eBay value of Brian Reynold’s Alpha Centauri plummets

It’s a sad day for us owners of Brian Reynolds’ Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri. The complete version, not the incomplete basic version without the notoriously hard-to-find Alien Crossfire add-on. You could easily get a copy of the base Alpha Centauri, one of the last century’s classic strategy games, from a variety of places. But that meant you were playing without several of the cool new factions. No Data Angels, Cult of Planet, or Pirates for you. Your version of Planet was missing the fabled Borehole Clusters and Manifold Nexus. You would never stumble across the wreckage of the Unity. You would never launch Geosynchronous Survey Pods over your cities. You would never find a Battle Ogre. Is there any occasion so joyous as an early Battle Ogre on the field? Perhaps most importantly, the Planet you were trying to tame was never the stage for a war between powerful alien factions that gave Alpha Centauri unique shape as a strategy game. And, of course, you could never take control of one of the warring alien factions.

The Alien Crossfire add-on has been difficult to find and/or expensive to buy. So guys like me with our own copies, complete with the vast fold-out tech tree poster, were sitting on a potential gold mine. Today, Good Old Games ruined all that. Today, Brian Reynolds’ Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri includes the Alien Crossfire add-on when you buy it from Good Old Games. Today, Alpha Centauri, one of the finest sci-fi experiences you can have in any medium, is finally available in its complete form. Today, I’m a little poorer, and strategy gamers everywhere are considerably richer.

(Thanks for the heads-up, Scott!)