Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom

City Building (Sierra)
Caesar (series)
Pharaoh	1999
Zeus: Master of Olympus	2000
Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom	2002
Children of the Nile	2004
Pharaoh: A New Era	2023

Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view and isometric building game in the City Building (Sierra) series.

General information

Emperor Heaven fan site

GOG.com Community Discussions

GOG.com Support Page

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM 4 DRM
Retail		Polish release eXtra Klasyka Next. Older polish releases do contain SecuROM, but polish patch 1.0.1 removes it.
GOG.com

Demo

A free demo version is available from GameFront.

Essential improvements

Patches

The 1.0.1.0 patch is the latest official update for the game (already included in the GOG.com release).

Skip intro videos

Skip all intro videos^[1]

Open <path-to-game>\Emperor.ini.
Change the line PlayIntroMovie=yes to PlayIntroMovie=no then save the changes.

Notes

Some have reported that this tweak also fixed random sound glitches for them.^{[citation needed]}

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\^{[Note 1]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Save^{[Note 1]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy

Video

Video settings

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Patch the game's EXE using the Emperor Resolution Customiser, or use the older WSGF community files
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		Patch the game's EXE using the Emperor Resolution Customiser.
4K Ultra HD		Patch the game's EXE using the Emperor Resolution Customiser. Note that due to the way the game is rendered, text and graphics will be very small.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS	20 FPS cap. Mouse not clamped to engine framerate.

Windowed mode

Switch to windowed mode outside the game^[2]
Open `<path-to-game>\Emperor.inf` in a hex editor. Look for the byte at address `0x04` (5th byte). If this byte is equal to `0x01`, the game will run in fullscreen. If it's `0x00`, the game will be windowed. Change this byte to the appropriate value and save the edited hex file.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Controller types

Audio

Audio settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost		Game pauses during `Alt`+`Tab ↹`.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech				Fan - 1
French				Retail only.
German				Retail only; download for GOG.com version.
Hungarian				Fan translation.
Italian				Retail only.
Polish				Local retail version only. Details
Spanish				Retail only.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		8	Versus Players play separate cities connected by a world map menu.
Online play		8	Versus The official WON service has been shut down.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Issues fixed

Game does not start after patching to 1.0.1.0

Run the game in compatibility mode for Windows 98/ME and as administrator^{[citation needed]}

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
DirectDraw

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Miles Sound System	6.0i^[3]
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Multiplayer	World Opponent Network	Was shut down in 2008

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	98
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium II 400 MHz
System memory (RAM)	64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	800 MB
Video card (GPU)	16-bit 4 MB SVGA

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 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

↑ Useful Emperor ROTMK links - last accessed on February 08, 2018
↑ Verified by User:XJDHDR on 2023-03-08
↑ Verified by User:Nessy on 2021-05-29
Version number found in Mss32.dll in the game installation folder.

[gamedir-2] 1.0 ^1.1 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).

[1] Useful Emperor ROTMK links - last accessed on February 08, 2018

[3] Verified by User:XJDHDR on 2023-03-08

[4] Verified by User:Nessy on 2021-05-29
Version number found in Mss32.dll in the game installation folder.

[1]

[Note 1]

[2]

[3]

Developers

	Impressions Games
	BreakAway Games
Publishers
Retail	Sierra Entertainment
Digital	Activision
Re-release	Sold Out Software
Release dates
Windows	September 9, 2002
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view, Isometric
Controls	Point and select
Genres	Building
Themes	China, Medieval
Series	City Building (Sierra)