Machines

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General information

This game is also known as Machines: Wired for War.

Official source code

Official Acclaim website for Machines (archived)

WiredForWar forums (old) - fan community.

WiredForWar forums (new) - fan community.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM DRM

Essential improvements

Patches

Latest patch v1.15 and a Windows 2000/XP fix can be downloaded here under Play (click letter H) - Downloads.

dgVoodoo 2

With dgVoodoo 2 the game is rendered in 32 bit color depth and can be used to force anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering.

This can cause unstable framerate.

Instructions^[1]

Download the latest version of dgVoodoo 2 and extract it (verified working on version 2.54).
Copy all the files from the MS folder and paste the files into the game installation folder.
Optional: Run dgVoodooCpl.exe and configure the settings.

Game uses DirectX, so the above mentioned improvements should be activated in the DirectX tab.

Machines Loader

Machines Loader is a small application that can be used to modify the unit limits for the scenario and campaign modes.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Acclaim Entertainment\Machines

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\savegame\^{[Note 1]}

Video

Options menu.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Menus remain 640x480. "Screen Resolution Lock" option determines whether menus are output as fullscreen 640x480, or centered with black borders at the selected resolution.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		Menus remain 640x480. "Screen Resolution Lock" option determines whether menus are output as fullscreen 640x480, or centered with black borders at the selected resolution.
4K Ultra HD		Use dgVoodoo 2 for HUD and interface scaling with "Free Mouse" selected in hidden options and settings.
Field of view (FOV)		Hor+.
Windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Force using dgVoodoo 2 or GPU control panel.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		dgVoodoo 2 can be used to force MSAA, but it causes minor artifacts on letters and GUI elements.
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		On by default during gameplay. Can be forced using dgVoodoo 2 to enable it in the menus too.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		No frame rate or refresh rate cap. High FPS results in low horizontal mouse sensitivity in first-person mode and faster menu transition animations.
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Controller types

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		There are music and SFX volume sliders in the options menu, but they both change the master volume.
Surround sound		Aureal A3D.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English

Issues unresolved

Random game crashes (Windows 7)

Game can occasionally crash during gameplay even when Windows XP fix has been applied. Often saving is recommended to prevent loss of progress.^[1]

Issues fixed

Selection boxes not rendered

Different types of selection boxes may not render on some graphics cards.

Instructions^[1]
In the options menu check or uncheck 2D Selection Box to render a 2D or 3D selection box.

No textures rendered in game

During gameplay 3D objects are rendered without textures.

Instructions^[1]
In the options menu check Screen Resolution Lock.

Game uses low resolution textures

A video memory setting limits the amount of memory available to store textures.

Instructions^[2]
Open the `<path-to-game>\vidcard.cap` file with Notepad. Add `0` at the end of each of the two numbers to increase their values. Save the file.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	6

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows^[3]
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95	98
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 200 MHz
System memory (RAM)	32 MB	64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	115 MB	400 MB
Video card (GPU)	Voodoo 1 Riva 128 4 MB of VRAM DirectX 6.1 compatible	Voodoo 2 Riva TNT Matrox G200 8 MB of VRAM

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).

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 Verified by User:Antrad on April 6, 2018
↑ WiredForWar.org - texture4 - last accessed on May 2023
↑ Information taken from the game manual and readme file.

[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).

[refcheck_Antrad-1] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 Verified by User:Antrad on April 6, 2018

[3] WiredForWar.org - texture4 - last accessed on May 2023

[4] Information taken from the game manual and readme file.

[1]

[Note 1]

[2]

[3]

Developers

	Charybdis Limited
Publishers
	Acclaim Entertainment
Release dates
Windows	April 14, 1999
Reception
IGDB	65