Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Firaxis Games
Genre: Sci-Fi Turn-Based Strategy
Release Date: Jan 31, 1999
ESRB Descriptors: Mild Animated Violence
Ever have one of those conversations about those magic games you decided to boot up before dinner, just to get a look at it, and the next thing you knew was 4 a.m. and you were still hungry? Invariably, in such conversations, Sid Meier's Civilization is cited as one of the worst offenders in creating "bleary-eyed next day at work, but boy was it fun" syndrome. Well, be warned: Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is another one of those games that can make hours pass like minutes, a game that makes you put a cooler full of sandwiches and sodas next to your computer desk so you don't have to get up all weekend.
Created by Brian Reynolds and Sid Meier, the team that brought us Civilization II, Alpha Centauri is clearly the spiritual sequel to that game. Civ II ends with you leaving behind the conflicts of Earth to make a new life on Alpha Centauri. This game picks up with a colony ship reaching that system, but it turns out that moving to the stars doesn't change mankind's basic nature. Before the colony ship lands, the crew splits up into seven factions with different priorities for the new world. Each decides to land on its own and try to remake the planet in its own philosophical image.
Thus, it turns out that life on the new planet is going to be much like the life man knew on Earth - exploring new territories, setting up colonies, and using diplomacy and war to deal with the other societies. To this effect, gamers will find that Alpha Centauri's gameplay looks and feels much like Civ II's. The map perspective is similar, the command interface is virtually identical, and there are nearly direct corollaries between some of the historical and science fiction elements of each game. Sure, mindworms may take the place of barbarians, and you may create Planetary Datalinks instead of the Great Library, but gameplay will feel instantly familiar to any Civ II player.
Minimum System Requirements
System: Pentium-133 or equivalent
RAM: 16 MB
Video Memory: 2 MB
Hard Drive Space: 60 MB
System: Pentium-133 or equivalent
RAM: 16 MB
Video Memory: 2 MB
Hard Drive Space: 60 MB
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