age of kings and the bargain bin

[lord of the mark]

Ok, so im running an errand over the weekend, and my path goes near the EB in Fairfax, on Little River Turnpike.

So I go in, wondering if they still even have used PC games. Even if they dont, i might still get something - POTM has finally remembered, for the first time since we got the laptop, that she wants "The Sims".

Well the place is a mess - theyre reorganizing the entire store, half the racks are empty, and the new PC games section is a disorganized pile of boxes.

But the used PC section is still there, gradually diminishing but still there. So I peruse it.

I find Age of Kings (AOE II) gold edition. For $17 US.

Which has to be a mistake. I mean I KNOW it held its value a long time, but there have been TWO sequels for crying out loud. Even AOE 3 isnt selling for 50 bucks anymore, AFAIK, and AOM has been discounted for a while.

So i take it to the sales associate, and explain why it cant be worth that much. And offer him $6 - i mean its a bargain bin, why not bargain?

"I cant change the price" I am actually shocked - hes gonna stand by the $17 price? "but that label is probably out of date - lets see, its $4.20" Well, having offered $6, I can hardly say this is too high. I take it. I dont know if he had actually found a revised price, or if he lied and he WAS bargaining, but it seemed a fair enough price.

The game looks good.

But a laptop really is NOT the ideal machine for running an RTS, Ive discovered.


Your comments about Age of Kings are welcome.

[Kuciwalker]

But a laptop really is NOT the ideal machine for running an RTS, Ive discovered.

USB mouse.

[Main_Brain]

+ USB Keyboard.

AoE II was a decent Game by its Time, the Need to replant the Farms though... lets just say if you were fighting an enemy the Economy was doomed to fail.
Which led to CoOp-Play where one Player managed the Economy and the other One begged for more Troops

[Lazerus]

You're thinking of AoE1, in AoE2 you could queue them to replant automatically at the mill

Well considering there's still more people playing AoK then AoM or AoE3 that should tell you about how much longetivity it has

Try get the conquerers expansion to go with it, makes the game far far better imo by allowing alot more different strategies in the random map mode and the amount of custom scenarios people play for it numbers around 50+

I've never tried this bargaining stuff at stores, i'd probably be too embarressed if they just looked at me and said "NO"

[El_Cid]

Great bargaining skills Lotm - $4.50 is a good price for AoK. Even though i prefer tbs to rts, i've always liked the Age of Empire series of games. The historic+managment aspects of the games makes them interesting, and good games for younger people also. Could you say they are almost educational?

[Kinjiru]

Re: age of kings and the bargain bin

Originally posted by lord of the mark
Ok, so im running an errand over the weekend, and my path goes near the EB in Fairfax, on Little River Turnpike.

Hey, that's the store I used to shop at when I lived in Fairfax. Is the short guy with the curly brown hair and glasses still working there? Tom, todd, ted? Something like that.

Anyway, he used to work the daytime weekday shift alone and couldn't leave the store. I would go over there and take him some lunch ($5 BK value meal usually) and he would take any game I wanted that wasn't a brand new release and mark it as "Resale - damaged/lost manual" and let me have it for around $15. So long as I didn't do this more than a couple times a month, he was cool with it, and apparently he never got in trouble.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Main_Brain
+ USB Keyboard.

Eh, at that point you might as well get an LCD screen, fold up the laptop and use it as a tower replacement.

USB mice are very portable; keyboards, not so much.

[DrSpike]

Re: age of kings and the bargain bin

Originally posted by lord of the mark
So I go in, wondering if they still even have used PC games. Even if they dont, i might still get something - POTM has finally remembered, for the first time since we got the laptop, that she wants "The Sims".

LotM I feel for you. However, this may only be a phase. You could encourage her to engage in less damaging pursuits, like hard liquor for example.

[DrSpike]

Anyway I thought you already had AoK? Don't tell me you've been playing the original AoE all this time.

[Main_Brain]

Originally posted by Lazerus
You're thinking of AoE1, in AoE2 you could queue them to replant automatically at the mill

Actually I am quite sure thats a feature of the "Conquestors" Addon

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker

But a laptop really is NOT the ideal machine for running an RTS, Ive discovered.

USB mouse.

We were thinking of getting one when we got the laptpop, but so far POTM is adept with the little pad thingie for her word processing and web browsing, and i find its not TOO bad for games like Divided Ground (TB) or Victoria. Not gonna go get one just for AOK. If we add more games, maybe then.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Anyway I thought you already had AoK? Don't tell me you've been playing the original AoE all this time.

Yup. I actually once bought AOK, and it wouldnt run on the dino for reasons unrelated to the specs. Fortunately EB still took returns in those days. So all my previous references to AOE have been to AOE 1 (including the Rise of Rome xpack)

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by El_Cid
Great bargaining skills Lotm - $4.50 is a good price for AoK. Even though i prefer tbs to rts, i've always liked the Age of Empire series of games. The historic+managment aspects of the games makes them interesting, and good games for younger people also. Could you say they are almost educational?

The documentation with the game is educational,and some of the stuff with the campaigns. The gameplay itself, beyond the obvious Rock-paper-scissors, and maybe some of the units, is not particularly deep historically, IMO (And ive defended the very deep historicy of Civ2)

OTOH if youre really interested in the AOE series and history, may I suggest some of the user made campaigns for AOE1? In particular those by Gordon Farrell, and Imhotep.

[Skanky Burns]

A new USB mouse for a laptop is justifiable on general useability grounds alone.

Good job with the bargaining.

[bipolarbear]

I loved that game! I've never had more fun cheating in my life. It was fun to spontaneously end a long war by raising a fleet of cars and having them demolish those fools and their horses.

Actually it was a lot more fun to slowly fence in the entire map and run your foe down the long and painful way.