Adapted from the 1965 hit novel series by storyteller Frank Herbert; Dune as a Sci-Fi novel became a movie in 1984 and followed up becoming one of the pioneering PC games to even make it in CD.

Taking ourselves back to the yesteryears of gaming, when graphics were low and mostly the old games came in floppies; Dune was a revolution then. Not only was it the first ‘Strategy’ game made, but considering the development resources at that time back in 1992; the creators of the game were indeed did justice to the great story and further movie.

Dune is about a far away planet where Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV asks help from Duke Leto Atreides to prospect mining spices in the harsh desert terrain of Planet Dune; which is ruled by their mortal foes; the Harkonnen. Duke Atreides sends his son Paul Atreides to take charge of the mission; which they accept because spice mining is lucrative as well as a scope of defeating the Harkonnen. Then the game becomes about strategies; developing skills, raising an army, finding spice harvesters and prospectors and ensuring survival on Dune.

The emperor needs a constant and certain supply of spice; which increases with playtime and if not satisfied, the game is lost. On the other front, Paul must also hire an army and ensure that none of his base fortresses known as ‘steiches’ are captured. These characters come from natives of Dune called the Fremen and they have various tasks to perform and work to help Paul, along his various obstacles on Dune as well as the mini-quests that keep popping up as the game progresses.

While there are various ways to keep industry in Dune alive, very little story from the movie actually changed. Skills like Ecology and Paul’s abilities develop as the game progresses and more spice is mined. The smugglers supply instruments and weapons while characters like Duncan Idaho and Gurney Halleck have their own work as mining leaders or military trainers. Such characters included with the sandworms which are considered powerful beasts to control; making Paul capable of having more charm and abilities to control over his duties and mining steiches on Dune.

The styling of the gameplay is RTS and Adventure; but looking today it’s closer to a mixture between Strategy and Arcade Adventure games. While you can’t expect the graphics to be over the top in 1992; the pioneer days of color games and multi-media, the music used to be a much demanded treat. The album was named ‘Dune: Spice Opera’ and was a sell out for many days. The Game technology was based initially during development days on a Floppy Disk, but later was converted to the first CD games. There was another Sega Mega-CD version which was much critically acclaimed and that served both DOS and CD formats.

Looking back at these golden games like Dune, we have to remember that the reason we have such visual treats today is that games like these were popular. These games created a demand in the market so intense, that IBM and Amiga couldn’t help but notice that gaming was looking at a bright future. Developers Cryo Interactive and publishers Virgin Interactive were both companies who pioneered the gaming industry that has reached such immense volumes today.

Tags: Cryo Interactive, dune, dune 2, Frank Herbert, Old Games, virgin interactive, westwood studios