Alpha Centauri in Fiction - Games

Games

• 2300 AD (1986), role-playing game designed by the Game Designers' Workshop. The Alpha Centauri system has a number of habitable worlds:
  • Alpha Centauri A I. Tirane, the first planet of Alpha Centauri A, is a habitable "garden" world where a number of Terran nations each maintain one or more colonies. It was the first habitable extrasolar planet discovered by mankind, and it has grown in importance until it is considered to be one of the core worlds.
  • Alpha Centauri B I. Sheol, the first planet of Alpha Centauri B, is a hothouse world with significant deposits of minerals and a thriving extraction industry.
  • Alpha Centauri B III. Limbes, the third planet of Alpha Centauri B, is a post-garden world, sterilized by the greenhouse effect. Scientists maintain a research station in orbit around this world. Despite almost a century of study, no surviving life forms have been detected, but fossil evidence still bears witness to a rich ecology that long ago perished.
  • Alpha Centauri C (Proxima Centauri) I. Moiroi (with its associated satellites: Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos) is the sole planet of Proxima Centauri. Several nations maintain scientific or mining stations on the moons of this planet.
• Civilization (1991), video strategy game developed by MicroProse and designed by Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley. One of the potential victory conditions in Civilization and its sequels involves being the first civilization to send a colony ship to the Alpha Centauri system. If more than one civilization is in a position to do so, a space race may result.
• Frontier: Elite II (1993) and Frontier: First Encounters (1995), computer games written by David Braben et al. The Alpha Centauri system is the location of Eden, the first extrasolar planet discovered with flowing surface water. Despite this amenity (and its name) Eden is uninhabitable, although a small research station is located there, and difficult to visit, since its starport is 900 to 1000 AU away from the nearest hyperspace jump point.
• Alien Legacy (1994), video strategy game developed by Joe Ybarra and published by Sierra Entertainment. In the 22nd century, aliens from an Alpha Centauri "homeworld" (whether it is α Cen A, B, or C is not specified) discover humanity's existence on the Earth and attack the planet with murderous intent. Pursuant to this war the player is charged with colonizing the Beta Caeli planets—where the actual game takes place.
• Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri (1996), first-person shooter video game developed and published by Looking Glass Studios. In the year 2327, a faction of humans has colonized the Alpha Centauri star system to escape from a totalitarian Earth government. The player assumes the role of Nikola ap Io, the leader of an Alpha Centauri military unit, and undertakes missions against space pirates and the Earth Hegemony. The Alpha Centauri system has a total of eight planets with a number of moons orbiting them; the game takes place on three of the planets including NewHope and the ice-planet Thatcher, and on one of the moons.
• Independence War (1997), space combat computer game developed by Particle Systems and published by Infogrames. In the game, the player takes the role of a 23rd century spaceship captain in the Earth Commonwealth Navy, commander of the Dreadnaught. The primary antagonists are rebellious insurgents called the Indies, a group distinguished by their elaborately and colourfully painted ships; it is the captain's job to bring them back under the control of Earth. The Alpha Centauri system lies at the center of an interstellar jump point network, making it one of the most strategic in the game.
• Colony Wars (1997), Sony PlayStation video game developed by Psygnosis and produced by Sony. The player of this game assumes the role of an unnamed starfighter pilot in the League of Free Worlds, fighting for independence against the despotic Earth Empire and its Colonial Navy. Alpha Centauri was the first star system colonized by humanity; it has been depleted of its raw materials in the subsequent centuries, and subjected to a long and violent civil war between League Supporters and Navy Loyalists. Alpha Centauri is also home to the Faction, who serve as the main antagonists for missions based in the system.
• Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (1999), video strategy game developed by Firaxis Games and published by Electronic Arts. Inspired by Meier's earlier success Civilization, and set in the 22nd century, this game begins when seven competing ideological factions land on the planet Chiron in the Alpha Centauri star system. As the game progresses, the planet's growing sentience becomes a formidable obstacle to the human colonists.
• Earth & Beyond (2002), massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Westwood Studios and published by Electronic Arts. Alpha Centauri is a star system colonized by the Earth that has two habitable planets: Zweihander, a Super-Earth orbiting Alpha Centauri A (see graphics above), and Witburg, a Mars-sized planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B.
• Killzone (2004), Sony PlayStation video game series developed by Guerrilla Games and produced by Sony. The Alpha Centauri system is the location of two habitable planets, Vekta and Helghan. The backstory features the war between the Interplanetary Strategic Alliance (ISA) and the Helghast, inhabitants of Helghan. The main antagonist is Helghast Emperor Scolar Visari; his death in the second installment of the series precipitates a succession struggle among the Helghast, and provides the motivation for plentiful game action.
• Mass Effect 2 (2010), role playing game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. In the setting of this game, an expedition originally left the Earth for the Alpha Centauri system in 2070, but contact with the crew was soon lost. In 2185, the Asari, a race allied with humanity, reports the discovery in the system of an independent colony descended from the original explorers.