Hi All, I get the following error when loading the game in XP:

AppName: terran.exe AppVer: 0.0.0.0 ModName: terran.exe
ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: 001e02e0

I can post more of the error, but essentially I don't get into the game, it just crashes.

I'm getting something similar:

AppName: terran.exe AppVer: 0.0.0.0 ModName: terran.exe
ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: 00210d10

Windows XP Home edition SP3, Intel Atom N270, 1.6 GHz, 1Gb RAM, Mobile Intel 945.

Me too, on my Intel Atom N270 netbook with 512Mb RAM, Intel GMA 945 graphics and XP.
It works flawlessly on my Desktop though (Athlon Phenom 9950, 6Gb 800MHz RAM GeForce 9800GT on XP x64, so it's not the download that's the problem. All the compatability options don't seem to work either.

I´m getting a similar crash... i´ve tried it with all different combinations of compatability settings....

Faulting application name: terran.exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x3d590cc5
Faulting module name: terran.exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x3d590cc5
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00210d10
Faulting process id: 0x7bc

tries to open program with instant CTD, without anything appearing to happen...

Dxdiag.txt paste: http://pastebin.com/8L6hX2xn

Mine now works if I force 640x480 in the Compatibility Tab of the executable.

Well after repeatedly fighting with the XP versions of SMAC that have been around for a while, I was hoping GOG's version would work, but I got the same crash and error as always, same as you guys.

However, today I was finally able to get back to the good old days and got it to run! I don't know which combination of the steps I took resulted in the fix, but this is what I did:

First, I did some much needed updates anyway as per the "common troubleshooting steps" outlined here: http://www.gog.com/en/support/sid_meiers_alpha_centauri/_i_b_read_first_b_common_troubleshooting_steps_i_
...including updating XP with windows fixes and updating my NVidia GeForce Go 7900 GS card with a new driver. I also dl'd the DirectX package that they recommended.

Now, after this it still wasn't working, so now I started fiddling with SMAC itself:

Step1) Tried various compatibility modes. Eventually one of them (I think it was setting screen resolution to 640x480 and running in 256 colors) went at least far enough in the SMAC initialization to create the factions txt files etc, and in particular the AlphaCentauri.ini file.

Step 2) Trying a random suggestion from a loosely related post at the civfanatics forum (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=367858) I made sure the following was in the newly created AlphaCentauri.ini file:
[Alpha Centauri]
ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1
DisableOpeningMovie=1
DirectDraw=0

Step 3) run SMAC! In the end I didn't need to have any compatibility boxes selected.

I guess it may be an issue with the opening movie playing, though I just played through and didn't have any other issues with graphics or the project completion movies or anything so I'm not sure why the opening movie would cause the error (if the magic line that I added is that line and not the DirectDraw line, but its working now so I'm not touching nothing to figure out which line is the important one!)

Hope this helps at least some people out there! Happy gaming!

That worked! Thank you!

This worked for me as well. Seems to be an issue with the opening movie

EDIT: Well... seems like it doesn´t like the movies. Crashes every time it needs to play one....

This is what fixed it for me... thanks!

I've fixed it in a different way. I've followed the directions on this page: http://www.civgaming.net/forums/showthread.php?p=162396

Follow the directions under the If you don't own SMAX, and then install the unofficial patch (make a backup of the original terran.exe and then copy the unoffical one to the place of the original and replace it). You'll stil have to set the game to run in 640x480 in the compatibility tab of the terran.exe but the movies now work without a problem.

The readme of the GOG version is a bit misleading because it says the game is the Planetary Pack version of Alpha Centauri so it could be they either removed the Alien Crossfire expansion from the GOG version or they put in the wrong readme.

I managed to load this game and play it fine for a good hour or so last night, now if I start the game it completely crashes my computer and I have to hard reboot it. This is on Win7.

Have to say, this is my first experience with GOG and it hasn't been a stellar one!

Odd. Works fine out of the box for me on Win 7 64 bit.

But yeah, the ini file tweaks will help you if you do have the bad luck to have (or the configuration to cause) issues.

It worked fine the first time for me, but since then it just loads to a black screen and I have to reset my computer. I can't understand why it doesn't work after that first time because absolutely nothing changed since then.

I'm getting the crash on startup in XP. I don't really want to disable all the movies, but I'll give it a shot.

You've probably seen this fix, but if not, here is a fix for running Alpha Centauri on Netbooks with resolutions higher than 640x480.
http://www.gog.com/en/forum/sid_meier_s_alpha_centauri_/netbook_support_please_fix_this_small_bug