is history :(
Mystery Vortex RTS world, the page that "started it all" (IRex), will now disappear from the web. The guy who managed the page, "Drunk old man", will now be at Area S, so go there now for the latest RTS news.
| November 30 |
New cheat codes
Submitted by Justice:
| Big Bertha | Heavy catapults have greater range and damage |
| ICBM | Ballistias get 100 range points |
| Hoyohoyo | Priests get lots of speed and 600 hit points |
Nextlevel is still down
This means you cannot use the forum, and all people who are used to going to the US mirror page will not find anything there. Smog's, Izdol's, Fuzz's and Zugga's page are also affected, as well as many other pages located there.
| November 29 |
Troubleshooting
E Pluribus has written a helpful guide for troubleshooting. If you manage to run AoE but it crashes after some time, you should read it.
AoE reviews
Mr. Grinch has assembled a very comprehensive list of reviews for AoE and also Total Annihilation and Dark Reign. If you want a comparison of these three games, this is a good source.
Nextlevel down :(
My mirror site at nextlevel is currently down and has already been down for almost 24 hours now. It is not the server itself that has problems but the T1 running to it. I hope that the problem will be fixed soon.
| November 28 |
Win 300 games!
This sounds unbelievable, but a formerly addicted gamer has decided to get rid of all his games and started a contest where you can win 300 games. The games will all go to one lucky person so check it out! The best games of this year and earlier times are all part of these 300:
Jedi Knight,
Total Annihilation,
Age Of Empires,
Riven,
Comanche 3,
Myth,
Dungeon Keeper,
Hexen 2,
Triple Play 98, Warcraft 2 and many other well known titles!
Thanks to Smog for the hint.
Internet gaming zone vs Dwango zone vs Kali
Microsoft has limited the Internet gaming zone to 6 players, and no one knows why. If you want to play matches with 8 players, you will have to get Kali or head to the Dwango zone:
Today I tried out the beta of DWANGO-Zone. It's similar to vanilla zone.com
but lets you play 8 player! Their justification was that AoE was not playable
at greater than 6 players and their dial-in connections allowed them to raise
that limit. What about those of us with ISDN, Cable, and T1 connections?
Can, we, as the customer, decide what the upper limit should be and not
Microsoft whose only interest is to give a competitive advantage to DWANGO?
Gameoutpost is shutting down for a month
Gameoutpost has closed their page; it will be up again at the beginning of the next year. Therefore I have temporarily taken down the link to that page.
New links added
I have added a link to Necrolyte's AoE page and Kali. They can be found at my links page.
| November 27 |
Microsoft wants your AoE stories
1. The quality or condition of being addicted: had an addiction
for fast cars.
"Just one more conquest. One more victory. I don't care if it's 4 in
the morning!"
Through tired, bloodshot eyes and mouse clicking weariness, you've
sent us email after email relating just how addicted you've become to Age
of Empires. Heck, we already knew this game was habit forming, but it's
nice to know everyone else has that Empires jones now too. In fact,
consider us your support group of sorts. So, if you're in the midst of a
big Age of Empires binge as we speak, or, are nervously watching the clock
at work so you can speed away at days end to play this game, then tell us
about it. Write up a short email describing your experience. The best will
be posted on our site for the world to see and might potentially appear in
print.
The first steps towards a cure is admitting you have addiction. Send
us mail, we can help.
ad·dic·tion (e-d*k*shen) noun
2. Compulsive physiological need for a habit-forming substance
Excerpted from the American Heritage® Dictionary of the English
Language, third edition. Microsoft Bookshelf, '98 Edition
Sincerely, MS Games Web Team
Why should you want a cure? ;)
In case you do not know where the MS page is, you will find it at the links page. By the way, I will also make a story page if there are enough stories, so you can also send them to me.
New scenario
A new single player scenario has been added to the scenario page.
