The Settlers (Freeserf.net)

Game: The Settlers → (DOS, 1993)

Freeserf.net: a reimplementation of The Settlers (Serf City), Blue Byte’s strategy game, written in C# on .NET 9. It’s a port and extension of Freeserf, the C++ reimplementation also in the catalog: it carried over all of its code, including the fixes from its 0.4 and 0.5 releases, and adds an AI of its own. It renders with OpenGL through Silk.NET, supports widescreen displays and resizable windows, and plays sound (MIDI, MOD, and effects) through BASS. It uses the data from the DOS or the Amiga version, and they can be mixed, for example the Amiga music with the DOS graphics; the text is in English and German. It has the missions, the six tutorials, the end of the game with the original’s pictures, large maps, and a still experimental local network multiplayer across different platforms, where players can rejoin a running game, the host autosaves every 10 minutes, and pausing and game speed are put to a vote. There are builds for Windows, Linux, and macOS (a universal app) and another for Android. Some minor parts of the AI logic are still missing. It releases often: the latest is 2.2.11 (October 20). 18 of its last 100 commits list GitHub Copilot as a co-author.

You needThe data files from your own copy of The Settlers: from the DOS version, the SPAx.PA file for your language (SPAE.PA for English), or from the Amiga version, the .adf disk images or the already extracted files, in the game’s working directory. According to the Android release notes, the free demo’s file works too. Plus Windows, Linux (tested on Ubuntu, with GLFW installed), or macOS on Apple silicon or Intel; the bundled sound libraries are 64-bit.

How it gets to PC

Fan reimplementation

Console

MS-DOS

Original studio

Blue Byte

Year

1994

Author

Pyrdacor

Stars

177

Last activity

2026-10-24 · 7 days ago

Latest version

v2.2.11 · 2026-10-20

License

GPL-3.0

Language

C#

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