Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings

Released: 1999
Published by: Microsoft
Developed by: Ensemble Studios
Author(s): Rick Goodman, Bruce Shelley, Brian Sullivan, Angelo Laudon, Timothy Deen, Mark Terrano, Dave Pottinger, Brad Crow, Scott Winslett, David Rippy, Chris Rippy, Stephen Rippy, David Lewis, Mickey Kawick, Bill Schofield, Thonny Namuonglo, Sean Wolff, Duncan McKissick, Don Gagen, Herb Ellwood, Duane Santos and David Deen.

Introduction

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is a real-time strategy video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft. Released in 1999 for the Microsoft Windows and Macintosh operating systems, it was the second game in the Age of Empires series. An expansion, The Conquerors, was released in 2000. A PlayStation 2 version was released by Konami in 2001, and a Nintendo DS spinoff, Age of Empires: The Age of Kings was developed by Backbone Entertainment in 2006. A Dreamcast port, by Konami, was canceled.

The Age of Kings is set in the Middle Ages and contains thirteen playable civilizations. Players aim to gather resources, which they use to build towns, create armies, and defeat their enemies. There are five historically based campaigns, which constrict the player to specialized and story-backed conditions. There are three additional single-player game modes, and multiplayer is supported. Despite using the same game engine and similar code to its predecessor, development of The Age of Kings took a year longer than expected, forcing Ensemble Studios to release Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome (an expansion to the first game in the series) in 1998 instead. The design team focused on resolving significant issues in Age of Empires, but noted on release that some problems remained.

Reception of The Age of Kings was highly positive. The significant number of new features was praised, as were the gameplay improvements. Some reviewers, however, were critical of the presentation of units—they were seen as bland and uninteresting—while others considered The Age of Kings to be too similar to its predecessor, Age of Empires. Three months after its release, two million copies of The Age of Kings had been shipped, and it topped sales charts in seven countries. The game won multiple awards and is today considered a classic of its type, having had a significant impact on future games in its genre. Both the original Age of Empires II and the expansion pack were later released as "the Gold Edition".

In April 2013, Age of Empires II: HD Edition was released on the Steam digital distribution platform for Windows operating systems. The HD Edition includes both the original game and the expansion The Conquerors, as well as updated graphics for high-resolution displays. It also supports user-generated content through the Steam Workshop and multiplayer games provided through the Steam servers. Three expansions have been released for the HD Edition: The Forgotten in 2013, The African Kingdoms in 2015, and Rise of the Rajas in 2016.

System Requirements

System Requirements	Intel Pentium processor, Windows 95, 32 MB RAM. Graphics support for VGA only (2 MB video memory required as a minimum), DirectX 6.1. Keyboard and Mouse required..
Original Media	One CD-ROM.
Installed Size (MB)	300 MB

From where can it be run?

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings must be installed to hard disk.

Copy Protection

The game requires that the original CD be present in your CD-ROM drive during the game's startup. There are "No CD" patches out there on the internet to circumvent this annoyance. Be sure to get the correct patch that matches your game version (either 2.0 or 2.0a) and game language (English, German, Spanish, or French). The patch replaces the main game executable file, so before installing make a copy of this file.

How to Setup

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Problems

Symptom: ?
Cause: ?
Resolution: ?

To Quit the Game

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Supporting Documents

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Additional Files and Utilities

An expansion for The Age of Kings, The Conquerors, was released in 2000. It introduced numerous new game features, including unique technologies for each civilization, and five new civilizations. Two of these, the Aztecs and the Mayans, represent the New World and have new distinctive architectural style. Other new civilizations are the Spanish, Huns, and Koreans.

 

Save Games

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Versions of the game known to exist

