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Here we go again, ladies and gentlemen
News for the days 20-26/Feb/99

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**Civilization II Section

*News
PATCH ME UP! February 23, 1999
Just yesterday, MicroProse went and updated their Tech Support section
with the release of a new patch for users of Multiplayer Gold Edition and
Ultimate Civilization Collection. Surprised? So were we. Nonetheless, we
are proud to be one of the first mirror sites for the latest fix, as we
were with v1.1 last month. To download, choose your product from the menu
below and click to begin:
MGE Patch v1.2 [US] 2.3MB
UCC Patch v1.2 [UK] 2.4MB
Again, MPS has made the patch easy-to-use by simply having to extract the
archive and double-click on the file icon. We highly recommend that you
take a look at the update notes, issued my MPS, at some point before
installation. Documented with is how they have listened to your requests
so that now "when you are parleying with another human, you now have the
option to hide the extra information about your units and cities from your
opponent". As before, those with this patch installed cannot play against
those who do not, and vice verse. Our thanks to Jeff for the apprisal.

*Site Updates
23.Feb Links updated


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**Civilization: Call to Power Section

*News
PRE-VIEW/ORDER AT LINUX EXPO (Feb. 26)
Loki Entertainment Software announced its plans at this year's LinuxWorld
Conference and Expo in San Jose, California, from March 2-4: show a
pre-release version of their upcoming Linux port of C: CTP and accept
pre-orders for it at a special LinuxWorld price. (Thanks for the mail
Don). If anyone reading this is planning on attending the conference and
would be interested in providing us with a report of the events pertaining
to Loki's demonstration, please email Dan.

PREVIEW @ GAMESMANIA (Feb. 23)
GamesMania today posted the first part of their preview of C:CTP. A
detailed introduction, the game's line and interface are all covered in
it. Buildings, combat and likely more will be covered in part 2. The
review is a good read overall. There are some screenshots as well, but
nothing we haven't seen before.

CRITIC? WATCH THESE (Feb. 20)
A few short days ago we posted four computer-generated movies expected to
make an appearance in CTP. Critics reacted quickly by shooting them down
in great balls of fire, citing a number of faults. Setting aside whether
you agree with that position or not, we've all been wondering when Round 2
will begin. We have four new arrivals today, awaiting your humble
critique. They are, again, all Wonders: East India Company; Galielo's
Telescope; Hollywood and the Sphinx. The verdict? Time will tell.



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**Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Section

*News
More Faction Backgrounds - 25 February 1999
--Firaxis released the remaining factions' backgrounds yet to be covered
in their Gallery to date. From the convenient table below, you can d'load
the faction(s) of your choice for your desired resolution(s) and give your
desktop a SMACk. :-)

Assorted Highs For SMAC - 24 February 1999
--A quick browse to various gaming news sources and we discovered a
comprehensive preview of SMAC on GamePen, coupled with a interview with
Brian Reynolds. Upbeat in tone, it has some nice screens too! An even
greater compliment comes from PC Gamer (US edition). In their current
issue, they give SMAC a 98% approval rating to become the magazine's #1
ranked game by its editors ever. Who did it upstage? CivII of course, by
1%, which has held the title for two and a half years. If you remember,
PCG's UK cousins were not quite as generous: "just" 92%. {grin} Thanks BW
for passing this note along.

A Best Seller - 24 February 1999
--Despite stiff first quarter competition from its own and other genres,
guess what's moving on up the best-seller charts? In fact, according to
EBWorld, SMAC is their current #1 best selling PC game! Well done!
Similarly good news came from PC Data, when it released sales figures from
the second week of February (2/7 through 2/13) yesterday: SMAC placed a
respectable 5th. Way-to-go Firaxis!

Tech Tree Utility - 24 February 1999
--Another day, another file submission! Today, we are proud to present the
first player-created utility for SMAC, the Tech Tree Utility. This Access
97 database allows you to scroll through all of the technologies in Alpha
Centauri and it will automatically (in real-time) display the entire tech
tree. It will also display all of the benefits that come from that
technology. If that wasn't enough, you can reverse-browse through the
benefits and it will show you which technology you need for that benefit,
all of it's prerequisites and the other techs that go with that tech.

Earth Map - 23 February 1999
--The first player-created file that we recieved was a beautifull earth
map from Mark Bardwell (a.k.a. Sparky). You can find in our files page. If
you have created a map, scenario, anything that has to do with SMAC, don't
hesitate to send it to me or Dan.

SMAC Everywhere - 23 February 1999
--It seems that SMAC has finally reached the whole Europe. From England
(note from Nicholas Holzapfel) to Thessaloniki, Greece :) the whole
contintent is playing SMAC! On another note, it would be good to say again
that the patch is only for the U.S. version...


----------------------------
**Alternative Civs Section

NEWSGROUP NEWS AND DEMO UPDATES
(Feb. 23) We received a mail from webmaster Jason Kozak regarding the
updates to two up and coming products: R&J Cyberware's Manifest Destiny
and his own Stellar Civilizations. Both games now have newsgroups up. The
addresses are alt.games.mdestiny and alt.games.stellar-civ respectively.
Finally, MD Demo 2 will be reposted shortly. The reason for its downtime
is that each of the game's official websites were just recently
relocated. Visit our Links page to grab the updated addresses, and be sure
to update your links and/or bookmarks where applicable!


----------------------------
**CivLeague (hosted site)

Tournament Third Round - February 24
--The bracket has been updated to for the next round of the tournament.

----------------------------
**Scenario League (hosted site)

Africa Design Winners Chosen! - February 23, 1999
--It's finally over - and the winners have been announced. See who won and
download the scenarios. Direct comments to the message boards.


----------------------------
**H.A.C.(hosted site)

WE'RE STARTING TODAY!!!!!! FEB.22
Go to the Vote page..... NOW! Vote today! Yippie!

2/23/99: Ok, ok, this is my (Allard) last update in a while. I added a new
units collection to the units pages. It features most of Michael
Jeszenka's great units in one file. Now, stop reading and go to the units
section!

2/22/99: In one of my last updates (I can't update the next few weeks), I
have uploaded the long-expected "Afrika Korps" started by Harlan Thompson
and finished by John Petroski. I will still do some updates today and
tomorrow, so keep coming back!


That was all, ladies and gentlemen
Until next time(which will be very soon)...
Markos, Apolyton CS