New Age of Empires II Screenshots discovered

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Age of Kings Heaven » Forums » General and Strategy Discussion » New Age of Empires II Screenshots discovered

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Topic Subject: New Age of Empires II Screenshots discovered

Charlie I
Squire

posted 07-28-22 00:00 AM CT (US)

Dear community of Age of Kings Heaven, it has been a long time since I've posted something on this forum and I think it is time for me to contribute with some strange but historical images not seen before by me, Litude or even Phatfish (The Beta Collector). I have recently discovered an Age of Empires II preview with some amazing screenshots taken from a Russian Gaming magazine called "Gameland" that was published on November 1999, the images show a strange Age of Empires II Build that has a mixture of units from the Alpha stage and some catapults from the previous game of the series. As you can see in the picture it shows those siege units attacking the Alpha Knights from the blue player, together with some alpha Horse Archers.

Does someone have any other information regarding this?

Click Here for Full gallery

I think these screenshots were never released officially by Ensemble Studios Website as far as I know. It's likely that these images were taken by the staff of the magazine from a rare alpha build or prototype between the period when it was presented at Gamestock and when it was showcased at E3 in 1999 which has not yet surfaced on the internet. I find these pictures interesting enough to post them here to contribute with the Age of Empires II development history and to show the huge differences from this version and the final release.

Please share your thoughts.

[This message has been edited by Charlie I (edited 08-20-2022 @ 06:27 PM).]

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EliteCataphract
Squire

posted 08-13-22 08:33 PM CT (US) 1 / 6

Interesting set of images, guessing by some of them like those which show the water texture and military units I can say that this alpha build of Age of Kings could be the same as the semi-public alpha Version: 00.09.07.0222 from February 1999, or it could be another build from March or the beginning of April 1999 at the latest.

What it seems strange to me is that I don't remember seeing those Age of Empires Catapults moving and attacking during the game.

[This message has been edited by EliteCataphract (edited 08-13-2022 @ 08:41 PM).]

PhatFish
Mr. Beta

posted 08-14-22 09:07 AM CT (US) 2 / 6

Hey, these are indeed new, I for sure have never seen the screens before, great find. As EliteCataphract pointed out this is close to the 00.09.07.0222 alpha version, build is probably a month later or so, still quite a way off from the E3 99. The buildings with the red roof texture is kind of a giveaway, stands out to me at least. However I could be wrong, it's been a while since I played the 09070222 alpha build, maybe they are in there, dont recall. Thanks for posting these, always interesting to see new details surfacing.

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Charlie I
Squire

posted 08-15-22 00:22 AM CT (US) 3 / 6

For Phatfish and Litude, here I come with more screenshots even from an earlier period of the development for Age of Empires II.
Here are some screenshots I extracted from Gamestar magazine preview of their November 1998 issue.

Click here for full Gallery

PhatFish
Mr. Beta

posted 08-26-22 08:23 AM CT (US) 4 / 6

Pretty sure I have seen those last screenshots before. They are pretty intrigueing still.

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ervinjason
Squire

posted 09-01-22 11:47 AM CT (US) 5 / 6

Interesting set of images, guessing by some of them like those which show the water texture and military units I can say that this alpha build of Age of Kings could be the same as the semi-public alpha Version: 00.09.07.0222 from February 1999,

or it could be another build from March or the beginning of April 1999 at the latest.

What it seems strange to me is that I don't remember seeing those Age of Empires Catapults moving and attacking during the game.
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[This message has been edited by ervinjason (edited 09-01-2022 @ 11:51 AM).]

EliteCataphract
Squire

posted 11-04-22 02:00 PM CT (US) 6 / 6

The last screenshot it seems that is one that was recovered by Litude, but most of the other ones from 1998 I have never seen them before, although they look a lot like other ones from the same year I can see the difference by the position of some buildings and units. It's likely these were never published by Microsoft or Ensemble Studios officially, but were only available to see through certain game magazines like Gamestar in this case.

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