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 Empires II
In the German market, "Age of Empires II" debuted in first place on Media Control's sales charts during October 1999, and by March 2000 had spent 17 weeks in the rankings. It received the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland's (VUD) "Platinum" award within one month of release, indicating sales of 200,000 units across Germany, Switzerland and Austria. By the end of February 2000, it had reached "Double-Platinum" status (400,000 sales) and become the German market's "most successful PC game of the past 12 months", according to the VUD. The game later received a "Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), for at least 300,000 copies sold in the United Kingdom.