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Age of Empires 2 is coming to Steam? [Update: Evidence continues to mount, 4-pack]

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G

Grief.exe

Member
Update:

Subs of the original one have been added:

AOE II HD 4 pack: http://steamdb.info/sub/19339/
AOE II HD: http://steamdb.info/sub/26117/

Original:


More Steam registry leaks, this time another rumor from Microsoft Game Studios.

Some people over at steamdb.info parsed some data from a Microsoft Game studios test app (ValveTestApp221380).

The data showed some interesting things. The app had been updated a few times, and has been played by around 10 people over the past couple months.

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/19fboa/age_of_empires_2_very_likely_coming_to_steam/

Steam Achievements:

The test app was also updated with some achievements on February 28th.

Here are a few of them:

  • ACHIEVEMENT_DEFEATED_BRITONS_LOW
  • ACHIEVEMENT_DEFEATED_GOTHS_LOW
  • ACHIEVEMENT_DEFEATED_PERSIANS_LOW
  • ACHIEVEMENT_DEFEATED_FRANKS_LOW
  • ACHIEVEMENT_VICTORY_BYZANTINES_LOW
  • ACHIEVEMENT_WONDERS_BUILT_LOW
Click to expand...

These achievements seem to correspond with races and buildings that would appear in the game.

EDIT: Looks like they updated the test app and took down the achievements, check here for the full list: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=49247469&postcount=472


Statements by Ensemble Studios employee Matt Pritchard:

First off, PC hardware changed. Video cards were the biggest change.

The "Graphics Engine" for AoE and AoK was written in 1996 and 1997, with updates in 1998 and 1999. At that time Video cards had 1 Megabyte of VRAM, or even less memory, and were 2D only. They didn't always have 24 or 32-bit color modes, and they had hardware support for 256-color indexed palettes. Direct Draw was at version 1, and Direct X was going from version 3 to version 6.

Since then video card have evolved. Today, video cards no longer have dedicated 2D chips, nor do they have 8-bit indexed color support in hardware. They have gobs of memory , and DirectX is at version 11, and DirectDraw has been depreciated.

PC Video Monitors have changed. When AoE and AoK were released, all non-laptop monitors were CRT based with 4:3 aspect ratios, and resolutions of 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 and 1280x1024 were standard. Widescreen was unheard of.

Today, you can no find a CRT monitor for purchase, and 4:3 aspect ratio monitors are a tiny, dying segment of the market. Resolutions like 1366x768 now are commonplace.

Operating Systems have changed. AoE was developed on Windows 95. AoK on Windows 98 and Windows 2000. Today, Windows XP is nearing the end of its useful life, and Windows 8 is on the horizon.

Networking has changed. AoE was one of the first games to use the Microsoft Gaming Zone. Today the Zone no longer exists in a form usable by these games.

And yet, you can still play Age of Empires and Age of Kings. Although some help is needed. The video card drivers have to "emulate" 256-color palletized/indexed color modes. And the games do some things, like huge numbers of *tiny* async 2D Blits (so that it would work on video cards with only 1MB of VRAM with 2D chips that couldn't do overlapping copies correctly) which worked back then on 2D cards, but today cause conniptions for 3D cards.

The games don't work on all modern ATI video cards, and would crash if it wasn't for the ATI drivers looking for the games by filename, detecting when they are running, and doing special things behinds the scenes to make them run. (ATI users can rename the AoK .exe file and watch it crash to just test). Probably a similar story for NVidia.

And though they may work with driver help, they don't always look the way they were supposed to. On windows Vista and Windows 7, there are problems with the new driver model and shell, and you get corruption of the emulated colors. It's not limited to AoE and AoK. Discussion can be found around the net at links like this one: http://go.hopx.net/2010/05/256-color-issues-with-directdraw-and.html
And even when the colors are right, the resolution isn't. To fit the new display resolutions, the game screens are stretched, bilinear filtered and otherwise distorted and loose some of their original beauty.
Click to expand...

So I had this idea:

Make a Windows 7 Compatibility patch for Age of Kings.

It would include replacing DirectDraw with Direct3D9, dynamically supporting widescreen resolutions, removing the Zone Related Code, and making the game comply with other Windows 7 requirements.

Simple as that.
Click to expand...

He then describes how he continually contacted MGS to try to acquire the source code, so he could apply the compatibility patch, and they could see it from their DD system. Work he was willing to do for free. He got some good feedback from people, but no one was able to approve the process and get the work started so he eventually gave up.

