Age of Empires 2: AoC expansion

Hey guys, fortunately I haven't had the problem these other guys are having. My problem, however, is that I am not able to see my top menu where all the stats are (eg. wood, food, gold, stone, unit tree, menu items, etc). I tried all 3 resolutions in the game, 800x600, and the other two. I believe I also tried changing the resolution for the comp. My NVIDIA control panel also has a choice of resolutions, those too didn't solve the problem. I even tried most (except the batch file thing) of the solutions in these 4 pages of this thread (eg. rightclicking and leaving open the Screen Resolution window, the ending Explorer task in Task Manager. I'm at my wit's end trying to figure this out.
This computer just got built by a good friend of mine. I am using a 32" Vizio flatscreen as my monitor. Specs:
Win7 Ultimate 64-bit
4GB RAM (Gigabyte EP45T-UD3LR)
Intel Core2 Duo 3GHz
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT

not sure if you guys need more specs so please don't hesitate to ask. Any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks for your time guys.

Edit: So i downloaded the thing where it minimizes AoC into a smaller window and when I did that I was able to see everything in the screen. However, I am not able to start a game. I can get into the game settings for the map, players, civilization, etc. but when I click start it says "An error has occurred". wtf?

bump

Have you tried using the nvidia control panel to move the picture down? I cant recall off hand on how to do that but I know you can. It should let you move the picture to where you want. If I still had my lcd tv hooked up I would look to make sure. Hopefully that will help if you can find the setting. When I get up tomorrow, I will try to find out what its called.

Edit
I guess that wouldn't work because aoe will just switch the resolution back. On my 40 inch it shows a 4:3 picture but I could see everything at the top. Is it possible for you to use a remote and zoom out on the tv?

Hey linkjy, thanks for the advice. yes, NVIDIA does have that option but it doesn't let you move it around, just shrink or enlarge, can't really move the screen around. Furthermore, I shrank the screen to all the resolutions I saw and went back to AoC and nothing changes. When the game is at 800x600 I can see it best, which is only the bottom tan line of the top menu lol. The other two resolutions I have to guess (more so) where the menu is. There is no option to zoom in or out with my tv, there's zoom + - buttons, but they do nothing. This really sucks, I figured Windows 7 would run without a problem so I bought this collection of Age games, (my highschool favs) and I do nothing but look at the CDs now.

Is the vizio connected by hdmi?

yes, dvi to hdmi

Maybe it has to do with the way you have it connected, but to be honest I am just guessing. Any other ways you can hook up the tv to your video card? Just to see if it makes a difference.

none that i can think of...dvi port from the pc..i could get a converter from rgb to dvi converted rgb and have rgb to the tv and a rgb/dvi adapter to the pc. but i don't think it'll help.

Probably wont, I was just wondering though. I was just thinking that because my hdmi cable displayed the top on my 42 inch, but maybe its because the tvs display different. Just throwing stuff out to you. Sorry I cant think of anything that's helpful.

This is a problem I get sometimes in XP too.

I guess I should try out your solutions people when I encounter it.

So pretty much, the outcome of this thread is that Windows 7 is a HUGE failure when it comes to playing older games (especially 64bit Windows 7!) and that AoE2 cannot be made to run comfortably - without ending Explorer.exe every time you run the game or other such band-aid fixes.. am I right?

I have wasted the past 2 hours trying to get this game to work. It's fine, if I don't mind opening the display settings window EVERY TIME I want to play it, and alt-tabbing out EVERY FIVE MINUTES when the colours go haywire again.

I don't think that counts as working properly.

I also don't think closing explorer.exe every time count as working properly either.

If there is nothing to be done about this, there is nothing to be done, which is a shame, because AoE2 is pretty much the only reason my Dad wanted his own computer, and it doesn't bloody work.

/end rant


Sam.

