Difference between revisions of "Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings"
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Revision as of 18:53, 19 January 2022
This page is for the original game. For the 2013 HD Edition, see Age of Empires II (2013). For the 2019 Definitive Edition, see Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.
Developers | |
---|---|
Ensemble Studios | |
Mac OS (Classic) | Westlake Interactive |
macOS (OS X) | Westlake Interactive |
Publishers | |
Microsoft | |
Mac OS, OS X | MacSoft |
Engines | |
Genie | |
Release dates | |
Windows | October 10, 1999 |
Mac OS (Classic) | October 2001 |
macOS (OS X) | October 2001 |
Taxonomy | |
Monetization | Expansion pack |
Modes | Singleplayer, Multiplayer |
Pacing | Real-time |
Perspectives | Bird's-eye view, Isometric |
Controls | Multiple select, Point and select |
Genres | RTS |
Themes | Asia, Europe, Middle East, Pre-Columbian Americas, Medieval |
Series | Age of Empires |
Warnings
- SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see Availability for affected versions).
- The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.
Key points
- UserPatch: Conquerors Feature Update adds support for widescreen/multi-monitor resolutions and fixes SafeDisc issues.
General information
- Official Discord server for the series
- Age of Empires II Official Microsoft Site (archived)
- Age of Kings Heaven Community Site and Map Archive
- AoEZone Community site for competitive gaming
- /r/aoe2 Age of Empires 2 Subreddit
Availability
- SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).
- Demos are available for The Age of Kings and The Conquerors Expansion.
DLC and expansion packs
Name | Notes | |
---|---|---|
Age of Empires II: The Conquerors | Windows version is sold separately, Mac OS version only in Gold Edition. |
Version differences
- Age of Empires II: Gold Edition contains the base game and The Conquerors expansion, first released in 2001.
- Age of Empires: Collector's Edition was first released in 2000. It contains:
- Age of Empires
- Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome
- Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings
- Age of Empires II: The Conquerors
- In later DVD-ROM releases, it includes the latest patches and is DRM-free for all titles. However, such releases are missing the Red Book audio.
Essential improvements
Skip intro videos
Start game with -nostartup parameter[3] |
---|
Patches
- The latest patch for the base game is Version 2.0a.
- The latest patch for The Conquerors is Version 1.0c.
- Alternately, the latest official patches are available at soggi.org.
Unofficial Patch 1.0e (The Conquerors)
The unofficial patch for Conquerors, which includes NoCD is Version 1.0e.
UserPatch: Conquerors Feature Update
The unofficial UserPatch: Conquerors Feature Update patch for The Conquerors adds many fixes including widescreen support, UPnP port forwarding, and various optional tweaks. Although it doesn't include a NoCD, it will not remove a valid NoCD. If it is installed on top of Version 1.0e, no CD is required.
Age of Empires II: Forgotten Empires
Age of Empires II: Forgotten Empires is an unofficial expansion which adds new civilizations, maps and other fixes.
Voobly.com
Adds Online Matchmaking and automatic UserPatch installation.
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
System | Location |
---|---|
Windows | <path-to-game>\config.xml[Note 2] |
Mac OS (Classic) | |
macOS (OS X) |
Save game data location
System | Location |
---|---|
Windows | <path-to-game>\SaveGame\[Note 2] |
Mac OS (Classic) | |
macOS (OS X) |
- Player settings are saved in
<path-to-game>\Player.nfp
(determines unlocked scenarios etc.) - Custom campaigns are saved in
<path-to-game>\Campaign\
- Custom scenarios are saved in
<path-to-game>\Scenario\
Video
Graphics feature | State | WSGF | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Widescreen resolution | Install UserPatch: Conquerors Feature Update. | ||
Multi-monitor | Install UserPatch: Conquerors Feature Update. Uncheck "widescreen interface style" to centre minimap and unit controls. | ||
Ultra-widescreen | Install UserPatch: Conquerors Feature Update. | ||
4K Ultra HD | |||
Field of view (FOV) | |||
Windowed | Install UserPatch: Conquerors Feature Update. Select Windowed mode support, then select a resolution lower than the desktop resolution. Menus will be windowed 4:3. | ||
Borderless fullscreen windowed | Install UserPatch: Conquerors Feature Update. Select Windowed mode support, then set the in-game resolution to the desktop resolution. | ||
Anisotropic filtering (AF) | |||
Anti-aliasing (AA) | |||
Vertical sync (Vsync) | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
60 FPS and 120+ FPS | Animations play at 20 FPS | ||
High dynamic range display (HDR) | See the glossary page for potential alternatives. |
Input
Keyboard and mouse | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Remapping | ||
Mouse acceleration | ||
Mouse sensitivity | For scroll speed. | |
Mouse input in menus | ||
Mouse Y-axis inversion | ||
Controller | ||
Controller support |
Controller types |
---|
Audio
Audio feature | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Separate volume controls | ||
Surround sound | ||
Subtitles | ||
Closed captions | ||
Mute on focus lost | ||
Red Book CD audio | On Windows, CD music might not play correctly; see the troubleshooting guide for solutions. |
Localizations
Language | UI | Audio | Sub | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
English | ||||
Traditional Chinese | ||||
French | ||||
German | ||||
Hungarian | Fan translation by .:i2k:. and kds link #1, link #2 | |||
Italian | ||||
Japanese | ||||
Korean | ||||
Spanish |
Network
Multiplayer types
Type | Native | Players | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|
LAN play | 8 | |||
Online play | 8 |
Connection types
Type | Native | Notes |
---|---|---|
Matchmaking | MSN Gaming Zone support has been discontinued.[4] Community has moved to https://voobly.com[citation needed] | |
Peer-to-peer | ||
Dedicated | ||
Self-hosting | ||
Direct IP |
Ports
Protocol | Port(s) and/or port range(s) |
---|---|
TCP | 2300-2400, 47624 |
UDP | 2300-2400 |
- Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.
