I found some salvation in the form of that beautiful stripped down version of Max that we all knew of, called GMAX!
I found a clean install file for Gmax 1.2, there's a registration key hack as well that works, and the plugins are still available on Gamefront. Just make sure to use OpenGL when setting up the graphics on initial boot up.
It works in Windows 10. Just tested it several times.
I'll use Gnax as a converter back and forth.