Machines by Acclaim w/ Windows XP/2000 Patch

Machines by Acclaim (With Windows XP/2000 patch) www.wiredforwar.org If we are to believe movies like Terminator, humankind's destiny ends in destruction at the hands of nefarious machines. If this is to be, let's hope the hyperintelligent robotic brains look to late-20th-century real-time-strategy artificial intelligence to govern their military tactics. At least we might have a fighting chance. Case in point: Acclaim and Charydbis' Machines. This 3D real-time strategy game features enough dazzling visuals for several games of its type, but it's hampered by its been-there-done-that gameplay and poor unit intelligence. After the fourth world war, humankind's biggest threat becomes overcrowding, as significant medical advances double the life-expectancy rate. When the need for additional resources arises, humans launch numerous "seeder ships" and machines to colonize and harvest alien worlds. A hundred years pass; the machines continue to collect resources and evolve, but humans never arrive to join them. Exhausting all resources, the machines move on to additional worlds, and, after many years, two machine "races" encounter one another in a distant star system. During the confrontation, an artificial intelligence defect causes a galactic war to break out among the machines. Machines follows basic real-time strategy principles and only breaks the mold with its 3D engine and camera angles. Gameplay involves collecting building material units (BMUs), then utilizing them to research new technology and construct military and builder units. Several basic units are provided, with the more powerful constructors and offensive machines residing high up the technology tree. Unlike the similar Warzone 2100, Machines places greater emphasis on resource collecting and base management. Transports, locator bots, smelters, and mines must be constructed to keep the BMUs flowing and your coffers full. It's obvious the age of 3D real-time strategy games has finally arrived; Machines' 3D-accelerator-only engine boosts some impressive special effects. Units are completely three-dimensional, and most are wonderfully animated, particularly the spider-like reaper and the intimidating gorilla (one of the coolest-looking RTS units ever). Those are the standouts, though, as many other units look extremely similar to each other and lack discernable features. Unit weapon effects fare better, with a scattering of bright laser beams and smoke-trailing missiles, all with ample doses of colored lighting and adequate sound effects. Terrain features are sparse, with only the occasional small hill or valley to liven things up, and terrain height appears to have little effect on strategy or unit abilities. The visuals really shine in Machines' two free-floating-camera options. Included are the zenith camera, the default isometric perspective providing the best view of base layout, and the ground camera, a field-level perspective that places you in the middle of the action. But, while the ground camera provides an amazing viewpoint, core game elements, like base and resource management, become nearly impossible. Machines also features a first-person perspective and, much like Activision's action/strategy hybrid Battlezone, lets you hop into and control any of your units. Again, an intriguing gimmick, but one that's not useful, or integral, to gameplay - the machines are too sluggish to control effectively, and you have no way of controlling other base functions while in this view. Where Machines falters most is in the single-player campaign and unit intelligence. The solo missions feel more like loosely connected skirmish levels than a cleverly woven campaign. With little continuity (often you must research the same technology over and over across several missions) and even less storytelling, Machines' solo offering lacks the rewards to inspire you to continue onward. As for unit intelligence, the computer-controlled opponent offers little challenge, typically tossing a wave of two or three units at your defenses, rarely doing significant damage until later levels when the quantities are greater and the technologies more powerful. Unfortunately, your own troops aren't much better. A simple three-setting "initiative" meter can be adjusted, but it doesn't affect important gameplay aspects like BMU transports moving to a new mine once their designated resource has been exhausted or a healing machine acting on its own to mend your troops. Instead, they just sit there, waiting patiently for your orders. Poor unit pathfinding, a bane of real-time strategies, rears its ugly head once again. BMU transports move slow and often get hung up on one another and other base structures when trying to reach their assigned mine or smelter. Further, when ordering your military units around the map, getting them to actually follow the order can be a patience-trying task. Units will stop for no apparent reason or navigate so poorly around objects or terrain features that they'll fall significantly behind the rest of the pack. And the lumbering, mech-like gorilla seems to occasionally walk on an invisible treadmill, a frustrating occurrence during a hectic battle. Pathfinding issues are compounded when engaging in one of the indoor missions; the structure's layout, filled with narrow corridors and tight doorways, is enough to send your machines into pathfinding overload. Pitting your Machines skills against up to four human opponents can be accomplished over modem, serial, LAN, or TCP/IP connection. In addition to those protocols, a matchmaking lobby has been set up at Microsoft's Internet Gaming Zone - so finding an online adversary shouldn't be too difficult. Multiplayer gameplay has some interesting features, such as the spy unit, which can covertly plant explosives in enemy structures, and the need to build special locator units to discover resources. Numerous options and game styles (including "gorilla jousting" help diversify the action and strategy, but apart from the 3D engine and colorful visuals, not much new ground has been broken here. There's only one army of machines to choose from - though the colors are different, each player receives the same units and technology tree. For players new to the real-time strategy genre, Machines might be a worthy entry point. The single-player game starts off quite easy and doesn't really offer a challenge until well into the campaign. Veteran players, however, won't be impressed, apart from the camera angles and pyrotechnics, and will be less forgiving of the game's pathfinding and AI shortcomings. www.wiredforwar.org NOTE: "www.wiredforwar.org" is not in ANY was affiliated with this torrent.on

