The settlers

June 30, 1993 (Amiga),
June 1994 (PC)

platform

Commodore Amiga , MS-DOS

genre

Economic simulation

Game mode

Single player , multiplayer - split screen

Keyboard , mouse , joystick or gamepad

CD , floppy disk

German English

Die Siedler is based on a pure 2D graphics engine, which uses different textures in terms of brightness to create flat shading for the landscape. The game uses a resolution of 352 × 273 ( PAL - Overscan ) in the original version . The PC implementation supports resolutions of 320 × 200 ( VGA ) and 640 × 480 ( SVGA ). The Amiga version is written in assembly language by Volker Wertich . The DOS version was converted from Amiga assembler to PC assembler by Massive Development (Alexander Jorias, Ingo Frick). For then, the engine was contemporary and strategy standard. The view of the playing field cannot be rotated, pivoted or changed in any other way. The game can be controlled using the mouse and joystick. Scrolling with the mouse or joystick is possible. The cards are generated at the beginning of the game and each player looks for a starting place (no longer for the missions from level 10). Each card is generated based on a combination of numbers and can be played again or passed on. There are 20 different professional groups and five knight levels.

A special feature is that you can play in a team with two players on one computer at the same time . For example, one of the players can take care of the military trains, while the other is busy building houses. It is also possible to play against each other with the same system. This is done via a split screen ( split screen ). In addition, this part of the settlers is the only one with a "demo mode", in which you can watch the computer while settling.

With Freeserf, an open source re-implementation for Linux and Windows using the SDL library in C and C ++ is in progress. A file of the original is required for use. Since October 2018 work has also been carried out on a C # version called Freeserf.net, which is based on Freeserf.

In 2003 the browser game Second Home was published, which is based on The Settlers .

The settlers II - Veni, Vidi, Vici

Thomas Häuser & Peter Ohlmann (programming), Christoph Werner & Adam Sprys (graphics)

April 17, 1996

Game mode

Single player , multiplayer - split screen

system advantages
preconditions

IBM PC 100% compatible 80486DX2-66 MHz CPU ( Pentium 75 MHz recommended)
VLB or PCI, VESA driver Graphics card
8 MB RAM (16 MB RAM recommended)
30 MB free hard disk
MS-DOS from version 5.0 or Windows 95
2 × CD- ROM drive

medium

1 CD , download ( GoG )

information

Gold Edition (1997)

In the sequel, The Settlers II , there were no major changes to the predecessor. The game was mainly graphically revised. There are also some playful improvements such as For example: new buildings and professions, animals and hunters, easier road construction, seafaring (only in the main campaign) and map reconnaissance. For the first time there were four different peoples (Romans, Vikings, Asians and Nubians), but they do not differ in terms of play, only the appearance of the buildings and soldiers varies. In the expansion you can conquer the earth in the form of individual continent and island maps (Greenland and Japan).

The game was based on a new 2D engine that supported 256 colors and used pre-calculated Gouraud shading for 3D elements in the landscape. The graphics quality has been improved with three selectable resolution levels (640 × 480 (VGA), 800 × 600 ( SVGA ) and 1024 × 768 pixels ). Even by the standards of the time, the engine was resource-efficient. From the first Siedler team, only the graphic artist Christoph Werner was involved; The game was largely written by the project manager Thomas Häuser and Peter Ohlmann.

The game has more animations than was common in strategy games at the time. You can scroll with the mouse and keyboard, and there is a zoom level (three zoom levels in the two observation windows).

From this part on, the cards can be created in an editor and the starting positions can be determined. The cards can be saved and passed on. There are 24 different professional groups and five soldier levels.

As in the first part of the Settlers series, there is a split screen - Multiplayer - mode. Splitscreen is technically possible on both platforms, but the Mac computers of the time only supported one mouse.

A mission CD introduced a map editor and contained 10 very large maps, which are based on the real topography of Australia , Africa , Europe , Greenland , North Asia , Japan , North America , South America and South Asia . Furthermore, a snow landscape was added as a new graphic set. With the “Gold Edition”, the innovations of the mission CD were integrated into one product together with the game.

The Siedler II can also be played on today's Windows and other operating systems using a DOS emulator such as DOSBox .

The open source project "Return to the Roots", which was founded in 2005, reprogrammed the program logic and the graphics engine and implemented a network game. Modern hardware and the Linux operating system are supported. The original files of the game are required to play, as the original graphics and sounds from Die Siedler II are used. Technically, Return to the Roots (RttR) brings the game up to date with IPv6 and UPnP . In addition, RttR supports full HD resolution and supplements a freely scalable window mode . With Widelands there is an independent open source project that is inspired by Die Siedler II .

