Age of Empires II & Windows 7

Remove all ads!

So I love this game to bits and figured I'd start playing it again, although as we are all aware, Windows 7 and older games do not mix very well. A LOT of people are having trouble getting this game to work on Windows 7 (64bit) ie, Unable to install, colours all wrong, various bugs etc.

My problem however, is that the game won't load. When I double click the exe it says it's loading and then just stops. I was able to install it fine and patched it after the first few times that it didn't work, however that doesn't fix anything.

I've read a lot about how you can run it windowed mode or disable explorer, but most of those things haven't really done anything. Was hoping a few people here had felt my pain with something of this nature and would be able to help me

 

I think I had the same problem on Vista, but got it working. Did you try setting the compatibility mode? Run it as administrator?

 

Yep, it just hangs there saying it's loading. Then when the loading screen goes away nothing happens.

 

I also am a big fan of AoE II. I find I have to run it in a weaker Graphic setting to play in Win7. Never had the load issue though...

 

What did your name used to be??

 

I read how most people are getting the colour problem, although that seems easily fixed so I WISH I only had to deal with that I did a little more reading on the subject, it seems directX is wayyyyy overpowered and thus the game is unable to start. I was told a fresh windows install and then downloading one of the older versions of directX would work... I only heard that from one source so I don't really want to have to do all of that just in case it turns out to be crap. Does anyone else have any ideas??

@ Barmy: http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?p=747472#post747472

 

That's a link to the SPS private forum, only SPS account holders can see it.
Fly2tHeSkY used to be Silvershield. It was also mentioned in one of the topics in Sorcerous Sundries, the Hello thread I believe.

I haven't tried AoE on Vista or 7 yet but I know AoM you had to change your resolution to match that of the game - when the game was open you could then change it in the system settings so it could run properly. I also disable visual themes and with AoE you may have to revert to different colour settings as well in the application shortcut.

 

I can't see that, but cheers 8yoofs. It's been doing my head in!

 

Yeah the only thing I haven't tried is a fresh install of Windows and then installing a REALLY old version of DirectX (5 or 6). I really don't want to have to go through all of that though..

 

Hmm, I think 8's comment on changing the resolution rings a bell. Have you tried manually setting the resolution to 1024x768?

 

How so? I remember being able to do that IN game, although I can't even get into it

 

If changing your desktop resolution didn't make the game run, I doubt that alterring the shortcut to change the game resolution will.

The generic shortcut for alterring resolution via shortcut is "-height XXX -width XXX" after the "C\Folder\Folder\Folder\Game.exe" thingmabob. (May require an = between the command and the variable)

Other than that adding "-w" instead can force the game into windowed mode on startup which might address the issue.

 

Ohhh, nah changing the resolution didn't work which what was I was hoping for

Windowed mode didn't work EITHER so it's not looking good..

 

Yeah the -w command doesnt always works considering i would of loved it for a few games but adding it to the shortcut didnt work at all. I am currently unsure as to way its not working. As for the messed up colors that has to deal with microsoft removing a certain setting from windows 7 thats the older ones had. There were people working on getting the colors back for older games such as diablo 1. sence it currently has the messed up colors on windows 7.

 

Aoe II : C works on Win XP, Direct X 9c ... you dont really need a reallly old version of Direct X then.
Is that a problem with 64bit only or 32 bit as well?