Wonder if you guys want to share some stories/ memories you have of back in the day.
For me, age of empires was the first game I ever played, when I was only a few years old. My dad had the old age of empires collectors edition box, with aoe1 and aoe2 in it. He thought me how to play the games as I remember. That is why they will always be special to me.
I remember playing it at my grandparent’s house. I also remember getting it in a cereal packet (I think it was to promote Age of Mythology). I don’t remember which was first, but I do renember enjoying it.
First experience was back in 2002.
Parent’s purchased a kellogg’s cereal box and a full copy of AOE came with it. I would have been about 9 years old. Eyes were glued to the monitor for hours and I remember waking up really early in the morning just so I could get more hours out of it.
Still got the disc to this day.
AoE was released in Russia only in 2005, alongside with AoEII, I was 10 (yeah definitely not an oldfag at all). It was called ‘Platinum Edition’ and included both games with all that time add-ons. Although AoEII conquered my heart, I also have beautiful memories about AoE, remember when I tried to complete the 1st mission in Caesar campaign of RoR, it took me several weeks then)
The first experience I had was when my dad went for dinner and I was alone upstairs. I went on his saved game and deleted all his villagers then resaved the game. He still won the game though
@DaringHyperion Same here, but in Poland! Although I got my Platinum Edition (holding the box right now!) in like 2006, I got the RoR demo off a disc included in a PC Gaming magazine in like 2004, I think. Maybe 2005?
I remember my first time playing this was with my dad and brother over our home network that we had and this game soon became a family favorite. Been playing it ever since.
I remember playing it in 2000. It helped me in many ways. From learning English to learning history. The perfect game for people who want to learn something and have fun at the same time. 
Rise of Rome demo in 1998 when I was 10. I played that demo for a full year until my 11th birthday in 1999… when I got Age of Empires 1 Gold Edition. Played that for a year because getting AoE2… I always thought it was impossible for it to be any better than AoE1 lol.
It was 2000 and I was eleven. Me and my cousin had bought the game for 20000 drachmas (the before euro currency in Greece) which is about 60€ today’s money. We were playing happily for about a year, WITHOUT ever upgrading age… We just tried to win the archers and cavalry with our clubmen, thinking that this upgrade button was too expensive to do the job.
This is a nice fanboy-farming M$, we will play along…
I got a trial disc when I bought a new PC of the original AOE in the la 90s. Fell in love with the game and bought all the subsequent titles. Now I play Castle Siege just because it is in the AOE franchise.
It had to be the demo I played on my old PC. Man it was a POS but it had so many fun PC games installed on it. I remember getting my butt kicked since I was a kid and didn’t know how to play it.
I played AoE II in ciber coffee with friends, conected LAN and we are playing for 2 hours everyday.
Mine was playing the trial version of rise of rome. Back then with dialup internet the 20MB trial took 1.5 hours to download! still, was worth the wait.
@Plasticcaz said:
I remember playing it at my grandparent’s house. I also remember getting it in a cereal packet (I think it was to promote Age of Mythology). I don’t remember which was first, but I do renember enjoying it.
OMG, pulling that disc out of a nutri-grain box was something I remember clearly to this day. That and a free copy of Battlefield 2 from Pizza Hut if you spent $35 in-store. Pretty sweet memories they were.
Back in 1999 when i tried the trial as a six years old… I cannot quite remember the name of the scenario but you started with with two priests and close to the yellow colored team in which you had to convert some villagers to get going with your own civilization. It was quite exciting to build walls against their team later on and watch them get clubmen attacking the walls LOL.
@middleclass10 said:
I remember playing it in 2000. It helped me in many ways. From learning English to learning history. The perfect game for people who want to learn something and have fun at the same time.
Yea, I think it got many people interrested in history. I am pretty sure it influenced me to as a kid, because now ancient history is one of my fav. topics
@LyricBlock82769 said:
@Plasticcaz said:
I remember playing it at my grandparent’s house. I also remember getting it in a cereal packet (I think it was to promote Age of Mythology). I don’t remember which was first, but I do renember enjoying it.OMG, pulling that disc out of a nutri-grain box was something I remember clearly to this day. That and a free copy of Battlefield 2 from Pizza Hut if you spent $35 in-store. Pretty sweet memories they were.
lol, Seems like many people got age of empires from a cereal box haha
Yeah, it was a Kellogs Nutri-grain packet!
I got this game when it launched when my dad bought a new Gateway computer that came with an assortment of games including The Neverhood which was a claymation puzzle game, Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far, Monster Truck Madness, and, of course, Age of Empires! I grew up on this, Rise of Rome, AoK, AoC, and AoM. I played countless hours, stayed up til 7am all the time during the summer, made a friend of 20 years from California who I actually had build me my first computer and send it to me in Minnesota.
I also met Roy “Royster” Rabey, the IT guy for Ensemble Studios, online in a ranked match. We became friends and he sent me an AoK t-shirt and a ’ Music from the Ages’ cd signed by him, Sandyman, and the Rippy brothers. For such a young age, that was an amazing experience for me.
Age games have since been one of my top 3 games to ever play, including Diablo 2 and WoW. No other games compare to the amount of time I put ino these games.
My first experience with AoE, though, was pretty funny. I played for who knows how many hours vs the computer in Random Match. Every game I would get out-teched as I had club men and the comp would come crashing in with axemen and archers. I would get slaughtered. The next game, I’d have a ton of club men and hold off a few waves and they’d eventually come in with cavalry and better archers. Slaughtered again. It took many games and many hours before my child brain realized I could advance to the next age to access the better units. That was such a revelation for me and from that point on, I was hooked. I still play AoM and AoC on occasion to this day. I also listen to my Music from the Ages’ cd all the time. It is my go-to soothing, relaxing, nostalgia-filled music along with 90S Pop And Alt Rock.
