Input methods Cabinet Arcade system CPU Sound Display Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (sometimes abbreviated to SMAC or Alpha Centauri) is a turn-based strategy computer game created by Brian Reynolds and Sid Meier in 1999 for the company they created along with Jeff Briggs, Firaxis Games. The story entails the colonization of a planet in the Alpha Centauri star system. It picks up where Meier and Reynolds' earlier titles, Civilization and Civilization II, left off. An expansion pack called Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire (aka SMACX or just SMAX) was also released. Although being popular with gamers and critically acclaimed, the game never reached the heights of success of the Civilization games. Pre-patched versions of Alpha Centauri and Alien Crossfire were later bundled together in the Alpha Cen