alien crossfire

[john26]

I've been playing Alpha Centauri for the past year or so now, and have been really enjoying it. I've heard that the expansion pack is also good. Do you know how I could get a mac copy? Is it still in print? If so, is it worth buying?

Thanks.

[binTravkin]

It's worth buying, sure!

[NanoDingo]

A potential problem with the expansion pack is that you might find the new Factions lack depth or are over-powered/unbalanced (especially the two Alien Factions) compared to the original Factions; no problem, you can always revert to playing the original Factions with SMAX...the problem with that is, without the new factions (especially the Two Alien Factions), some of the Techs/Facilities/Weapons don't make sense. For instance, researching the new Tech "Progenitor Psych" is out of context in a game without the Alien Factions. That's probably just a minor problem, though - a lot can be edited in/out in the alpha.txt, so I'd say get the expansion just for the option of having the new Techs, then edit them out if you don't like them.
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[smacksim1]

I played on a mac before X-fire was released. I'm really glad I eventually got it though. There a quite a few new things in the expansion that add some further depth to the game, and a few of the new factions are fun as well.

[john26]

Sounds good, yeah. Now I just need to find a copy.
Playing expansion with the original factions sounds good.

[Darkstar]

The expansion is a very good addition to SMAC for the bug fixes and whatnot. I find most of the new factions a bit flat, but I do like the Pirates out of it.

[Blake]

The expansion is good, quite hard to get legally though. (it's so good it's contraband!)

All the expansion factions are fun for a quick bash, but the ones I usually play with are the Angels and Drones.

[Leon Trotsky]

I thought that all the games in the Home of the Underdogs were actual abandonware.

[Ka Plewy]

There is no such thing as abandonware, unless the company says, "we release this game into the public domain."

[Chaos Theory]

No, that's freeware (or perhaps something similar). Like it or not, games produced by defunct companies are considered abandonware, and for good reason, since no one interferes with their informal distribution (would be piracy for non-abandoned software).