Mark's AoE Domain: News

Mark's 'Age of Empires' Domain

News Archive:

December 14, 1998

I've added the "Rise of Rome" civilizations to the tribe page today.

October 26, 1998

The demo for the Rise of Rome expansion pack is now available. To download it, click here. The official release date for RoR is November 5th- less than two weeks from now!

September 24, 1998

Rick "Mr. Grinch" Goodman, the creator/lead-designer of Microsoft's Age of Empires� game has co-authored a downloadable "unofficial" Age of Empires strategy guide, called Tools of the Trade, that's now available, free of charge, exclusively from Goodman's unofficial site - Mr. Grinch's Age of Empires Web Site (http://www.mrgrinch.com). This strategy guide has been created in conjunction with hard core gamer James "ThumP" Mecham.

"Most good Age of Empires players understand the Bronze Age in the game. The secrets of mastering the Tool Age, however, remain largely misunderstood. Few players realize that you have a better understanding of what your enemies are doing during the Tool Age than at any other time in the game," stated Goodman. "This unofficial strategy guide explains how to take advantage of this knowledge in order to beat your opponents."

James Mecham is a recognized champion Age of Empires player. Goodman took notice of his game play talents, which lead the two to develop this strategy guide and make it available directly and exclusively from Goodman's web site.

Since creating Age of Empires, Goodman has founded Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Stainless Steel Studios, Inc., and has begun development of Empire Earth - the real-time, multi-player strategy game for the next millennium. For more information about Stainless Steel Studios or Empire Earth, visit the company's web site at http://www.stainlesssteelstudios.com.

July 12, 1998

Rick "Mr. Grinch" Goodman's AOE Site Is Now Open: http://www.mrgrinch.com

Rick "Mr. Grinch" Goodman, the creator and lead designer of Microsoft's Age of Empires�, has announced a new web site devoted exclusively to Age of Empires and its millions of hard-core fans -- http://www.mrgrinch.com/.

Why this new site? Mr. Grinch explains, "First, I would like to personally thank everyone who helped to make Age of Empires a success. Secondly, after shipping AOE in October, I spent a month surfing all of the game's fan sites, and what I found is that there's a tremendous amount excellent content, but I had to really work to find it. For example, if I wanted to get strategy tips for the Egyptian Campaign, I didn't know where to begin looking. It occurred to me that there was a better way."

After considering this situation, Mr. Grinch devised a solution. He created the Age of Empires "Yellow Pages", where all of the game-related content on the Web is listed by topic. "I wanted to make the Yellow Pages a place where gamers could go in order to find anything and everything about Age of Empires," said Mr. Grinch

The Yellow Pages includes 300 of the best Age of Empires links on the Web, and is organized by topic, allowing players and fans to quickly find what they are looking for. Once a player identifies a topic of interest, the Yellow Pages provides direct links to specific AOE fan site pages located around the globe.

"My goal is not to compete with the numerous high-quality AOE fan sites already in operation, but to simply enable players to quickly and easily find whatever they may be looking for," explained Mr. Grinch.

The Yellow Pages will be constantly updated. New links will identified with a "New" banner, so that gamers will be able to quickly browse through all of the new content. The site will also be spotlighting one Link each week at the top of the page.

Mr. Grinch's AOE web site is now online. Point your browser to: http://www.mrgrinch.com/. Since creating Age of Empires, Mr. Grinch has founded a new game development company, Stainless Steel Studios, and is currently developing a new real-time strategy game called Empire Earth�. For more information about Stainless Steel Studios, visit the company's web site at http://www.stainlesssteelstudios.com.

May 20, 1998

The AoE Heaven scenario design contest is over, so now you can download my scenario, "Phoenician Peril". Sorry I haven't been updating this site very much recently, but it is because I am currently writing final exams!

May 7, 1998

I've been very busy with school lately, so I haven't had much time to update this page. I have added three new campaigns to the Campaign Page, though. These ones are already available on other sites, but I think they are very good so I decided to post them on my page. There is also one new strategy on the Strategy Page.

April 27, 1998

I have submitted a scenario to the Scenario Design Contest at AoE Heaven. It is called "Phoenician Peril", and it will be availible from this site when the contest is over. Also, the new patch is now availible at AoE Heaven. It fixes several of the multiplayer bugs in the game.

