Settlers II editions, and where to actually play them
The Settlers II has been sold, and re-sold, in more than one form since 1996, and the differences between those forms trip people up when they go looking for a copy. This is a guide to what actually differs, and where the legitimate copies are.
The editions compared
The Gold Edition is the version most people mean when they say "The Settlers II": the original 1996 release bundled with its expansion mission disk, Veni, Vidi, Vici, which added a Roman campaign on top of the base Roman, Egyptian and Viking tribes. If you want the game exactly as it shipped in the 1990s, this is the one to look for.
Later digital re-releases — a 10th Anniversary edition and, further on, a History Edition remaster — repackage that same game for modern systems. The details of what each changed are not fully documented in public sources worth repeating here with confidence, but in general terms they differ from the original mainly in presentation and platform support: getting the game running without the original CD, DOSBox, or period-correct hardware, rather than changing the rules underneath. If you specifically want the closest thing to the 1996 disk, look for "Gold Edition" by name; if you just want something that installs and runs cleanly today, either later re-release should do that job.
None of these editions changed the core game — the road-and-carrier economy, the buildings, the campaigns are the same design across all of them. What you're actually choosing between is how much friction stands between you and that design: a Gold Edition install that may need DOS emulation to run smoothly on a modern machine, versus a re-release built to just work on current Windows or macOS out of the box. Multiplayer support in particular is worth checking against the current storefront listing before buying if that's what you're after, since it's the kind of detail that can change between releases and isn't worth guessing at here.
Running the original today
The original release was built for MS-DOS, and the straightforward way to run it on a modern Windows or Mac machine is through DOSBox, a DOS emulator that a lot of old PC games rely on for exactly this reason. The digital re-releases exist largely to skip that step — they're sold as ready-to-run installs rather than raw DOS floppies or CD images, so if configuring an emulator isn't something you want to deal with, a 10th Anniversary or History Edition purchase is the more direct path to a working copy on current hardware.
Where to buy
The legitimate places to buy The Settlers II digitally today are GOG and Steam, which between them carry the re-released, modernized versions. There's also a separate Android port for mobile devices, distinct from the PC releases. Exact pricing and exactly what's bundled with each storefront listing changes over time, so this page won't guess at either — check the storefront itself for current details. This site is not a storefront and doesn't sell or distribute the original game in any form.
A word of caution applies here as it does to any old, well-loved game: if a download turns up outside of GOG, Steam, or an official app store — a random file-sharing link, an "abandonware" archive, a torrent — treat it as untrustworthy on principle, both because it's not a legitimate way to acquire the game and because there's no one vetting what's actually inside the archive. The storefronts above exist precisely so you don't have to take that risk.
The alternative this site offers
If what you actually want is to play something in the spirit of Settlers II without buying or installing anything, that's what this site is for. It's a from-scratch TypeScript and WebGL reimplementation of the game's rules that runs in a normal browser tab — no download, no DOSBox, no account. As explained on the about page, it does not run the original game's code and does not ship the original copyrighted graphics, sounds or maps; those remain Blue Byte's and Ubisoft's. It uses a freely redistributable demo asset pack instead, and is upfront about which parts of the game are finished and which are still in progress. For the fuller story of why this exists and what it's built on, see Settlers II, from 1996 to a browser tab.
A German-market note
German readers researching editions often already own something else entirely: Die Siedler II: Die nächste Generation, a 2006 remake released specifically for the German market with its own engine and its own following, distinct from both the original Gold Edition and the later English-market digital re-releases. If that's the version you grew up with, it's covered on its own page at Die Siedler 2: Die nächste Generation, alongside Die Siedler 2 for German-language coverage of this port.