How was the game "Dune 2" created and why has no one seen the first part? (15 photos)

Surely, many of you have played the cult strategy "Dune 2" on the Sega Mega Drive 2 console, and some lucky ones even managed to play the original on the computer.





The game has become a real hit, and in fact it is founder of the RTS genre. But why exactly "Dune 2"? Why the first part of the game "Dune" did not deserve such attention?



After the success of the second part of the game, gamers began to look for the first. After all, everyone was interested to know how the cult began its journey. "Dune 2". But it was not for sale anywhere. What was the surprise gamers when they finally found the first part of the game.

In 1988, the founder of Mastertronic, Martin Alper fired up to make a game in the Dune universe, authored by writer Frank Herbert. Martin realized that thanks to high sales books and a huge fan base, he will be able to attract players, despite that at that time he had nothing but an idea.

However, all of Martin's attempts to obtain the rights were unsuccessful. But in 1990, when Mastertronic was absorbed by the famous company "Virgin games", Martin Alper decided cheat a little to get the rights.

He managed to negotiate with the studio "Universal", which owned rights to the film adaptation of the failed film "Dune" (1984). He was I don't care if the movie was a flop. The main thing for him was obtaining rights.





As a result, Martin signs a contract with the company "CRYO Interactive" to develop a space game with strategy elements called Dune, which Martin already had the rights to.








And the game "Dune" really came out. And it wasn't the same the game we are used to. "Dune". This game focuses on dialogues, decision-making and military build-up. That is, the player you will have to completely immerse yourself in the situation on the planet Arrakis.






At the same time, the company "Virgin games" acquired the studio Westwood studios. She instructed them to start developing her own version. Dune games.

Westwood decided to deviate from the usual strategies reminiscent of board games and do something new and more interesting. They have collected all their experience, taking the best from various previous developed games. For example, from the game "Sid's Mayer Civilization" the developers took the collection and management of resources, from the game "Popolous" was mouse control is taken, and from the game "Herzog Zwei" - real-time combat with a top view.








"Sid's Mayer Civilization"

By the way, it was the game "Herzog zwei" for the "Sega mega drive" to a large extent and influenced the game "Dune 2", in particular appearance, development of the army and battles with units in real time.



But the most interesting thing is that Westwood studios was on 100% sure that the development of the game "Dune" by the company "Cryo interactive" was stopped. How wrong they were.



As a result, both of these games were published by the company "Virgin games" in 1992. All that remained was to distribute the numbering of the games. Here came pretty simple. Which game came out earlier, this one got the first number. The first game was released by "Cryo interactive" for computers and consoles "Sega CD". Probably why so little is known about its existence. of people.

The second part of the game from "Westwood studios" was released in 1992 year for personal computers, dubbed "Dune 2: Build of dinasty" in the American version. The European version of the game according tobeamed titled "Dune 2: The battle for arrakis".



Well, in 1994 for the prefix "Sega Mega Drive" came out official port of the game "Dune 2: The battle for Arrakis", thanks to to which many of us have become acquainted with this universe.