Running Max Payne on Windows 10 PC's

This simple guide will allow you to get Max Payne running on Windows 10 PC's in full screen and will resolve the sound issues.

Introduction

I love Max Payne and it's sequel The Fall of Max Payne.
This game is very old now though and doesn't run very well on modern PC's.
This guide should help you get things sorted out pretty quickly though.

It is a work in progress and I hope to make things as simple and as easy to follow in future updates.

Credit must to to Steam user The Bargain Bin Hobo without whom this guide would not be possible.


Author's Note: If you do this and the game will not load past the opening cinematic, try disabling antialiasing, and that should resolve any remaining issue. Credit to user justgivemeanamegoddamnit for this extra tip.

Preliminaries

First of all, You'll need to download 7-Zip, or something similar. You'll need to choose either 32 bit or 64 bit. If you're not sure which one you have, go to Windows explorer, right click "This PC" (It may also be in your start menu, depending on which version of that you have), and click Properties.


The screen that opens will show you a lot of information, including which system yours is. *I cropped out all other information because I am a bit paranoid*


Select your operating system and you're good to go.



Edit: I meant to update this a long time ago, but I no longer recommend Winrar, as it put up a paywall after a while. Use 7-Zip instead, it's a bit more complicated, but once you play with it for a while it'll feel great and never asks for a dime. https://www.7-zip.org/

Resolving the sound issues

Ok, now that you have your unpacking software you need to download this patch: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Byxv4BMtWd2yeDBmME9wS2RzbDA/view to fix the sound issues the games has.

Use Winrar to put it directly into the game folder.








To do this upon windows file explorer (it should be in your desktop's task bar) and looks something like this:


navigate to: (C:)
Program Files (x86)
Steam
SteamApps
Common
Max Payne


Now run the MaxBatch.Bat file from the game folder.
At this point the window should be green.




Follow the onscreen directions to fix the sound.






If these steps are followed, then Max Payne's sound issues are now fixed.

Removing windowed mode

To play Max Payne in full screen mode download this patch: https://github.com/ThirteenAG/WidescreenFixesPack/releases/tag/mp1

Extract into the game folder and you can have your widescreen without needing an extra program. Credit to UCyborg for this tidbit, sorry it was added in so late.

Cheats

If like me you do not wish to cheat then by all means skip this section.

For those of you that do right click Max Payne in your Steam library and click properties.

Now click " set launch options" and type: "-developer" into the box (again without the quotation marks)



Now, during gameplay press F12 to activate the window. Here are the codes you can enter, taken from Gamewinners.com

God mode god
Disable god mode mortal
Debug mode coder (gives God Mode, All Weapons, and Infinite Ammo)
No clipping mode noclip
Disable no clipping mode noclip_off
More Slow-Mo getbullettime
Display frame rate showfps
All weapons getallweapons
Unlimited ammunition getinfiniteammo
Baseball bat getbaseballbat
Baretta getberetta
Sawed off shotgun getsawedshotgun
Pump action shotgun getpumpshotgun
Dual Berettas with full ammo getberettadual
Dual Berettas with full ammo getdualberetta
Desert Eagle with full ammo getdeserteagle
Dual Ingrams with full ammo getingramdual
Dual Ingrams with full ammo getdualingram
Jackhammer getjackhammer
Ingram getingram
8 pain killers getpainkillers
TMP5 getmp5
Colt Commando getcoltcommando
Molotov cocktail getmolotov
Grenade getgrenade
M-79 getm79
Sniper rifle getsniper
Health gethealth
Add indicated amount to health c_addhealth<number>
Set jump height jump<number>
Wounded walk setwoundedstate
Normal walk setnormalstate
More slow motion time getbullettime
Exit game quit;

Additionally, enter "-developerkeys" without the quotes in the Set Launch Options window with a space separating the two to have other options. These are also taken from Gamewinners.com.


Cycle through three camera modes C
Cycle mesh up [Page Up]
Cycle mesh down [Page Down]
Cycle texture set up [Ctrl] + [Page Up]
Cycle texture set down [Ctrl] + [Page Down]
Increase game speed [Home]
Decrease game speed [End]
Set game speed to normal [Home] + [End]
Teleport Max to next start point [Insert]
Teleport Max to previous start point [Delete]
Switches AI Movement Network Conn Visualization [F7]
Switches AI movement Network Node Visualization [F8]
Toggle statistics [F11]
Open console [F12]
External camera left [Cursor Left]
External camera right [Cursor Right]
External camera forward [Cursor Up]
External camera backward [Cursor Down]
Change character model and weapon availability [Keypad 3] or [Keypad 9]
Cycle through chapter locations [Keypad 0]

If you get tired of this, simply remove the -developerkeys line from the launch options.

Video Tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Aw4FW643TY&feature=youtu.be

I went and made a video guide to help a little more, if this guide isn't as helpful as we had hoped it would be.

[ØŒŁØ†]

None of these fixes work, and I honestly don't really care about the audio, I just want to be able to play the game. I have the same problem as Nick Dickem. Insane amount of JPG errors into instant crash, every time.

[JonnyLectron]

@Nick Dickem, try setting the compatibility settings to windows xp service pack 2/3 and enabling administrator mode. to do so, open steam and right click max payne. click manage, then find the option called 'browse local files'
right click the only .exe file in the folder and click properties. set those 2 settings, and then try to run the game via steam.

if the issue persists, try installing gimp or another photo editing program and setting that as the default program for jpeg files.
with any luck, it will bring the necessary codec (if it needs it) to view/open jpegs. its an idea that stemmed from a trick used to get opening movies to work, and even though it is technically unrelated here, that trick was to install media player classic or vlc and then download ffmpeg and all available free codec packs, and install them while forcing the OS to use vlc/mpc to open all video files by default.

regardless, please tell us if it works. :)

[Nick Dickem]

Trying to run this game, i get a MASSIVE amount of JPEG errors only for the whole thing to crash. The farthest I've gotten was the first panel of the comic flashback before it all shit the bed

[TyrannoWright]

Using DSOAL would be a quicker way to solve the sound issue without modifying files but converting DirectSound calls over to OpenAL Soft. It's a big plus if you use headphones. Just exact the 32-bit .dll and .ini files into the base folder. https://github.com/ThreeDeeJay/dsoal/releases

[JonnyLectron]

Psiences, i believe that to be windows smart screen preventing that. you can click a small text hyperlink in the window that prevents the batch file from running and that will show more options, iirc it will be called 'details' or 'see more'
within that dialog will be a option to run anyways,
the prompts for smart screen and dialog are similar to uac from like windows vista and internet explorer.

regardless of what dialog are prompted, don't be afraid to click around in that window to see more options, ultimately it wont run if you click the big red X at the top right.

[psiences]

i've been trying to do the sound fix (i'm on windows 10) and when i try and open maxbatch.bat my computer tells me that i cant run the program due to it potentially containing the virus. i deleted the folder and redownloaded everything to no avail, is there any ways i can open it without windows shouting at me?

[The Bargain Bin Hobo]

@martyrMonte Sorry to hear that. Computers are fickle, what works for some doesn't work for all. I'm sorry this didn't fix it for you.

[FeloniousMont]

I've just gone through this tutorial on Windows 11 and it doesn't work for me. I didn't do the cheats and only did the Sound and Windowed mods

[The Bargain Bin Hobo]

@NeckroKind I've been meaning to run this through Windows 11 to see if it still fixes it.

[NecroKind]

idk if this can help me with windows 11 to make game start