M.A.X. + M.A.X. 2

In general, MAX is more complex tactically than MAX2 (and modern RTSs in general) primarily because it does not use a magical, global pool for resources. You must link suppliers and users of resources together or specifically transfer resources via truck. That means that your logistics chain is explicit and can therefore be attacked and broken, crippling those forces or factories that depend upon those supplies. It also means that new outposts must be supplied locally or resources brought to them, implying that much more thought must be put into their selection, their creation and their development. Unlike modern RTSs, MAX and MAX2 allow the research of improved abilities and the upgrading of existing units and facilities. Research requires gold and you must mine it as you must mine metal and fuel, and like all other resources, gold must be explicitly stored and brought to the research centers. You do not research new unit but you can improve just about all aspects of any existing unit: hit points, armor, attack, range, shots per turn, speed, etc. These upgrades can dramatically affect success during combat and how quickly you mine gold and research these abilities is crucial to victory. In MAX, resources must first be found through explicit surveying of the land. In addition, the richness of the resource at any location varies. This is in contrast to MAX2 and modern RTSs where resources are visible to all units and have a common richness. In MAX, mulitple mine sites are often in close enough proximity to allow a single mine to collect multiple resources, whereas in MAX2 specific gold and metal mines must be used. In this regard too, then, MAX is more complex and requires more explicit resource management than MAX2 and modern RTSs. While MAX is strictly turn-based, (with an option for simultaneous turn for combat), MAX2 can also be played in real-time mode. This real-time mode and the global pool of resources collected through the aether is what makes MAX2 the predecessor of modern RTSs rather than the successor of MAX. The gameplay in MAX2 is much faster than that in MAX as there is little logistics management. The emphasis in MAX2 is on amassing large forces and attacking the enemy whereas MAX requires detailed base-building and logistics management before engagement can begin. That being said, MAX2 does improves upon MAX from a tactical point of view in two ways. First, MAX2 introduces Line of Sight as a constraint, so terrain has to be taken into account. Second, MAX2 does not allow units to be upgraded until the upgrade has been researched. In MAX, research advances one attribute for all units, but specific units can be upgraded ad infinitum if you have the gold, regardless of what you have researched. That means that very strong units can be created very early if you find and mine the gold, so the race becomes to upgrade as quickly as possible, which can overwhelm the tactical aspects of the game. The reseach requirement in MAX2 dramatically slows this upgrade process down. In sum, MAX is a solid, turn-based, tactical game before frenetic development became the hallmark of strategy games, and it is highly recommended. MAX2 is also a solid game but it is steeped in the modern RTS mentality of streamlining the gameplay to focus on forces-building and attack. It is a good game but modern development of the genre has outstripped it. Modern development has *not* outstripped MAX.

Indeed a classic, i am not familiar with M.A.X. 2 but i bought M.A.X as soon as it was available on cd. Never got to finish it though :D Looks like now i can give it another go....

I haven't found another RTS-Base-Builder Game of this depth i loved so much. It can't compare to global strategy games from Paradox, but vs. C&C / AoE it rocks. The Memory-Allocation Bug got better/partly fixed with the new .exe, game still gets a bit sluggish when you set up a base of ~100 Research centers... but boy, does the fun start there in getting imba units, when you find out, you have no research cap for i.E. Range, Damager or shots per unit per turn! I can just say, this was one of my first strategy base builder games (it was sold by "bestseller games" in early days in germany.. still a great memory reading that thing! thx for that article!) and i still love setting it up and run it up to today (just played it yesterday). with lutris it's even running fine on linux. Give it a go, if you have it for that pixel, the mechanics are worth it.

The original game is great until you hit the unit limit crash [256 units total between you and human or computer opponent?] There was a patch, but it never worked for me. The campaign game for the original game can be challenging on the first play through. The rock-paper-scissors of units is nice as is the ability to upgrade units by mining gold. I tend to be a tortoise, base builder and do well if I can survive the first 30 turns - if I end up too close to an enemy starting place while playing 2 or more God mode computers, I have about 50-50 survival. The sequel, MAX 2, isn't worth the time to install. The 3d features, while sounding like they make the game more challenging, just make it a memory hog that bogs the game down until it too crashes. The colors are also horrendous in this sequel. It is not worth the install. Last point: Some crashes will force you to restart the computer and have on more than one occasion corrupted my boot sequence. You have been warned! Have a recovery disk handy. [This is on Win7 - haven't played it more than 2-3 times on Win10]

Worst game I bought so far on GOG. It never worked from start to end, when going to more complex games. 3 players, longer games, that game just got overtaxed. Sometimes it got stuck, when switching from one player to the next, sometimes units wanted to move but couldn't anymore, slowing down the game, sometimes, when starting a new round, you selected a construction unit, that was blinking (for having done the job), and then when it started to move, the game crashed (overflow). The "sometimes" applies to playing before round 150 or so. After that it switched to "usually".