Does anyone remember Alpha Centauri?

[Nater]

Awhile ago when Civilization 5 was announce, I was fairly disappointed because although I like the play mechanics, I'm sick of repeating world history, I didn't even bother to play Civ 4 and probably won't play Civ 5 because I'm that disinterested. I figured I dig up my copy of Alpha Centauri. I've been playing it for the last couple of days. I've played through to victory several times since it came out in 1999 and I still don't have a lot of the games depth explored.

I really wish Sid Meier, or whoever makes games in his name, would revisit this game again instead of doing Civilization 6 or whatnot. Researching high temperature superconductors and space elevators is a lot more fun than learning about fire for the fifth time. Not to mention that dividing factions along ideology is a lot more interesting and effective than nation states. The futuristic technology also closes that big plot hole that your leader lives for hundreds or thousands of years. It's also much cooler to sneak a couple transports loaded with Planet Busters next to an unsuspecting rival and wipe half his cities off the map.

[Spaceman Spiff]

I remember it. I've owned it since release day. Still have the original box.

I never got into it nearly as much as the Civilization games, but even they are a little repetitive now.
More depth is better, and I find myself enjoying the Paradox grand strategy games far more (Hearts of Iron, Rome, Europa Universalis). More restrictive scope and scale, but vastly deeper and more rewarding once you learn it.

[Kamakazie]

Alpha Centauri is still my favorite Civilization game and mostly due to the fact that it's sci-fi. I remember hearing a while back that the reason why there's no sequel is because EA owns the rights to the franchise and Sid Meier/Firaxis are part of 2k Games.

[Nater]

EA owns the name or EA owns the IP for any sci-fi themed Civilization game? I have a hard time believing that Sid Meier (already pretty big in the late '90s) would have signed on to that.

[Moridin]

I’ve always liked Alpha Centauri but I’ve always found the tech paths to cryptic and that’s it’s too dependant on starting position. IMO the best “Civ like” game ever is Master of Magic. There were just so many permutations of race, unit, leader that people were still discovering new strategies and combinations (like invisible flying warships) years after it was released.

[Nater]

Yeah, starting position does matter a lot. That said, 'starting position' does matter a lot for real countries too. Except for Japan, apparently. Their starting position wasn't so good.

[Lee_T]

Masters of Magic was awesome but I'm more of a sci fi guy so my personal "civ like" dream is to have a new souped up Ascendancy or Star Trek : Birth of the Federation.

A friend of mine, old fan of Masters of Magic too, said that it might be worth checking out the upcoming Elemental by Stardock.

[Spaceman Spiff]

I always found the Master of Orion games to quench my sci-fi grand strategy cravings the best. They didn't quite have the depth of the Civ games, but they were a total blast.

Now, the Galactic Civilizations games are the obvious successor and easily one of the best grand strategy games on the market, certainly if space/sci-fi is your thing.

[senorgotti]

I always found the Master of Orion games to quench my sci-fi grand strategy cravings the best. They didn't quite have the depth of the Civ games, but they were a total blast.

Now, the Galactic Civilizations games are the obvious successor and easily one of the best grand strategy games on the market, certainly if space/sci-fi is your thing.

Never played Gal Civ but I love Sins of a Solar Empire. I should play that more.

Alpha Centauri was dope btw, but the tech trees were kind of confusing.

[rimmerchant]

never played it but when it came out it had very good reviews

Sid Miller is a master of strategy games.

I remember playing Pirates back ardound 1991 on my 286 PC

[Kamakazie]

I'm surprised nobody ever mentions Sid Meier's SimGolf, the marriage of Sid Meier and Will Wright. That game was excellent!

[Kung_Fu_Fighter]

Loved it and the only thing that keeps me from playing it more is the annoying red planet fungus that pops up so frequently in the end game, unless there is a patch that lets you turn it off? It's been a while since I checked.