Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (with LIFLG installer) - Le Bottin des Jeux Linux

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (with LIFLG installer)

🗃️ Specifications

📰 Title: Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (with LIFLG installer) 🕹️ / 🛠️ Type: Game
🗃️ Genre: Strategy 🚦 Status: 04. Released (status)
🏷️ Category: Strategy ➤ Wargame (on map) ➤ Economy ➤ Civilization, Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, ... 🌍️ Browser version:
🔖 Tags: Civilization; Strategy; 4X; Action; Exploration; Tactical; Economy; Diplomacy; Trading; Political; Sci-fi; Tech tree; Replay Value; Classic; Open World 📦️ Package Name:
🐣️ Approx. start: 1999-02-12 📦️ Arch package:
🐓️ Latest: 1999-02-12 📦️ RPM package:
📍️ Version: Latest: - 📦️ Deb package:
🏛️ License type: 💰 Commercial 📦️ Flatpak package:
🏛️ License: Commercial 📦️ AppImage package:
🏝️ Perspective: Bird's-eye view 📦️ Snap package:
👁️ Visual: Free-roaming camera ⚙️ Generic binary: ✓
⏱️ Pacing: Simultaneous Turn-Based 📄️ Source:
👫️ Played: Single 📱️ PDA support:
🎖️ This record: 5 stars 🕳️ Not used:
🎀️ Game design: 👫️ Contrib.: goupildb & Louis
🎰️ ID: 12802 🐛️ Created: 2010-08-20
🐜️ Updated: 2023-01-08

📖️ Summary

[en]: A science fiction 4X Turn-Based strategy video game, the sequel to the Civilization series [fr]: Alpha Centauri est la suite de Civilization II, un jeu de type 4X dont l'objectif est de faire fructifier votre civilisation

🎥️ Videos

🎲️ Gameplay: (202xxx), (202xxx), [fr](202xxx),


🎙️ Dev Interviews:

🕸️ Links

🏡️ Website & videos
[Homepage 1 2] [Dev site] [Features/About] [Screenshots] [Videos t(202xxx) t(202xxx) t(202xxx) r(202xxx) r(202xxx) r[fr](202xxx) r(202xxx) r(202xxx) g(202xxx)] [WIKI] [FAQ] [RSS] [Changelog 1 2 3]

💰 Commercial: [GOG (Windows, for contents extraction)]

🍩️ Resources
• Linux Installer For Linux Gamers (LIFLG, require the commercial Windows game): [Binaries (Mirror, thanks to HOLaRSE)] [Dev site]
• Linux demo: [Lokigames (Linux demo)]

🛠️ Technical informations
[Open Hub] [PCGamingWiki] [MobyGames] [Cheat code central (Cheat code)] [Gros Pixels (Civilization) [fr]]

🐘 Social
Devs (Firaxis Games / 2K Games [fr] [en]): [Site 1 2] [Chat] [Forums] [mastodon] [twitter] [Facebook] [PeerTube] [YouTube] [PressKit] [Interview 1(202xxx) 2(202xxx)]
(Alpha Centauri) Devs (Sid Meier [fr] [en]): [Site 1 2] [MobyGames] [Chat] [mastodon] [twitter] [PeerTube] [YouTube] [PressKit] [Interview 1(201610) 2(201503) 3(201308)]
(Alpha Centauri) Devs (Brian Reynolds [fr] [en]): [Site 1 2] [MobyGames] [Chat] [mastodon] [twitter] [PeerTube] [YouTube] [PressKit] [Interview 1(200002) 2(202xxx)]
Devs (Loki Software [fr] [en]): [Site 1 2] [Chat] [mastodon] [twitter] [PeerTube] [YouTube] [PressKit] [Interview 1(199908) 2(202xxx)]
The Project: [Blog] [Chat] [Forums] [mastodon] [twitter] [PeerTube] [YouTube] [PressKit] [reddit] [Discord]

