Age of Empires

1001 Video Games

Age of Empires appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Demo version

The demo released is worth getting, even for those owning the full game. It includes a tutorial campaign featuring the Hittites and two maps not present in the full version.

Documentation

Being a RTS, it's surprising the printed manual in the UK release only covers the game basics, but the game includes a large online help file worth hundreds of pages of both game and historical information. Guess it's true that digital information does save trees.

Online servers

The game's online servers (which were hosted on MSN Gaming Zone) were shut down on 19 June 2006 in the wake of MSN Games' shift from "CD-ROM matchmaking service" to casual online games.

Sales

In 1998, Age of Empires has won both the Gold- and Platinum-Awards from the German VUD (Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland - Entertainment Software Association Germany) for selling more then 100,000 units (Gold) and more then 200,000 units (Platinum) in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. As the Gold-Award is not counted into the Platinum-Award, both awards total in between 300,000 and 700,000 units sold.

Awards

• Computer Gaming World
  • March 1998 (Issue #164) – Outstanding Multiplay of the Year
  • June 2001 (Issue #203) – Introduced into the Hall of Fame
• Game Informer
  • August 2001 (Issue #100) - #81 in the Top 100 Games of All Time poll
• GameSpy
  • 2001 – #14 Top Game of All Time
• GameStar (Germany)
  • Issue 12/1999 - #14 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking
• Interactive Achievement Awards (Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences)
  • 1998 – Computer Strategy Game of the Year – Won
  • 1998 – Interactive Title of the Year – Nominated
• PC Gamer

• April 2000 issue - #21 in the Readers All-Time Top 50 Games poll

• Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (Entertainment Software Association Germany)

  • 1998 - Gold Award for selling more then 100,000 units in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
  • 1998 - Platin Award for selling more then 300,000 units in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Information also contributed by Luis Silva, Maw, PCGamer77 and Xoleras