How do I downgrade my AoE2 version?

[Eternal Kaizen]

This question might have been asked before but I can't find the answer anywhere online. Somebody said that I have to be 'allowed' access to the previous versions. There's a recent tournament match that I wanted to see for myself (Red Bull Wololo) but after downloading and putting the replay in my replay folder, it plays for 10 seconds then ends. I found out that after each game patch replays stop working. Somebody also said that the tournament was part of the RBW Beta branch but I don't know what that means let alone how downgrade to it. I looked in the AoE2 steam properties but found nothing I could use to downgrade from there either. In properties under the Betas tab for some reason I have to put in a code to access past betas but I don't know where to find them. I don't even know if past betas are defined as past versions. I just want to view a replay...

[Vonklyce]

There's simply no way to downgrade, and we'll always be held hostages of these broken updates.
The only solution i can think of is, as long as you own a legitimate copy of the game, feel free to download an alternative copy on the internet with an older version of the game.
That's what i had to do to play with my personal mods.

[-Dare Devil/x/]

Originally posted by BananaMan:

This question might have been asked before but I can't find the answer anywhere online. Somebody said that I have to be 'allowed' access to the previous versions. There's a recent tournament match that I wanted to see for myself (Red Bull Wololo) but after downloading and putting the replay in my replay folder, it plays for 10 seconds then ends. I found out that after each game patch replays stop working. Somebody also said that the tournament was part of the RBW Beta branch but I don't know what that means let alone how downgrade to it. I looked in the AoE2 steam properties but found nothing I could use to downgrade from there either. In properties under the Betas tab for some reason I have to put in a code to access past betas but I don't know where to find them. I don't even know if past betas are defined as past versions. I just want to view a replay...

-Right now the way to watch tournament matches on old patches is via recorded streams/youtube/etc.

[Eternal Kaizen]

Originally posted by Vonklyce:

There's simply no way to downgrade, and we'll always be held hostages of these broken updates.
The only solution i can think of is, as long as you own a legitimate copy of the game, feel free to download an alternative copy on the internet with an older version of the game.
That's what i had to do to play with my personal mods.

If you're talking about downloading something from like pirate-bay then I can't be doing that. My parents got furious when our internet was threatened to get shut down due to me downloading the Sims 4. I had to delete everything. Microsoft can trace people and I'm never doing that again to them XD. I know I have a legitimate copy of the game but it doesn't matter to them, if you are caught downloading something they own from certain links/sites then you're screwed. Anyways back to this I just hope they either fix the problem or somebody can create an alternative platform for watching replays. For now I'll just watch the expert player replays from the current version.

[Cronkonium]

Originally posted by Darth Banana:

Originally posted by Vonklyce:

There's simply no way to downgrade, and we'll always be held hostages of these broken updates.
The only solution i can think of is, as long as you own a legitimate copy of the game, feel free to download an alternative copy on the internet with an older version of the game.
That's what i had to do to play with my personal mods.

If you're talking about downloading something from like pirate-bay then I can't be doing that. My parents got furious when our internet was threatened to get shut down due to me downloading the Sims 4. I had to delete everything. Microsoft can trace people and I'm never doing that again to them XD. I know I have a legitimate copy of the game but it doesn't matter to them, if you are caught downloading something they own from certain links/sites then you're screwed. Anyways back to this I just hope they either fix the problem or somebody can create an alternative platform for watching replays. For now I'll just watch the expert player replays from the current version.

If you're in Canada it's legal to download media & games, etc. for your own personal enjoyment. So long as you are not uploading and delivering the content for others to view... then it's fine.
The anti-enjoyment laws of other countries are wild (well insane), so I understand you.
I used to get email B.S. too when I was torrenting things years ago.

But no I think the point about down-grading is to watch previous matches from earlier game-builds. They could be your own or other's games. But also to play tournament games from earlier patches it's necessary.
I'm not sure how it's done even in 2023 - although I just started the game again recently since childhood. But there's a way to do it, just no posts on how to do it... it seems!