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"How in the hell could Interplay release a game with such major, glaring, near-fatal flaws? Didn't anybody know? Didn't anybody care?" - PC Gamer Nov 98

"Running a close second in the shovelware market is Interplay, which also takes second place (after Sierra) as The Company Who Hates Its Customers The Most" - PC Gamer Feb 99

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Patch 1.4
HISTORY

ZOWIE: A Second Opinion
(from MAX2 Alliance Site)

Thur Aug 27 Headline: Patch 1.4 Due Out Soon...
"the new patch should be out some time today or tomorrow"
Mon Aug 31 Headline: Patch Due Out Soon...
"the patch should now be coming out tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest."
Thur Sept 3 Headline: Patch Due Out Soon...
"the patch will **definately** be out tomorrow."
Thur Sept 10 Headline: Patch Due Out Soon...
"the final **should** be released to QA today, and the patch released sometime early next week."
Tue Sept 23 Headline: Patch due Out Soon...I Promise!
"It should be out late tonite or tomorrow"
Thur Sept 26 Headline: Confusion in paradise...
"1.4 has been posted on Interplay's FTP server. They never bothered to inform anyone, however, and the only news that can be found on their site is a small link that takes you to the MAX2 page..."

And now the full patch 1.4 history (scroll down to read ... latest update is at the end):

