Blacksmith Features
May 5th, 2015 by Lord Basse

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Age of Empires 2: The Making of

By Taichi San

Perhaps you’ve seen a picture or two from the alpha and beta stages of Age of Empires II. Perhaps you’ve even found yourself wondering: “How awesome would it be to actually play the game with these graphics!?”; to which your alternate ego replied: “Tha’ would be all phat, b!” Because your alternate ego is apparently a 90’ies kid who never grew up or dropped the lingo. Seriously, you should have that checked out, it’s getting creepy.

To answer your initial question: yes, it would be awesome! Or rather, I should say, it IS awesome; because it is already possible!

Age of Empires 2: The Making of is a total conversion mod that replaces a large chunk of the game’s standard graphics with their pre-alpha, alpha and beta-stage equivalents: Janissaries start wearing pointy hats again, as they did before The Conquerors expansion came out, Heavy Camels don sabre-decorated skirts and Scorpions are actually maneuvered by tiny little men, instead of moving around of their own volition — it’s just crazy!

This mod is a nothing short of a treasure trove for anyone dedicated to the game and interested in its early history. You get to see a ton of designs and ideas that the game developers put forward but never went through with, like houses in non-isometric angles, boarding galleys and Feudal Age monasteries. Many of the buttons and icons have also been converted to their beta stages, as have a lot of the sounds in the game, like the heavy chugging of the gates.

Taichi San, the creator of the mod, has spent countless hours digging up some of these graphics, collected some from other AoE fansites, and then compiled everything into this simply extraordinary mod pack. She has even managed to recreate many of the beta terrains, like the old grass and dark brown dirt terrains, using only old beta screenshots, and the rather seamless way they blend is testament to the great effort that went into making them.

Age of Empires 2: The Making of is a piece of AoE history. It is easy to install and remove again, if you want to go back to post-beta graphics after a while, so I suggest you download it straight away and have a look for yourself!