The numpad movement keys do nothing, yet the Clear ket (usually numlock) acts as the escape key... in addition to the actual escape key. I'm only guessing it's that numlock is inexplicably off, but how can I tell when Clear/numlock is mapped to escape?

Also - every few seconds to minutes the audio 'hiccups' with a wee bit of static :-(

I'm wishing I hadn't bought this version, even if the carbon version Bred Oliver did no longer supports fullscreen in OSX 10.6.8. The carbon version at least works and doesn't drive my ears crazy.

Mid-2007 24" 2.8GHz iMac, 4GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256MB VRAM, OS X 10.6.8

Addition: Ok, after command-tabbing out of this buggy SMACX, I'm left with no obvious way to go back to fullscreen mode *sigh* I'm _really_ regretting this purchase.

Another addition: wow. This is super frustrating - I can't play this. It's shipped unplayable if I cannot move units with the numpad or figure out how to go back to fullscreen after tabbing out of the app. Not to mention the static :-(

Where was the testing?

The "Mac" version is, as far as I understand it, a patched Windows version running in a wrapper. Depending on the hardware, release, and game that wrapper can function beautifully or poorly. I would venture to guess you hit a few bugs in the wrapper layer.

Edit: Moving units still works without a number pad (don't have one). The units can be "dragged" into a location via the mouse. One with right click works best.

Sure, I can use the mouse to move units. But it's painful, and a poor workaround when I simply want a unit to move one square.

You're right it's just the windows version of SMAC/X with a WINE wrapper. But that's no excuse for not configuring the numpad in WINE's prefs. Were it actually Windows I could sort this - numpad on and off is only a keypress. But I've no idea what crazy key numpad control is set to in this WINE wrapper. It's not the clear key as is normal.

I also still have no idea how to go back to fullscreen after tabbing to another app, and the sound is as static-filled as ever.

Over four days since purchase, and it's still an unplayable game, with nothing heard back from support. I want a refund at this point. Do I have any chance? I'm tempted to contact my credit card company if I don't hear back soon, but of course it'll cost me more to get satisfaction there than the cost of the game off gog. Maybe I should just write this one off :-(

I'll certainly be avoiding Windows WINE-wrappered games in the future. DOSBox works exceptionally well, but not WINE. Still, I foolishly expected if gog were selling this, they'd have made it a playable experience, and it has been a couple years since my last WINE experience. But as with previous WINE-wrappered games, it's been crappy.

Honestly, I wouldn't know. I've never tried to get a refund for a game on here before. I'd say its worth a shot if the game is unplayable, buggy as hell, and support isn't helping. Of course it is only six dollars so at some point the effort wouldn't be worth it.

You can possibly try running the Windows version in a newer version of WINE. Just a thought. I can't try it as I don't have the GOG version or a computer I could test it on at the moment. http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=332 One tester claims the 1.6 series works without the audio issues. Since I don't own a Mac myself, I won't be able to help with that. Sorry.

About moving units with a number pad vs. a mouse, I wouldn't know. None of my computers has a number pad on them anyway.

Wow. Just tried to play again (I was really bored and trying to understand how the support person I'm currently dealing with could consider this playable). This time it's like the game got stuck on passing moves, so it kept passing on my unit's moves, and flicking between turn after turn. Really buggy in even more ways. Just awful.

What do you mean about "passing"? There are commands that will let the game know you do not intend to issue orders to a specific unit for a number of turns (or indefinitely) to keep the game from asking about them at the end of the turn. There is also a game setting that clears all set orders on a unit by clicking on them. Are you triggering these settings by mistake?

Also,make sure the game waits for you to press "end turn".

I mean what I said - for several years, till I interrupted it, units with moves were skipped as if I was passing on each move. This wasn't under my control, as I said. So no, I wasn't magically doing something when I was doing nothing. I was doing nothing and the game skipped through many years, not giving me the chance to move units. More WINE bugginess I guess, because I never ever saw this issue in Windows or with the original Mac port or it's OS X carbon port (which stopped working in OS X 10.7, and lost fullscreen mode and animations in 10.6 where it still works without those features).

I messed around a bit with this "Mac" version and here is what I found:
- The occasional statics sound seems to be a problem from the official 5.0 patch, better known as the Windows 2000 and XP patch, and it is listed as a know issue for Windows in the readme. I haven't tested it on Windows, but if it is a bug in the game itself then there is nothing GoG could do. I tried my retail copy without the patch and it wouldn't work in Wine.
- The keypad not working is known to the staff:
http://www.gog.com/forum/sid_meier_s_alpha_centauri_/keypad_for_mac/post3
Personally I'm fine with the mouse, but at least you can use those four keys above the arrow keys for full eight directions of movement.
- The unit design panel (or whatever it is called) where the unit is rotating stops rotating after a while. The same happens to the credits, they stop scrolling after a random amount of time.
- When taking an iterface tour the lines from the textbox to the interface element are sometimes not drawn
- Sometimes the cursor becomes invisible when trying to load a game or start a new one. Quit the game and try again, this only happens at the beginning.

All these issues are more or less minor and don't impact gameplay, but not being able to toggle fullscreen is a major pain. To solve it right-click Alpha Centauri.app -> Show Package Contents -> Wineskin.app -> Set Screen Options -> Automatic (instead of override). You can then toggle fullscreen by pressing Cmd + Alt + A

I have no idea why they didn't leave it on automatic, automatice usually works best. Maybe you'll need to update the wrapper first before it works: dowload Wineskin Winery, then in Wineskin.app (see above) go to Advanced -> Tools -> Update Wrapper.
http://wineskin.urgesoftware.com/tiki-index.php

GOG, please fix the numpad on OS X!

You can't play SMAC without it! :P

Little update: voxel models of units rotate properly using Wine 1.7.27. Still no cursor key support though.
EDIT: Fix for the static sound sound
http://www.gog.com/forum/sid_meier_s_alpha_centauri_/fix_for_static_sound

I've been running SMAC under Bootcamp, as the CPU use is way lower giving me much better battery life. However, I'm finding the game very difficult to play without being able to make diagonal moves. Anyone know of any workarounds for Windows under bootcamp?

Makes me miss my old 2007-era Macbook that had a "numpad" mode. It was so simple!