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The Settlers

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games

This page is for the original game. For the 2018 re-release, see The Settlers - History Edition. For the 2023 soft reboot formerly known as merely "The Settlers" as well, see The Settlers: New Allies.

The Settlers
The Settlers cover
Developers
Blue Byte Software
Publishers
Europe Blue Byte Software
North America Strategic Simulations Inc.
Release dates
DOS May 18, 1994
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Bird's-eye view, Isometric
Controls Point and select
Genres Building, RTS
Art styles Cartoon
Series The Settlers
The Settlers on HowLongToBeat
The Settlers guide on StrategyWiki
The Settlers on MobyGames
The Settlers on Wikipedia
The Settlers 1994
The Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici 1996
The Settlers III 1998
The Settlers IV 2001
The Settlers: Heritage of Kings 2004
The Settlers II: 10th Anniversary 2006
The Settlers: Rise of an Empire 2007
The Settlers: Rise of Cultures 2008
The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom 2010
The Settlers Online 2012
The Settlers - History Edition 2018
The Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici - History Edition 2018
The Settlers III: History Edition 2018
The Settlers IV - History Edition 2018
The Settlers: Heritage of Kings - History Edition 2018
The Settlers: Rise of an Empire - History Edition 2018
The Settlers 7: History Edition 2018
The Settlers: New Allies 2023

The Settlers is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view and isometric building and RTS game in the The Settlers series.

Key points

Also known under the names Die Siedler (Germany) and Serf City: Life is Feudal (North America).

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Prompts for answers from manual, code wheel, etc.
DOS

{{ii} A free demo version is available from Archive.org.

Essential improvements

Patches

  • The latest official patch 1.1.0 for the German version which solves the save game problem on Windows 95 is available at soggi.org.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\SNDSTUP.DAT

Save game data location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\*.DS

Video

General settings.
General settings.

Graphics feature State Notes
Widescreen resolution
Possible when using Freeserf. UI and game scalling is adjusted by [ and ].
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
For DOSBox toggle with Alt+ Enter (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Possible when using Freeserf.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
For DOSBox use an unofficial build (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
Variable framerate, tied to game's internal refresh cycle.[1]

Input

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
For DOSBox change the priority background value in the DOSBox configuration file.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Polish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
2 Requires either a joystick or COM mouse. May be impossible to play on newer systems.
LAN play
Online play

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DOS video modes VGA, SVGA Menu is rendered always in VGA mode.
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
Freeserf has 64-bit builds.

Modifications

Freeserf

  • Freeserf is a faithful clone of The Settlers, that uses the original game's files. It adds many improvements to the original, most notably - widescreen resolution support and improved mouse handling.

System requirements

DOS
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS)
Processor (CPU) 386 - 16 MHz
System memory (RAM) 4 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 10 MB
Video card (GPU) VGA


References

  1. Verified by User:Suicide_machine on 2017-05-23
    The game seems to be rendering a frame only if needed. So, if the cursor has moved or world tick happened (characters moved) etc. varies between 10-60fps, generally running at incredibile 13 fps, when cursor is not moving.