The Anno 1701 History Edition (2019) on Steam or Uplay is DRM-free after the first launch. No crack is needed. But purists argue that the History Edition changes the lighting and water shaders—hence why some still prefer the original v1.04 with a No-CD.

Released in 2006 by Related Designs and published by Sunflowers, Anno 1701 (known as 1701 A.D. in North America) is widely regarded as a golden child of the city-building and real-time strategy genres. For many German-speaking gamers, it was more than just a game; it was a cultural phenomenon. The deep economic chains, the colonial rivalries, and the soothing soundtrack of wind and waves defined a generation of PC gaming.

The German community (through forums like PCGames.de , Spieleforum , and Anno-Planet.de ) needed a crack that bypassed the DVD check without altering the language pointers. The holy grail was a cracked Anno1701.exe (approx 3.5 MB) that had been hex-edited to jump over the CALL SafeDiscCheck routine while retaining the DEU (Deutsch) internal flag.