Age of Empires
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1000 Schlachten: Das Feldherrenpaket für Age of Empires
(1998) -
Age of Avalon
(1999) -
Age of Empires: Conquest of the Empire
(1997) -
Age of Empires: Die neue Epoche
(1998) -
Age of Empires: Die neue Epoche 2
(1998) - Age of Empires: Final Conquest (1998)
-
Conquests of the Ages
(1998) -
Das große Schlachten-Paket zu Age of Empires
(1998) -
Die Germanische Offensive
(1998) -
Games PLUS Vol. 2
(1998) -
Kampagnen für Age of Empires
(1999) -
More Empires
(1998) -
Neue Level für Age of Empires
(1998) -
Strategien & Lösungen: Age of Empires
(1997) -
Szenario Heaven für Age of Empires
(1998)
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Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Return of Rome
(2023) -
Age of Empires: Definitive Edition
(2018)
Description official descriptions
In Age of Empires, players are able to manage a tribe with their mouse. Command them to build houses, docks, farms, and temples. The player advances their civilization through time by learning new skills. The game allows the player to advance through the Ages: The Paleolithic (old Stone Age), the Neolithic (new Stone Age, or the Tool Age), the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. If the player would rather get away from the historical aspect, the game offers a random terrain generator and a custom scenario builder.
The game has four resources: food, obtained by either hunting, foraging, fishing, or farming; wood, which must be logged by hand; stone, which must be mined; and gold, which can either be mined or obtained through trade with other players.
As a real-time war game, Age of Empires naturally revolves around gathering resources and producing units.
Spellings
- マイクロソフト エイジ オブ エンパイア - Japanese spelling
- 世紀帝國 - Traditional Chinese spelling
- 帝国时代 - Simplified Chinese spelling
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Credits (Windows version)
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 83% (based on 43 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 177 ratings with 11 reviews)
oh my God... what a disappointment!
The Good
It had nice graphics... the intro was nice, and the little guys running around and getting killed by elephants was cute.
The Bad
Good Lord... I was SOOO disappointed... I bought this in a sale box at the local Electronics Boutique and, having heard already so much about Age of Empires, was practically salivating... and man, did it suck! Sure, it looks cute, but the different civilizations are completely unbalanced, the tech tree is small, limited, and sucky, wonders are complete idiocy (someone builds one, go and nuke it or lose the game), the campaign mode is boring and every game ends the same: you try to survive until you build enough whatever and come over to kill. Sure, the same might hold true for Civ or C&C or Dune 2 or Alpha Centauri... but at least you have fun and options and along the way.
The Bottom Line
Avoid like the plague unless you ADORE this genre and are willing to forgive it's flaws. I've heard Age of Empires 2 was a vast improvement but I never dared to take a look.
Windows · by Gothicgene (66) · 2001
Another great conquer the world game.
The Good
This game was very, much a Civilization with improved graphics. I was really, surprised at the time that Microsoft coould put out a game like this. A very, good game with excellent graphics and sound for the time.
The Bad
The peasants were pretty stupid, and path finding for the AI was always a problem.
The Bottom Line
Advance from a stone age tribe to a classical empire, beating the tar out of your neighbors along the way.
Windows · by Jeff Watts (18) · 2001
This is a really great game... NOT!
The Good
The only thing good about playing this game one time is that decades from now you too can brag to your grandchild that you once played the first failures by Gates and co. I bet your grandchild will be impressed at your state of depravation.
The Bad
Comparing this Age of Empires to Warcraft II, which came out beforehand, is like comparing the Windows 2.1 interface to a Macintosh interface: The right way to steal an idea is to IMPROVE it! Not to MUTILATE it! I won't even bring up Starcraft, which blows the water even out of Warcraft II.
The Bottom Line
Describe? No, no, that's too painful. Suffice it to say that it can only improve from here.
Windows · by Yeah Right (50) · 2000
Trivia
1001 Video Games
Age of Empires appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.
Demo version
The demo released is worth getting, even for those owning the full game. It includes a tutorial campaign featuring the Hittites and two maps not present in the full version.
Documentation
Being a RTS, it's surprising the printed manual in the UK release only covers the game basics, but the game includes a large online help file worth hundreds of pages of both game and historical information. Guess it's true that digital information does save trees.
Online servers
The game's online servers (which were hosted on MSN Gaming Zone) were shut down on 19 June 2006 in the wake of MSN Games' shift from "CD-ROM matchmaking service" to casual online games.
Sales
In 1998, Age of Empires has won both the Gold- and Platinum-Awards from the German VUD (Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland - Entertainment Software Association Germany) for selling more then 100,000 units (Gold) and more then 200,000 units (Platinum) in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. As the Gold-Award is not counted into the Platinum-Award, both awards total in between 300,000 and 700,000 units sold.
Awards
- Computer Gaming World
- March 1998 (Issue #164) – Outstanding Multiplay of the Year
- June 2001 (Issue #203) – Introduced into the Hall of Fame
- Game Informer
- August 2001 (Issue #100) - #81 in the Top 100 Games of All Time poll
- GameSpy
- 2001 – #14 Top Game of All Time
- GameStar (Germany)
- Issue 12/1999 - #14 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking
- Interactive Achievement Awards (Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences)
- 1998 – Computer Strategy Game of the Year – Won
- 1998 – Interactive Title of the Year – Nominated
- PC Gamer
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April 2000 issue - #21 in the Readers All-Time Top 50 Games poll
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Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (Entertainment Software Association Germany)
- 1998 - Gold Award for selling more then 100,000 units in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
- 1998 - Platin Award for selling more then 300,000 units in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
Information also contributed by Luis Silva, Maw, PCGamer77 and Xoleras
Analytics
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Related Sites +
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Age of Empires
Internet Games Car Database profile -
Age of Empires Heaven
has a ton of content and user-created files -
The Game Developer Archives: 'Postmortem: Ensemble's Age of Empires' (March 1998)
Gamasutra article -
interview (2007)
for Age of Community with a few of the developers on where it all began
Identifiers +
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by MajorDad.
Macintosh added by Jeanne.
Additional contributors: Ummagumma, Andrew Hartnett, Unrealist, Unicorn Lynx, Maw, Havoc Crow, formercontrib, Zeppin, Litude, Paulus18950, Cantillon, Patrick Bregger, Plok, Rik Hideto, Victor Vance, FatherJack.
Game added November 5, 1999. Last modified January 10, 2025.