The settlers III

Volker Wertich , Torsten Hess

November 20, 1998

Game mode

system advantages
preconditions

IBM PC and 100% compatible
166 MHz Pentium CPU (266 MHz Pentium II recommended)
32 MB RAM (64 MB RAM recommended)
2 MB graphics card (DirectX compatible)
approx. 150 MB free hard disk
4 × CD-ROM drive
Windows 95 / 98 / NT 4
DirectX 6.0 (included)

2 CD

information

Gold Edition with both add-ons (1999)

The Siedler III has a 2D engine with a 3D landscape, the basic elements of which are again triangles with Gouraud shading , but this time significantly smaller (approx. 6000 per screen section with a resolution of 800 × 600 pixels ). The graphic is now high color . The game figures and landscape elements are pixel graphics modeled in 3D . With exaggerated proportions, an attempt has been made to maintain a cartoon look. In the third part, Volker Wertich , the "father" of the settlers , was also involved in the game, who programmed most of the game.

There were some serious changes to the game. Overall, you had a much more direct influence on the game than in the two predecessors. The construction of flags and paths was completely eliminated; Porters and other settlers now move more or less freely on calculated paths on the map. Over time, trails form. Soldiers have become controllable like in other real-time strategy games , and new types of ranks and skills have been added. New game elements such as gods, priests and sanctuaries were introduced in order to be able to tie the campaigns more closely to the framework story; at the same time they serve to upgrade soldiers. If you demolish a military building yourself, the controlled area no longer becomes neutral and all affected buildings are destroyed. The Marine found its way back into the game and has been expanded. There are now ferries and merchant ships. In multiplayer mode, it is now possible not only to play on one computer, but also over the Internet and in the LAN with up to 20 players on one card. The special skills of the individual peoples (Romans, Egyptians, Asians) were added; these now differ not only in appearance, but also in their skills, material requirements and character traits. A completely new element was also the miracles made possible by sacrificing race-specific alcohol. Each race has access to 8 different magic spells, 7 of which vary depending on the race. In addition, the game (like its predecessor) could be accelerated at the push of a button, for example to shorten lengthy construction processes.

The main game was followed by two add-ons : The Settlers III: Mission CD with new maps and The Settlers III: The Secret of the Amazons , which another people (the Amazons ) added. In terms of plot, the campaigns of the Amazons add-on play before those of the main game. The Mission CD campaigns, on the other hand, have no background story, but in some cases have very special mission goals. In addition, the developers have increased the level of difficulty with each add-on. With the last patch (version 1.6) a button was added in the main menu, with which you can change the level of difficulty.

For many Siedler II fans, the lack of road construction and the greater importance and diversity of the military system are points of criticism.

The Siedler III is still considered the most successful online version of the Siedler series. Although released in 1998, it is still played regularly today. The lobby accessible through the game (a chat room with the possibility to open and join games) is still well filled practically around the clock.

With the exception of the Gold Edition, the game can only be run with patches under Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7 or 8.

The Settlers III was one of the first PC games with a CD copy protection , were equipped to Black copies to prevent. However, the protection mechanism used was very unreliable and faulty. For example, on certain CD-ROM drives, even the original CDs were not recognized as originals.

However, the copy protection did not make itself felt when the program was started (as is common today, a game cannot be started with a copied CD), but there were limitations of essential game functions in the game itself. For example, newly planted trees did not grow to full size and therefore could not be felled; the player did not have a renewable source of lumber. Or only pigs came from the iron smelting instead of molten iron, which made it impossible to manufacture weapons or tools.

The project JSettlers one exists free and open source implementation of The Settlers III - game engine in Java , but currently does not support all functions of the original engine. The platforms Windows, macOS, Linux and Android are officially supported. The original game files are necessary to play.

The settlers IV

February 15, 2001

Game mode

system advantages
preconditions

Pentium 200 MHz CPU
64 MB RAM
8 MB graphics card
574 MB free hard disk
DirectX 7.0 or higher
4 × CD-ROM drive
Windows 98 / Me / 2000 / XP

1 CD

information

Gold Edition with add-ons (2001)

The Siedler IV essentially built on its predecessor. The graphics have been significantly improved, but the cuddly style has remained. Small changes in the game details and additions made it popular. The maximum resolution was 1280 × 1024 pixels ( SXGA ), but like its predecessors, the game was based on a 2D engine developed by Blue Byte itself. The “Dark Folk” - a new race that could only be played by the AI - and a function for stepless zooming were added. At first only the three peoples Romans, Vikings and Mayas could be played. The Trojans were also available as a fourth race via add-ons.

