Where hath Alien Crossfire goneth?

[miltonic]

Hey, I'm an AC fan here who has never played the expansion, alien crossfire. I've been scouring the net trying to find it, via purchase or download. My search has been pretty uneventful. Scouring these forums, users have pointed to Underdogs as a place to download it, however only the manual can be downloaded there. Can anyone point me in a direction so I can play this classic expansion pack? I think I may break down and soil myself soon if I can not be appeased. You don't wan't to see a grown man do that, do you?!

[Chaos Theory]

The Laptop Collection

[miltonic]

geezus....I just saw that on Firaxis Website. How daft could I be? Thanks for the pointer Chaos.

[Frankychan]

this site discourages downloading of games illegally....sorry bro.

[MOHobbes]

Super Wal-Mart's have it; as mentioned above, its in a special "laptop collection", where you get ~5 games for great price of ~$20. Failing that, try eBay or local [if possible] game exchange places...

[Dis]

I never did check walmart for the laptop collection. I never go there.

I ended up buying the laptop collection at Amazon.com. I also couldn't resist buying Baldur's Gate when I was there as well . I got to be careful at those kinds of websites, or I'll buy everything.

The laptop collection does not have the manual though. But I still have the original manual I got in 1999. I just don't have a smax manual (although I did download one in pdf format). It's kind of small, so it's not a big deal.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Dissident
(although I did download one in pdf format). It's kind of small, so it's not a big deal.

Can't you just enlarge from its default 98% (or whatever) to 150% or so?

Don't know if it's the same, but I've hung a pdf version of both manuals here

[Dis]

actually I wasn't clear in that post.

by small, I meant in content. It only took a few minutes to read. didn't have anything particularly useful that I couldn't find from the in game F1 screen. I'm comparing that to the big fat manual SMAC shipped with.

but yes, I did have to bump the image up to 100% (the default was at like 75%), but that's not what I meant by small.

[Skanky Burns]

Back to the original topic, the expansion is also available from ebay quite often, sometimes several copies up for auction at the same time.

[livid imp]

Shhhhh....don't tell him! I wanted to see him soil himself.

[miltonic]

Why Livid Imp, your dirty duck!

As far as the whole illegal download thing, I don't support that either, I was desperate though, as I thought the game was Abandonware. I will go the laptop Collection route. Althought the other 4 games I could care less about. Wonder if I can buy the collection and take back the other for games and get a $16 re-imbursement?

[Santiago_Claus]

Downloading abandonware is hardly "theft" by any classical understanding of the term.

Did I "steal" when I downloaded Carrier Command? From whom? I never paid William Shakespeare for Hamlet, either. Was that "stealing"?

You can't buy old games. CAN'T. Is this because they are rare museum pieces, priceless artifacts which, if copied, lose their unique value? If this were true it wouldn't be "stealing" to download abandonware, it would be "counterfeiting" -- except that copying a Roman sesterzum or a Confederate dollar and saying it's a copy wouldn't be counterfeiting, it would just be copying.

More likely abandonware can't be had in the marketplace because it is worth so little that no one is interested in actually trying to sell it. Who's going to re-publish "Carrier Command" (5.25" floppy, anyone?) just because a couple dozen "digital archaeologists" such as myself would like to see it?

Then there are the software publishers who went bankrupt. Their software, entangled in a mesh of legal claims, will never see the light of day. Rights to various pieces of a software project, like the artwork, code, video, and characters, are often separate, so that the "rights" to a singular piece of software might be scattered amongst half a dozen legal entities once a software firm folded or sold out. Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?

Incidentally, Alien Crossfire isn't "abandonware" because it can still be purchased. That's why Underdogs doesn't have it. They are reputable digital historians, not pirates.

[miltonic]

Fair enough