I bought this game when it first came out, it actually got me through the school summer holidays (i was grounded for six weeks for a crime i didn't commit !) that was over ten years ago, and pretty much i have to say it has to be the best turn based war game ive ever played. The only problem i have with the game isnt one of style or substance, its one of programming.
Back in the day, me and three school buddies would spend far too much of our spare time hot seat gaming whenever we had the chance. This was all well and good, but the game had a nasty habit of locking up, crashing, freezing, skipping turns and just generally dying on you somewhere near turn 150. As mentioned in previous posts, you could load your way around this problem, but it got to be a bit annoying, having to retake your turn every so often until eventually the game ( to paraphrase Babylon 5 ) would simply stop.
A few years ago, a friend of mine found a copy on ebay and gave it to me as a present, the nostalgic memories came flooding back, and a few phone calls later the old school chums were ready to roll once more. Problem was, no one had a pc old enough to run it.
That was until about three weeks ago, when i was randomly killing some time chasing explorer links, and i found this site, which placed me in contact with 'dosbox', something id never really come across before.
such is the extent of our addiction to this game, we have uploaded it, and DOSBOX onto a memory stick, so we can play the game anywhere on anyone's PC. However -- despite the fact this version comes with the latest patch, the game still seems to suffer from the old problems of slowdown, game freezers and general crashes. damn shame really. If anyone knows how to fix these problems, id be really delighted to know!
If only it was more stable, and you could create or add new maps.
Having resources that dont expire, the ability to customize your units, and the set values of combat make this game the epitome of strategy and resource management in a controlled environment.
On a side note, we bought MAX 2 a few years after we stopped playing max -- We played it once, for about fifteen minutes, and never touched it again. It sucked donkey balls.
Who knows, one day they might re-release it in a stable format with a multiplayer option that works via a cable modem!
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