Age of Empires 2... now in HD?

While eating breakfast in front of YouTube, I'm watching some random AOE vids just to see what's out there, and I see "Age of Empires II HD". I'm thinking that's cool, some dedicated fans went back and upped the graphics of a beloved old game. I've seen that a few times now, like with System Shock - fans have created a whole slew of modules and add-ons, and even a loader to manage them. But AOE2 HD is no fan work, its an official release! And its coming out on Steam this week! And its only $20! What crazy timing. Life is funny that way, but usually the butt of the joke is you.

As cool as this new development is, its not what I'm doing right now. I'm saying goodbye to old games forever, and either tossing or selling the material components. I'm also trying to close out the older stuff before it becomes inaccessible forever, like the first System Shock game that I couldn't play and had to try to experience through playthroughs.

I was going to dive straight into Planescape: Torment, but I was concerned it might be too much of a mental shift in user interface, graphics, and even standards of what is a good game (a standard which moves slowly, but noticeably over this long a time interval). I'm trying to get back into the 1990s mindset, so I can experience it the way it was meant to be. Of course that can't truly work, but I think I can meet it part way. If anything, this newly updated AOE 2 reminds me of my mission to catch up.

I wonder if I should play some Fallout (original) first, since Planescape is also an RPG. I've always meant to replay it, and if not now, then when? But then that makes me think I should go back as far as Wasteland, but that might be pushing it too far back. Its tough enough to get back into 1990s games, let alone 1980s games.

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I still don't feel quite up to Planescape, but I do feel like Age of Empires 2. I check the software archive, and it looks like I never imaged my discs. I check the retail boxes, but the discs are missing; I don't feel like digging around in the attic for them. But I do have one more box, Age of Empires 2 Gold Edition, and its heavy... and unopened! Not sure why I bought this, it must have been on sale, or maybe the "bonus maps" attracted me, but I never used it. So now I will be playing something both old and new.

Age of Empires 1, and the ROR expansion, installed and played fine (except for some minor color problems in how the sea looked), so I'm expecting no trouble running AOE 2. First, to create a disc image, so I don't have to play with the disc in the drive (which is just noisy and slow). I/O error, perhaps some old copy protection? Looks like it might be a software error with my ISO maker. A quick investigation doesn't yield an easy solution, so I'll just play from disc for a little while; at least I can make sure the discs are OK.

So, I install the two discs, and it feels like they just bundled the original and expansion in a new box. The two games don't seem to be integrated into any whole, the way the AOE 3 expansions built upon each other. Not that it probably matters much, I think AOE 2 was a much more standalone game, whereas in AOE 3 you manage each civilization over time (Home City, cards, etc.). Let's see what software versions we have, and if there are any patches. Oh that's lame, I have to re-insert disc 1 to play the original game, and I did a full install. I really need to image these discs.

Flipping through the manual - this game seems more sophisticated than AOE 3, in some ways. I don't remember that it had this much detail. I remember this main screen; and letting the background sounds of a medieval town loop for a while (I think AOE 2 Conquerors did it even better).. I create my profile, set my screen size to the max, 1280x1024. I'll start with the tutorial, why not try everything. Uh oh, graphics glitches worse than anything I saw in AOE 1. And finally I can check the About - this is version 2.0a.

Already I am remember why I loved AOE 2, its got all sorts of historical trappings. Now to check on that patch level. I don't have anything in the archive. OK, 2.0a was the last. Now about that graphics error. Set desktop background to black? Restart game, no. Open control panel, display, screen resolution - change nothing just leave it open. That works. I remember this worked for Diablo 2. I don't even want to know why. And finally, to stop the intro movies from playing, add NoStartup to the shortcut.

No, not quite done, need to find where the game is storing my screenshots. Oh, of course, they are in= "\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires II". Strange, screenshots from the story boards are in 800x600, but in-game shots are at the 1280 level I selected; I guess the former are a fixed size. I'm already looking forward to seeing what this will look like in the HD version.