Source: http://aok.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/aokcgi/display.cgi?action=st&fn=3&tn=40110&st=594#post595

UPDATE. GAF Detective Work:

Grief.exe said:
GAF we need to do a little detective work here.

If you look at the post from a year ago discussing the issues with hardware configurations, software compatibility and wide screen resolutions.

It was all posted by a guy named ES_MATTP

That obviously stands for Ensemble Studios, first name: Matt, last name initial: P

If you go and watch the Age of Empires 2 credits, you see a guy on there named Matt Pritchard.

We need to pick up the trail and see what this guy is up to now.

Gamasutra's post mortem on AoE II with Matt: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131844/postmortem_ensemble_studios_age_.php?page=4
Click to expand...


Nazgul11 said:
Oh jeez, I think I might've blown this one wide open...

Apparently he works at a little company known as...Valve Corporation.
Click to expand...


Grief.exe said:
I went ahead and created a LinkedIn account, Matt Pritchard confirmed working for both Valve and Ensemble.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/matt-pritchard/1/42/282

iZWwpv2gLihnh.png
Click to expand...
 
J

JdFoX187

Banned
Purchased Age of Empires III way back when it was on sale. Still a fun game, but nowhere as addicting as AoE II. Take my money Steam/Microsoft.
 
G

Grief.exe

Member
I'm still updating the OP, so bear with me.

Interesting link.

http://aok.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/aokcgi/display.cgi?action=st&fn=3&tn=40110&st=594#post595

Kerub said:
The Halo rumors? Maybe we'll see Gears 2/3 on Steam too?
Click to expand...

Yes.

The past 3 Microsoft Game Studios published games on PC have been Steamworks.

I doubt we will be seeing Gears since that hasn't shown up in the registry yet, but the Halo series looks like a true possibility now, especially 1 and 2, if AoE is coming out Steamworks.

Halo 3 would be my dream, but I will take AoE and Halo 1/2 with Steamworks and quality ports.
 
V

Venturin

Banned
This game was my solitaire.. I used to get a woodland map, close off all access to my hometown with walls and gates, pick off all comers with archers and build up until I could leisurely go around the map and wipe all of my enemies out.

I did this endlessly. There was no real challenge, it was just mindless fun and for some reason I was addicted
 
Z

zoku88

Member
This game partially inspired me with this name (which has a pretty lame reason behind it.)

I can't believe I've kept it this long...
 
S

shinobi602

Member
Holy shit, finally bringing the best RTS ever made to Steam!!??

Will this support online multiplayer again?? I remember having some of the most intense RTS matches ever on Gamerzone.
 
G

Grief.exe

Member
shinobi602 said:
Holy shit, finally bringing the best RTS ever made to Steam!!??

Will this support online multiplayer again?? I remember having some of the most intense RTS matches ever on Gamerzone.
Click to expand...

I'm hoping that they do! Would bring back good times playing with my friends who have moved all over the country.

If you look at the opensteamworks: http://games.opensteamworks.org/Chart/View/221380

It shows about 8-10 people playing at once yesterday and the same amount playing today.

That could mean the developers were all testing the game at once, or they were testing the multiplayer capabilities in an office match.

I can't think of many reasons why it would take 10 people to play test it at one time like that.
 
S

shinobi602

Member
Grief.exe said:
I'm hoping that they do! Would bring back good times playing with my friends who have moved all over the country.

If you look at the opensteamworks: http://games.opensteamworks.org/Chart/View/221380

It shows about 8-10 people playing at once yesterday and the same amount playing today.

That could mean the developers were all testing the game at once, or they were testing the multiplayer capabilities in an office match.

I can't think of many reasons why it would take 10 people to play test it at one time like that.
Click to expand...

Oh shit oh shit oh shit...this could be incredible. If they get it working we need a GAF clan. I'm probably rusty as hell, it's been so long.
 
I

iavi

Member
Instabuy. So many hours were dumped into this game. So many times I got destroyed on gamerzone lol.

Can't wait.
 
Giolon

Giolon

Member
What about Age of Empires 1? I liked it better. Yeah the gameplay was simpler, but I preferred the earlier time period.

And shit, where's Age of Mythology? That was a fantastic game.
 
P

Pallad1um

Member
Those are really great news. Coupled with the recent release of the unofficial expansion pack, these are good times to Age fans. Why did Microsoft let an amazing franchise die... (yes, I'm aware of AOE Online).
 
I

Iadien

Guarantee I'm going to screw up this post? Yeah.
I haven't played in years, but I played the hell out of it back in the day, will buy.
 
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