Sunday, January 8, 2012

Dune, a Desert Adventure Masterpiece - Amiga

There is no better game to start off this blog than Dune. Quite well known amongst the older gamers, it is often overlooked in favour of its sequel, Dune II: The Battle for Arrakis. The latter being considered as the father of all modern RTS games. As it was often the case back then, you cannot really put a single genre label on this game. Dune offers a rich gaming experience mixing adventure, strategy and exploration.

The action is staged on the desert planet Arrakis, also known as Dune, the only place in the universe where the “Spice” can be found. Spice is a key resource, as it allows interstellar travel. Various Houses struggle to gain control of the planet and its natural riches. In the game, you are Paul Atreides, heir of the House Atreides, a noble family from Caladan, the Water Planet. You're sent to Arrakis to face the Harkonnens, another Great House with rather questionable ethics. To gain control of the planet and fight off the Harkonnens, you'll need to befriend the Fremen, the indigenous people of Dune.
Paul Atreides, Dune's main character

Throughout the game, you'll have to explore the planet to find new Fremen havens and network with the various leaders you'll meet, manage spice extraction, train your own army and manage it to fend off your enemies. Amongst other things. It could have been messy but it really isn't, everything falls in place beautifully, but don't take my word for it, just play the game!

Dune map view
Dune map, allows you to manage the troops
Last but certainly not least, the soundtrack. The only fitting word here is masterpiece. Composer Stéphan Picq has done a wonderful job there. I highly recommend you to check out his other pieces if you like this one.


Dune captured my imagination when I played it for the first time as a kid, and to this day, each time I go back to it I can feel this thrill that only truly great games create. I hope you'll like as much as I do!

If you need some pointers on how to play the game, especially at later stage when you need to build a strategy, here is a nice Dune walkthrough by Andrew Nixon.

Dune
Developed by: Cryo; released in 1992
Platform: Amiga (ECS, OCS)

15 comments:

  1. I like it, old music (especially 8bit <3!) is really my thing, if you like 8bit you should look up dubmood, and if you like it look up zabutom (music is rare on youtube:( )

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  2. never played it, but looks really nice! fellow retrogamer here!

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  3. @Coding: Checked out dubmood and found a great version of the Monkey Island theme. Thanks for sharing this! You should definitely check out the other Dune tracks if you like old music, they're just great.

    @Raven: try it out if you have a chance, I'll soon post a guide for it. :)

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  4. Always thought that Command and Conquer: Tiberium Dawn would be considered the Grandfather of RTSs...

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  5. @DWei: I spent many hours on Command and Conquer back in the day and it was awesome indeed. But Dune was released in 1992, Dune II in 1993, and C&C in 1995.

    If you like RTS I strongly suggest you to try Dune II!

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  6. Never heard of this game, though I never had an amiga before either

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  8. Didn't know Dune I was so different from II

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  9. Good game, good review.
    Retronomy.net

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  10. Why was I not aware of this game? They don't make them like this anymore.

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  11. @Rau It has this adventure feel you don't get in Dune II. Both are great for sure though.

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  12. Amiga?! I actually had to go see if the emulation software exists to get one of these running again. Turns out, it does! Can't get enough of this music either. Following!

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  13. @Zak I'll post a tutorial on how to configure Winuae very soon, it's probably the most stable emulator you'll find.

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  14. i loved playing the dune games with my brother and sister.
    so much nostalgia

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    Replies
    1. Not so much Dune games but I used to play Hero Quest a lot with my brother. Very convenient for us lazy asses to have a video game version. :)

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