🐝️ Related
[Wikipedia (Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri) [fr] [en] [de]]
[Wikipedia (Civilization) [fr] [en] [de]]


📦️ Misc. repositories
[Repology] [pkgs.org] [Arch Linux / AUR] [openSUSE] [Debian/Ubuntu] [Flatpak] [AppImage] [Snap] [PortableLinuxGames]

🕵️ Reviews


📰 News / Source of this Entry (SotE) / News (SotN)


🕊️ Source of this Entry: [Site on Mastodon (date)]

🐘 Social Networking Update (on Mastodon)

🕹️ Title:
🦊️ What's:
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🔖
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📖 Our entry: http://www.lebottindesjeuxlinux.tuxfamily.org/en/online/lights-on/

🥁️ Update:
⚗️
📌️ Changes:
🐘 From:

🏝️ https://invidious.lunar.icu/
🦉️ https://invidious.lunar.icu/
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🎲️ https://invidious.lunar.icu/
🎲️ https://invidious.lunar.icu/
🎲️[fr] https://invidious.lunar.icu/
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🐧 https://invidious.lunar.icu/
🐧 https://invidious.lunar.icu/

📕 Description [en]

🌍️ Wikipedia:

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is a video game in the 4X genre which is considered a spiritual sequel to the Civilization series. Set in a science fiction depiction of the 22nd century, the game begins as seven competing ideological factions land on the planet Chiron ("Planet") in the Alpha Centauri star system. As the game progresses, Planet's growing sentience becomes a formidable obstacle to the human colonists.

Sid Meier, designer of Civilization, and Brian Reynolds, designer of Civilization II, developed Alpha Centauri after they left MicroProse to join the newly created developer Firaxis Games. Electronic Arts released both Alpha Centauri and its expansion, Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire, in 1999. The following year, Aspyr Media ported both titles to Classic Mac OS while Loki Software ported them to Linux.

Alpha Centauri features improvements on Civilization II's game engine, including simultaneous multiplay, social engineering, climate, customizable units, alien native life, additional diplomatic and spy options, additional ways to win, and greater mod-ability. Alien Crossfire introduces five new human and two non-human factions, as well as additional technologies, facilities, secret projects, native life, unit abilities, and a victory condition.

The game received wide critical acclaim, being compared favorably to Civilization II. Critics praised its science fiction storyline (comparing the plot to works by Stanley Kubrick, Frank Herbert, Arthur C. Clarke, and Isaac Asimov), the in-game writing, the voice acting, the user-created custom units, and the depth of the technology tree. Alpha Centauri also won several awards for best game of the year and best strategy game of the year.

Synopsis

Setting

Space-race victories in the Civilization series conclude with a journey to Alpha Centauri. Beginning with that premise the Alpha Centauri narrative starts in the 22nd century, after the United Nations sends "Unity", a colonization mission, to Alpha Centauri's planet Chiron ("Planet"). Unbeknownst to humans, advanced extraterrestrials ("Progenitors") had been conducting experiments in vast distributed nervous systems, culminating in planetary biosphere-sized presentient nervous system ("Manifold") on Chiron, leaving behind monoliths and artifacts on Planet to guide and examine the system's growth. Immediately prior to the start of the game, a reactor malfunction on the Unity spacecraft wakes the crew and colonists early and irreparably severs communications with Earth. After the captain is assassinated, the most powerful leaders on board build ideological factions with dedicated followers, conflicting agendas for the future of mankind, and "desperately serious" commitments. As the ship breaks up, seven escape pods, each containing a faction, are scattered across Planet.

In the Alien Crossfire expansion pack, it is learned that earlier alien experiments had led to disastrous consequences at Tau Ceti, creating a hundred-million-year evolutionary cycle that ended with the eradication of most complex animal life in several neighbouring inhabited star systems. After the disaster (referred to by Progenitors as "Tau Ceti Flowering"), the Progenitors split into two factions: Manifold Caretakers, opposed to further experimentation and dedicated to preventing another Flowering; and Manifold Usurpers, favoring further experimentation and intending to induce a controlled Flowering in Alpha Centauri's Planet. In Alien Crossfire, these factions compete along with the human factions for control over the destiny of Planet.

