Age of Empires

Age of Empires (AoE1) is a historic real-time strategy game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft in 1997 for Windows. The timeline spans from Stone Age to Iron Age. Players can pick from 12 ancient civilizations such as Egypt, Greece, Babylon, Assyria and Persia. Core gameplay revolves around gathering four resources: food, wood, gold and stone. Construct buildings, train military units and advance through ages to unlock technologies and stronger troops. It features campaigns, random maps and deathmatch modes, with campaign scenarios depicting ancient historical events. Unit types include infantry, archers, cavalry, siege weapons and warships. Priests can convert enemy units. Players can win by defeating all rivals or building and protecting a Wonder until the timer completes. As the first entry in the Age of Empires franchise, it established the classic RTS mechanics of resource farming, age progression and tech trees, and pioneered historical-themed RTS games. Its expansion The Rise of Rome adds extra civilizations and new content.

These games get the keyboard directly — the controls are whatever the game itself defines, usually in its own help or options screen. Gamepads are detected automatically. On phones you get on-screen buttons.