There is an identical gameplay version for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad under the name "The Settlers". The controls have been adapted to the touchscreen.

A Mission CD was released shortly after the main game and the first add-on was The Trojans and the Elixir of Power, as well as two minigames, Bats for Thieves and The Dark Side , which were soon offered as a Gold Edition together with the main game . The Gold Edition was followed by the add-on Die neue Welt and a CD with missions designed by fans of the game as a Community Pack . With the Community Pack, Trojans were the fourth race to be playable even if none of the other add-ons had been installed for the main game.

The Settlers - The Legacy of the Kings

→ Main article: The Settlers - The Legacy of Kings

The fifth part of the Siedler series appeared in 2004 and is for the first time completely 3D, based on the RenderWare game engine from Criterion Software with Pixel Shader 2.0 and DirectX 9.0c. The graphics stand out from their predecessors with high-resolution textures and a camera view that can be rotated and zoomed in. The "bustle factor" with hundreds of settlers running around on a screen had to give way to the 3D graphics. In terms of play, too, this part differs greatly from its predecessors. The focus is no longer on the cycle of goods (which have been reduced to a minimum), but on the rapid collection of resources and the production of military units.

There are only five different raw materials (clay, wood, stone, iron and sulfur) and money (thalers). The latter is achieved through taxes. The raw materials are mined in mines or shafts (except wood, which can only be felled by serfs) and are immediately in a raw material pool instead of being brought to warehouses by porters (as we know from the previous parts). Another new feature is that raw materials that have already been extracted can be refined and thus they can be multiplied very effectively. Workers now need a place to sleep in a house and a place to eat in a farm in order to be kept happy.

Another innovation is the research made possible by the building of the university. Only when certain technologies (alchemy, conscription, construction, ...) have been researched can new buildings be built and new units recruited or upgraded. Existing buildings can also be expanded in three stages. This means, for example, that more workers can work in one building.

The actions of the opponents in the campaign are now based only on simple scripts ( Lua ) instead of a "full-fledged" multiplayer AI, which is why it is not possible to play freely against the computer on selectable cards.

With the map editor that appeared in the first add-on ( Die Siedler DEdK - Nebelreich ), players began to create their own maps and publish them on the Internet. The editor in Die Siedler DEdK - Legenden (second add-on) offers some simplifications for Siedler maps, such as: B. the texture brush or the function to create a random map.

The Settlers II - The Next Generation

Ubisoft

Thomas Friedmann, Thomas Häuser, Thorsten Kneisel

September 5, 2006

Game mode

system advantages
preconditions

Intel Pentium 4 1.4 GHz CPU (2.0 GHz recommended)
512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended)
64 MB T&L graphics card (128 MB Shader 2.0 recommended)
1 GB free hard disk space
DirectX 9.0c or higher
4 × DVD / CD-ROM drive
Windows 2000 (XP recommended)
56 Kbit Internet ( ISDN )

1 CD

On September 7, 2006, the new edition of the classic Die Siedler II was released , developed by Blue Byte and the developers Thomas Friedmann, Thomas Häuser and Thorsten Kneisel (née Knop), the founders of Funatics Software, who were already involved in the original. The game mechanics have remained the same except for details. In contrast to the fifth part of the series, the settlers are shown in "cuddly optics" again, similar to parts 3 and 4. In the new edition, due to the course of the game and the fact that the peoples in the original only differed graphically, one of the four peoples - the Vikings - was dispensed with, which was only changed with the add-on The Vikings on February 22, 2007. The expansion, which initially appeared in German, was then only translated to some of the languages supported by the base game. Accordingly, the subsequent Gold Edition with an integrated add-on was only available for a limited number of languages. No Viking race is available in the English edition The Settlers II - 10th Anniversary as it is available for download via GOG.com.

The graphics use a new, modern 3D graphics engine . Zooming is now possible in five firmly defined levels. The camera perspective can also be swiveled by 90 ° in both directions. Further innovations are a LAN and internet-enabled multiplayer mode (in Die Siedler II there was only a split-screen multiplayer mode) with integrated chat, a new campaign and a revised seafaring mode. At the start of sales, there was a limited edition that contained a collector's figure and the original game The Settlers II from 1996, which had been made executable on newer hardware .

The settlers DS

Ralf Savoy

July 12, 2007

Game mode

On July 12, 2007, an implementation of the second part for the Nintendo DS was released . It is a true-to-the-original port, but it does without multiplayer functions.

The controls have been adapted to the Nintendo DS and are therefore primarily via the stylus . The upper screen is mainly used for displaying statistics and the overview map. In the lower one you can see the settlement and can control it, whereby you can swap the two views with the left shoulder button. The problem of the small screen compared to a PC has been solved by two zoom levels.

