With this being an Elder Scrolls forum, I thought it would be a good place to ask a question regarding PC gaming. I bought a new laptop and decided I wanted to play the original Age of Empires on the laptop. It installs and everything, but when I go to play the game, something pops up that says something about the video card not being compatible with something called DirectDraw. I know nothing about graphics cards and related software, so I have no idea what that means. The thing is, I tried Age of Empires II and it works just fine. No problems at all. The first one is my favorite, so it not working kind of svcks. Can anyone help me out here?

It's a really old game. Try playing the game in Windows 98 Compatibility mode. Right-click the game's .exe or the shortcut in the Start Menu or on the Desktop, from the right-click menu select properties, find the compatibility tab and set the compatibility mode.

Disabling visual themes may be a good idea. Sometimes it is necessary for older software.

Yeah back then they used something called "Direct X". It was a Microsoft program that helped your PC display the video.

I think (from what I remember of trying to revisit "Freelancer" and "Starfleet Command" that you need some sort of emulator or something to run your old stuff.

That's just an issue that hit me once.

Uh, Direct X is still in use. The older libraries may not be installed, though. It may be worth hunting them down and installing them. I'm not sure.

I googled on the net, but i couldn't found any solution that works.

Obviously Age of empires, uses older DirectX versions, like DirecX 7, and obviously the DirectDraw.dll driver from DirectX11 is incompatible with Age of Empires. !!!!!

I found this: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compatibility/CompatCenter/ProductDetailsViewer?Name=Microsoft%20Age%20of%20Empires&vendor=Microsoft&Locale=1033%2C2057%2C3081%2C4105%2C16393&ModelOrVersion=1&BreadCrumbPath=microsoft%20age%20of%20empires&LastSearchTerm=microsoft%2Bage%2Bof%2Bempires&Type=Software&tempOsid=Windows%208.1

I don't know if that's true, or not but i will try it and report back. !!!!!!

What i have found is, that AOE 1 doesn't seem to work on certain 64-bit OS. !!!!!!

It's working perfectly at 1024x768 (max resolution) without problems on Windows 8.1 64 Bit. !!!!!

I have an s1155 G2020 2.9 GHz, 4GB Ram and an GTX 660 Golden.

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Obviously something is going on with your DirectX drivers...

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The only warning that a got, from event viewer (Event Viewer -> Windows Log -> Application)

"The file could not be processed by the application C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires\EMPIRES.EXE because it requires Indeo? Decoders of type IV41"

but the game plays perfectly fine, and the initiate videos too. !!!!