Characters

The game focuses on the leaders of seven factions, chosen by the player from the 14 possible leaders in Alpha Centauri and Alien Crossfire, and Planet (voiced by Alena Kanka). The characters are developed from the faction leaders' portraits, the spoken monologues accompanying scientific discoveries and the "photographs in the corner of a commlink – home towns, first steps, first loves, family, graduation, spacewalk." The leaders in Alpha Centauri comprise:

• Lady Deirdre Skye (voiced by Carolyn Dahl) of Gaia's Stepdaughters, Scottish activist and former U.N.S. Unity xenobiologist
• Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang (voiced by Lu Yu) of the Human Hive, former scholar, military officer and U.N.S. Unity Chief of Security and executive officer. Has a propensity for Chinese Legalism.
• Academician Prokhor Zakharov (voiced by Yuri Nesteroff) of the University of Planet, a Russian academic and former U.N.S. Unity science officer
• CEO Nwabudike Morgan (voiced by Regi Davis), of Morgan Industries, a Namibian diamond tycoon who funded the U.N.S. Unity mission
• Colonel Corazon Santiago (voiced by Wanda Niño), of the Spartan Federation, a Puerto Rican militiawoman and former U.N.S. Unity security officer
• Sister Miriam Godwinson (voiced by Gretchen Weigel), of the Lord's Believers, an American minister and social psychologist and former U.N.S. chaplain; and
• Commissioner Pravin Lal (voiced by Hesh Gordon), of the Peacekeeping Forces, an Indian surgeon and diplomat .

The player controls one of the leaders and competes against the others to colonize and conquer Planet. The Datalinks (voiced by Robert Levy and Katherine Ferguson) are minor characters who provide information to the player. Each faction excels at one or two important aspects of the game and follows a distinct philosophical belief, such as technological utopianism, Conclave Christianity, "free-market" capitalism, militarist survivalism, Chinese Legalism, U.N. Charter humanitarianism, or Environmentalist Gaia philosophy. The game takes place on Planet, with its "rolling red ochre plains" and "bands of lonely terraformed green".

The seven additional faction leaders in Alien Crossfire are:

• Prime Function Aki Zeta-Five (voiced by Allie Rivenbark), of The Cybernetic Consciousness, a Norwegian research assistant-turned-cyborg
• Captain Ulrik Svensgaard (voiced by James Liebman), of The Nautilus Pirates, an American fisherman and naval officer
• Foreman Domai (voiced by Frederick Serafin), of The Free Drones, an Australian labor leader
• Datajack Sinder Roze (voiced by Christine Melton), of The Data Angels, a Trinidadian hacker
• Prophet Cha Dawn (voiced by Stacy Spenser) of The Cult of Planet;, a human born on Planet
• Guardian Lular H'minee (voiced by Jeff Gordon), of The Manifold Caretakers, a Progenitor leader, and
• Conqueror Judaa Maar (voiced by Jeff Gordon), of The Manifold Usurpers, a Progenitor leader.

Plot

The story unfolds via the introduction video, explanations of new technologies, videos obtained for completing secret projects, interludes, and cut-scenes. The native life consists primarily of simple wormlike alien parasites and a type of red fungus that spreads rapidly via spores. The fungus is difficult to traverse, provides invisibility for the enemy, provides few resources, and spawns "mindworms" that attack population centres and military units by neurally parasitising them. Mindworms can eventually be captured and bred in captivity and used as terroristic bioweapons, and the player eventually discovers that the fungus and mindworms can think collectively.

