Age of Empires
"Age of Empires", released on October 26, 1997, was the first game in the series, as well as the first major release from Ensemble Studios. It was one of the first history-based real-time strategy games made, utilizing the Genie game engine. GameSpot described it as a mix of "Civilization" and "". The game gives players a choice of 12 civilizations to develop from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. The expansion pack, "The Rise of Rome", published by Microsoft on October 31, 1998, introduced new features and four new civilizations, including the Romans. Although the two games had contained many software bugs, patches resolved many of the problems.
Age of Mythology
Ensemble Studios began work on their first fully 3D engine at the same time as their development of "". Named the BANG! Engine, this was announced in January 2001, for use in a new game, codenamed "RTSIII". "RTSIII" was eventually revealed as "Age of Mythology". In developing "Age of Mythology", Ensemble Studios decided to move away from the center of the "Age of Empires" series history, to avoid becoming stale and repetitive. This allowed them to work with new ideas and concepts.