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M.A.X.: Mechanized Assault and Exploration

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
M.A.X.: Mechanized Assault and Exploration
M.A.X.: Mechanized Assault and Exploration cover
Developers
Interplay Entertainment
Release dates
DOS 1996
Windows (DOSBox) September 2008
macOS (OS X) (DOSBox) July 12, 2018
Linux (DOSBox) September 25, 2021
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time, Turn-based
Perspectives Top-down view
Controls Multiple select, Point and select
Genres RTS
Themes Sci-fi
Series M.A.X.
M.A.X.: Mechanized Assault and Exploration on HowLongToBeat
M.A.X.: Mechanized Assault and Exploration on IGDB
M.A.X.: Mechanized Assault and Exploration on MobyGames
M.A.X.: Mechanized Assault and Exploration on Wikipedia
M.A.X.
M.A.X.: Mechanized Assault and Exploration 1996
M.A.X.: Mechanized Assault and Exploration 2 1998

M.A.X.: Mechanized Assault and Exploration is a singleplayer and multiplayer top-down view RTS game in the M.A.X. series.

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
DRM details are not known
DOS
Epic Games Store
DRM details are not known
Windows
macOS (OS X)
GOG.com
DRM-free
Bundled with M.A.X. 2. Pre-packaged with DOSBox.[1]
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

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 not much is known about it and some say it is rather glitchy and arguably worse than the originals (a translated thread discussing the patch's origin can be found here).

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> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
macOS (OS X) <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Linux <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Save game data location

System Location
DOS
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
macOS (OS X) <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Linux <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]

Save game cloud syncing

Video

In-game options menu.
In-game options menu.

Graphics feature State Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
For DOSBox toggle with Alt+ Enter (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
For DOSBox use an unofficial build (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
60 FPS and 120+ FPS

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
For DOSBox set in the DOSBox configuration file.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Controller types

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
For DOSBox change the priority background value in the DOSBox configuration file.

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
4 Hot seat
LAN play
4 IPX/SPX; use DOSBox for UDP/IP.
Online play
For DOSBox use DOSBox IPX/modem emulation.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DOS video modes SVGA

System requirements

DOS
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 5.0
Processor (CPU) Intel 486-66
System memory (RAM) 8 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 32 MB
Video card (GPU) SVGA
Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP, Vista
Processor (CPU) 1.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 40 MB
Video card (GPU) DirectX 7 compatible
macOS (OS X)
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 10.6.8
Processor (CPU) Intel Core Duo 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 500 MB
Video card (GPU) 64 MB of VRAM
Other
Linux
Minimum
Operating system (OS) Ubuntu 16.04
Processor (CPU) 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 500 MB
Video card (GPU) OpenGL compatible
256 MB of VRAM


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 File/folder structure within the installation folder reflects the path(s) listed for DOS game data.

References