default is 1024x768); then edit the INI file as per the usual Windows instructions.]

Note that some Windows users report this tweak makes the game unstable for them. I've never encountered problems with it on either the Windows side or the Mac side, but YMMV of course.

I hope this is helpful!
Post edited February 17, 2013 by Llandru
Posted February 17, 2013
Update: sound and music appear to be very flaky for me in the Mac version. I don't think it's the resolution tweak, as I reverted all settings and still experienced the same. I'm sending a bug report to GOG, as the only posted solution I found (setting ds3d=0 and eax=0 in the INI file) had no effect.
Posted February 18, 2013
The music gets repetitive anyway. What I'd be more interested in is finding out is what file the music is in.
Posted February 18, 2013
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Llandru: It appears to be the Windows version of both SMAC and SMACX (you pick which to run when it starts up), running in a Wineskin wrapper. It is fairly elegant, and appears to look as nice as what Windows users get (being the same version) though nowhere as pretty as Boxer or Boxer-based GOG Mac games.
Thanks Llandru, that's helpful! I guess that means GoG are looking at porting Windows games, as well as DOS games; which means a lot of exciting potential!

I'd not realised this originally had a Linux release, Mephe. A 1999 Mac OS release isn't that relevant to getting something on Mac today as the underlying technology has changed so much. A Linux release could be though, which might be why they chose this as a first candidate for porting. Does anyone know if the original Linux release was native, or if that used Wine as well?
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Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri™Technology behind Mac version(9 posts)(9 posts)
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