Netiquette
E Pluribus has made a comprehensive etiquette list that is worth to be read.
| November 26 |
New campaign
A new campaign has been made! If you like huge battles with more than 50 units, you should check it out ;)
| November 25 |
Win a full version of AoE
Smog's Age of Empires page has a contest where you can win a full version of Age of Empires. Check it out if you have not bought the game yet.
New scenario
A new multi player scenario has been added to the scenario page.
Mail problems
The mail server was down yesterday, if you have sent a mail without getting an answer, please resend it.
AoE outpost is gone
A page that had some good specialized strategies has vanished from the web. I have not removed the link earlier because nextlevel had technical problems, so I was not sure whether that was the cause.
DRS file format entirely decoded
Finally the drs documentation is complete. There was only one byte missing anyway :) If you want to help writing a resource file editor or scenario browser for Age of Empires, take a look at it and contact me if you have understood everything; I will tell you how the project is currently going.
| November 24 |
This page is going to be immortalized ;)
This page is going to be burnt on a CD-ROM that will be part of a German Age of Empires Strategy book. The guide is written by Seleqtion and will be published by Sybex. I am sure it will be the best German AoE strategy guide ever ;)
He will use the best two or three pages, I wonder which other pages he has chosen ...
| November 23 |
is history :(
Mystery Vortex RTS world, the page that "started it all" (IRex), will now disappear from the web. The guy who managed the page, "Drunk old man", will now be at Area S, so go there now for the latest RTS news.
Tribes page finished
I have finished the analysis of the different tribes and also added a section about startup phase to the strategy guide. The latter section is for beginners, but the former one is something that everybody should read ;)
RLE sprites (.SHP files in AoE)
Donald has sent my the URL of a page that deals with the basics of RLE sprites. People who want to edit the .SHP files or analyze them should check it out.
| November 22 |
Wonder strategies
Finally, I could finish my section about wonder strategies. If you have tried to build a wonder before but could not defend it successfully, read it!
| November 21 |
More tribes reviewed
I have now written a section about the Choson, Egyptian and Greek tribes. Only three tribes are still missing, I will fill in these gaps when I have time. Many thanks go to Caesar910 for his help.
| November 20 |
More frequently asked questions
| November 19 |
New campaign
I have added a new cool campaign consisting of two maps to my scenario page.
New link added
I have added a new link to Zugga's AoE fort. It has a pretty decent strategy guide, so check it out.
Description of all AoE sounds
Steve has made an Excel sheet with all AoE sounds so you can easily find the sound that you want to replace with the sound editor. If you discover mistakes in the table, please send them to Steve.
| November 18 |
Map "Boundries" updated
The scenario Boundries has been updated, so if you have downloaded it yesterday, you should download it again to get the newest version.
Vote for your favorite scenarios (coming soon)
I have a .cgi script that MugWump and Ohwrd let me use (kudos to them), but I am afraid I have no time to customize it :(
If you want to help me, please send me a mail.
| November 17 |
Drs extractor/builder utility
Stoyan has written a drs builder utility that can extract the contents of any .drs file an build new ones. The only problem is now how to edit the .slp and .shp files that are within the .drs files and seem to be another proprietary format. This utility will allow you to make "Total Conversions", i. e. replace sounds and graphics!
New scenarios and a new campaign
Three new multi player scenarios and a single player campaign have been added to my scenario page.
| November 16 |
Four new scenarios
Four new maps for two and four players have been posted at the multi player scenario page.
An analysis of the tribes
I have started a page about the strengths and weaknesses of each tribe in AoE. So far, it covers six tribes. Many thanks go to Vostok for analysing four tribes closely.
New Kali upgrade
The latest version of the upgrade for AoE support (164 K) is now revision E, so get it to make sure that everything is running smoothly.
Age of Empires in the "all time classics" list
There is a list in PCGames, Europe's game mag #1, with "all time classics" (the best games of
the last three or four years). Currently, tbe RTS list consists of
Age of Empires, C & C 1 and 2, Dungeon Keeper, Warcraft 2 and Z.
Total
Annihilation and Dark Reign did not make it.
| September - November 15 |
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