Version	Date	Comments
2.0	30 Sep 1999	Initial public release. Version number starts with 2.0 as this is the second game in the series.
Expansion	24 Aug 2000	The Conquerors expansion pack released, featuring five new civilizations (the Aztecs,Mayans, Spanish, Huns, and Koreans), four new campaigns, 11 new units, 26 new technologies, new gameplay modes, new maps and a few minor changes to the gameplay mechanics. Includes the 2.0a patch (see below).
2.0a Patch	31 Aug 2000	Balance changes Town Center changes - The following changes have been made to the Town Center: The resource cost to build a Town Center has been increased by 100 stone. The time to build a Town Center has been increased. Missile technologies available at the Blacksmith (Fletching, Bodkin Arrow, and Bracer) no longer increase the range of the Town Center. For the Teutons, the Town Center no longer has increased range. For the Britons, the 50% decrease in the cost to build a Town Center now applies only to wood, and this reduction in wood cost is not available until the Castle Age. Enhancements Single-Player Performance Improvements - The performance of single-player campaign games has been improved, especially on lower-end computers. Limited Pauses - The total number of pauses available to each player in a multiplayer game is now limited. The total number of pauses remaining is displayed each time the game is paused. Display Name of Out of Sync Player - In a multiplayer game with three or more players, if a player goes out of sync, that player's name is displayed in the out of sync message on all computers. Bug Fixes Stability Improvements - A number of crashes and multiplayer out of sync bugs have been fixed, resulting in improved game stability. Computer Player Resigning Bug - The computer player will no longer resign after a few minutes of play (Previously available in the AI Update) Fish Trap Bug - You can no longer build a Fish Trap on top of an existing fish resource. Fishing Ship Bug - You can no longer use a Fishing Ship to construct buildings other than a Fish Trap. Flare and Waypoint Bug - The game no longer crashes when you set a flare or waypoint location at the very Southern-most point on the map. Cooperative Farming Bug - When you take over a Farm foundation built by an ally, you can no longer extract more than the standard amount of food from that Farm. Farming on Forest Bug - You can no longer build a Farm or Wall on top of a partially cut section of forest. Unit Ignoring Orders Bug - Units no longer ignore orders under some circumstances. Multiplayer Restore From Zone Bug - The ability to save and restore a disconnected or out of sync multiplayer game on the Zone has been improved. Foundation Outline Bug - Building foundations now have outlines, so you can now click on them when they are behind trees or other objects. Trebuchet Firing Bug - Trebuchets no longer miss targets that are on a different elevation. Single-Player Campaign After Regicide Bug - A single-player game will no longer automatically end immediately after a multiplayer game of Regicide was played. Computer Player Bugs - The behavior of the computer player in multiplayer games has been improved. Scenario Editor Bugs - A number of Scenario Editor bugs have been fixed.
Compilation	2001?	"The Gold Edition" was a compilation that included the original game and The Conquerors expansion in a single game box.
HD version	9 Apr 2013	Age of Empires II HD launched. Includes both the original game and The Conquerors expansion, as well as updated graphics for high-resolution displays. It also supports user-generated content through the Steam Workshop and multiplayer games provided through Steam servers.
HD version Expansion	7 Nov 2013	Age of Empires II HD: The Forgotten expansion pack released. It features five new civilizations, (the Incas, Indians, Italians, Magyars, and Slavs), new units and technologies, new maps, enhanced AI, a higher population limit, greater on-screen rendering, bug fixes and several tweaks to old units, technologies, and bonuses for improved gameplay balance. It requires the HD version of the game.
HD version Expansion	5 Nov 2015	Age of Empires II HD: The African Kingdoms expansion pack released. It features four new civilizations, 5 new standard maps, 11 new special maps, and numerous bug fixes and playability enhancements.
HD version Expansion	19 Dec 2016	The final expansion pack for Age of Empires II HD was called Rise of the Rajas. It added four new civilizations and campaigns set in the Southeast Asia region.
Remastered	14 Nov 2019	Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. Featuring a fully remastered soundtrack, multiple quality of life improvements, significant graphical upgrades, and includes The Last Khans, an expansion that adds four new civilizations based on Central Asia and Eastern Europe (the Bulgarians, the Cumans, the Lithuanians, and the Tatars), and four new campaigns (for Tatars, Cumans, Bulgarians, and Incas, replacing El Dorado). It also includes the Enhanced Graphics Pack that increases the Definitive Edition to ultra-high fidelity resolution.
Remastered Expansion	26 Jan 2021	The first expansion pack for the Definitive Edition was made available called Lords of the West. It features two new civilizations based on historical kingdoms of western Europe (the Burgundians and Sicilians), three new campaigns (for Burgundians, Sicilians, and Britons) and new achievements.
Remastered Expansion	10 Aug 2021	The second expansion pack for the Definitive Edition was launched. Entitled Dawn of the Dukes, it features two new civilizations from Central and Eastern Europe (the Bohemians and Poles), three new campaigns (for Poles, Bohemians, and Lithuanians) and new achievements. In addition, new cooperative campaigns and historical battles were announced and have been gradually added since.

Original Disc Contents

The single CD-ROM has no specific volume label.

CD-ROM:   Directory of D:\
Conquerors Expansion:   Directory of D:\

 

Installed Directory Contents

Once installed, the following directory structure exists in the game directory:

Full Install chosen   Directory of C:\GAMES\AOE2 . <DIR> 05/09/21 13:49 .. <DIR> 05/09/21 13:49