A voice intrudes into the player's dreams and soon waking moments, threatening more attacks if the industrial pollution and terraforming by the colonists is not reversed. The player discovers that Planet is a dormant semi-sentient hive organism that will soon experience a metamorphosis which will destroy all human life. To counter this threat, the player or a computer faction builds "The Voice of Alpha Centauri" secret project, which artificially links Planet's distributed nervous system into the human Datalinks, delaying Planet's metamorphosis into full self-awareness but incidentally increasing its ultimate intelligence substantially by giving it access to all of humanity's accumulated knowledge. Finally, the player or a computer faction embraces the "Ascent to Transcendence" in which humans too join their brains with the hive organism in its metamorphosis to godhood. Thus, Alpha Centauri closes "with a swell of hope and wonder in place of the expected triumphalism", reassuring "that the events of the game weren’t the entirety of mankind’s future, but just another step."

Gameplay

Alpha Centauri, a turn-based strategy game with a science fiction setting, is played from an isometric perspective. Many game features from Civilization II are present, but renamed or slightly tweaked: players establish bases (Civilization II's cities), build facilities (buildings) and secret projects (Wonders of the World), explore territory, research technology, and conquer other factions (civilizations). In addition to conquering all non-allied factions, players may also win by obtaining votes from three quarters of the total population (similar to Civilization IV's Diplomatic victory), "cornering the Global Energy Market", completing the Ascent to Transcendence secret project, or for alien factions, constructing six Subspace Generators.

The main map (the upper two thirds of the screen) is divided into squares, on which players can establish bases, move units and engage in combat. Through terraforming, players may modify the effects of the individual map squares on movement, combat and resources. Resources are used to feed the population, construct units and facilities, and supply energy. Players can allocate energy between research into new technology and energy reserves. Unlike Civilization II, new technology grants access to additional unit components rather than pre-designed units, allowing players to design and re-design units as their factions' priorities shift. Energy reserves allow the player to upgrade units, maintain facilities, and attempt to win by the Global Energy Market scenario. Bases are military strongpoints and objectives that are vital for all winning strategies. They produce military units, house the population, collect energy, and build secret projects and Subspace Generators. Facilities and secret projects improve the performance of individual bases and of the entire faction.

In addition to terraforming, optimizing individual base performance and building secret projects, players may also benefit their factions through social engineering, probe teams, and diplomacy. Social engineering modifies the ideologically based bonuses and penalties forced by the player's choice of faction. Probe teams can sabotage and steal information, units, technology, and energy from enemy bases, while diplomacy lets the player create coalitions with other factions. It also allows the trade or transfer of units, bases, technology and energy. The Planetary Council, similar to the United Nations Security Council, takes Planet-wide actions and determines population victories.

In addition to futuristic technological advances and secret projects, the game includes alien life, structures and machines. "Xenofungus" and "sea fungus" provide movement, combat, and resource penalties, as well as concealment for "mind worms" and "spore launchers". Immobile "fungal towers" spawn native life. Native life, including the seaborne "Isles of the Deep" and "Sealurks" and airborne "Locusts of Chiron", use psionic combat, an alternate form of combat which ignores weapons and armor. Monoliths repair units and provide resources; artifacts yield new technology and hasten secret projects; landmarks provide resource bonuses; and random events add danger and opportunity. Excessive development leads to terraforming-destroying fungus blooms and new native life.

Alpha Centauri provides a single player mode and supports customization and multiplayer. Players may customize the game by choosing options at the beginning of the game, using the built-in scenario and map editors, and modifying Alpha Centauri's game files. In addition to a choice of seven (or 14 in Alien Crossfire) factions, pre-game options include scenario game, customized random map, difficulty level, and game rules that include victory conditions, research control, and initial map knowledge. The scenario and map editors allow players to create customized scenarios and maps. The game's basic rules, diplomatic dialog, and the factions' starting abilities are in text files, which "the designers have done their best to make it reasonably easy to modify..., even for non-programmers." Alpha Centauri supports play by email ("PBEM") and TCP/IP mode featuring simultaneous movement, and introduces direct player-to-player negotiation, allowing the unconstrained trade of technology, energy, maps, and other elements.

