alpha centauri, windows 7, please help ^^

[Orbinou]

Hello,

I'm sorry, I'm belgian and I don't speak very good english. But I'll try!

Just that I love alpha centauri, it was one of the better game I ever played. It's just that I can't play anymore because my CD doesn't work on windows XP vista or 7. The installation work well, but when i try to turn on the game, it's just shut off and i'm back to my desktop, without any windows to explain me why, or to indicate an error.

So I find this wonderfull forum (shure we can play with others players? ) i search a thread about my problem but i didn't find something to help me just to run the game. Probably it's because I don't understand because i'm not english man. Is it the "SMAC" that can run the game? i'm lost

How to resolve my problem? I'm now in windows 7 or linux (wine)

can somebody help me?

[bdanv]

Hello, Orbinou and welcome to WePlayCiv!
SMAC should work fine with Windows 7. do you have the compatibility patch installed?
(here is the download link: http://www.weplayciv.com/forums/down...?do=file&id=82)

here is a complete guide on how to install Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri:

..Installing SMAC

N.B. If the CDs won't autorun then just open setup.exe on the disc. If that doesn't work check troubleshooting for an alternate solution.

1. If you have the Planetary Pack or Laptop Collection, install both parts of that and skip to step 5
2. If you own the new sold out software pack, install the games separately and follow the instructions for owning SMAX. This version of the game comes with a form of SecuROM DRM, If you get any weird errors, please post here.
3. Grab your CD and install SMAC
4. If you have SMAX, install it now
5. [If you own the Planetary pack or Laptop pack] Install, in this order, the SMAC Win 2000/XP Update and the unofficial patch.
   
6. [If you own SMAX] Install, in this order, the Alien Crossfire v2.0 update, the SMAC Win 2000/XP Update and the unofficial patch.
   Move on to configuring Hamachi
7. [If you don't own SMAX] Install, in this order, the SMAC v4.0 Update, the SMAC Win 2000/XP Update and the unofficial patch (obviously, you only need to use the terran.exe file if you do not have SMAX).
   

..

So I find this wonderfull forum (shure we can play with others players? )

thank you for your kind words.
of course you can play with other payers. just tell me what kind of game you like and i'll try to find a game for you.

Probably it's because I don't understand because i'm not english man. Is it the "SMAC" that can run the game? i'm lost

you can explain your problem in French if that's your first language.

[Orbinou]

yeeeee its workiiiing!
i love you!

juste the half of the game is in english and voices in french. do you have any french patch?

[bdanv]

you can find attached bellow the French txt files.
here is what you should do:
1. make sure that all files in your SMAC(X) directory are NOT set to read only
2. save all your txt files you have in your SMAC(X) directory (backup - for safety reasons)
3. copy all the text files of the archive to your SMAC(X) directory
4. enjoy the French language version.

[shhizm]

I think I have a similar problem. After installing from the physical media (SMAC and SMAX), I applied all the patches in the order of that guide. Now, SMAX works fine, but if I try to select "Alpha Centauri" at the initial which-game-do-you-want-to-load screen, it just throws me back to the desktop without an error message or anything. Interestingly, it doesn't even trigger that are-you-sure-this-program-installed-correctly dialog that Vista/7 brings up fairly often when nothing's even wrong.

I've got Windows 7.

[Edit: And I suppose the engine won't let you load an AC savegame in AX? If it auto-switched the settings or something...no, that'd be way to convenient...]

[Buster's Uncle]

It sounds to me like you're launching from the CD autorun. (That thing is teh buggy.) If so, got to the SMAC(X) folder and make a desktop shortcut to terran.exe.

[shhizm]

I tried that with the previously discussed settings, the wait cursor displays for a few seconds, and nothing happens. The process shows up briefly in the task manager over that interval, then disappears, again sans any error message. Is there by any chance a log file somewhere that might tell me something?

[Buster's Uncle]

Have you tried the compatibility settings?

[Petek]

I tried that with the previously discussed settings, the wait cursor displays for a few seconds, and nothing happens. The process shows up briefly in the task manager over that interval, then disappears, again sans any error message. Is there by any chance a log file somewhere that might tell me something?

Look for a file named logfile.txt in the main SMAC folder.

Petek

[fed1943]

The same thing happened to me; but I found that launching SMAX
and then chosing "Classic" works (at XP).

[shhizm]

Huh. Now the game actually launches (screen goes black, resolution changes), before I get a "terran.exe has stopped working" error.

@Petek:
I checked the logfile and it's empty (right after running terran.exe).

@fed:
For you, classic mode works but Crossfire doesn't, is what you're saying?

