I just had a huge craving to play this game again, and found it is available for free now as abandonware, and works on all modern OS's with dosbox :)

The most epic and difficult slow paced game ever made. I remember playing it as a teen, and while I loved the game, I never made it past the fourth campain map because I used to find it too hard, but I am up to the 8th map on the main campaign, which took a good long time to manage :goodjob:

I think that all Civ fans should give it a try, if you actually havnt ever played it before, prepare for your brains to get fried =D

There is an anniversary edition as well with wonderful 3D graphics, but they dumbed it down far too much to make it simpler and I still havnt managed to enjoy any other game in the Settlers series as much as this one.

Not posting a link because I dont think abandonware is completely legal, but this game needs to be tried by all Civ fans.

Not posting a link because I dont think abandonware is completely legal, but this game needs to be tried by all Civ fans.

Abandonware is completely legal because the company that made it released its copyright protection, or the copyright expired, I think.
Abandonia.com (http://abandonia.com) probably has it.

FYI - settlers II was re-released recently given a 3D engine and compatability with windows. I doubt it costs very much.

I know, but it wasnt the same game and still wasnt as good as the original Settlers II to me.

They cheesyfied the game and turned it into an easy mode.

I think.

In most cases you think wrong. Very few companies ever release their titles into the public domain (and since this game was a German game, the copyright will stay with the owner for 70 years after the death of the author). In the specific case of Settlers 2, I think Ubisoft still owns the rights to it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries%27_copyright_length

In most cases you think wrong. Very few companies ever release their titles into the public domain (and since this game was a German game, the copyright will stay with the owner for 70 years after the death of the author). In the specific case of Settlers 2, I think Ubisoft still owns the rights to it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries%27_copyright_length

Oh yeah my bad, it's because the owners of the copyright don't give a damn about a game released like 12 yrs ago. They won't sue you or anything. :)

That doesn't make it legal, abandonware is still piracy. Ethical piracy