alpha-centauri – Can the ‘Cheat Flag’ Be Reset in Alpha Centauri?

I keep play SMAX till now, and it works fine on my Win7/x64.

1. Make a clean installation SMAX (or backup an existing copy);
2. Install SMAX patch, searchable smacp4e, last time seen here;
3. Install Windows Fix, searchable smacxp103fus or SMAC Win2000 XP Compatibility Update v1.03f; last time seen here.

As far as I know, all patches are available for SMAC and SMAX.

Then try the following settings in config:

[Alpha Centauri]
DirectDraw=0 ;; important
Video Mode=2560 ;; your screen resolution
ds3d=1
eax=1
FastUnitAnim=0
SmoothUnitAnim=0

[PREFERENCES]
ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1 ;; important

The patches above have quite a few of bugs fixed, including operation on fast or non-Intel CPU's, crashes on air-to-air combat (when fighter defend the city against bombers), division by zero when automated units in polar areas, and many others.

It even works like a charm on WQXGA (2560×1600) screen with no crashes on scrolling.

And it does not require any compatibility settings in Windows.

There are two options:

1. Upon completion building the Network Node, activate the Alien Artifact and press Ctrl+H (Set Home City). The game will suggest using the Artifact. Note: this works even if the unit has no moves remaining (e.g., it was Held in a city and passed its move).
2. When the Alien Artifact activated, just step away from the city and step back into the city. Since usually, each city has at least one road around, the move will take only 2 * 1/3 of Artifact's moving capacity.

Also, SMAX (Alpha Centauri Alien Crossfire) automatically unholds Alien Artifacts in the city upon building the Network Node or starting building a special project. I'm not sure if the older SMAC works the same way.
Note: if unheld, the unit may have already skipped its move, but it still can do Ctrl+H; see above.