LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Alpha Centauri
built 145 days ago
Now Sid Meier's latest simulation and strategy adventure from Firaxis, Alpha Centauri, is coming to Linux, complete with the Planetary Pack expansion thanks to the efforts of Loki. This new adventure is sure to ensnare you in its web of intrigue and adventure. Set out for new, distant shores with strange suns never before beheld by the human race -- and perhaps undo the wrongs done on humanity's first planet by building your own Utopia, your own New World.
Source:
The prominent Alpha Centauri settlement was the home of several USS Enteprise crew and their families. At the time of the 2260s bomb disaster, Joanna McCoy was a studying nurse on Centaurus. James Kirk owned a plot of land here. (TOS novel: "Crisis on Centaurus")
Source:
As if the sound is breaking through your speakers, Alpha Centauri begins its journey. Crackling and swirling synthesizers seize control of your stereo. Like a call to psychedelic arms, the first track "Sunrise in the Third System" marches on with its organ. The mixing of the three tracks found on Alpha Centauri leaves something to be desired, in that the tracks are not mixed the way they would be today with each track endlessly flowing into the next like a stream. Nonetheless, when one is not paying too close attention to such details, the album seems to flow quite smoothly. The sound is not of the highest standards either, as should be expected, this being a 1971 release of "space music."
Source:
To patch Alpha Centauri and Alien Crossfire requires several steps. You need to obtain the latest patch from Loki's site, and run it with the --keep option. It will crash, but the --keep option prevents the uncompressed files from being deleted. Now you have to traverse the directory tree it produces and replace the loki_patch in smac-6.0a-alpha/bin/Linux/x86/ with one obtained here. Now run the update.sh in the smac-6.0a-alpha directory.
Source:
The Alpha Centauri system was first calculated as the closest star system in 1839 by the Scottish astronomer Thomas Henderson, using the parallax method - measuring the shift of a star against the background from opposite sides of the Earth's orbit. He calculated that Alpha Centauri was 2.7 light years away. Modern astronomers now know it's 4.4 light years away. Still, not bad.
Source:
Recent novels state that Alpha Centauri was uninhabited by a native species, and that it was primarily a human colony. Most current Star Trek novels use this premise. Star Trek: Star Charts reveals that the human colony of Alpha Centauri was a founding member of the Federation in 2161.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Alpha Centauri