The Settlers (1993) was a popular city-building real-time strategy game, originally released in the twilight years of the Amiga’s reign as the king of home computers. Perhaps understandably, then, when the sequel was being prepared to be published, the Amiga was overlooked. The Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici saw a PC/DOS-only launch in 1996. Now this historic ‘wrong’ – from the dedicated Amigan point of view - has been righted, with The Settlers 2 Gold Edition being primed for release by German dev team Look Behind You (h/t Golem.de) (machine translation). The release comes 32 years after the original, and 29 years after the sequel’s DOS debut.
Some assert that the original Settlers pioneered the city-building real-time strategy game genre. Indeed, at the time, many great RTS treasures seemed to have popped up. Notably, Dune II from Westwood Studios (which went on to release the Command & Conquer series), was another twilight highlight of the Amiga titles. Also worth mentioning are Mega-lo-Mania, Syndicate, and Powermonger.
Minimum system requirement is an AGA Amiga with 68040 at 40 MHz
After reading the headline, some might excitedly go and dust off their original Amiga A500 from the attic. However, The Settlers II has some pretty steep minimum system requirements in Amiga terms. At a minimum, you will need an AGA chipset Amiga (A1200 or better) with a Motorola 68040 accelerator (at least 40 MHz) and 32MB of Fast RAM. If you have that kind of spec, the other necessities like AmigaOS 3.1 and 600MB of hard drive space are probably going to be covered.
Those specs are just a minimum, though. 68k processor-driven Settlers II gaming in resolutions above 640 x 480 pixels pushes up the recommended specs to include a graphics card(!), plus a Motorola 68060 at 100 MHz or faster.
Developers Look Behind You also shared a range of PowerPC-accelerated Amiga specs for those true devotees to the platform. Ancient processors such as the PowerPC 603e and PowerPC G3 800 get mentioned in this section.
Coming soon, but you’ve already waited ~30 years
Look Behind You have The Settlers II Amiga teed up for its official launch on October 18, this year. The title is officially licensed by Ubisoft, who own Blue Byte, the company that launched the Settlers sequel on PC/DOS, and subsequently Mac and Nintendo DS.
The developer says that the release comes as a “lovingly optimized version that showcases what the Amiga is truly capable of.” Moreover, it is ready to be released in three editions for Amiga fans.
The physical Boxed Edition is slated for day one availability at €49.90 ($58). In the box is a DVD and a download code, plus a color world atlas, German and English manuals, plus four collectable postcards. On the same day, the Digital Edition will become available at €29.90 ($35).
Additionally, for those with a little bit more patience and money, the Collector’s Edition will be released on December 1. This 100-unit limited €99.90 ($117) edition comes in a wood box “in the authentic Settlers II design.” Also in the box, you will find a palm–sized Settlers II castle motif magnet. We’d also assume it comes with the stuff previously mentioned in the physical boxed edition.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