Issues unresolved
Dell laptop compatibility issues
On some older Dell laptop models (e.g. the M1530) an issue occurs where the OS crashes and a blue-screen of death is displayed. This issue occurs after a seemingly random amount of gameplay time (from <30 seconds to 10 or 20 minutes). Many things have been tried to fix the issue including changing graphics card drivers, limiting the frame rate to mitigate overheating and running on virtual machines of different operating systems (e.g. Windows 98). As far as can be seen, this issue has never been resolved nor will it be, rendering AoE2 unplayable on the affected models of laptop. This issue can be mitigated by playing through Voobly.com game client and selecting 32-bit DirectX mode in the lobby options. It is actually caused by an unterminated loop in the graphics card driver. However, Age of Empires II HD (the re-mastered version of the game released in 2013) is unaffected by this problem.[citation needed]
"Access Denied - Please login with administrator privileges and try again" error on launch (Windows 10)
- Install UserPatch: Conquerors Feature Update to fix this for The Conquerors (this does not fix the issue for the base game).[citation needed]
Issues fixed
Windows Vista and 7 colours
- Windows Vista and 7 can have issues with displaying true colours in Age of Empires II correctly.
- This issue does not occur on Windows 8 and later.
- See rainbow color problems in older games for further details.
UserPatch: Conquerors Feature Update[citation needed] |
---|
Install UserPatch: Conquerors Feature Update. This includes a color fix for Vista and 7, and will also set a registry flag, allowing Windows 8+ to emulate the 256-colour modes, required by the game. It will also optionally provide support for loading the windowed mode plugin, which, apart from its direct purpose, also performs software palette conversion to 32-bit, resolving said issues. |
DirectDrawFix[citation needed] |
---|
Use DirectDrawFix to apply the required compatibility fixes to the registry. |
LAN connectivity
- This method allows gaming over LAN on modern versions of Windows.
Setting the IP address to Static and the Default Gateway to nothing[citation needed] |
---|
While in use, internet connection will be lost until the settings are switched back to "Obtain an IP address automatically", but LAN will function in-game. |
MIDI music
Copy files from demo version[citation needed] |
---|
Notes
|
Other information
API
Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
---|---|---|
DirectDraw | 6.1 | |
OpenGL | Mac OS only. |
Executable | PPC | 16-bit | 32-bit | 64-bit | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Windows | |||||
macOS (OS X) | Intel support was added with the 1.0.6 patch, which converts the game to a universal binary. Still 32-bit only. |
||||
Mac OS (Classic) |
Middleware
Middleware | Notes | |
---|---|---|
Multiplayer | MSN Gaming Zone |
System requirements
Windows | ||
---|---|---|
Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | 95 | 98 |
Processor (CPU) | 166 MHz | 450 MHz |
System memory (RAM) | 32 MB | 64 MB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 300 MB | 300 MB |
Video card (GPU) | 2 MB of VRAM DirectX 6.1 compatible | Nvidia TNT2 ATI Rage 128 16 MB of VRAM |
Mac OS | ||
---|---|---|
Minimum | ||
Operating system (OS) | 8.6 | |
Processor (CPU) | PowerPC G3 300 MHz | |
System memory (RAM) | 128 MB | |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 750 MB | |
Video card (GPU) | ATI Rage 128 |
- 500 MHz is required for online play.
macOS (OS X) | ||
---|---|---|
Minimum | ||
Operating system (OS) | 10.0.5 | |
Processor (CPU) | PowerPC G3 300 MHz | |
System memory (RAM) | 128 MB | |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 750 MB | |
Video card (GPU) | ATI Rage 128 |
- 500 MHz is required for online play.
- When applying the UB patch, the minimum supported OS is 10.3.9.
Notes
- ↑ SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[1] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.[2]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below
%PROGRAMFILES%
,%PROGRAMDATA%
, or%WINDIR%
might be redirected to%LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore
on Windows Vista and later (more details).
References
- ↑ Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
- ↑ Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16
- ↑ Known video issues in Age of Empires II
- ↑ Age of Empires matchmaking has been retired from MSN Games - MSN Games - Free Online Games