How to run a CD-based game from an ISO image?

Fabler2 said:

Just some suggestions. Copy the iso file to the C: drive. Mount the iso and look for 'Autorun.exe'. That should install it and allow you to run the game with the mounted iso.

Thanks, Fabler2. That gets me past the start screen so I can select single player and configure the game. Once it displays "Starting New Game," however, it goes no further. What's more, the AoE window blocks all other windows, so if I start Task Manager (to kill the AoE process), its window remains beneath AoE's and I can't access it, even if I try to <ALT><TAB> to it. Its thumbnail appears, and I can close it from there, but that's all. I need to cycle my PC's power to get things back to normal.

Just had a look at my Disc:
Age of Empires Gold Edition, contains Age of Empires, and Age of Empires the rise of Rome expansion.
Published on Xplosiv by Empire Interactive Europe, licensed from Microsoft.
It has all patches on the disc.
AoE is patched to V1.0C.

RoR Expansion has UPatch HD 1.1 R4, this basically mods it for higher resolutions/aspect ratios and it looks a lot better than AoE. Read the notes, as it is not for AoE.

In neither case do I need the actual Disc. AoE I have to mount the AOE.ISO (right click > Mount) and then start it, but not for RoR expansion with that mod.

That is what I have, if you have other discs then obviously there maybe other factors which I cannot help with.

I can Alt Tab in and out of AoE no problem.

UPatch HD - Home

Attachment 343137

Thanks, Helmut. Not sure what version I have, but it's pretty close to 1.0 and never been patched. I found a copy of Gold Edition on Amazon and ordered it. Hopefully, that will solve my problem.

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Fabler2 said:

You could try troubleshoot compatibility by mounting the iso and right clicking the shortcut. Selecting an earlier version of Windows. Could be the iso is corrupt so try creating another one. If it still fails then I'm out of ideas

There isn't a shortcut. I've been running it by double-clicking the .exe.

Helmut (below) says he has no problem with the Gold Edition so I picked up a copy on Amazon. I'll see if I have better luck with that.

Fabler2 said:

You can run the troubleshoot compatibility from right clicking the .exe file.

Thanks for that tip. I was unaware of that option and it works. Oddly, the music is different, and the game freezes for a couple of seconds every few minutes, but I can live with both.