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 to fill the gap. 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 166 processor, Windows 95/98/NT4 SP5, 32 MB RAM, Quad-speed CD-ROM drive.. Graphics support for VGA only (2 MB video memory required as a minimum), DirectX 6.1. Screen Resolutions supported are 800 x 600, 1024 x 768 and 1280 x 1024. Keyboard and Mouse required.. |
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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. The game was designed to be run in Windows 98 or NT4 with Service Pack 5. As such, you need to be in Windows to run it, not pure DOS.
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: ?
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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 |
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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 changesTown Center changes - The following changes have been made to the Town Center:
Enhancements
Bug Fixes
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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:\ |
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Conquerors Expansion: Directory of D:\ |
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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 |