@Buster: I've tried the compat settings for the "choose which" launcher in XP mode. I noticed that terran.exe has Windows 95 settings, which I assume one of the patches (likely the unofficial one?) set over the course of installing all that stuff.

Interestingly, I have a portable install version I downloaded somewhere that I was under the mistaken impression had the same problem. Needless to say, I was very surprised when I ran the executable and it worked fine. The big problem with *that* install though is that if I try to do a normal Start Game, it crashes out when I click the OK button to finalize the ruleset. So what I've been doing is editing what settings I can in the ini, quickstarting, and then editing any world settings that are still wrong in scenario mode

If I have a known-good (mostly) configuration, I suppose I could compare the settings?

PS: In my previous post, the "previously discussed settings" was a pretty big list of suggestions I got in a PM from vyeh that in retrospect I realize none of you have any clue of the contents of. If it's okay with him, I could post them or something...they consisted of compatibility settings mostly I think.
PPS: Thanks for the help, all you guys

[shhizm]

I got my hands on a portable version that is at 5.0/2.0 and both executables launch and start games correctly, so I expect them to be fully functional as far as I can tell (knock on wood). So I guess me solving the problem with my installed versions is rather moot.

Thanks for the help, guys. Now I just need to find a pbem to get into

[fed1943]

Both, SMAC and SMAX, work; but I have to launch SMAX,
then choose which one I want.

[shhizm]

Are you actually launching terranx.exe, or axstart.exe? Because you can launch the games directly with terran and terranx.

[Stilgar]

Hello everybody! Im new on Weplayciv.
Actually, I don't play Civ a lot, but I love Alpha Centauri! Well I found my disc some time ago and I tried hard to make it work on my PC but I had a lot of trouble with XP (I have the game in french and the XP compatibility patch is in english, which causes a lot of bugs in the game)...
Thanks to this forum and this thread, I managed to make it work again! Just got one problem: after installing patch v4.0, the XP compatibility patch and the unofficial patch (and making the game french again thanks to the french files that bdanv gave above), everything worked well except that the factions' specialities and penalties (in social engineering) did not show up! Dont ask why...

Nevertheless, I finally managed to make it work again and perfectly. I give the solution here for those who have the game in french:
-install patch v4.0 BUT in french! (patch v4.0f)
-install the unofficial patch

And the XP compatibility patch is not necessary! Well, as far as my PC is concerned... It is the XP compatibility patch which makes a mess with the french version.

Hope it will help french-speaking-SMAC-loving people!

(Im Belgian, like Orbinou! But we dont know each other however, not yet!)

[bdanv]

thank you for sharing, Stilgar!

BTW: i don't know if you're interested in MP, but we need a player in this frech PBEM game - http://www.weplayciv.com/forums/show...game-TTT/page5

[Syphil]

Hello!

Not 100% sure if this topic (and consequently, Forum) is dead, but I've been getting an issue with the Sold Out Package of Alien Crossfire and Alpha Centurai. I've followed the Fix here and Alpha Centauri has refused to load. Alien Crossfire makes the screen turn black for a few seconds, before crashing down to the desktop. I cannot find the Crash Log so I can record this issue. I have also tried Compatibility Modes, but they only seem to make things worse.

I run a 64 Bit Windows 7. If need be I can provide a DxDiag of my System on demand.

[Petek]

The Sold-out version definitely runs on Windows 7, 64-bit, since that's what I have. Make sure that you have followed the instructions in this thread (disregarding the parts about Hamachi, but including installation of the unofficial patch). There aren't any useful crash logs and the DxDiag file probably won't contain any relevant info. Do you have a desktop, laptop or possibly a netbook? Netbooks sometimes require special graphical settings. Please post again if none of this helps.

[Syphil]

The Sold-out version definitely runs on Windows 7, 64-bit, since that's what I have. Make sure that you have followed the instructions in this thread (disregarding the parts about Hamachi, but including installation of the unofficial patch). There aren't any useful crash logs and the DxDiag file probably won't contain any relevant info. Do you have a desktop, laptop or possibly a netbook? Netbooks sometimes require special graphical settings. Please post again if none of this helps.

Fixed. Thanks for the help.

[DanSaikyo]

I'm having trouble getting my Alpha Centauri/Alien Crossfire to work and I'm wondering if anyone could help me out. Both games are the original PC release, which I've installed from the discs along with the Firaxis patches and the unofficial patch. I can't install the XP/Vista patch though because every time I try to run it, it crashed and gives me a "1607: Unable to install InstallShield Scripting Runtime." message. I tried editing the Alpha Centauri.ini file with the settings from the install help page but nothing works - I still get a "this program has stopped working" message and it crashes every time I try to load terranx.exe. (Either from the disc or directly from the Alpha Centauri folder.) Can anyone help? :/