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vidtam (2006-12-29)

I'm sure that it is a f*ckin good game,so please seed it!!please!please!

k_app_a (2007-01-04)

There are no seeds! - someone please seed - this is a great game.

k_app_a (2007-01-05)

Woohoo!

kaloian0193 (2007-05-24)

Hey please seed ive playd the demo of this game
its a cool game heh but the demo runs so dumbysh....... dammit i must have the full game!

kaloian0193 (2007-05-28)

Hey DUDE WHATS WHIT THIS DAMM EROOR!??!!??!?!?!?!? I DID EVERYTHIJG I NEDED TO DO!!!! YOU SHOUD RECHECK THE XP PATCH I THINK!!!

_Rockabilly_ (2007-12-23)

Hi is this working...

scorch56 (2008-07-18)

Just wanted to let everybody know.. for the BUNCH of people who are downloading this at any given time.. 2 years later. I just wasted 3 days.. this ISO doesn't work.. I've tried EVERYTHING.
Doesn't work on my 98SE box.. nor my XP one. Have tried EVERY crack available from GCW. Have tried a CLEAN untouched install. Have tried a SecuROM loader.. nothing. It always asks for the CD. OP doesn't state whether this is the UK or US release.. so tried all patches to v1.15 as well and then tried to crack. Even tried to fake it with German files (since some CD check removers are for German ver).. nothing.
It just plain doesn't work folks.. at all. OP may have done a 1:1 copy or prepatched.. impossible to tell.. but I've tried everything.
A real shame.. since it's supposedly a real good and rare game. Oh well.. looks like it's back to my "rip".

scorch56 (2008-07-18)

..And as if that wasn't enough.. I finally got the game to run by overwriting the main EXE with the one from paradigm's old "rip" of the game from '99.
At GCW it says to extract and copy (as in burn) the original disc #2 as a mixed mode CD which means there's obviously redbook audio (as in the music) on CD #2. This "amateur" didn't even image disc 2 right! You can tell by the size of ISO 2. So there's no music in the game because he didn't put it in the image.

Nered (2009-05-22)

The game works, just mount it, install it, patch it, and run machines.exe
Idiots cant get it running, right scorch56 ?
NO CRACKING NECESSARY

Levethian (2009-06-26)

The comments were worrying me...
As it turned out, its really easy to get working.
Thanks for the upload! Wish there was a way to change hotkeys, but meh.

DVDude (2010-07-30)

works fine on win7pro 64... just remember to copy the d3drm.dll file to system32... google it to get it.

ren9999 (2013-12-17)

ive done it, ive finally done it, i now know how you can have your background music while using the machines ISO files mounted virtually..... cant believe we hadn't figured this out really...
all you have to do is change the letter of the virtual drive to D: if you already have a physical CD or DVD drive with that letter then all you have to do is change that letter.
instructions on how to change the drive letter can be found here(for windows anyways):

after you change your physical drive letter go into your virtual CD program and change the virtual cd drive's letter to D:
apparently some old games dont work correctly if the disc isnt in the drive named D: and machines happens to be one of them.

garudaz (2014-01-17)

not work. using win 7 ultimate 32 bit.
"machine.exe is not valid win32 app"

garudaz (2014-01-17)

actually work but have many problem patching and uninstall issue. not recomended since piss me off. and it need disk 2 to play game

BigPappaTheTech (2014-01-18)

Alright guys, Successfully installed on windows 7 Pro although it did give me some trouble.
After downloading mount the ISO of disk 1 to Daemon tools (or some other disk mounting service) and change its drive letter to D:/ by using disk management (right click on computer>manage>storage>disk management). THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT WHICH IS WHY THIS IS ALL CAPS. If you cant figure out how to just Google it. Now run the autorun file from disk 1 in compatibility mode for windows 98/ME (right click file>compatibility mode, make sure the "run as administrator" box is checked.) After letting the installer run through you will have to unmount the disk 1 ISO and mount the disk 2 iso. After running the disk 2 Autorun using the same compatibility settings. Now at this point it gave me a missing d3drm.dll file which is to be expected because its for a version of DirectX that was out in 1998. All i did was download the file (Googled it) and dropped it into the programs folder (file path was something like C:/program files>acclaim entertainment>machines) after that you SHOULD be able to play the game either from the disk 2 autorun or the program shortcut.
Whew, hope you guys figure it out if i left anything out. I was so happy when i found my old copy of Machines but they were way too scratched to play :( .
Anyways happy hunting!