M.A.X.: Mechanized Assault and Exploration

M.A.X.
M.A.X.: Mechanized Assault and Exploration	1996
M.A.X.: Mechanized Assault and Exploration 2	1998

General information

Russian Maxclub - A fan site for M.A.X. (Russian only)

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
GOG.com		Bundled with M.A.X. 2. Pre-packaged with DOSBox.^[1]
Steam

Essential improvements

DOSBox

Run in DOSBox

To improve DOSBox performance make the following changes to the DOSBox configuration file:

Change memsize=16 to memsize=64
Change prebuffer=20 to prebuffer=10
Change rate=44100 to rate=22050
Change mpu401=intelligent to mpu401=none

Patches

The latest official patch, 1.04, can be found here. 1.03, which some argue to be better than 1.04, can also be found here. There is also an unofficial 1.56 available here, though it is rather glitchy and arguably worse than the originals.

DOS/32A

DOS/32A is a more advanced extender and open source replacement to DOS4GW. It can improve both performance and stability of M.A.X. greatly.

Delete (or backup) the original DOS4GW.EXE file then bind with the command sb /r maxrun.exe and setup.exe. Simply replacing the executable does not solve the problem.

Disable annoying "register" message

Delete the files MAX.BAT and MAXRUN.BAT and download this file which will replace their functionality, but without the annoying messages. You can also delete EREGCARD.EXE and EREGCARD.INI as they will no longer be used.

Mechanized Assault & eXploration Reloaded

A open source remake of M.A.X., it provides modern system support along with updated networking. If a full copy of the original game is available, the original game textures can be used. Otherwise, free texture packs are available to make the remake standalone.

Note that it is currently multiplayer only and there is no single player support.

It can be found here.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
DOS
Windows	<path-to-game>\^{[Note 1]}<path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)^{[Note 2]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/615250/pfx/^{[Note 3]}

Save game data location

System	Location
DOS
Windows	<path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)^{[Note 2]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/615250/pfx/^{[Note 3]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video settings

In-game options menu.

300px

Graphics settings (GOG.com version)

Template:Video settings

Input settings

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Players	Notes
Local play	4	Hot seat
LAN play	4	IPX/SPX; use DOSBox for UDP/IP.
Online play	4	Using DOSBox; the GOG.com version is already configured for this.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
DOS video modes	SVGA

System requirements

DOS
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	5.0	6.2
Processor (CPU)	Intel 486-66	Intel Pentium
System memory (RAM)	8 MB	16 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	32 MB	40 MB
Video card (GPU)	SVGA

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP, Vista
Processor (CPU)	1.0 GHz	1.4 GHz
System memory (RAM)	512 MB	1 GHz
Hard disk drive (HDD)	40 MB
Video card (GPU)	DirectX 7 compatible	DirectX 9 compatible

Notes

↑ When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 File/folder structure within the installation folder reflects the path(s) listed for DOS game data.
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1
Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
- File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
- Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
- The app ID (615250) may differ in some cases.
- Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
- See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

References

↑ List of GOG games using DOSBox, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com

[gamedir-2] When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

[DOSBox_mounted-3] 2.0 ^2.1 File/folder structure within the installation folder reflects the path(s) listed for DOS game data.

[Proton_path_note-4] 3.0 ^3.1 Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
The app ID (615250) may differ in some cases.
Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

[4] File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.

[5] Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.

[6] The app ID (615250) may differ in some cases.

[7] Treat backslashes as forward slashes.

[8] See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

[1] List of GOG games using DOSBox, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com

[1]

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[Note 3]

Developers

	Interplay Entertainment
Release dates
DOS	1996
Windows (DOSBox)	September 2008