New Link:

AGE OF EMPIRES ONLINE LADDER

April 23, 1998

New Links:

AGE OF EMPIRES ACADEMY

AGE OF EMPIRES TACTICS

AGE OF EMPIRES PAGE

April 16, 1998

A new strategy, "Minoan Sea Dominance", has been added to the Strategy Page. It looks pretty good.

The Curse of Ra
Here is an interesting story that I picked up. It isn't really AoE related, but you might like it. One more reason for the Titanic to sink!
Of all tales of the supernatural, this one is perhaps the best documented, the most disturbing and the most difficult to explain ...
The Princess of Amen-Ra lived some 1,500 yrs BC. When she died, she was laid in an ornate wooden coffin and buried deep in a vault at Luxor, on the banks of the Nile. In the late 1890s, 4 rich young Englishmen visiting the excavations at Luxor were invited to buy an exquisitely fashioned mummy case containing the remains of the Princess of Amen-Ra. They drew lots. The man who won paid several thousand pounds and had the coffin taken to his hotel. A few hours later, he was seen walking out towards the desert. He never returned. The next day, one of the remaining 3 men was shot by an Egyptian servant accidentally. His arm was so severely wounded it had to be amputated. The 3rd man in the foursome found on his return home that the bank holding his entire savings had failed. The 4th guy suffered a severe illness, lost his job and was reduced to selling matches in the street.
Nevertheless, the coffin reached England (causing other misfortunes along the way), where it was bought by a London businessman. After 3 of his family members had been injured in a road accident and his house damaged by fire, the businessman donated it to the British Museum. As the coffin was being unloaded from a truck in the museum courtyard, the truck suddenly went into reverse and trapped a passer-by. Then as the casket was being lifted up the stairs by 2 workmen, one fell and broke his leg. The other, apperently in perfect health, died unaccountably two days later. Once the Princess was installed in the Egyptian Room, trouble really started. The Museum's night watchmen frequently heard frantic hammering and sobbing from the coffin . Other exhibits in the rm were also often hurled about at night. One watchman died on duty; making the other watchmen want to quit. Cleaners refused to go near the Princess too. When a visitor derisively flicked a dustcloth at the face painted on the coffin, his child died of measles soon afterwards.
Finally, the authorities had the mummy carried down to the basement figuring it could not do any harm down there. Within a week, one of the helpers was seriously ill, and the supervisor of the move was found dead on his desk. By now, the papers had heard of it. A journalist photographer took a picture of the mummy case and when he developed it, the painting on the coffin was of a horrifying, human face. The photographer was said to have gone home then, locked his bedroom door and shot himself. Soon afterwards, the museum sold the mummy to a private collector.
After continual misfortune (and deaths), the owner banished it to the attic. A well known authority on the occult, Madame Helena Blavatsky, visited the premises. Upon entry, she was seized with a shivering fit and searched the house for the source of "an evil influence of incredible intensity". She finally came to the attic and found the mummy case. "Can you exorcise this evil spirit ?" asked the owner. There is no such thing as exorcism. Evil remains evil forever. Nothing can be done about it. I implore you to get rid of this evil as soon as possible." But no British museum would take the mummy; the fact that almost 20 people had met with misfortune, disaster or death from handling the casket, in barely 10 yrs, was now well known.
Eventually, a hard-headed American archaeologist (who dismissed the happenings as quirks of circumstance), paid a handsome price for the mummy and arranged for its removal to New York. In April 1912, the new owner escorted its treasure aboard a sparkling, new White Star liner about to make its maiden voyage to New York..
On the night of April 14, amid scenes of unprecedented horror, the Princess Amen-Ra accompanied 1,500 passengers to their deaths at the bottom of the Atlantic. The name of the ship was the Titanic.

April 14, 1998

My Chou dynasty campaign, "The Chou Overlords" is finished! Click Here for more information.

April 6, 1998

Not much new today. I am working on another campaign. This one will be about the Chou dynasty of China (1027-256 BC). I'll probably have it finished by next week.

March 30, 1998

I have created a second map-pack which you can download from my download page. This one contains three pre-game .bmp instruction maps: East Asia, Western Mediterranean, and the Aegean Sea.

There is a new scenario design contest that you can enter at AoE Heaven. Two authors will be awarded a new original Microsoft Age of Empires T-Shirt (Black with AOE logo), one for best gameplay, the other for best map design. The contest ends April 30.