Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty

[Toblakai]

#2279

The progeny of the command and clone rts games. Westwood would later make the command and conquer series, blizzard warcraft and starcraft. The original dune game is more of a rpg game with some strategy in it, although I find it hard to lose, whatever I do. This game uses the base ideas from the novels for the setting and then the battle is on!

I played this game to death back in the day. Now that we have dos-archives all over the internet, I have found a 1.6 version of the game, modded by someone to make the AI more difficult and to remove some exploitable bugs from the original 1.0 version that I used to have. It is harder and some exploits no longer work. It also fixed some things, like the orni-thopter now being not totally useless, although a sonic tank still is better.

Also this is the first game I had that could render speech through my awe32 (isa slot) sound card that cost 300 guilders and was larger than any modern day graphics card. And It had cut-scenes in between missions, look at those low res sprites move once or twice ;).

All in all a good candidate I think.

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[Pseudo_C]

#2287

Great game for sure! This would be an absolute gem to play again!

However, I will always love the original game more as it is a more accurate representation of the book, which I love a bit too much…

[Srandista]

#2309

I don’t know about you guys, but after I recently played C&C, Warcraft 2 and (briefly) Warcraft 1, I must confess: Dune II it’s just too old and borderline unplayable for me. Even Warcraft 1 had (kind of) multi-select for units, but Dune II with its really old school one unit selection and keyboard order for every move or attack it’s just too much.

But there is light for non-masochist people, even though, it’s only available for modern OS (I know, blasphemy): Dune Legacy with multi-select and bunch other enhancements, but with all original asset files!

[Toblakai]

#2313

You are right. Even though I played Dune 2 through recently, the unit interface is horrendous. And despite the 1.6 version I had, sometimes the map still had building and unit limits depending on the amount of units and buildings the AI had. It is quite annoying in the later missions that you have to destroy enemy buildings to finish your base. Also waiting to build units after the enemy rush.

I have never heard of legacy, is it on gog or steam?

Dune 1 might be the better option, also liked that game a lot, played though it several times. Strange hybrid RTS with RPG. The RPG element was small and the RTS quite weird compared to other RTS games. Quite a unique blend. And atmospheric as hell, good music, great art etc. I remember a summary of the book in the game although they changed the story to fit the game events. And having read the book and seen the movie, yes this game captures way more of that than Dune 2

Dune 2000 is thankfully beyond this project. A command and clone version of dune 2 that was too difficult for me to finish. It had some of the atmosphere but it felt somewhat paint by numbers.

[Srandista]

#2316

Dune Legacy is open-source recreation of the Dune II game engine. Since its just game engine, you need to use original assets, but this is a good thing, since you get exact the same maps, units and everything game related. But on top of it, you’ll get unit multi-selection, support for bigger resolutions, (optionally) better AI and multiplayer! Also, you can change some rules in game in options, for example you can remove that buildings and units limit, if you want, and several others.

[vext01]

#2517

I was going to suggest Dune II. I’m glad to see that it’s already been mentioned. There’s a lot to Dune II, and I think it was a defining game in the genre.

I’ve been playing it on Dune Legacy on and off for a few years. DL also allows multi-unit selection 😉

[Sadelape]

#3667

My first RTS game. I played it without prior knowledge of the book or movie. After talking it up on the school yard I found out they made a Sega Genesis port! Me and my school chums then found out Dune 1 was on Sega CD and ran out to rent and play CD quality RTS gaming but that didn’t exactly pan out lol.

[claw]

#4262

I love Dune II, not least because of the awesome Frank Klepacki MT-32 soundtrack. You can really hear the roots of the Command & Conquer soundtracks here.

I got used to not having group-select when I played it a few months ago. The game’s simple enough not to require as many units as C&C does, and I found the number of units required to complete the missions was usually manageable, provided you make liberal use of the vehicles ability to squash dudes. I was playing as Atreides, though, and they’re supposedly the easiest house.

I found the minimap that appears once you build an Outpost to be essential because you can click on it to give orders without having to pan away from your current view. Click a unit, press M for move or A for attack, then click somewhere in the minimap to complete the order. This is especially nice for quickly ordering those blundering harvesters around.

I remember completing this game as a kid, only to see various parts of the emperor turn purple before my weird knock-off copy hard locked after the final battle. I think I played Ordos then, I remember their ability to take over enemy units being stupidly overpowered.