Age of Empires 2

Schoieuk · 12 Apr 2010 at 15:59

Hi guys, just fancied a game of this with a couple of mates thatthought it would be a laugh but were unable to create game and so on.. does any one know if its possible to play this game over the internet multiplayer anymore?

SS-89 · 12 Apr 2010 at 16:30

think you can play through gamespyarcade but don't take my word for it...

http://www.gamespyarcade.com/games/ageofempires/

Schoieuk · 12 Apr 2010 at 16:53

kl thanks ill check it out

snowdog · 12 Apr 2010 at 17:00

Igzones is there, an msn gaming zone clone...

I'd be up for some conq games, but not tonight, work in 15 mins...

EDIT: Now called voobly:

http://www.voobly.com/

Strategy CD-ROM
Age of Empires II: The Conquerors
(701 Players)
Age of Empires
(49 Players)
Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome
(6 Players)
Microsoft Ants
(6 Players)
Age of Empires II
(1 Players)

Nullvoid · 12 Apr 2010 at 17:07

Voobly is probably your best bet Schoieuk. As far as I know it's a homage of sorts to Microsoft's old Zone software and there are over 700 people logged into the aoe2 lobbies so it has a pretty decent community even now.

EDIT - Yay for slow typing.

Schoieuk · 12 Apr 2010 at 17:20

k cheers, how do you make lobbys on this?

GTot an account and all...

reiyushin · 12 Apr 2010 at 20:52

Game ranger still has mutilple games running

andshrew · 12 Apr 2010 at 21:33

When we used to play this we used Hamachi to create a virtual LAN between us, then just used the built in Local Network play in AoE2.

bhavv · 12 Apr 2010 at 21:44

I recently reinstalled AOE2, but couldnt get rid of the red blotches on the grass problem

Se7ven · 12 Apr 2010 at 21:53

has anyone played this long enough to remember names like Arch_Koven, I_am_Kmkm ?

Schoieuk · 13 Apr 2010 at 17:03

i Recently Got hamachi set up to try and get this working (i cannot use voobly as i dont have the real copy).

I got my friend and me in a virtual lan (i think) but i could use some help on how to get this working!

Please get back to me asap :>

James J · 13 Apr 2010 at 19:05

andshrew said:
When we used to play this we used Hamachi to create a virtual LAN between us, then just used the built in Local Network play in AoE2.

I use to use the same program for playing haegamonia with a mate. Really good program

andshrew · 13 Apr 2010 at 19:11

Schoieuk said:
i Recently Got hamachi set up to try and get this working (i cannot use voobly as i dont have the real copy).

I got my friend and me in a virtual lan (i think) but i could use some help on how to get this working!

Please get back to me asap :>

I've not used it in a couple of years but it should be very straight forward using the free version. Get yourself and mates into the same network, you should all be able to ping each other on the IP that the hamachi network adapter is assigned. If you can't then look at software firewalls to make sure it's not being blocked.

Once you're in the network you should just be able to start AoE2 and go to TCP/IP network play. Someone then creates a game then everyone else connects to their hamachi IP using the direct connect feature in game.

Have a look at this guide on the hamachi forums - ignoring the RA2 specfic stuff it should be all the steps you need to take to get it up and running.

Schoieuk · 13 Apr 2010 at 19:56

ok thanks for the info ill try it out and post back if i have any success.

snowdog · 13 Apr 2010 at 20:11

bhavv said:
I recently reinstalled AOE2, but couldnt get rid of the red blotches on the grass problem

Terminate explorer.exe when tabbed out of the game or before starting the game, if the problem is still there, do the same for any ''always on top'' apps. Finally, if that fails, change your (game) res ingame back and forth. Haven't heard anyone saying it still doesn't work afterwards...

Scott Kevill · 14 Apr 2010 at 12:59

Even ignoring the security issues, using Hamachi is still doing it the hard way.

GameRanger is both the easiest and most popular way to play Age of Empires II online with your friends. There are around 40,000+ AoE2 games played each day now. Even Microsoft now recommends it as a replacement for Zone.

Obvious disclaimer, I'm the developer.

Edit: This was intended to help. I'm checking with a mod now to clarify.

snowdog · 14 Apr 2010 at 17:10

Oh yeah, why on earth use hamachi if it has direct ip built in ? Just connect to the Ip of the host and play, no messing about with LAN... Use LAN for, erm LAN games...

andshrew · 14 Apr 2010 at 18:11

snowdog said:
Oh yeah, why on earth use hamachi if it has direct ip built in ? Just connect to the Ip of the host and play, no messing about with LAN... Use LAN for, erm LAN games...

Sure you can but you then need to mess around forwarding the correct ports (and in AoE2 all players need to do this and not just the host). Not everyone is confident (or able) in changing their router's settings.

Scott Kevill said:
GameRanger is both the easiest and most popular way to play Age of Empires II online with your friends. There are around 40,000+ AoE2 games played each day now. Even Microsoft now recommends it as a replacement for Zone.

Obvious disclaimer, I'm the developer.

Sounds like an interesting application - out of interest why do you require the client to be installed before allowing people to access the discussion forums? I would have like to have read other users experiences of using the program before I install it.

snowdog · 14 Apr 2010 at 18:32

andshrew said:
Sure you can but you then need to mess around forwarding the correct ports (and in AoE2 all players need to do this and not just the host).

Nope, not at all afaik.

Not everyone is confident (or able) in changing their router's settings.

But they are for using hamachi ?

andshrew · 14 Apr 2010 at 18:48

From experience as soon as one player connects that doesn't have their ports correctly forwarded then no more players can join the game.

I'd say running the install, joining a private Hamachi network and then being ready to go is easier for a lot of people than having to work out how and which ports to forward.

But all the options posted here and perefectly suitable for getting him playing online; it's up to him which one he wants to use.