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| October 24 |
Microsoft vs. Netscape
In the ongoing anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft, they now claim that not only was Netscape financially unharmed by the free release of Internet Explorer, but they even offered their own browser for free also! What cheek! Of course, Netscape counters this by saying they raised the price of other software to make up for it. An interesting session of accusation and counter-accusation. Read more at YAHOO News
New stuff
I scrounged up some time to look at a lot of stuff that folks have sent in, and 2 new links have made it to our page. If you don't see yours there, send it to me again and I will give some specific comments about the cut. Our goal here is to avoid long lists of links and files that duplicate a lot of material or are of only average quality. Looking at one message in particular, I see we missed an opportunity to snag up Angel Poison Ivy before she was discovered by Age of Empires Heaven. Her site there is "Age of Empires Anonymous" and is a good source of AoE humor. If Poison Ivy still views our humble site, I hope she can find it in her heart to forgive us... I do take consolation that AoE Anonymous will get much more exposure at AoE Heaven than it will being hidden here, and Angel Ivy will have a better career than as Eggwoman Poison Ivy... ;-)
| October 20 |
RoR on Review
At long last my review of the beta version of RoR is complete. We had intended to get this info out to you all sooner, but I just received the CD a few days before the trial version was released. Most of you who have played the trial already will find a lot of this stuff old news, but you might be surprised (then again, you might not!). Give Eggman's Review a look- you may laugh- you may cry- but at least you'll be entertained! I also want to ask everybody who has sent in link requests or campaigns to continue to be patient, as you will see some results soon...
| October 17 |
RoR on Trial
The Trial verison of Rise of Rome is here and available from our downloads section. After installing it you will still be able to play your original version of AoE as well, plus you get the DirectX v6a update. Who could ask for anything more? Well, how about the full game! :-). There was a rumor that the release date was pushed up to the 22nd, but this has proved false... I guess the masses will just have to wait for the 5th of November!
| October 15 |
Hail, Caesar!
Some tidbits have been released about the Rise of Rome trial version. It will include the slingers, camel riders, and fire galleys. There is also a mini campaign covering one of the Punic Wars from the Carthaginian point of view. It will be interesting to see how that works out as Carthage was the loser in every one of those wars! There is also mplayer support on the Zone, so it basically sounds exactly like the same format as the original trial version, except it goes to the Iron Age (scythe chariots and armored elephants are left out though). It will be added to the downloads of this site as it becomes available, which looks to be tomorrow. In other related RoR news, I have just received a beta copy of the complete RoR game, so you will get my impressions on it in a few days...
The campaigns you have been looking for
Creative Carnage has recently completed an unauthorized(!) add-on for AoE with publisher Running Dog. Entitled "Ancient Campaigns" it includes around 100 scenarios made by some of the best AoE designers on the net. Most of the scenarios are in single player campaigns, but there are several mplayer scenarios as well. If you are sick of visiting site after site looking for decent scenarios worth the download time, you will definitely want to watch for this. No official release date as yet, but you'll see more first-hand news here as it develops... (of course, we here at Empire of the Ages already go to great lengths to provide the public with quality stuff- but it never hurts to have too much of a good thing! ;-) )
| October 9 |
There is no joy in Mudville...
The Egg is wearing a black armband today, after learning that the famous (or infamous) Michael 'Infymus' Hoenie has retired from the realm of AoE. This means there will be no further versions of his fabulous Age of Empires Editor, which is the tool I use to make my .ai and .per files. Since it is no longer available from the author I have placed it in the downloads section here, so get it while you can! It's 5.32Mb though, so get a nice cup of coffee and a good magazine while you wait.
More awards for AoE
AoE has won the 1998 'Game of the Year' award given out by PC Games and PC Action magazines. So how many awards is this, then? Like 1,000,000 maybe? :-). Here's more right from the horse's mouth:
"With Age of Empires Microsoft has achieved an impressive advance into the phalanx of real time games. Apart from the very detailed graphics, the game convinced with a variation of missions and especially with the historical theme. It wasn't science fiction or fantasy, which built the center of attention, but 12 advanced civilizations of the early humanity. This way of building an "interactive history book" could then also chalk up success with many new gamers of computer games."-Christian Müllers
| October 5 |
Farewell everybody
You have noticed from the less frequent updates in the past two weeks that I have been very busy during that time. I have had my finals, and now, I will move. This means that I will be offline for a while. I thank Eggman for keeping the page running. If you have new scenarios, links, or questions, please contact him now. From tomorrow on, all the updates will be written by him, until I am back. I will try to be back online ASAP and tell you everything about my new home, my first impressions of the AoE expansion and more. I'll be back :)
First hand Rise of Rome tips
"The Zone staff has been playing the expansion pack for awhile and enjoying it immensely, but now we know we've been playing it WRONG! This new intelligence from Ensemble has created a huge upheaval in our office competitions. Read the Q&A from Ensemble now, or suffer the humiliation of the Zone managers. You can find a link to the article on the Age of Empires News page.Now you think "why have tips for an expansion that is not out yet"? However, a demo version should be available in a few days (according to the press release) - so keep checking the official AoE pages and the MSN Zone for it. (Yes, it is called MSN zone now - the zone has been run by Microsoft all the time, but now the MS network has been added. The increased revenues from online sales will help them to keep it running for free.)
Scenario/link reviewers wanted!
Play scenarios that no one else has seen yet! We need help for evaluating all the submitted scenarios and campaigns, and also someone who reviews a few pages that want a link from us. If you want to help, please send a mail to Eggman and tell him whether you want to review single player scenarios/campaigns, multi player scenarios or web pages, and how many of them.
| October 3 |
Sign up for the Zone Tribe Tourney
It is still not too late go get into the Internet Gaming Zone's Tribes Tourney. Sign-ups started on the 1st and will run to the 6th. Space is limited to 128 teams, so grab your partner and don't dawdle! Also, the Zone will soon fall under the umbrella of the rest of the Microsoft Network and be known as the MSN Gaming Zone. Visit the Zone now to learn more.
Rise of Rome Trial Version
Microsoft will be releasing the trial version of Rise of Rome, called 'Hail Caesar', sometime mid-month to co-incide with the 1st anniversary of Age of Empires... this trial version will be a complete game, like the first trial. If it comes with a mini-campaign like the first did, it should definitely be worth grabbing as a warm-up for the real thing a few weeks later!
Rise of Rome Preview
Anyone curious to read another RoR preview (admit it, you'll buy it regardless of whether or not you read any previews or even if they trash it!) should visit Gamespot UK and check out theirs. As usual, it is full of effusive praise for the game... have we come to expect anything less?
| September '97 - September '98 |
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