I also have patch 1c.
Anyway, the game works with XP Home SP1. But I can't load most of the saved games.
I found this advice in the sticky:
"That's a problem of the patch, 1.c for AoE...
Don't play with the patch if you play against the computer only."
Say WHAT???
What the hell kind of official patch is that?
It worked fine under Win 98, but it crashes under XP with or without the patch.
And I didn't save during combat.
"You don't need a dual install to have AoE/RoR with and without the patch; simply rename the patched files in the AoE folder to AoEpatch.exe and RoRpatch.exe (or use other names), then copy the original exes from your CD(s). "
Well, there are no files called AoE.exe, but there was one called empires.exe. So I renamed this (1999) and copied over the 1997 empires.exe from the CD.
But again, the game opening runs as normal but when I load a saved game it says "Game Loading" and crashes to the desktop and the music keeps playing, but the game hasn't minimised, it's just gone.
So, are there other files I should change and will the benefits of the patch still work?
Cheers!
~