RTS Age of Empires unofficial HD patch

[catfood]

While perusing the interwebz I came across this patch that does what the title says, plus including numerous bug fixes and balancing. Honestly I can't comment much on the balancing part as I've never played this game in multiplayer before, but the extra resolutions and bug fixes (including the infamous bug that corrupted saves) are worth the price of alone.

The patch can be downloaded from here: http://www.moddb.com/mods/upatch-hd

The list of features can be found here: http://upatch-hd.weebly.com/more-details.html

And a thread discussing balance fixes can be read here: http://aoe.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=st&fn=17&tn=6327&f=17,6327,0,10&st=0

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

This patch is still alive, it seems, and there's a recent release:

https://upatch-hd.weebly.com

NEWS 03/2024: UPatch HD 1.2 Release 4 now available - click Download above to get it

The classic Age of Empires 1 – revived in high resolution! This is the unofficial patch for Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome, a complete revamp of the original game – with high resolution support, hundreds of bug fixes, new gameplay options and many other enhancements. By 2017 the patch already had over 100 000 downloads!

– Support for high resolutions.
– Interface graphics reworked and enhanced to HD quality.
– The original CD audio soundtrack (for both Age of Empires and The Rise of Rome) in mp3, replacing the synthesizer (MIDI) version.
– Compatible with Windows versions XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10/11.
– Improved game stability and reliability (previously some users were not even able to start the game).
– Save game crashes are fixed.
– Distorted in-game colors (color bugs) are fixed.
– New gameplay options: Random Teams, Random Map Type, Post-Iron Age option, Idle Military units hotkey and more.
– New random map types: "Oasis" and "Rivers".
– New HD Launcher - a remake of the original game launcher, now a central place for all settings and the Mod Manager.
– New Mod Manager and modding system – with entirely new possibilities (like adding civilizations) and proper mods that don't affect the original game installation.
– New UPatch HD settings for Windowed Mode, custom player name, mouse control, language, etc.
– Added 2 original campaigns (Reign of the Hittites, First Punic War), previously available only in Demo versions of the game.
– New options for the Scenario Editor.
– Improvements on Random Maps.
– Improvements on the mini map.[]
– Fixes for computer player ai.
– Fixed technology and civilization bugs and countless other problems that have been plaguing the game since its release.
– Hundreds of other bug fixes.
– Improved balance for units and civilizations, while staying as close to the original gameplay as possible.
– Improved in-game text messages and descriptions, as well as some language translations.
– Support for 10 game languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Russian, Chinese and Japanese.
– No previous patches or external software required, no ads, 100% clean and safe setup!

I was thinking about giving the so-called "Definitive Edition" a try, but this patch seems to make it obsolete, even with the recent improvements in gameplay(which were suggested by the mod author, apparently). In his words(emphasis mine):

https://aoe.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=st&fn=4&tn=6578&st=1968#post1969

UPatch HD, the unofficial patch for Age of Empires 1, was created 10 years ago. It started as a simple data mod with some fixes, but then quickly turned into the most popular and most downloaded AOE1 mod ever made. All of the fixes and most of the balance changes in UPatch HD were later incorporated in the official Definitive Edition, which I took part in creating. The balance was further improved with DE patches - especially the big patch from 2021 (nearly all balance changes there were suggested by me), which was very well received from the community and pro players.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary, I decided to update the mod again (first time since 2017) with the latest balance from DE. For more information about the new update - check the release article.

The new release also includes the "old balance" mods (restoring original game balance from ROR 1.0/1.0A) that have been available to download on the official site since 2016 (those who follow my work knew about them). Now they are included directly with the patch and can be selected from the Launcher - Mod Manager.

So Micro$hit just made a shit product, as per usual, then had to pay modders to fix it. Only here you just get the good stuff, without the W10 exclusivity and the 17GB of bloat.