What is Un-Banished?
Banished is a city-building game by Shining Rock
Software. In the game, a group of exiled travellers build a new town in a hard land. The game
runs only on Windows. Its last version is 1.0.7.
Un-Banished is a new engine for this game. All of its code is new. It contains no code, art,
sound or text from the original game. It reads the data files from your copy of Banished, and it
rebuilds the game's rules, menus, graphics and sound around them.
The goal is to match the original exactly. The same seed gives the same map. The citizens, the
timings and the save files are the same.
- 🖥️ Desktop: Windows, macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Linux.
- 🌐 Browser: through WebAssembly. The page reads your game files on your computer. It does not upload them.
- 💾 Saves: saves from the original game load without changes. Un-Banished uses the same save format and the same save folder.
- 🧩 Mods: mods made with the BanishedKit (
.pkm files) work through the Mods menu, as in the original.
- 🔎 Mod sites: the Mods menu browses, searches and installs mods from Nexus Mods and, on the desktop, banishedinfo.com. A mod manager keeps mod lists and starts the game. Not in the original.
- 👥 Multiplayer: several players can play one town together, on the desktop and in the browser, through a small relay server. Not in the original. See Multiplayer.
- 📱 Install the browser version as an app, and choose its resolution and frame rate for slow computers, tablets and phones.
- 🎓 Tutorials, scenarios and achievements work as in the original.
[!IMPORTANT]
You need your own copy of Banished, from Steam
or GOG. Un-Banished contains no game content and cannot run without your copy.
Screenshots
All screenshots show Un-Banished running with a player's own copy of the game. The art in
the screenshots belongs to Shining Rock Software.
Short videos of the game in motion are on the Playing the game page:
citizens at work close up, a trader's boat on the river, the seasons and an animation.
Un-Banished recorded them itself, without a window.
Status
Beta. The whole game runs. You can start a new game or load a save. Your town and its
citizens live through the seasons. Every building and tool works. Trade, disasters, the
event log, options, mods, tutorials and achievements also work. Map generation and most game
rules are checked against the original, value by value. Un-Banished also adds things the original
does not have: mod sites in the Mods menu, a mod manager, and multiplayer.
Some problems remain. They are listed in the
issues. docs/DEVIATIONS.md
lists the known differences from the original. docs/PARITY-AUDIT.md shows
what has been checked.
If something works differently from the original game, please
report it. These reports are the most
useful help you can give.
Get started
From version 0.4.1, each release has a
ready-made download for Windows, macOS (Apple silicon and Intel) and Linux: unpack the zip and
run unbanished. You can also build Un-Banished yourself. It takes three steps and about five
minutes. The setup guide explains every step for Windows, macOS and
Linux.
# 1. Download the code
git clone https://github.com/tanepiper/unbanished.git
cd unbanished
# 2. Build it (this needs Rust: https://rustup.rs)
cargo build -p unbanished-app --release
# 3. Start it, and give it your game's WinData folder
target/release/unbanished "/path/to/Banished/WinData"
On Windows, step 3 is target\release\unbanished.exe "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Banished\WinData".
You can also copy the built unbanished file (unbanished.exe on Windows) into your Banished
folder, next to WinData, and start it there. It then works like the original program and uses
the same save folder.
To play in a browser, you do not need to build anything. Open the
Play page on the website and select your four game
files.
Controls
The default controls are the same as in the original game. You can change them in
Options → Input.
| Action | Keys / mouse |
|---|
| Move the camera | W A S D, or move the pointer to the edge of the screen |
| Rotate | Q / E, or hold the middle mouse button and move the mouse |
| Zoom | Mouse wheel, or Insert / Delete |
| Tilt | Page Up / Page Down |
| Select, place, confirm | Left click |
| Cancel a drag, or put the tool away | Right click or Esc |
| Pause / resume | Space |
| Toolbar buttons | F1 – F9 |
| Tools in an open toolbar menu | 1 – 0 |
| Camera presets | Z X C V B |
| Screenshot (without / with the interface) | Print Screen / Scroll Lock |
FAQ
Is this a crack or a pirated copy? No. Un-Banished contains no game code, art, sound or
text. It cannot run without your own copy of the game. It is an independent, non-commercial
project.
How was it made without the source code? Ghidra turned the game's machine code into
readable pseudocode. An AI agent read the pseudocode and wrote down what each part does. It also
ran the original functions in an emulator to get exact numbers. Then it wrote new Rust code from
these notes and tested the new code against the original. No original code is copied into this
repository. How Un-Banished was made explains each step.
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
