aoe2-de-macos
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How to run Age of Empires 2 DE on macOS
Running Age of Empires 2 DE on macOS
There are too many outdated instructions online. This place is meant to contain the most up-to-date instructions for running Age of Empires 2 DE on macOS (with multiplayer support).
With Crossover
You need MacOS Big Sur 11.1 or greater.
- Install Crossover (requires a paid license but there's a free trial)
- Create a new Windows 10 bottle in Crossover
- Install Steam
- Open steam and install AOE2:DE
- In the bottle, install "DXVK (Builtin)"
- In the bottle, install "DirectX for modern games"
- In the bottle settings, enable DXVK
- In the bottle settings, optionally enable "High resolution" to enable Retina display resolution
- Download the patched
ucrtbase.dll
here - In the Crossover bottle, click "Open C: drive" and navigate to
C:/Windows/System32
- Put the
ucrtbase.dll
file you downloaded in that folder (overwrite the existing file) - Open the Wine configuration panel: in "Libraries" add
concrt140.dll
anducrtbase
. They should show up asnative, builtin
in the list. - In Steam, optionally set AOE2:DE launch parameters to
SKIPINTRO
Feel free to send pull requests to update this guide.
Without Crossover
Someone on reddit wrote a guide on how to play aoe 2 de on mac os without needing crossover. https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/150t2v1/aoe_2_de_fix_on_mac_using_wineskin_winery/
Copy pasted here just in case
Here's a quick guide on how to get it running (should work on Intel and Apple silicon Macs):
- Start by installing Homebrew (https://brew.sh/) by opening terminal and typing the following:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
Install Wineskin Winery (https://github.com/Gcenx/WineskinServer) by typing the following in terminal:
brew install --cask --no-quarantine gcenx/wine/wineskin
-
Open the Wineskin Winery app that should appear with the rest of your apps in your Applications folder.
-
Make sure you have the latest wrapper (currently 2.9.1.9 or higher) and install the latest engine (currently WS11WineCX64Bit22.1.1-8 or higher).
-
Click on the “Create New Blank Wrapper” button at the bottom. I named my wrapper “Steam” since it’ll be used for all my steam games. Wineskin Winery will create a new wrapper that will appear in “/Macintosh HD/Users/[YOUR USER NAME]/Applications/Wineskin/” folder (not the same Applications folder that has all your applications).
-
If Wineskin Winery freezes and becomes unresponsive, just give it some time. If it doesn’t fix itself in 5 minutes, then just kill it by holding the cmd+option+esc keys to get the force quit menu and kill the unresponsive process. Usually, the wrapper will be created successfully, so go ahead and use it directly.
-
Open Finder and navigate to “/Macintosh HD/Users/[YOUR USER NAME]/Applications/Wineskin/”.
-
Right-click on the new Steam wrapper and click on “Show Package Contents”.
-
Click on the Wineskin app in there. This will be how you control the wrapper's settings.
-
You can click on “Install Software” if you have a .exe file, but in the case of Steam, it’s better to install it through Winetricks as explained in the next steps.
-
Click on “Winetricks”. -It might take some time to load, so be patient :)
-
Search for Steam and install it with vcrun2019 or vcrun2022. It may take some time, so be patient. -Wait until it’s done installing and it should work afterwards! Just close the winetricks page and launch the wrapper directly like you’d do with any other app.