Does the North American retail version of Rise of Nations Gold (not the Uibsoft re-packaging) have any form DRM or anything like SecuRom in it? I've tried searching online, but can't get a clear answer to this question, so I thought i'd try asking someone here. Thanks in advance.

I'm pretty sure it uses SafeDisc. You need the disc in the drive to play (unless you get a patched .exe).

As long as that's all it is, that fine. I actually have a copy and had it installed on my older XP PC, didn't notice any DRM mischief or anything, but I did a search before installing on my Windows 7 PC and got some conflicting info so I thought i'd double check.

Not what you were asking but the regular RON doesn't have any DRM and I bought it new only a couple of years ago. I never really could get into it so it not being gold never really mattered to me.

It didn't have an activation key?? Or do you not consider that a form of DRM???

I could have sworn it had an activation key.

Yes it did and you got me on a technicality there. :D I guess I'm jaded by Blizzard. :P So long as you get your own disc and don't have to make an account or go online to play the damn thing I consider it DRM free, but of course that is a total misinterpretation on my part.

LOL, well I didn't mean to get you on a technicality, I was genuinely asking, because I don't know if having an activation key was considered a form of DRM. Plus there are differences in those IIRC. Some product activation keys are done locally while others require an internet hookup, so I'm assuming the ones that require an internet hookup are considered DRM, but I wasn't so sure about those that do not.

Personally I don't think you can call a CD key DRM. Plus it's really stretching it to call it an "activation" key, since it doesn't "activate" the game using any kind of server-based key download. You can install a CD-Key based game on multiple computers as often as you want (though you likely will not have success playing multiplayer games with the same keys).

I have the Gold version, and I couldn't really get into it either due to the damn time limits (in apparently all missions), which means I am still stuck in the very first mission (then again, I haven't tried it for ages). Admittedly, I am playing on the hardest difficulty, but I still hate these 90 minute timers, where you find out at about 85 minutes "Nope, it seems I can't conquer all the enemy cities on time. Oh well, time to restart the level for the 20th time, I guess...".

Yeah there were timed levels also in Age of Empires/Mythology games, but only some specific missions.

It is still installed on this very computer, in case I sometime make a breakthrough, or play it on easiest difficulty level, just to beat the clock. Why can't this game have micro-transactions to make the game easier? Like "pay $2, and we'll remove that pesky timer from this level"? Yeah, that'd work. I recall both Rise of Nations and the sequel, Rise of Legends, require you to go online within the game in order to update the game, though. No account generation or anything, but you have to go online to update it.

Which is a bit of the problem for at least Rise of Legends, as I think the update servers have been offline for years, and naturally the stupid developers/publishers didn't release offline updaters, at least to the latest versions.

But some hacker type made an unofficial offline patch for it though, good luck finding it (I think the link from where I got it is dead now, but it is probably somewhere else. I have it on my hard drive too.)

I think Rise of Nations update servers were still online last time I tried it (many many months ago), but I recall it didn't have an optional offline patch either, at least to the latest version.

I couldn't get into it because I'm a simpleton and I like a campaign with clear mission goals. RON is primarily skirmish even in single player. The only game like that I was ever really able to enjoy was WBC 2 which wasn't true skirmish because it made you select small individual chucks of land to fight over.