Running Alpha Centauri on Mac OS X
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is one of my favorite games. It came out in 1999, before Mac OS X existed and when Intel Macs were still heresy. Like so many great old games, it has not been updated for modern systems, and does not run out of the box on a new Mac. I used to play a Windows copy under emulation or via Boot Camp, but have found that it is actually possible to run the game on a modern Intel Mac with the original game disc and an unofficial Carbon beta in the following fashion.
- Download the Carbon beta from Brad Oliver's blog
- Decompress the archive (The Unarchiver can open StuffIt archives) and move the "SMAC Carbon" folder wherever you want it to live.
- Insert the Alpha Centauri for Macintosh CD. The installer will not run without Classic, making it useless on Intel Macs. However, all that needs to be done in order to install the game is to copy the Data folder from the game disc into the SMAC Carbon folder.
- Launch SMAC Carbon and hold down the Command key to bring up the Options window. I have been able to run the beta on 10.5 in full screen mode successfully, but on 10.6 a bizarre pointer bug emerges — the mouse (or trackpad in my case) works, but the pointer icon doesn't move — unless the game is run in windowed mode. I have also experienced crashes related to the game's movies, which may be remedied by turning them off in the Options window or telling the game not to change resolutions.
The game is quirky and does crash occasionally. It tends to hike the sound volume really high (really high — remove headphones while the initial crash-landing video plays). Animations hang for a few seconds or fail to display. Etc. (I've yet to attempt the allegedly working multiplayer). Despite these flaws, though, the game works enough to be playable on a new MacBook Pro with Leopard/Snow Leopard, letting me get my fix of Chaos Penetrator rushes.
David Reed | 05-12-2010 | permanent link
