Will
Scarlet
September 24, 2024

Age of Empires II (1999)

The classic real time strategy game.

Age of Empires II (1999)

This post is part of a series featuring old Windows games playable on Linux using Wine. If you are new to Wine, check my Intro To Running Wine Games post for help getting started.

Intro

What can I say that needs to be said? This is the greatest strategy game of the early 2000s. I played it, you played it, we know what this is.

You might be thinking, “why would anybody want to play this? The Definitive Edition (2019) is so great.” Ah contrare, mon capitan.

“But the DE made so many gameplay improvements!” It added nothing but bloat and expansion packs and abysmal matchmaking connections.

You might say, “Well at least play the HD Edition (2013)!” My sweet summer child, the HD improvements are barely noticable, and that game only works on Steam – you can’t even play a LAN game.

The original game is the best version. It’s the version I play and it’s the version you should play too.

Install

You need two install files:

  • The Age of Kings
  • The Conquerors

You install those on your Wine Bottle and prepare for the next steps. You’re going to need the following files:

You install the patch v1.0c first. Then you extract and paste in the nocd replacement exe, which will go in the game age2_x1/ folder.

Then we get to the UserPatch file. This is the file that brings the game up to snuff. You’re going to get all the bug fixes, the widescreen resolutions, the works.

Copy the SetupAoC.exe into your game directory and run it. My settings are posted below, but note that while this app is open press F5 and it will make some new options appear that were hidden options. In those new options be sure you turn on the alternate chat for Wine.

AOE2 Install 01 AOE2 Install 01 AOE2 Install 01 AOE2 Install 01

If you launched the game right now, you’d hear music but only see a black screen.

The secret sauce to finally get this working is to add ddraw.dll to your “Override DLLs” setting in Bottles, and then drop the ddraw.dll from CNC-DDraw into the game directory age2_x1/.

That should be it, you should be good to go. Note you’re going to launch the game from age2_x1/age2_x1.exe and you’ll ignore all the other executables.

Summary

Arch - 32-bit
Runner - sys-wine-9.0
DXVK - dxvk-1.10
VKD3D - proton-2.6
Discrete - ON
Gamescope - ON
Dependencies - directplay, corefonts
Overrides - ddraw

Notes

  • You want Gamescope on, mine is set to 1920x1080.
  • You have to install directplay as a dependency in Bottles to get multiplayer to work.
  • You might install corefonts as a dependency in Bottles to get the real font AOE2 wants to use.

Some parting notes regarding the differences between OG AOE2 and DE AOE2:

  • When you make waypoints for units, you shift click all the points and then have to make a final right click anywhere on the screen to get the unit to start moving.
  • Instead of making your mill auto-reseed as a one time ON button, you have to queue up reseeds that consume wood at the time of purchase.

These are literally the only “QOL” changes that the new version added, and they are so pathetically minor.