Seems like another classic is getting revived with the power of open source. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri from 1999 has a remake in progress called GLSMAC. All unofficial, like most open source reimplementations and it's early days for the project but it's showing a lot of promise.
Their plan is to use the original data files, just like other open source remakes (OpenMW for Morrowind for example), while it's a full rework of the graphics engine, networking and pretty much everything else. So plenty will be a bit different like the random map generation, AI and so on while they try to keep it similar to the original logic they are creating the code from scratch.
According to their roadmap they're at stage v0.2+ so they still have quite some ways to go:
v0.1: fundamental engine functions, such as: rendering, UI, netcode, sound system
v0.2: basic map functions, such as: tiles, mapgen, creating/saving/loading games, map rendering
v0.3: basic multiplayer: ability to host and join games, lobby, save/load games with same players. multiplayer support will be maintained during further steps from now on
v0.4: game processing, such as: game turns, units (only scout patrols, formers and colony pods), buildings (only recycling tanks), technologies (only centauri ecology), building of bases (only land bases), terraforming (only farms, mines and solar arrays), unit combat, victory by conquest
v0.5: all remaining SMAC units, buildings, terraformings, technologies, etc
v0.6: all remaining victory types
v0.7: AI (computer opponents, cities automation, units automation, etc) and diplomacy
v0.8: alien lifeforms, ecology
v0.9: all remaining in-game UI, including game settings
v0.10: non-crucial things like movies, interludes, dynamic music
v0.11: final polishing and bugfixing
Looking forward to watching this one grow, Alpha Centauri was absolutely one of my favourites. I remember spending so many hours playing it through.
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri can be picked up with the Alien Crossfire expansion on GOG.com. You can follow the remake project on GitHub.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
robertosf92 Sep 11, 2023
Anyway, I'm going to check the progress for time to time.
apocalyptech Sep 11, 2023
Quoting: eldarionA pitty they will work on multiplayer before all single player features.
I don't really care about multiplayer myself, either, but for a feature like that, it is extremely useful from a development perspective to bake it in as close to the beginning as possible, rather than trying to add it in after the fact. That way you don't discover right near the end that you've made some fundamental assumptions early on which make implementation that much more difficult, etc. IMO it's a good idea to be doing it so early.
Be worth it just to have mousewheel zoom.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 11 September 2023 at 4:54 pm UTC
Quoting: apocalyptechI suspect having it is also a good way of making sure everything else works even if you don't have the AI working properly, because you can play out full games without the AI.Quoting: eldarionA pitty they will work on multiplayer before all single player features.
I don't really care about multiplayer myself, either, but for a feature like that, it is extremely useful from a development perspective to bake it in as close to the beginning as possible, rather than trying to add it in after the fact. That way you don't discover right near the end that you've made some fundamental assumptions early on which make implementation that much more difficult, etc. IMO it's a good idea to be doing it so early.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 11 September 2023 at 4:53 pm UTC
Quoting: NodFun fact. This game was ported to Linux by Loki in 2000. I am a proud owner of the box set and played it at the time.Yup. Likewise. Not that I can get it to work these days.
I hope this project will become as big and active as VCMI.
Will have to have a further look through the code at a later point, see if I can help in some part.
alka.setzer Sep 12, 2023
Quoting: Purple Library GuyQuoting: NodFun fact. This game was ported to Linux by Loki in 2000. I am a proud owner of the box set and played it at the time.Yup. Likewise. Not that I can get it to work these days.
There is a docker container just for launching old loki games here: https://github.com/lutris/asgard/
Although not on the list smac(x) works.
I think I still have the original CD somewhere...
Quoting: alka.setzerOh, cool. I should give that a whirl.Quoting: Purple Library GuyQuoting: NodFun fact. This game was ported to Linux by Loki in 2000. I am a proud owner of the box set and played it at the time.Yup. Likewise. Not that I can get it to work these days.
There is a docker container just for launching old loki games here: https://github.com/lutris/asgard/
Although not on the list smac(x) works.
Quoting: apocalyptechQuoting: eldarionA pitty they will work on multiplayer before all single player features.
I don't really care about multiplayer myself, either, but for a feature like that, it is extremely useful from a development perspective to bake it in as close to the beginning as possible, rather than trying to add it in after the fact. That way you don't discover right near the end that you've made some fundamental assumptions early on which make implementation that much more difficult, etc. IMO it's a good idea to be doing it so early.
As a software developer myself, I can say it goes both ways. You can reach to a point where you find out you have to change the multiplayer stack because there is a feature on a latter stage of the development that you were not counting on.
Quoting: Purple Library GuyHurrah! I've been wanting something like this forever!
Be worth it just to have mousewheel zoom.
That is already possible with the Thinker patch for SMACX.
https://github.com/induktio/thinker
Quoting: Purple Library GuyOh, cool. I should give that a whirl.
Likewise, never knew this existed. I'll have to search for those disks now to give it a try.
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