According to several reports in the official forum, the retail version is affected by crashes and errors, but these can be avoided with a few rules. A question-and-answer catalog was created in the forum on how to avoid errors and how to use them consciously, for example to delete the game. Online game sites like 4Players gave the retail version a poor rating. The game magazine N-Zone , with whose awards the game advertised, issued a purchase warning after several buyers complained to the magazine.

The Settlers - Rise of a Kingdom

Blue byte

September 28, 2007

Game mode

system advantages
preconditions

Pentium IV 2.0 GHz CPU (3.0 GHz recommended)
512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended)
128 MB graphics card (256 MB Shader 2.0 recommended)
3 GB free hard disk
DirectX 9.0c or higher
4 × DVD / CD-ROM drive
Windows XP / Vista

1 DVD

The Siedler VI appeared on September 28, 2007. Here, too, there are almost no similarities to the old parts. In addition to the main version, Ubisoft also offers a limited edition and a special edition. The content of the limited edition:

Soundtrack on CD
Bonus DVD with making-of
DVD with the demo version of the game
In-game skins
Artbook
Poster printed on both sides with artwork and "Rights and duties of a knight"

The content of the UbiShop edition:

The standard edition
A handbag with a leather look
Two special in-game statues to beautify the cities built in the game can be unlocked (with a scratch card)

In this part of the Settlers series, too , the focus was shifted away from the economy. Only two-stage productions are now possible: Bread is made directly from grain, the grain is not processed into flour beforehand, but it needs water from the village well, which the settlers fetch themselves to irrigate the grain fields. Numerous new professions have been added, the scurry factor is achieved through the interactions between the settlers, despite the lack of carriers, but does not come close to the predecessors: Settlers now bring their goods into the warehouse themselves and protest in the marketplace if their needs are not met. Needs include food, clothing, cleanliness, and entertainment. The introduction of climate and seasons as important economic factors is an enriching novelty, and for the first time settlers can get to know women at festivals who support them in their daily work.

Spieletester.com praised a successful and playable integration and continuation of previous settler versions. In particular, the detailed graphical representation and new game ideas, which reveal an approach to elements from the Anno series , were highlighted. Various playtesters see the reduced depth of play in the retail chains and the low level of difficulty of the game as problematic.

Awards

2007: German Developer Award - Best Soundtrack In-Game-Sound
2007: German Developer Award - Best Game Level Design
2007: German Developer Award - Best Game Graphics
2007: German Developer Award - Best Cutscenes Intros
2007: German Developer Award - Best Interface
2007: German Developer Award - Best German Game

The settlers - the emergence of cultures

Funatics

August 28, 2008

Game mode

Single player , multiplayer via internet (switched off since June 2012 and no LAN possible)

system advantages
preconditions

Pentium IV 2.0 GHz CPU
1 GB RAM
128 MB graphics card (256 MB Shader 2.0 recommended)
1 GB free hard disk
DirectX 9.0c or higher
4 × DVD / CD-ROM drive
Windows XP / Vista / 7/10

1 DVD

With Die Siedler - Aufbruch der Kulturen a game of the short-lived tradition series appears for the first time, which is identified as such from the start. It combines elements of the games Die Siedler II and Die Siedler III : From Die Siedler II the construction of roads with the transport of goods from flag to flag, the indirect control of the military units and their upgrading; from The Settlers III the ranged combat units, sacrifices and the playful differences between the peoples. For the first time there is a 3D online lobby in which you can meet other players with a created avatar and arrange to play online . You can also u. a. Play Settlers Chess, Dice Roulette and Texas Hold'em Poker. Points from games won can be used to further develop your avatar. On June 2, 2012, Ubisoft announced that the multiplayer servers would be completely and permanently shut down. This deprived the game of its ability to compete against real, human players, which was limited to online multiplayer games.

The settlers 7

→ Main article: The settlers 7

On September 22, 2009, Ubisoft and Blue Byte announced the development of The Settlers 7 , which was released on March 25, 2010. In addition to the classic game principle, Die Siedler 7 is based on three pillars, which, depending on the focus of the player, enable new technologies to be activated: trade, science and the military. This means that for the first time it is possible to win a game without military expansion. Also new are better AI and the newly licensed graphics engine Vision Engine 7.0 .

The settlers - my city

Blue byte

June 2010

On May 28, 2010, Ubisoft announced the start of the closed beta of The Settlers - My City . In contrast to the other titles in the series, this is a browser game that is played entirely online on Facebook and is based on Adobe Flash . The open beta started in June 2010.

Awards

2010: German Developer Award - Best Social Game

The Settlers Online

Blue byte