Today's
screenshot is the last one of the early "rare" screenshots. It is also the only one where can see the early architecture of the Egyptian culture. This one has a lot of information, so prepare for a long read.
-BUILDINGS-
-Gate: The gate on the bottom is smaller and narrower than now and units would push open the doors when passing through, this proved problematic for animators.
-Wall: Here it seems it was much wider than now, the wall connectors are big as well. Though ES made it smaller too because it took up too much space.
-Market: On the left there is a small fraction of a market. It is only shown here, so I cannot say much about it.
-Armory: It appears very crude, so it must have been an age 1 building back then. The whole structure was eventually remade, the furnace was moved away from the actual building now.
-Temple I: It could have been a shrine though, that wide building never made into later versions of the stage, so it might have been just for decoration.
-Temple II: This one, even though it is cut off, is almost like the current one so you can picture what it might look like. Though it will still go through a rigorous development process.
-Watch tower: At the top of the shot another cut off building is seen, this one is almost like what we've seen in my previous post with the norse. The egyptian one appears more detailed than now, but sadly it was changed.
-Barracks: Two are seen at the top of the image, however both are not fully shown. It is only seen here, so we can only dream what it looks like.
-UNITS-
Catapult: The old catapult was longer and bears a striking resemblance to the catapult from the first
Age Of Empires. Like the hundreds of other units it was resized because it would be hard for it to pass through narrow passgaes like those two walls.
Odysseus/Archer: There are actually two in this shot for some reason. It was a special unit for the greeks, but I'm not sure why there are more than one of him. He is what is now known as Odysseus, though originally he might have been a normal ranged unit.
Myrmidon: You can see the myrmidon better in other screenshots but here it is clearly shown that it had a different model and texture, it was remade again to fit in with the style of other units later on.
Peltast: Like the myrmidon, he can be seen better in future images, though he hasn't changed much since today. Probably the major differences are that his model was slightly changed and the stripes of his cape were taken off.
Siege Tower: You can see the siege tower is darker, yeah, yeah, but it has a drawbridge coming out of it over a wall! This meant originally garrisoned units can walk on it and get past the wall, that feature was taken out as well because of problems.
scorpion man I: I've talked about this unit before, here it appears darker and wears armor, which was possibly an upgrade.
scorpion man II: It's the same unit, but oddly enough, it has lost it's shell/team colors, I'm guessing this might have been some sort of feature where it loses it's shell/armor after a certain amount of hits.
Medusa: The current one looks a lot like this one except it isn't as skinny and it's hair isn't blocky like in this shot. The original plans for the medusa in this stage aren't known, so it's a pretty mysterious unit.
Ballista: Here it is seen again, except now with a different texture meaning it is the Egyptian equivalent. But in the final product, the ballista was left only to the Egyptians.
Sphinx: Though, yes it was more detailed, the sphinx was remade so it's style fit with other units. The sphinx is only seen in screenshots, so the true intentions of the unit were never discovered.
-OTHER-
-Columns: Seen here only, they were once bulkier and had strange holes on the top. If you look at the top, you can see they are also wall connectors, that might have been their actual use.
-flag: Amazingly, the flag was kept even till now, the wooden texture was differentiated though.
