Age Of Empires, The Living Dinasour Of Gaming

It is a legendary game who tied countless players to their screens for what, over, more than 15 years it has been. Which game, endured being outdated so much more than this? Which game, is still being played as a so popular and exciting multiplayer game in network cafes? Which game have players been calling contests for, since the whole network gaming conests invented? It is Age of Empires, Ancient times, Rise of rome, Age of Kings, The Conquerors and maybe III. It has been in hearts of old school gamers since the old school times and until now and probably, will forever be. What can replace the feeling, which occurs when you repeat something you have done years ago? Maybe you remember your childhood? Maybe you remember your youth? Maybe something else? Something you had lived when playing this game. I don't know but this game reminds me of these all things, and it is such a splendid feeling.

It was 1995 and I do remember my mother playing this game in front of the computer, trying to teach me. I learned quick enough and soon started to best her in multiplayer. That was the first Age of Empires game, which i am not sure what it name was, but probably something like Ancient Times, Ancient Ages, etc. Then came Rise of Rome, an expansion pack to it. I never had the chance to buy and install it at the time but way later, when i finally was able to play it, i wish i could reverse time and buy the game just after it was released. Not that it troubles me to see that i couldn't anticipate anything better, it is still a faint wish of if-only about the past. Some years after Rise of Rome expansion, at 1998, when i bought my first PC with win98 in it, Age of Kings was released. I was quite excited about this, since i wasn't able to play the game for quite long time and now there were a new version of it, an improved one, in both graphics and play. I hastily went to the store and grabbed the first Age Of Kings disc i saw. I was maybe the only one to buy the game so far, but indeed, no room for surprises, that it was both early in the morning and was just the release date. After installing the game, i noticed that there were more than significant improvements in the game. There were way more factions that we were able to choose. All those factions had many different, special powers and functions. Such as Teutons with excellent heavy infantry and Mongols with nice light cavalry. There were wide range of selectable random map types, which were also, unlike the first version, could be used as multiplayer maps aswell. There were different game types, such as Regicide, where you have a king and have to protect it. Defend the wonder, where player 1 has a wonder which he needs to defend and all his enemies try to capture and hold it. Wonder race, where all the players start building wonders and first one to build # wonders wins. There were again, 4 ages but these were way different from what there were in the first game. Instead of prehistoric age there were Dark age. And as it went, stone age, bronze age, iron age in the primary game, there were, feudal, castle and imperial ages in Age of Empires, Age of kings.

Although there were other things which were adapted directly from the first game. Such as building farms, building mills to be able to build farms. Ordering villagers to work at farms. Gathering animals. And of course whole basic way of the game, gathering resources, training army with it, improving the army quality with the resources and making war with what heap of army you have. There were still just re-customized improvements and units. Like instead of clubman, there were militiamen. Nevertheless, this way is what makes this game so exciting and playable. And maybe just the cause of its constitution. I really hope this epic game wont soon be forgotten.