mjkypta
Clubman
posted 08-01-11 11:10 PM ET (US)
Hi all, I have recently reinstalled my old favorite AOE (not ROR yet) after at least 10 years away. I have a 64 bit windows 7 system. So far I've twice tried playing random maps, the game runs flawlessly until shortly after I get to the tool age, then suddenly the game will freeze completely while the music track continues uninterrupted. No blue screen or anything, I have to do a hard restart. The game installed fine, runs the cinematics perfectly, only other issue I noticed was the colored water, which was fixed with the suggestion in the FAQ.
I didn't see any other posts regarding windows 7, I hope someone's seen something like this before - this was a childhood favorite and I'll be crushed if its totally incompatible with my current setup!
Rennie Ash
Clubman
(id: JamikKim)
posted 08-02-11 01:31 PM
ET (US)
2 / 11
lol at 8-player Deathmatch with steroids on.... XD
mjkypta
Clubman
posted 08-02-11 02:03 PM
ET (US)
4 / 11
Thompson, try right clicking on desktop and leaving the screen resolution window open before to start the game to fix the water issue - if this doesn't work, go to advanced settings and the monitor tab and leave that open, one of these worked for me.
I will try the compatability and music fixes and report back, I take the first to be setting compatability mode for windows XP (does service pack matter?) in the start menu icon?
Great to see there's still a community for AOE!
Thompsoncs
Clubman
posted 08-02-11 02:23 PM
ET (US)
5 / 11
the screen resolution doesn't fix it, and the other one is too much trouble to do everytime you start the game I think. I don't really mind the watercolor, though it would be nice if a permanent fix was found. The strange thing is that screenshots of water do have proper colors.
mjkypta
Clubman
posted 08-02-11 02:32 PM
ET (US)
6 / 11
closing explorer was another solution offered in the forum FAQ, I remember there is a similar problem with starcraft in win7, someone posted a script made in notepad you could run that would shut down explorer and reopen it when you exited star craft, maybe something like this would work?
adrianus
Clubman
posted 08-03-11 05:10 AM
ET (US)
9 / 11
There is a link to a patch somewhere in the granary for fixing the colours in win7. Iīm sorry but I donīt find this link again.If you type in Google "w7ddpatcher", you will find this patcher and can download it.
mjkypta
Clubman
posted 08-03-11 04:19 PM
ET (US)
10 / 11
Oh no - this time I got to bronze on an RM, but just before placing my temple, the comp locked up again! I had the music off and running in windows media player from a seperate folder in the background, the screen resolution > monitor window open to fix the color issue, and the game running in windows XP (Service Pack 3) compatability. I have no shortcut on my desktop, I did the compatability settings through the start menu icon, but I don't think that should matter. I did notice that the game would lightly stutter occasionally, whereas before trying these fixes it was totally smooth til lockup, but these small stutters were barely noticeable until the bronze age freeze. Again, the issue is the game and comp totally freeze, can't get caps lock to go on or off or anything, while the music track merrily continues uninterrrupted - I have to do a cold restart.
Anyone understand why the problem is leading to a full computer lockup - this baffles me? I've had plenty of issues running old school games on a new OS, but it's always that the game won't start up, there's a color problem, it installs inproperly, typically not even a CTD, but I've never had this type of thing happen. What could cause an old game that seems to be running well to suddenly crash a computer way more advanced than anything the game was designed for?