Control your tribe with the mouse. Make them build houses, docks, farms, and temples. Advance your civilization through time by learning new skills. The game allows for the player to advance through the ages: stone age, tool age, bronze age. If the player would rather get away from the historical aspect, the game offers a random terrain generator and a custom scenario builder.

The game has four resources: food, obtained by hunting, farming, or fishing; wood, which has to be logged by hand; stone, which has to be mined; and gold, which can either be mined or obtained through trade with other players

As a real-time war game, Age naturally revolves around gathering resources and producing units.

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Alternate Titles

"帝国时代" -- Chinese spelling (simplified)
"世紀帝國" -- Chinese spelling (traditional)
"Tribe" -- Working title
"Diguo Shidai" -- Chinese title
"Dawn of Man" -- Early working title
"AoE" -- Abbreviated name

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Part of the Following Groups

Merchant	Title	Platform	Price
	K700i Quad Band Dual Card Bluetooth FM Touch Screen Cell Phone Brown (2GB TF Card and Leather Case)	Windows
	Age of Empires	Windows	$4.40
	Age of Empires
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User Reviews

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The Press Says

PC Jeux	Oct, 1997	92 out of 100	92
Svenska PC Gamer	Nov, 1997	92 out of 100	92
FileFactory Games / Gameworld Network	May 04, 2002	91 out of 100	91
PC Gameplay (Benelux)	Nov, 1997	87 out of 100	87
JeuxVideoPC.com	Jul 12, 2006	17 out of 20	85
Jeuxvideo.com	Apr 27, 2010	17 out of 20	85
CyberJoy	Apr 01, 1998	4.2 out of 5	84
Game Revolution	Nov 01, 1997	B+	83
GameGenie	1997		80
Game Vortex	2008	75 out of 100	75

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Trivia

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.

Multiplayer

"Multiplayer mode" in Age of Empires is actually something of a misnomer. It is possible to create and play a multiplayer game with only one player.

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
GameStar (Germany)
- Issue 12/1999 - #14 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking
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