📕 Description [fr]

Un jeu de type 4X dont l'objectif est de faire fructifier votre civilisation, par Sid Meier et Brian Reynolds pour le studio Firaxis Games, portage Linux par le studio Loki Software.

Alpha Centauri est la suite de Civilization II, un jeu de type 4X dont l'objectif est de faire fructifier votre civilisation, par le studio Firaxis Games (porté sous Linux par le studio Loki Software).

Cette suite démarre avec la colonisation humaine de la planète Chiron, située dans le système d’Alpha du Centaure.

Différences principales entre Colonization et Civilization (inspiré de la page Wikipedia En) :

Les jeux Colonization et Civilization sont assez semblables en apparence et par leur mécanique au tour par tour, mais diffèrent par leur gameplay.
• Civilization a été développé par Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley en 1991 pour le compte du studio MicroProse. Le joueur est déjà établi sur la carte, son objectif est de développer / forger son empire / sa civilisation en compétition avec 2 à 6 autres civilisations dirigées par l'ordinateur ou d'autres joueurs, en démarrant avec presque rien (1 ou 2 colons) en 4000 avant Jésus Christ, jusqu'en des temps futuristes (en 2100). Le jeu peut être gagné soit en détruisant toutes les autres civilisations, soit en étant la première civilisation à atteindre la planète Alpha Centauri.
• Colonization a été développé par Sid Meier and Brian Reynolds un peu plus tard, en 1994, également pour le compte du studio MicroProse. Il ressemble à Civilization, mais s'en distingue par son gameplay. Dans Colonization, le jeu se déroule Outre-Atlantique en 1492 pour se finir en 1850. Le joueur dirige l'expansion de sa colonie (Française, Anglaise, Néerlandaise ou Espagnole) au service de la couronne, les autres nations étant dirigées par l'ordinateur. A mesure que les colonies deviennent auto-suffisantes, elles se rebellent, et pour gagner le joueur devra déclarer l'indépendance et dans un combat mettre en défaite les forces expéditionnaires Royales. Le joueur voyage avec 2 unités à bord d'un navire vers des terres inconnues, la carte se révèle peu à peu, le nouveau monde est découvert, il rencontre les Indiens, une colonie est fondée, les colons commencent à modifier leur environnement pour améliorer leur productivité, le vaisseau est renvoyé en Europe pour rapporter davantage de colons. Le jeu accorde une part très importante à la production alimentaire, à l'industrie et au commerce de marchandises. Les ressources tirées de la terre sont converties en produits de base et sont utilisées ou vendues.


🌍️ Wikipedia:

Jeu de gestion et de stratégie en tour par tour, créé par Sid Meier, Alpha Centauri repose sur une hypothétique colonisation humaine de la planète Chiron, située dans le système d’Alpha du Centaure.

Alpha Centauri peut être considéré comme la suite du jeu Civilization, dont l’objectif final était d’envoyer un vaisseau coloniser le système d’Alpha Centauri. Selon l’histoire, le vaisseau spatial transportant les colons est victime d’un avarie peu avant son arrivée, obligeant les humains jusqu’alors unis à se diviser en sept factions rivales caractérisées par des idéologies différentes et dont les objectifs et les capacités divergent. Chacune des factions parvient à quitter le navire et à gagner la surface de Chiron à bord d’un module de survie.

Bien que le jeu ait bénéficié d'une excellente réception critique, il est celui de la série Civilization qui s'est le moins bien vendu.

Déroulement du jeu

Le jeu débute en 2100. À chaque tour ou année, chacune des 7 factions organise son activité, les déplacements de ses unités (civiles ou de combats). Le jeu s'arrête lorsqu'une des factions domine les autres, soit par ses conquêtes, son économie, ses recherches et le développement de technologies ou lorsque l'on atteint une date déterminée (2600).

