Trying To Come Back From The Dead...

[Brockleigh]

Hey folks,

In the words of Mark Twain, reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. Figuratively of course.

I'm hoping the community can pick up where Matrix support and Dave have left off. Over one year since my last computer died, I'm still not able to get Maximum Football up and running.

I believe I've solved most of the issues that plagued me since trying to get the game running on my new Acer that running Vista, but I'm coming upon one final (well, hopefully final) stumbling block.

When I click on Play on the game menu, I get a pop up that says "Active X component cannot create object." Then a second pop-up that says "Couldn't open database".

Here's what I think is the block: I'm not running Microsoft Access. There's the 60-day Trial of Microsoft Office and then you have to pay for the license, and I'll be damned if I'm paying for something that used to come 'free' with every other computer I've ever owned.

So I'm running Open Office instead. I like it a lot better than MS Office for every other application I need to run.

Now I do recall there were instructions for how to get the MFB databases to work on Open Office, but when I ran a search for them this morning, I couldn't get a search result. Does anyone recall what the steps were, where I can find them, or have any of their own solutions for how to workaround this issue?

I'm dying to get this to work. Any help will be appreciated.

[Tullius]

I would not use MS Access or OpenOffice because there is the danger that they will convert the database in an other format. The game reads only Access97. To edit the databases download "DBViewer" from FBMax.com. It is very basic but does the job wigthout doing any harm and editing leagues is also doable by using JDHalfracks editors. But here you have to make a backup because they editors damages sometimes the database files. Good Luck !

[Brockleigh]

Forgive me, I'm notoriously dense when it comes it comes to accepting advice and may not be fully grasping this.

That said, I'm not trying to edit the databases.

My problem is that because the databases were written for Access97 use, the game is (I believe) trying to utilize ActiveX and open up Access to read and process the databases.

I don't have Access active on my PC, so ActiveX crashes because it can't access the databases. At least that's what I hope it winds up being, with my gee-how-does-this-mouse-thingie-work level of computer knowledge.

Now, as I stated in my earlier post, there were some instructions somewhere on this forum for how to get the game to work with Open Office. In fact, I believe I used them before when I wiped out my Microsoft Office Suite off my last PC (don't ask how, it's an embarrassing story). I just need to get a hold of those instructions.

To be clear, I have no intention of actually fiddling around with or editing the databases at all. I'm terribly happy with the existing program program and the user-created content. I have no desire to muck about with the programs back-end.