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HowTo: Alpha Centauri on Linux

Posted by HokieTux on July 21, 2008 in Guides, Hacks

For the unacquainted, Alpha Centauri is one of the most acclaimed turn-based strategy games of all time.  Released in 1999, it revolutionized strategy gaming and is still considered one of the best games ever made (look at any top 100 games of all time list, and you will likely see AC appear).

Before they shut their doors, Loki Software ported Alpha Centauri and it’s expansion, Alien Crossfire, to the Linux platform.  Unfortunately, due to some library compatibility issues, the old release of Alpha Centauri will no longer work out-of-the-box on Linux.  I discovered this when, feeling somewhat nostalgic, I decided to install it and fire it up.  After a lot of searching and tinkering, I got it up and running almost perfectly.  I still experience a little buzzing in the sound… but otherwise it’s excellent.  Here is what I had to do to get it up and running:

Installing Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack

1)  Obviously, make sure you have a copy of Loki Software’s Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack (ACPP) for Linux.  These haven’t been in production for years, and are nearly impossible to find on the web.  Indeed, I’ve seen them sell for hundreds of dollars on eBay… so if you don’t already have one (and since I’m in no way recommending any sort of illegal activity), you are probably shit-out-of-luck.

2) Install ACPP by running their installer script.  When asked if you want to install the Loki Updater, say no (it doesn’t work).  You will also be asked if you want to install the Loki Uninstaller… I haven’t tested this, so I have no idea whether or not it works.  I’m not sure why it wouldn’t, but why bother?  AC is bloody awesome.  Also, make sure you install all content so you don’t need to have the CD in your machine to play (this came before all that shitty anti-piracy software).

3) Install the smac-6.0b-x86 patch.  You can find it here: http://filebox.vt.edu/users/bhilburn/Public/smac-6.0b-x86.run.  Just download it, set the executable flag with:

$ chmod +x smac-6.0b-x86.run

And then run it (as root):

# sh smac-6.0b-x86.run

4) Next, you will need to download and put the ‘Loki Compatible Libraries’ somewhere where AC can see them.  You can find them on the Gentoo wiki, or here is a direct link: loki_compat_libs-1.3.tar.bz2.  Unless you changed something, ACPP likely installed to /usr/local/games/smac.  I recommend putting the ‘Loki_Compat’ directory that comes out of that tarball in that directory so you don’t lose track of it.  So, for example, do:

$ tar jxvf loki_compat_libs-1.3.tar.bz2
# mv Loki_Compat /usr/local/games/smac

5) You likely need to change the ownership of your personal Loki directory since the installer likes to install it with root as the owner.  This should do the trick:

# chown -R <your username> ~/.loki

6) Now, you can’t run the game with a composite engine running (Compiz-Fusion, for example).  So make sure you turn it off if you have it running.  You might also need to disable the composite extension in your Xorg configuration file.  Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf (as root, obviously), and add the following:

Section "Extensions"
    Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

Or, if it already exists, make sure it says “Disable” rather than “Enable”.  You’ll then need to restart your Xserver, which you can do by pressing CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE.

7) Now then, in order to run the game, you need to tell the executable where some libraries are.  Some people only need to point to the Loki_Compat libraries, but I kept getting the following error:

/usr/local/games/smac/smacx.dynamic: symbol lookup error:
/usr/local/games/smac/smacx.dynamic: undefined symbol:
XGetWindowAttributes

If you get this error, then you also need to link to the X11 libraries.  To run the game, execute this command:

For Alpha Centauri (original):

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/local/games/smac/Loki_Compat/libstdc++-3-libc6.2-2-2.10.0.so:/usr/lib/libX11.so
/usr/local/games/smac/smac.dynamic

For Alien Crossfire:

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/local/games/smac/Loki_Compat/libstdc++-3-libc6.2-2-2.10.0.so:/usr/lib/libX11.so
/usr/local/games/smac/smacx.dynamic

Obviously, if you put the Loki_Compat directory somewhere else, then you will need to change the linker location.  The same goes if you changed the default install location.  That’s it!  You should be up and running!

If you run into problems, post here and I’ll try to help you out!  Or, if this guide helped you out, post and let me know!

Further Tweaks

For further tweaking, check out ~/.loki/smac/Alpha_Centauri.ini.  If you read through the README or Google around, you can find a lot of cool hacks (changing the resolution, for example, or running the game in windowed mode).

References

• Running Alpha Centauri on Linux
• Loki Alpha Centauri Install thread on the Ubuntu forums

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