"savage1987"

Unfortunately the only way to stop the colours going nuts is ending the explorer.exe once you start the game. Although this is rather frustrating to think you are unable to play thie game in the way in which it was intended if you love Age of Empires 2 as much as we all day, it soon just becomes part of the game. As Microsoft no longer deal with this game there will be no offical fixes/patches provided for this game in the foreseeable future. Yes its annoying however if it means i have to end the explorer anytime i want to play AOE2 ? I will more than happily use up 5 secs to end a process to enable me to play, in my opinion one of the best PC games ever made.

Kind regards,
Jamie

Not willing to put up with it, neither is my dad. I will have to find him some new games to play. So much for Windows 7 being a gamer friendly platform... haha. Oh well, good excuse to upgrade to some more pretty games

kyzawarrior said:

Anyway i got another problem now , we're on hamachi with friend that have a notebook with winxp 32 and when he host the game i can see it but i can't connect , and when i create the game he can't see mee ...

( tryied : FW off , Compatibility modes and Run as Administrator ) help pls

Click to expand...

To me happens exactly the same. Im with Windows 7 and I cant play AoC online. I cant see any games nor people see my ones when I create.

I have been able to play AOE2 with no problems.

My Stats:
Windows 7 x86_64
Dual Wide Screen w/DVI

Color Fix:
1) Right Click the Shortcut
2) Click Properties
3) Click Compatibility tab
4) Check the "Run in 256 colors"
*Do not select "Run this program in compatibility mode"
5) Click "OK"

Lan Mode Fix:
6) Access your router management interface
7) Navigate to your Port Forwarding Page
8) Disable UPnP
9) Save

10) Launch the Game and have fun!
*Note the game can take up to 2 minutes to load, but plays well.
**Colors are distorted for a few seconds but clears up
***Water colors are still slightly messed up, but for the most part is very playable.


Xavier

i believe my prob is that i need to have resolution at 4:3...the old school comps. my vizio won't do it by itself. My gf's laptop (win7 32bit) sets it to 4:3 and very playable with that comp. anything i can do? maybe get a RCA to RGB (or something) adapter?

xavierk said:

I have been able to play AOE2 with no problems.

My Stats:
Windows 7 x86_64
Dual Wide Screen w/DVI

Color Fix:
1) Right Click the Shortcut
2) Click Properties
3) Click Compatibility tab
4) Check the "Run in 256 colors"
*Do not select "Run this program in compatibility mode"
5) Click "OK"

Lan Mode Fix:
6) Access your router management interface
7) Navigate to your Port Forwarding Page
8) Disable UPnP
9) Save

10) Launch the Game and have fun!
*Note the game can take up to 2 minutes to load, but plays well.
**Colors are distorted for a few seconds but clears up
***Water colors are still slightly messed up, but for the most part is very playable.


Xavier

Click to expand...

AWESOME man.

AWESOME

adamzx said:

I havnt been able to solve the issue, but a work around is:

1.Change desktop theme to windows classic and then,
2.Open the screen resolution window
3.Then load AoE

(saves closing explorer.exe)

For some reason this removes the 'red grass effect', if it doesnt first up, once in a game, simply tab out and back in. Both steps must be completed for me. Simply bringing the resolution up doesnt help.

Enjoy.

Click to expand...

Hello ! I have the same problem of you in an ATI graphic Card (4850). But you're soluce work without to kill the explorer process. Thank you.

(I have Windows 7 x64 pro)

i also have a problem, you see i am using laptop with 1366x768 resolution under ATI Radeon HD 3200 hardware..

The problem is that the game display with black bars on the left and right and it's not full screen. The colors can be fixed by killing the explorer.exe process although it's kinda making me hectic.

Does any one knows how to fix this?

Thanks

new member with a question

Everytime i open up AOE it opens up a black screen then
closes and a error bok pops up and says " Could not
initialize Graphics , make sure you video card and driver
are compatible with direct draw" i need to know how i can
fix this problem. I am running an ATI Raedon 4350.