Pyramid Pick: Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Pyramid Pick

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Published by Firaxis Games, Distributed by Electronic Arts

Designed by Sid Meier

$42.95

You know you've made it when a movie (Bram Stoker's Dracula), TV Series ("Gene Roddenbury's Earth the Final Conflict," "Steven King's Storm of the Century"), or game (Ray Winninger's Underground, Gary Gygax' Legendary Journeys) includes your name in its title. To electronic gamers, Sid Meier's name carries as much weight as Gary Gygax, Kevin Siembieda or Steve Jackson do in the pen and paper realm. Many players may remember the original Civilization and Civ 2 computer games, also designed by Mr. Meier. Both games were innovative for their time, introducing an intuitive user interface that has become the industry standard. How does this relate to Alpha Centauri? Well one of the ways to win a Civ 2 game was to be first to launch a mission to colonize the nearest star -- Alpha Centauri.

Colonizing Alpha Centauri at the end of Civ 2 was a moment of almost sublime joy, the triumph of man against a cold hostile world. It makes a global tyrant teary-eyed just thinking about it. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri follows the progress of the colony ship, but not the way you may expect. Reaching Alpha Centauri at the end of Civ 2 is a time of celebration on Earth, but not so for the fledgling colony in this new game. During the outbound flight, the ship's crew divides into seven theological factions, and internal strife grips the starship. After a catastrophic . . .

This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.



Article publication date: May 14, 1999

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