Mechanized Assault & eXploration Reloaded

Subject: Re: M.A.X. source is lost to Interplay

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I also tried to get some information about the topic from the original developers. I won't mention full names, just initials.

C. T. said:
"Sorry, the source code for MAX is lost or unavailable. We've already tried looking for it."

C. N. said:
"I'm afraid I don't have it or know anyone that would any longer. All the Interplay members have moved on and once the projects are done the only copies of the source code would have been with the interplay archives, if they still exist. Sorry."

G. S. said:
"No, I don't have the source code to MAX, though I get asked that sort of question about past projects periodically.

As I recall, the source was fairly quirky. We had libraries from Fallout for some of the user interface / windowing system, and a significant number of assembler modules. We used a command-line C compiler, the name of which escapes me right now, but it wasn't either Microsoft's or Borland's. I think it may have been GCC, in fact, but I'm not sure. Frankly, the source was a mess, and wouldn't port very easily.

Multiplayer was rather TCP/IP unfriendly, because it was frame-locked and didn't deal with delays in transmission very well. Internet play was still very new at the time, and we thought strictly in terms of LAN play. I think you'd have to re-design that from the ground up to get something reliable.

Honestly, the most you'd find useful to salvage would probably be core game logic and AI, since those are hard to reverse engineer. Unfortunately, I can't help you even with that."

Some additional information:
- the user interface / windowing system that G.S. mentioned is the GNW, a user interface and OS-abstraction library, which supports such titles as Fallout & MAX. It was developed by Timothy (Tim) Cain.

- MAX was compiled with DOS/4GW v1.97 libraries witch was distributed with the Watcom C/C++ Compiler. Unfortunately later on (January 30 of 1997) it turned out that the DOS/4GW v1.97 had serious bugs in it's memory allocation handler (DPMI host) that caused mappings of 4 MB or greater ram to be misaligned. Maybe that is the cause why the game crashes a lot with memory allocation errors.

To Mr. Weedy:
decompilation of the MAX executable is possible, but very hard. There are two MAX executables that can be the possible target. The v1.0 PR demo and the v1.56 ALPHA build of the game. These two executables are DEBUG builds, and has lots of AI related debug texts probably for logging purposes. The executables are uses lots of Ansi C functions that can be detected by the decompilers' function libraries. The most unfortunate thing is that the DOS MZ format is can not be interactively debugged by most of the decompilers as interactive debugging would be very important for understanding the local and global variables and such...

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Subject: Re: M.A.X. source is lost to Interplay

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Great jobe Mague!
It's awesome to read about it

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Subject: Re: M.A.X. source is lost to Interplay

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very interesting as well. Especially the network stuff. Frame locked, huh? No wonder the games got out of sync all the time.

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Subject: Re: M.A.X. source is lost to Interplay

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frame locked was known for a long long time now? ( afaik duke got theat info from smedsted
dammmmmn 2005 boys and girls

http://www.maxthegame.de/...t&id=1738

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Subject: Re: M.A.X. source is lost to Interplay

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duuh, that's years ago. I wasn't into that before

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Subject: Re: M.A.X. source is lost to Interplay

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I've contacted other developers from the original dev. team in the last several days. Unfortunately most of them not answered.

Found: 14
Contacted: 11
Responded: 5

Interesting facts & thoughts #1:
Mr. Steve Perrin was the head writer for the MAX1 background story. Though he is not credited for working on MAX2 on he's biography page at MobyGames he also wrote a bunch of background story ideas and stories for MAX2, which were mostly not used by Interplay for the game (most unfortunately). I was able to contact him a couple of days ago, and he told me some of the unheard, never released and left out story elements of MAX2:

Part from Mr. Perrin's letter #1:

Part from Mr. Perrin's letter #2:

He also mentioned that MAX is one of he's favorite old projects.

Interesting facts & thoughts #2:
The game is based on an Original idea by Larry Froistad. MAX1 was the last credited game he worked on (based on Mobygame's information). Later on in 1998, Larry burnt up he's home and murdered he's 5 years old doughter and confessed he's crime to a group on a mailing list. An article about the bizarre case can be read on this link.

Maybe he sold he's soul to the devil to make MAX1 such a cult game as it is?

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Subject: Re: M.A.X. source is lost to Interplay

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I didn't pay much attention to the story of "MAX 2" but I wonder whether we should start to write our own chapter - would be kind of cool, eh?

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Subject: Re: M.A.X. source is lost to Interplay

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More about Froistad: http://www.court.state.nd.us/...010111.htm

It's very bad stuff. I looked this up months ago.

Subject: Re: M.A.X. source is lost to Interplay

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On the site http://www.mobygames.com/...on/credits I found the participants and the developer of maintaining M.A.X it would need to find the e-mail address of ALI N. Atabek.

I find a possible email of ALI N. ATABEK and Dave Boulanger, i check it...

Credits
Project Manager: Ali N. Atabek
Producers: Ali N. Atabek, Paul Kellner
Game Design: Ali N. Atabek, Paul Kellner, Gus Smedstad
Based On An Original Idea By: Larry Froistad
Lead Programmer: Dave Boulanger
Design and AI Programming: Gus Smedstad
Network Programming: Dave Boulanger, Bernie Weir
2D Artists: Anthony Postma, Arlene C. Somers
3D Artists: Mark Bergo, Michael Dean, Christopher Regalado, Arlene C. Somers
Visual Concepts & Storyboards: Anthony Postma
Original World Design: Cheryl Austin
World Creation Arlene: C. Somers
Audio Director: Charles Deenen
Head Writer: Steve Perrin
Writers: Paul Kellner, Amy Mitchell, Laura Mitchell, Anthony Postma
Editor: Kelly Newcomb
DOS and Windows Install Programmer: Darren L. Monahan
Lead Tester: Cory Nelson
Video Compression & Playback Technology: Paul Allen Edelstein
Video Compression: Bill Stoudt

Subject: Re: M.A.X. source is lost to Interplay

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I tried contacting people for the source code myself a long time ago. Mostly I just wanted to see how they did that amazing AI, and where all those annoying bugs were. Of course everyone said it was gone. The fact that Larry Froistad went mad and set that fire upgrades the story of the missing source code to nearly mythical status. I like to think that the last copy of the code was there, a hard copy sitting on his desk. Maybe M.A.X. is something that no human can fully control, perhaps M.A.X.R. is stepping where angels dare not tread.