En tant que jeu de mise en place des civilisations, il offre la possibilité au joueur de définir lui-même son objectif final, orientant celui-ci vers des objectifs de victoire diplomatique, économique, par conquête ou par transcendance.

Au cours du jeu, le joueur se glisse dans la peau du leader d’une des sept factions, et essaie de développer sa colonie et de parvenir à la victoire. Les différents joueurs entrent progressivement en contact les uns avec les autres, et s’engagent dans une course au pouvoir, chacun étant libre d’adopter la stratégie qui lui convient le mieux dans la poursuite de son objectif.

Les découvertes scientifiques faites au cours du jeu définissent les technologies disponibles pour chaque faction, ce qui définit la nature des bâtiments et aménagements pouvant être construits dans les bases, ainsi que le type d’unités pouvant être produites (militaires, unités d’exploration, de terra-formation ou de colonisation). En plus de la compétition entre factions humaines, une forme de vie indigène (qui joue un rôle d'anticorps à l'échelle planétaire) entre aussi en compétition pour les ressources disponibles sur Chiron (également appelé Planète).

Les factions

Les sept factions du jeu sont les suivantes :

• la Fédération spartiate - Fidèle à son nom, elle place la plus haute priorité sur la force et la préparation au combat. Elle est commandée par le colonel Corazon Santiago ;
• les Filles de Gaïa - Valorise la vie en harmonie écologique avec la Planète, et déteste le gâchis de la nature. Leur chef est Lady Deirdre Skye ;
• l’Université de la planète - Valorise la connaissance et le savoir scientifique, cependant pas nécessairement obtenu éthiquement. Elle est conduite par l’académicien Prokhor Zakharov ;
• la Force de maintien de la paix - Travaille dur à maintenir la paix par le truchement de la diplomatie et le maintien de la charte des Nations unies. Elle est menée par le préfet Pravin Lal ;
• la Ruche humaine - État policier totalitaire. Elle est contrôlée par le directeur et président Sheng-Ji Yang ;
• les Dévots du Seigneurs - Technophobes ultra-religieux. Ils sont menés par sœur Miriam Godwinson ;
• les Industries Morgan - Valorise la richesse matérielle. Ils sont conduits par le PDG Nwabudike Morgan.

L'extension Alien Crossfire permet de jouer sept factions supplémentaires, dont deux de race extra-terrestre :

• les Gardiens - Race d'extra-terrestre Manifold cherchant à empêcher les Usurpateurs d'atteindre la Transcendance à tout prix. Ils sont supervisés par le Gardien Lula H'minee ;
• le culte de la Planète - Sorte de secte dévouée à la Planète et à sa dirigeante, le Prophète Cha Dawn, prétendant incarner la Voix de Chiron ;
• la Conscience cybernétique - Faction dont les membres ont sacrifié leurs émotions au profit d'un vaste réseau de savoir mathématique, destiné à faire progresser la science. Leur chef est la Fonction Primaire Aki Zeta-5 ;
• les Libres Droïdes - Grande société de droïdes (la classe sociale la plus pauvre) révolutionnaires luttant contre les abus des classes sociales plus aisées, ils sont menés par Bosco Domai ;
• les Anges des données - Groupe spécialisé dans l'espionnage et les opérations secrètes, ils aiment déstabiliser les gouvernements. Leur dirigeant est le Technicien des données Sinder Roze ;
• les Pirates du Nautilus - Ils vivent dans la mer, profitant ainsi de plus d'espace et de possibilités d'exploration. Cette flotte est commandée par le Capitaine Ulrik Svensgaard ;
• les Usurpateurs de Manifold - Deuxième race extra-terrestre Manifold, ils cherchent à vaincre les Gardiens pour mettre fin à la guerre civile Manifold par Transcendance. Leur quête est conduite par le Conquérant Judaa Marr.