Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

1001 Video Games

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Cutscenes

Most of the secret project movies contain scenes from the documentary Baraka.You can find information about Baraka at IMDB.

Development

From an interview with designer Brian Reynolds Brian Reynolds with Computer Games Magazine (June 2000):

I always wondered if my degree in Philosophy would ever come in handy for something. My favorite part of this game was developing the characters and factions, and the AI to give them divergent personalities and agendas.

I think a part of broad appeal is merely choosing the right topic, and certainly compared to Civilization II, science-fiction was a lot harder, and gave the game more of an esoteric feel. Everybody knows what the wheel is, everyone knows what mathematics is, but linear mathematics? Particle accelerators?...It's even worse when you get into things you kind of made up.

Plasma bomb

The "planet buster" of the first-generation model, is listed in the game manual as technically called the Mark 714 plasma bomb, a single warhead delivered by a ballistic missile that locks onto its target by the signature of charged particles coming from it. The active kill radius, or the radius in which everything and everyone would be immediately destroyed (as opposed to people killed eventually by the side effects) is listed as 2,000 kilometers -- about 1,240 miles. The yield of the first-generation "planet buster" is said to be equivalent to 296 gigatons of TNT.

Here is what would happen if a bomb one ten-thousandth as powerful as that were detonated in a groundburst upon New York City:

There would be an overpressure of 15 pounds per square inch out to about five miles, or as far as the Receiving Reservoir at Central Park, Manhattan, and even reinforced concrete structures such as skyscrapers would be obliterated. Most water would be vaporized. No one would survive there. The surface of the land in that area would be melted to resemble black glass.

Smaller concrete structures would be destroyed as far as about six miles away.

In a doughnut shape covering the area between seven and nine miles away, all houses and other small buildings would be destroyed. Towards the outside, wreckage would remain.

Windows would be shattered as far out as about sixty miles away, from Scarsdale in the north to Keansburg in the south.

The above information about blast radii is from the HYDESim High Yield Detonation Effects Simulato.

Premise

As people who play Civilization know, at the end, one of the ways to win the game is get the expedition to Alpha Centauri first. So it was no coincidence that Sid's next game is Alpha Centauri.

Reception

As of August 2000, Alpha Centauri was PC Gamer's highest rated game ever with a score of 98%. Prior to the review this honor belonged to Sid Meier's Civilization II which had a score of 97%. In the December 2004 issue of PC Gamer, Alpha Centauri's "highest-rated" title was lowered to a mere tie when Half-Life 2 received a 98%.

Awards

• Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences
  • 1999 - Strategy Game of the Year
• Denver Post
  • 1999 - Best Game of the Year
• Gamespot
  • 1999 - Turn-based Game of the Year
• GameStar (Germany)
  • Issue 12/1999 - #44 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking
• Origin Awards
  • 1999 - Best Computer Strategy Game
• PC Gamer
  • 1999 - Turn-based Game of the Year,
  • April 2000 - #16 in the "All-Time Top 50 Games Poll"
• Toronto Sun
  • 1999 - Best Game of the Year

Information also contributed by 88 49, Chris Martin, Indra was here, Kasey Chang, mulayim; PCGamer77 and Zack Green