Huge fan of the series here. I still have the box, manuals and CDs for both games. In fact, the original has been installed on every one of my builds since it first came out. Even though I have it already, I would be willing to buy it again from GOG if as part of the re-do they fixed a very bad bug in the original that even the 1.04 patch did not fix. It only cropped up in late or large games with tons of units and I believe it centered around a memory assertion error. In every game I have played this error always rears its ugly head in the end. Sometimes you can re-load a saved game and it is gone, but sometimes it corrupts your save as well. I have more detailed notes on the error (including the .cpp file it stems from) if needed.

It is not fixed as of yet. I am getting it quite often. I you have any advise on how to fix/avoid it I'd love to hear it.

AFAIK there is no way for a user to "fix" it without perhaps hacking the file since it is something broken in the .cpp file that controls memory allocation (I think). The best I could do is resort to saving the game at the beginning and end of every turn (especially in late games) and to use alternating save game slots so I could always go back to the last 5 or so turns.

Yes MAX1 has memory allocation issues, but the problem is not with the game code it self. If I remember it right, the DOS4GW module has the main problems. So the problem can only be solved if the game it self would be recompiled with a fixed DOS4GW memory handling library.
And that won't happen if even Interplay don't have the source code anymore :(

any chance we can get a word from GoG on this?
are we likley to see a fix for this or is something in the pipe line to try and correct this problem ?

Another thread in forum 'bout this
*Points up*
i mean,
*points down*
aw threads don't keep order
*throws up hand in defeat*

if the problem is really dos4gw then this should be fixable.
you can replace the dos4gw executable even when it is bound the game executable quite easily.

This is what I've always done in the past playing MAX, saved the game before and after a turn, especially in the later game turns, and keeping older saves. Most of the time (not always but usually) I had been able to continue a game after memory crashes, though I may have had to restart a save a few times. I only just started playing this site's game version, using Vista, but I assume I'll be doing similar save game steps to recover after crashes.

Dear All,
please read the followings very carefully, as this is the FIX for the Memory allocation problems:
CHANGING DOS EXTENDERS - THE SOLUTION FOR (nearly) ALL OF US
- M.A.X. and nearly all other DOS programs uses the DOS/4GW 1.97 DOS Extender from Tenberry Software to get Extended memory support through DPMI services. Basically, all 16 bit protected mode DOS LEs (linear executables) which needs Extended memory and other stuff, needs an extender. The Extender can be binded to an LE executable, so the Extender will self contain (wrap around) the "true" executable.
Unfortunately, the DOS/4GW 1.97 has some serious issues, listed here: http://www.tenberry.com/dos4g/watcom/rn4gw.html . The most important thing is this: "A bug in our DPMI INT 31h/0800h caused mappings of 4MB or greater to be misaligned." No wonder that the game crashes, or starts to misplace the units as memory usage increases.
Fortunately for us, the original DOS/4GW 1.97 Extender stub can be unbinded from the binded executables (1.00 PR demo, 1.04 retail, 1.56 beta) and this way we can get the original DOS LE executables. After this procedure, a new properly working Extender stub can be binded to the LE executables or we can use the unbinded executables with a different Extender core, for example we can use the one which is built in into DOSBOX it self.
I have tested the unbinded v1.04 MAX executable with the PMODE/W, DOS32A, WDOSX and DOS/4GW 2.01 Extenders and they seems to be much more stable. I have played 278 turns in a custom game against 3 computer players without seeing any corrupted units, erroneous grids, lost units in depots, etc. The cpu AI locked up one time (endlessly loading and unloading units from the depot, but it can also be fixed by the debug switches that can be found in the MAX.INI file - take note: I'm talking about a special MAX.INI file, not the one that the game creates it self), and the the game crashes back to the desktop some times, but it always works properly after a restart.
To unbind the old DOS Extender from your executables, download the PMODE/W free to use Extender from it's official site: http://www.sid6581.net/pmodew/ and use the PMWBIND utility like this: PMWBIND /U MAX.EXE
The DOSBOX emulator also supports this unbinded executable loading method. One can simply load the unbinded LE executable with DOSBOX's built in DOS32A Extender enabled and it will run.
If someone uses one of these freeware DOS Extenders instead of the erroneous original DOS/4GW 1.97, games will probably run much more stable.
- For all of you, M.A.X. I fanatics, the followings will be interesting I think: the M.A.X. 1.04 retail save game format is currently 70% reverse engineered, and there is hope that in the future, save game related issues will be fixable (even game related issues will be fixable). Also, as M.A.X. uses the save game format for it's campaign and scenario missions, in the future, we will be able to add new maps/missions/content to the original game as a bonus or extra.
Best regards,
klei

Hello kineticos,
DOSBOX and PMODE/W is not compatible. You see, I'm using MAX with a simple sound blaster emulator from the real windows operating system. So PMODE/W works for me.
You can use DOSBOX's built in DOS32A extender on the unbinded LE executable of MAX. You can do this in two ways:
1) find the DOSBOX setting for allowing the built in DOS32A extender, and simply run the unbinded MAX.LE executable.
2) simply run the DOS32A or the WDOSX extender found here: WDOSX in DOSBOX and add the MAX.LE executable to the command line parameter like this: "DOS32A MAX.LE" or "WDOSX MAX.LE"
Finally, as MAX is compatible with the Windows operating system's built in dos box (dos promt), you can try to use a sound blaster emulator to have sound support for dos games under Windows XP/2000. Like VDMSound or Sound FX 2000. This way the game will run with decent speed as you execute the game on your real OS instead of an emulator core, and you will have sound too.
If you are interested in MAX, you can find a growing English/German speaking MAX community here: MAXR
Or a Russian speaking community here: RUMAX
If you or anybody have questions, or problems with saved games that was played with one of the proper DOS Extenders (PMODE/W, DOS32A, WDOSX, DOS4GW 2.01) like game AI related crashes I will help to overcome most of these issues so you can play as long as you like.
As a proof that changing the DOS Extender really helps, take a look at the attached image or see the full sized picture here (4 mega bytes): UTOPIACITY
I have played 278 turns so far to achieve this mega base with more than 100 research centers and I can crash an enemy base in 5 turns :)
Best regards,
klei

Hi Klei
Funnily I just posted on the MAXR forum yesterday (I'm Leo there). When I find some time I'd like to develop an AI for the game, one that doesn't do little cheating and is a bit more organized in finding and exploiting resources.
Thank you for all the tips, I'll try the native run (and I wonder how Windows handles the old system calls without emulating the whole program - does it recompile the binaries prior to running them?).
With all the research centers you built, sure you can fire from one end of the map to the other ^^
Cheers!

Thank you very much. The bug was the only thing really preventing me from downloading M.A.X. Good to know I have a work around now.

At last! Thx klei :).

To me it seems that you can fix the memory assertion error but after that the repeated crashing to windows gets to be a pain in the butt. i love this game so and they should have not let it go to waste. but there is hope for all you die hard max fans. i belive someone else made a refrence to this site but ill do it again anyways. www.maxr.org is a community of people who love max. they made there own version of it and in my point of veiw is a very good build. the con is that you need a original max cd to get the original graphics and sounds so you get the same feeling when playing. but i still think this gog download was a good investment. i still play single player on max because MAXR does not support single player YET......