Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings

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Template:Infobox Template:Infobox Age of Empires (series)

Availability

The "Age of Empires Collector's Editon" can often be found on store shelves. It is the most cost effective way of acquiring the game, as it contains the following games on a single DVD-ROM:

• Age of Empires
• Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome
• Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings
• Age of Empires II: The Conquerors

However, it should be noted that the DVD re-release of these games does not feature the Red Book audio stored as separate audio tracks on the original games' discs. As such, the game music will not be played while the DVD is in the drive.

Improvements

Patches

Official

Age of Empires II : The Age of Kings

The latest patch is Version 2.0a.

Age of Empires II : The Conquerors Expansion

The latest patch is Version 1.0c.

Unoffical

Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion

• UserPatch v1.1:Template:UserPatch An unofficial patch created by "xomicron", v1.1 introduces a number of new game features and bug fixes that were never resolved by Ensemble Studios. Some of the key features included are as follows:
  • Widescreen and high resolution compatibility
  • Automatic Port-Forwarding for UPnP compatible routers
  • Population limit options extended to 250
  • Multiplayer games can be started with only AI players
  • Ungrouped AI players will not ally themselves against humans

Issues and Fixes

Windows Vista/7 Colours

See Also: Color Fixes For Older Games

Both Windows Vista and Windows 7 can have issues with displaying true colours in Age of Empires II correctly. This is because the game uses an outdated and no longer supported palette-based colour method. There are currently three available solutions to this issue.

DirectDrawFix:

A small user made patch that applies the required compatibility fixes to the registry. The user account installing this fix must be an admin for the application to perform its updates.

Explorer.exe

The Windows 7 Explorer introduces a number of new features which conflict with the game's palette-based colour system. One solution is to end the explorer.exe process every time you start the game - as follows:

1. Open Age of Empires II
2. Alt-Tab out of the game
3. End the explorer.exe process
   1. Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del or Ctrl+Shift+Esc)
   2. Go to the "Processes" tab
   3. Find explorer.exe in the "Image Name" column
   4. select explorer.exe and click "End Process"
4. Alt+Tab back into the game - note the colours should now be fixed. When you have finished playing you may close the game and complete the following steps.
5. Restore explorer.exe
   1. Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del or Ctrl+Shift+Esc)
   2. On the menu bar, click "File" and "New Task (Run...)" - the "Create New Task" window will pop up
   3. Enter explorer.exe in the open:[textbox] and confirm with "Ok"

This process can be automated with a batch file. Save this text into a file named "AgeFix.bat"

REM -AgeFix.bat
  taskkill /F /IM Explorer.exe
  age2_x1.exe
  start explorer.exe

Store the batch file in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires II\age2_x1

Run the bat, NOT the exe in order to run the game.

Windows 7 Theme

Changing the aero theme can also remove the colour issue.

1. Change Windows 7 theme to Windows Classic (right click Desktop, select Personalize and choose Windows Classic theme).
2. Open Screen Resolution window (right click Desktop, click Screen Resolution). There is no need to change any settings, leave this window maximized in the background and run the game. It should show normal colours.

MIDI Music

There is a way to regain the audio music in the game as MIDI:

1. Download the demo version of Age of Empires II
2. Copy the midi folder from the sound folder of the demo of AOEII
3. Paste the folder in the sound folder of the full game e.g.

   C:\\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires II\sound

4. Create a shortcut of the age2_x1.exe in the age2_x1 folder
5. Click properties and add to the target (with quote marks)

   “-midimusic”

6. Start the game with the afformentioned shortcut and the game will have background music
7. You can also do the same with the sound files from the Conquerors expansion demo, however, it is important to rename the midi files from music 1-8 to 9-16 to prevent replacement of existing files.

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 framerate to mitigate overheating and running on virtual machines of different OSs (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.

Graphical Tweaks

Widescreen Support

Whilst Age of Empires II does not officially support widescreen resolutions, there are a number of options available to users wishing to play the game in widescreen. These are outlined below:

• Boekabart's Widescreen Patch: A fan-made widescreen patch that allows the game to be played in higher resolutions. It also includes a fix for the game colours when using Windows Vista or 7. However, it should be noted that the fix requires the use of a No-CD cracked game version to function, which subverts the DRM included on the disc.

• UserPatch v1.1: This unofficial patch includes widescreen and high resolution support with the various new features and bug fixes outlined above.

Mods and User Made Content

Age of Empires 2: The Forgotten Empires Fan-made expansion.

boekabart.net WideScreen Mod

Save Games

Save Game Location

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires II\SaveGame\

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires II\Campaign\

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires II\Scenario\

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires II\Player.nfo

You will need to backup all of the above folders and the .nfo file to have all of your player data and progress.

Save Game Cloud Syncing

• Dropbox: Yes
• Windows Live Mesh 2011: Yes
• GameSave Manager: No

Network Issues

--Lan connectivity with Windows 7-- Setting the IP address to Static and the Default Gateway to nothing allows 2 Windows 7 64 pcs to LAN. This can be done via Control Panel - View Network Status and Tasks (under Network and Internet) - click Local Arean connection next to "connections:" then Properties, highlight "Internet protocol version 4", click properties. Check "Use the following ip address". Use an address not in use on your network (such as 192.168.1.[1-253] e.g. 192.168.1.11 ) mask 255.255.255.0 and default gateway blank (important). You will lost internet until you switch back to "obtain address automatically", but LAN will function in game.

A much simplier method is to install "Gameranger" and use that as a lobby (thus no need to do all of the above).

Links

• Age of Empires II Official Microsoft Site
• Age of Empires Wiki Wikia for the entire series
• Age of Kings Heaven Community Site and Map Archive