Tue Aug 4 Interplay releases Patch 1.31 -- the game still does not work so they work on patch 1.4.
Mon Aug 17 Lancelot asked Interplay for a 1.4 patch update. No reply from Interplay. Read his full message.
Tue Aug 18 No word from Interplay on patch status.
Wed Aug 19 No word from Interplay on patch status.
Thur Aug 20 No word from Interplay on patch status.
Fri Aug 21 Interplay Chris states: "We still have three programmers working on the game. Version 1.4 will be out shortly and it includes many multiplayer fixes and improvements (including animals and trees in multiplayer and alliances)". Read his full message.
Fri Aug 21 Interplay Paul states: "We're currently testing version 1.4 and should be able to release it sometime next week for the US version. (Europe and rest of the world version will take a little longer.)" This makes the estimated release sometime between Sunday August 23 through Saturday August 29. Read his full message.
Sat Aug 22 No word from Interplay on patch status.
Sun Aug 23 No word from Interplay on patch status.
Mon Aug 24 No word from Interplay on patch status.
Tue Aug 25 No word from Interplay on patch status.
Wed Aug 26 No word from Interplay on patch status.
Thur Aug 27 No word from Interplay on patch status.
Fri Aug 28 Lancelot politely requests a patch 1.4 update or status. No reply from Interplay. Read his full message.
Sat Aug 29 Deadline for patch 1.4 release. Was not released yet. No word from Interplay as to why or any kind of update or status.
Sun Aug 30 Lancelot requests a patch 1.4 update or status at 12:02pm. No reply from Interplay. Read his full message.
Lancelot requests patch 1.4 update again at 6:18pm. Read his full message.   Interplay replied Aug 31 (see below).
Mon Aug 31 Interplay Chris states: "While testing the 1.4 patch they found two bugs... So, basically, they fixed those two bugs and resubmitted the executable to QA (either late Friday or early Monday). QA will look it over and if they sign off, the patch will be released. It could take a few minutes to look over and check those two bugs, or it could take a few days if they decided to really look it over. QA time is dependant on what else has priority (what other games have been submitted and what their status is)." Read his full message.
Tue Sept 1 Interplay Chris clarifies the note about "two bugs" in his previous message: "It means that there are only two _known_ bugs. We've been doing testing on the internet play (and the server has been constantly updated), but we still need "real-world" testing. This version should be better. Will it be perfect? No, I'm sure it won't (I would love to be surprised, however) but it will be better." Read his full message.
Interplay Chris informs us about the Rest Of World (ROW) patch: "We have to send the ROW patch off to Sony so they can perform some copy-protection on it and that takes about 2 weeks after it is done on our end (at least, that's the way I think it works). " Read his full message.
Interplay Chris advises us about the four different versions of MAX2 (North America, French, German, UK&ROW): "Canada is part of North America, which is the actual title of the US shipping version -- so, no, Canada is usually not part of the ROW (for our purposes.) You have 4 versions of MAX2: North America (USA and Canada); UK/ROW; French; German." Read his full message.
Tue Sept 1 CaptComal requests Interplay to please post a status on patch 1.4 each day: " it also would be courteous (and considerate) of Interplay to post a message here whenever they are unable to meet a deadline with a quick acknowledgement of whatever problems they ran into. It would only take a minute (literally), and would show that they are concerned for all those patiently waiting for MAX2 to really work. ... I think that if Interplay would just post a message here every day with a current status of patch 1.4 everyone would be much happier. " Read the full message.
Wed Sept 2 Interplay Chris gives a 1.4 status: "The patch is being looked over by QA for one last check. Once they sign off on it, it goes to the web team to be posted. Should be real soon, if not, we'll post another update. " Read his full message.
Wed Sept 2 CaptComal again requests Interplay to provide a patch 1.4 status message each day. Read the full message.
CaptComal requests that Interplay clarify how many versions of MAX2 there are (US, UK, French, German, Rest of World, etc.) and how gamers can tell which they have in order to apply the correct patch. Read the full message.
Thur Sept 3 Interplay Chris gives this 1.4 status: "We are day to day. QA is still in the process of doing the final sign-off on it. They wanted to check out a few previously reported bugs to make sure that they are fixed. Once we get QA to sign-off, it will go to the web team and they will post it. " Read his full message.
Interplay Chris gave this 1.4 update a few hours later: "QA found a bad bug. Dave B. is working on a fix and then it has to go back to QA for more testing. (The bug has something to do with Knibs and the fact that if you attack them they suddenly turn immortal and don't die.) It's not going to be this weekend. Possibly monday, but we will know more once we get closer. Actually, now that I think about it -- monday is holiday -- so I don't think that it will be up then. " Read his full message.
Fri Sept 4 No word from Interplay on patch status.
Sat Sept 5 No word from Interplay on patch status. (holiday weekend)
Sun Sept 6 No word from Interplay on patch status. (holiday weekend)
Mon Sept 7 No word from Interplay on patch status. (holiday weekend)
Tue Sept 8 K-NiCe requested a status update on the 1.4 patch. Read his full message. No reply from Interplay.
Wed Sept 9 K-NiCe requested a status update on the 1.4 patch again. Read his full message. No reply from Interplay.
Thur Sept 10 Interplay Paul gives a 1.4 status: "Version 1.4 is still not ready.. sorry for such a long delay. We have found a few more problems, thanks in part to some of you sending in bugs you've found, and have been trying to get everything fixed. We're almost there. We have just one or two more issues to correct and then we should be ready to post the patch. We are submitting what we hope will be final to our QA department later this afternoon, and should know within a day or two how close we are. Thanks for your patience! " Read his full message.
Fri Sept 11 K-NiCe requests an update on the 1.4 patch. Read his full message. No reply from Interplay until the next day.
Sat Sept 12 Interplay Chris gives this 1.4 patch statement: "Right now, if we updated the patch status every day it would look like this: NO CHANGE. Just be a little patient and the patch will be out before you know it. We'll post here as soon as the patch is available. " Read his full message.
CaptComal found this message confusing. Was NOTHING being done to get the patch released day after day?  And if so, a message posted each day to that effect would be appreciated so customers would know that nothing was done in the past day. Actually, the posted message is much better so you should read the full message.
Sun Sept 13 ServerX asks Interplay when they are going to finally release patch 1.4 Read his full message.
No reply from Interplay.
No update from Interplay.
Mon Sept 14 CaptComal asks Interplay to release 1.4 now, and fix any remaining bugs in the next patch (1.41 or 1.5). Read the full message.
Interplay Chris cleverly avoids giving a status on the 1.4 patch, but does say that their QA group did NOT approve the original MAX2 game for release (their approval is not necessary for that). Read his full message (worth reading).
NOTE: why does a patch require approval by the QA group, but not the original game?
Tue Sept 15 No update or news from Interplay.
Wed Sept 16 K-NyCe asks Interplay for a Patch 1.4 status. No reply or update from Interplay. Read his full message.
Thur Sept 17 Sir 4 asked if Interplay could at least keep us posted on what they are working on relating to Patch 1.4. Read his full message. No update or news from Interplay. How long must this go on?
Fri Sept 18 No public update or news from Interplay.
CaptComal got a personal EMail from Interplay Paul stating "
The 1.4 patch should be ready today or Monday at the latest."
Andy has a long message about this lack of information from Interplay. Read his full message. No reply from Interplay.
Sat Sept 19 No update or news from Interplay.
K-NyCe asked about the 1.4 patch status. Read his full message. No reply from Interplay.
Sun Sept 20 No update or news from Interplay.
ServerX wonders where patch 1.4 is. Read his full message. No reply from Interplay.
Mon Sept 21 ServerX asked Interplay for status on how far they are with patch 1.4. Read his full message. No reply from Interplay to his message.
It has been a week and a half since Interplay posted a status on Patch 1.4 ... and that last status was "No Change".
Interplay Chris posted a message finally. He did not say if anything new has been fixed in the last few weeks. He only said that QA has to look at the patch again Tue and Wed and if they get some forms signed that maybe they would release it by Friday or Saturday. Read his full message if you care any more.
Tue Sept 22 Some news from Interplay. Surprised?
Interplay Chris did not give any information about what has been getting fixed in the past weeks, however he did post some messages:
1) They are confident 1.4 patch is good now and are waiting for QA to approve it. It is possible it could take another month. Read Message.
2) Claims they will keep us informed on Patch 1.4. Read Message.
3) Be Patient! Read Message.
4) How to submit a bug report. Read Message. [Note: please don't submit any bug reports till after 1.4 is released as it should fix most current problems]
5) Most MAX2 programmers have moved on to work on other Interplay titles. Read Message.
Tue Sept 22 Interplay Chris said that QA has approved patch 1.4 for release just before 3pm. They will have the patch "packaged" today and give it to the web team to post. Read his full message.
Wed Sept 23 The patch is not posted for download yet (not on Interplay FTP site nor on their web download page). No word from Interplay regarding this.
Thur Sept 24 9am Pacific time: Still no patch to be found. No explanation, news or updates from Interplay.
K-NyCe and Duck ask Interplay where the patch is. Read K-NyCe's message or Duck's message.
11am Pacific time:
Interplay Chris stated: "The webmaster is waiting on the paperwork from QA saying that it is alright to release the patch. QA says they are delivering the patch to the webguys this morning. It might take the webguys some time to put the patch up, but it should be up _shortly_." Read his full message.
8pm Pacific time: Still no patch to be found.
Fri Sept 25 5am Pacific time: Still no patch to be found.
Sat Sept 26 How long must this
Sun Sept 27 go
Mon Sept 28 on?
Tue Sept 29 Interplay finally releases Patch 1.4 (and customers find that now 100% of multiplayer games FAIL).

Fixes and Enhancements List
(note: with patch 1.4 MAX2 multiplayer fails 100% of the time)

This patch fixes the following problems:

The following items have been added:

 


If you find any errors please report them to
CaptComal@hotmail.com so they can be corrected. Thanks.
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