Zakharov's original name was Saratov. This was changed when it was discovered that Saratov was not an authentic Russian name. Zakharov is named for nuclear physicist and Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov.
Many factions' logos changed during development. The Hive's logo was originally the one used by the Peacekeepers. The wrench-like original logo of the University is still visible on the high-resolution pictures of their bases.
The technology "Inertial Damping" is located in the game files, but is not used in any form. Originally, the "Stockpile Energy" command was a facility called "Mass to Energy", and sound files do remain of this.
Each weapon type in the game has a classification that is not used in the game itself - Projectile, Energy or Missile. It was planned that certain types of weapons would be more or less effective against certain types of armors, but this was taken out due to the level of complexity it added. Instead, all weapons simply did an increasing amount of damage, and all armors did an increasing amount of protection.
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.