Age of Mythology Initialization Failed Fix
This blog post talks about how you can fix the Age of Mythology issue “Initialization Failed”.
UPDATE: Thanks to DeclaredInsane who says that also adding “xres=800” to the shortcut fixes more problems for him also, I have added this to the article 🙂
Recently i installed Age of Mythology on my Windows 7 laptop and sadly when i started it up it failed to load the first cinematic and then crashed giving an error “Initialization Failed”. I spent a while googling various solutions i found a fix.
If you append “xres=800 +noIntroCinematics” without the quotes to the end of the shortcut to run the game, it didn’t load the introduction cinematic, and it worked.
This worked for my Age of Mythology with the Titans Expansion pack installed on Windows 7.
The full shortcut path was:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Mythology\aomx.exe" xres=800 +noIntroCinematics
But this will differ depending on where you have installed it, if you have used the default settings it should point to the above location.
It’s not entirely surprising that this game has some issues since it was released in 2002. If you haven’t played it, i would definitely recommend picking up a copy online, it can’t be very expensive now it’s relatively old, but I cant guarantee it will work on any systems. If you have issues installing or using it, leave a comment and I will see what I can do!
Edit: If the above doesnt work, try using either of the below:
“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Age of Mythology\aom.exe” +noIntroCinematics +window
“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Age of Mythology\aom.exe” xres=640 +noSound +noIntroCinematics bpp=16 +window +lowend +terrainHalfDensity +lowPoly -waterbump skipMipMapLevels=1 graphicDetail=2
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Chewett
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i have the titan expansion that dosent work so i only play the original i start the game, video plays, then i get the failure i ttied your shortcut and it almost worked but got the error still happend
Damn thats annoying.
Guess its also based on your graphics card…
DelcaredInsane has an additional comment adding another item to the shortcut, try using: “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Mythology\aomx.exe” xres=800 +noIntroCinematics
I’ve installed this game on to my pc and it will load the 1st two cinematics but won’t go to the menu screen. It comes up saying initialization failed. I’ve tried everything I can think of. Please help me I love this game and really wanna play again.
Did appending the shortcut not work?
Having the same problem as above; cinematics are playing, then “initialization failed” pops up. Funny thing is that I installed it first, and then everything worked. Then I applied the Titans expansion, and everything went fubar. I uninstalled both the original game and the Titans expansion, and re-installed only the original game. Now I get the ini. error after the cinematics.
Have tried running the game under various compatibility modes, but everything returns the same error. Gonna check if there are any newer graphics drivers. Maybe something is wrong there. (Though I doubt it. Most probably some reg key went all sad face when I applied the Titans expansion. I’m guessing that you don’t have a list hidden with the reg keys used by the game and their standard values? ^^)
I need to do some additional testing, one laptop the fix works, one laptop Age of Mythology works provided you dont install the update. Once i have some work out the way i will look into this more. Thanks for the confirmation that its not just my brothers laptop doing what you describe.
Same thing happens to me every word as soon as Titan expansion install it messed it all up
Hey, what if my shortcuts dont work ( none of them)? is there any way to fix it?
How dont they work?
Hi guys got the same problem. I got it fixed using an appended solution I found, and seems to be working. Go back to the shortcut as describe in the article above but also add xres=800 as shown below:
“C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Mythology\aom.exe” xres=800 +noIntroCinematics
Hope it works! Happy gaming!
Thanks for that! i will add this to the article!
Thanks for your thgsuhto. It’s helped me a lot.
works perfect. thanks heaps man
Hi, I am using Windows 8 and cannot find a way to change the shortcut to “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Mythology\aom.exe” xres=800 , or launch the game in safe mode. I am rather new to windows 8 and need help on how to fix instilation problem for my AOMTT WIndows8!
Have you right clicked on the icon to change that?
For me work it, just click on icon on the desktop with right mouse-button, choose Properties and in Destination add that phrase (with a space between …exe” and xres=800…).
………aomx.exe” xres=800 +noIntroCinematics
That is simple, thank you very much.
I can imagine this works, I’ve been looking every wear for the fix, finally something currant 🙂
When I create a shortcut to the link It says it’s not available? I’ve changed it around to suit where I’ve installed it, but it still can’t find the file.
Cheers.
Got a printscreen so i can look at it? Upload it to a site like imgur.com
press space between exe and xers=800….. Hope it works…….
I have been wrestling with this problem for weeks myself and tried everything suggested here and on every other site i could find. I finally discovered that it wasn’t the screen resolution but changing the color from 32 bit to 16 bit (I actually had to increase the resolution to make that happen) that solved the problem. Thanks to all those whose ideas kept me going!
Thanks this helped.
This is what i added in Shortcut Target – C:\Games\AOM\AoM.eXe xres=800 +noIntroCinematics
I never thought I would find such an everyday topic so enlghaltinr!
been trying to get it to work for four hours now, and it finally works now thanks to this thing. Just one thing, I use gameranger to play online and so far the singleplayer works, but the multiplayer still gives the error. got any idea?
No sorry, I havent used gameranger before.
I recently purchased the extended edition of this game through Steam, yet whenever I load the game up it will completely shut down my computer without warning. I get no error messages and my laptop is not overheated at all. I have tried restoring the files and restarting my computer, but the same problem persists. I am using a Samsung with Window 8.1. Any ideas?
Steam should work by default without any changes…, I havent actually bought the extended edition on steam so im not sure how well that works.
Im on windows 8 and I just cant figure this out:'(
Have you tried editing the path like in the post?
Boss, I append the shortcut path to:
“C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Mythology\aomx.exe” xres=1200 +noIntroCinematics
Should it be any problem?
Should be fine 🙂
Hello. I’ve trying instaling the Extended Edition of Age of Mythology on my computer, which is running on Win7 and matches a little more than the minimum requirements. I always get the Inicialization Failed issue and I’ve spent the past five hours trying to fix it. Any advice?
Thank you.
Is this the steam version?
How i need to change it to (x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Mythology\aomx.exe” xres=1200 +noIntroCinematics (dont understand that)
You need to right click on the shortcut then edit it there.
Hey Chewett, can you add 2 more solutions to your article? For example on my PC my resolution was very high (HD) so the game refused to start with the same error.
I used the following command to run AOM in windowed mode:
“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Age of Mythology\aom.exe” +noIntroCinematics +window
And if that doesn’t work, use the following command to run AOM in safe mode:
“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Age of Mythology\aom.exe” xres=640 +noSound +noIntroCinematics bpp=16 +window +lowend +terrainHalfDensity +lowPoly -waterbump skipMipMapLevels=1 graphicDetail=2
Thanks a lot that u say try xres=800 it work well in my laptop win 8