Age of Empires II HD - For Mac OSX

aoe2hd.md

AOE2HD - For Mac OSX

Estimated time: 10 minutes

Notice

This configuration worked for macOS High Sierra, Version 10.13.6.

According to the original Gist, PlayOnMac does not work on macOS Catalina, and issues have been reported with the latest version of Steam. Updating is in progress, read more here.

Purchase

• Sign in and purchase the game for $19.99

Installing PlayOnMac

• Click this or run brew cask install playonmac
• Open the PlayOnMac.dmg file when it finishes downloading
• Drag the PlayOnMac.app file onto the Applications folder in the menu that opens
• Close the menu that opened, and you can delete the PlayOnMac.dmg file
• Open Finder, click "Applications" in the left sidebar, and look for the PlayOnMac item
• Press the CTRL key and double click the PlayOnMac application (you only need to do this the first time)
  • Click open, continue, yes, next, etc. to get through the prompts

Installing Steam

• Copy and paste this into your browser's address bar, then press enter: playonmac://www.playonlinux.com/repository/download.php?id=4
  • Click continue, yes, next, etc. to get through the prompts
  • If it asks how much memory your graphics board has, select 1024
• Once that is finished installing, select "Steam" and click "Configure" in PlayOnMac
• Next to "Wine version" click the button with a plus icon on it
• On the left-hand side, select the latest one, and click the arrow button in the middle
  • Click continue, yes, next, etc. to get through the prompts
• Close the version picker window
• In the "Wine version" dropdown, select the latest one
  • Click continue, yes, next, etc. to get through the prompts
• Close the configuration window

Installing the game

• Select "Steam" and click "Run" in PlayOnMac
• Click on "Configure"
• In the "General" tab, go down to the "Arguments"
• Type wine steam.exe -no-browser +open steam://open/minigameslist
• The mini version of Steam should boot
• Install the game on the mini version of Steam.
• After the game installs, go back to the original instructions of the installation for Starting Game:
  • Right click Age of Empires II HD in the mini version of Steam
• Click the "Properties" option
• Click the "Set launch options" button
• Type in NoStartUp and click "OK"
• Click the Local Files tab, and then click the "Browse local files" button to open the game files folder
• Delete Launcher.exe
• Rename AoK HD.exe to Launcher.exe
• In Steam, click "Play" for Age of Empires

If you try to load the game, you will get stuck on the Validating Subscriptions screen. Continue to the next steps.

Starting the game

Using the terminal, type the following (without $):

$ Library/PlayOnMac/wineprefix/Steam/drive_c/Program Files/Steam/steamapps/common/Age2HD
$ open ~ Launcher.exe 

Note: This path is different might be different on your machine, so make sure you play around with the contents of your PlayOnMac directory.

• At this point, Steam will load.
• A pop-up appears with a Critical Error message:

• Click OK, the Steam Login screen shows up.
• I log in with your credentials...
• And the game loads! Have fun!

Updating

In the event of an update, the game will break and you won't be able to see other games.

• Right click the game in Steam and select "Properties"
• Go to the "Local Files" tab and click "Verify integrity of game files"
• Once finished, complete the step where you rename the file again

I can see the game in steam minigameslist. but there is no install button?!

I got this working and am also on macOS High Sierra, 10.13.6. Thanks @rayana!

I'll suggest a few small edits:

• Select "Steam" and click "Run" in PlayOnMac
• Click on "Configure"
• In the "General" tab, go down to the "Arguments"
• Type wine steam.exe -no-browser +open steam://open/minigameslist

• Unless it's necessary to click "Run" before reconfiguring to launch the mini version, I would omit that step and go right to "Configure". For me, attempting to run resulted in an unresponsive version of Steam launching.

• The command cd is missing, which could be confusing to anyone unfamiliar with Terminal:

$ cd Library/PlayOnMac/wineprefix/Steam/drive_c/Program Files/Steam/steamapps/common/Age2HD
$ open ~ Launcher.exe

after click OK of the critical error. no popup has launched for put credentials... how should I proceed?

after click OK of the critical error. no popup has launched for put credentials... how should I proceed?

Got same problem

extra tips (things that may differ from the guide):

• Install PlayOnMac and AOE2
• control double click thing doesnt work, don't worry about it.
• make these the arguments: wine steam.exe -no-browser +open steam://open/minigameslist
• in 'configure wine', do windows 7 not windows XP

After a click on the "Properties" option, it doesn't show anything, so I can't change the "Set launch options". Does anyone face the same issue?

I has also properties option problem, and black screen on my steam with playonmac, but after searching for a solution on various forums, I finally found another solution : Porting Kit (https://portingkit.com/download). After 3 days looking for a solution with playonmac for nothing, nothing worked, Porting Kit allowed me to play AoEII after just few minutes, it's the best solution. I hope it work also for you guys.

After a click on the "Properties" option, it doesn't show anything, so I can't change the "Set launch options". Does anyone face the same issue?

For me, nothing was happening if I tried to open Properties. But it worked if I just double-clicked on the game in the Steam window. After that, a window with some AoE graphics and some button-link elements with no text appears. Clicking the first one out of those launches the game successfully.

(I'm on Mojave—10.14.6.)