This post is for those who love Age of Empires games and they want to play the HD release but instead of the map they see black screen. Don’t worry and there is an easy and fast solution for this. It happened to me on Windows 7 so I can’t say if it is Windows 7 specific problem or a general one. Also, it depends if you installed through Steam or normally. I provide both solutions which are basically the same.
Steps to fix the problem through normal installation:
Step 1: Find the game shortcut (AOE2 HD) or create it if it is not already there
Step 2: Right click and select Properties
Step 3: In the end of the target path, after the quotes (“) leave a space and put this option -nostartup. Then press Apply and OK to save the changes. Now the target should be like this “<Game Path>” -nostartup
Steps to fix the problem through Steam
Step 1: Locate AOE2 HD and go into its properties
Step 2: Type -nostartup in the game launch options
Both solutions are the same, the game needs this launch option. There is no problem with your card and you don’t have to update your graphics card. All you need to do is to put the option and then enjoy playing the game.
where do i write the -nostartup part dont know what you mean
If you don’t have the shortcut find the game, right click and select send to > Desktop (create shortcut). Now find the shortcut right click, select properties. A new window will appear, find the target field. It is the path of the game, add quotes if there are not there, at the beginning and the end of the path for example "C:\Games\AoE" and add the -nostartup after the quotes. At the end it should be like this "C:\Games\AoE" -nostartup
Thank u bro
U r awesome
Thanks a LOT!
You are welcome. I am glad I helped.
Hi, how do I fix the problem on Mac OS X ? I have the same black screen problem, the game starts up, I got the menu, the sound, but a black screen on the game play. Where do I pu «nostartup» on Mac? I can’t open properties…
I’ve never used Mac but I can give you some workarounds. If you use Steam you can select “Set launch options” and give -nostartup as parameter. Another option is to use the alternative to command line and give the parameter there. Last one is to use run command and give the path to the executable followed by the -nostartup option (<path_to_game_executable> -nostartup).
You Are The Man!!! A day and a half of trying a million possibilities and then this. A million thank you’s are not nearly enough : )
THANK YOU SOOO MUCH YOU ARE AWESOME !!!!
1000% Work,….. awesome thank you very much,.. muach,..muachh,..
WOW! Great I got the solution.
THANKS!
IWEBMAKER.
You are welcome
hey man,
I can enter the game (aoe2 non steam) but when I trying to play I get black screen. I’m using Wine Windows Program Loader to run games on LINUX.
I fix that black screen for linux.
if anyone got this error, TRY THIS:
select all folders and files -> RIGHT CLICK-> PERMISION -> VIEW CONTENT ( ANYONE) , CHANGE CONTENT (ANYONE) , EXECUTE ( ANYONE)
hope this help
Thank you Edi for sharing the fix for Linux
Thank you a lot! For those using Wine on mac: -nostartup is an “EXE flag”!