Dune II

Did You Know?

• Emperor Frederick IV of House Corrino offers sole governorship of Arrakis to whichever house delivers the most spice.
• The player is a military commander from a chosen house; later missions focus on destroying or capturing enemy bases.
• Warcraft: Orcs & Humans copied all artwork from Dune II and then redesigned each asset, accidentally retaining the font.

Development

Development began when Virgin Interactive Entertainment planned to cancel Cryo Interactive's adventure game Dune. Vice president Stephen Clarke-Willson was tasked with deciding what to do with the Dune license. After reading the original novel, he concluded that the battle to control spice was the central stress, making a resource-based strategy game appropriate. Around that time, employee Graeme Devine introduced the office to the real-time strategy game Herzog Zwei on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive.

Clarke-Willson noted that while the game was hard to follow as an observer, everyone liked its fast action and strategic nature. Virgin staff, including Clarke-Willson and Seth Mendelsohn, then approached Westwood Studios about making a Dune game. Westwood agreed to create a resource strategy game based on Dune and to examine Herzog Zwei for design ideas. Cryo's game was not cancelled, so Westwood's title was named Dune II.

Release

Dune II was first released for MS-DOS in 1992 and was among the first games to support the General MIDI standard. The audio used the Miles audio library to dynamically convert the MIDI score, originally composed on the Roland MT-32, to the selected soundcard. The initial setup utility did not allow separate output devices for music and speech/sound effects, frustrating owners of high-quality MIDI synthesizers. Westwood later released a revised utility enabling separate soundcard selection for digital speech, music, and sound effects.

Ports to the Amiga and Mega Drive/Genesis followed in 1993 and 1994 respectively. The Amiga floppy version has less detailed graphics and requires frequent disk swapping, with saves stored on a specially formatted disk. A port for the Archimedes and Risc PC computers arrived two years later. The Mega Drive/Genesis port features different graphics, a full-screen menu-less interface for gamepad control, no save game support (using access codes instead), a music test option, and a tutorial replacing the mentat screen.

Ideas from this version, such as the music track listing and context-sensitive cursor, were used in Command & Conquer. An Android port appeared in 2013, and a fan-made Pandora port based on the reverse-engineered OpenDUNE engine also exists.

Reception

Westwood Studios reported global sales exceeding 250,000 units by November 1996. Computer Gaming World in 1993 praised the PC version's gameplay, sound, and graphics, calling it a real gem. A February 1994 survey gave it a B+, noting limited replayability without online play, but a May 1994 survey awarded five stars out of five, calling it a wargame par excellence. Electronic Games gave a 92% score.

The Amiga version received positive reviews; CU Amiga rated it 85%, praising smooth gameplay and controls. Amiga User International gave it a Game of the Month award in September 1993. GamePro rated the Genesis version 17 out of 20, calling it one of the best war strategy carts for the Genesis. Electronic Gaming Monthly scored it 32 out of 40, noting addictive and easy-to-learn gameplay.

Game Informer rated it 8.25 out of 10. Computer Gaming World named Dune II Strategy Game of the Year in 1993. Amiga Power ranked it the 11th best game of all time in 1996. Computer Gaming World listed it as the 70th-best computer game ever in 1996.

It entered the GameSpy Hall of Fame in 2004. In Poland, Wirtualna Polska ranked it eighth and CHIP ranked it fourth among best Amiga games. Time named it one of the 100 greatest video games of all time in 2012. PC Gamer US placed it 49th in 1994, and PC Gamer UK ranked it 21st that same year, calling it a wargame for those who do not like wargames.

GamesMaster listed the Mega Drive version 8th in its Mega Drive Top 10 and the PC version 21st on its Top 100 Games of All Time.