How Dune 2 Was Created and Why No One Remembers the First Part: 10 Interesting Facts About Dune 2 (13 photos)

I think many of you will agree with me when I say that "Dune 2: The battle for Arrakiss" is the best strategy game on the Sega Mega drive 2.





1. As you know, the game "Dune 2" is a film adaptation of Frank Herbert's "Dune" series of novels. But this is not entirely true (more on that later). And in 1984, the first film adaptation of the book was released, though it was a bit of a failure.



It was only in the late 80s that the founder of Mastertronic, Martin Alper, began to think about creating a game based on the Dune universe. However, he never received the rights to develop the game from the writer himself, which greatly upset Alper.

But when Mastertronic became part of Virgin in 1990, Martin was once again fired up by the idea of ​​making a Dune game, but decided to take a roundabout route. He decided to get the rights to develop a game based not on Herbert's book, but on the 1984 film. He didn't care that the film adaptation was worthless. The main thing was to get the rights. And in the end, he was able to achieve his goal.

And then he signed a contract for the development of the game with the company "CRYO Interactive" and the work finally began to boil.

2. At that very moment, the company "Virgin" acquired the studio "Westwood studios". And while "Cryo Interactive" was creating its "Dune", the bosses of "Virgin" commissioned "Westwood studios" to make their version of the game, and in secret from Alpier himself. More precisely, "Westwoods" knew that someone else was developing "Dune", but they were sure that the development of that project was stopped.





As a result, the two companies essentially created one game, not knowing about each other's existence. Only if "Cryo interactive" made an economic strategy, then the company "Westwood" decided to deviate from the path of creating a strategy in the spirit of board games, making something new and unusual.

And when both games were almost ready, the bosses of "Virgin" announced that both games would be released. But the game that will be released first will receive the first issue, and the next one will be awarded the second issue.



It so happened that the first game to come out was "Dune" from the company "Cryo interactive". As I already said, it was essentially an economic strategy with development, dialogues, spice production, military build-up, etc.

True, the game itself did not receive wide popularity. In particular, this was influenced by the gameplay itself and the fact that the game was released on only three platforms - computers (MS-DOS and Amiga), as well as on the Sega Mega-CD game console.



But the game that came out next, called "Dune 2: The building of dinasty" was received with a bang. The game became a worldwide hit and (one might even say) the daddy of all RTS (real-time strategy) games.

3. When the developers from "Westwood" were developing their version of the game, they were largely inspired by the game "Herzog Zwei". In particular, they liked the idea of ​​making a game in real time and with a top-down view.



Herzog Zwei

The idea of ​​collecting resources was taken from the game "Sid's Mayer Civilization", and the idea of ​​controlling the mouse appeared thanks to the game "Popolous". In general, the developers took some elements from several games, and as a result, they released a real hit.

4. After the success of the game on personal computers, it was decided to port the game to the game console "Sega mega drive 2", thanks to which many of us got acquainted with it. Only on the console "Sega mega drive" the game was called a little differently, namely "Dune 2: The battle for Arrakis".

5. In the game, we could play for one of three houses - Artreides, Harkonen and Ordos. And if everything is clear with the first two houses, then Ordos confused many, because there was no such house in the books of Frank Herbert and in the film adaptation of David Lynch.



As it turned out, the developers took the Ordos house not from the book or the film, but from the fan encyclopedia "Dune", written by Professor Willis McNally and fans of this universe. And in the encyclopedia itself there were no details about this house. So, a small mention and heraldry.

But since the "Westwoods" decided to make the game more diverse, they latched onto the idea of ​​introducing a third house, "Ordos", into the game and came up with its backstory themselves, saying that their characteristic features are secrecy and mystery, and the house is not ruled by a family, but by 4 rich businessmen.



Frank Herbert himself liked Professor McNally's encyclopedia, but nevertheless he ordered to consider it non-canonical, but some kind of alternative history of the "Dune" universe.

6. The Artreides are a peace-loving nation, so they were made as such in the game. However, this mainly concerns the attitude towards the sandworm.



If there are units of the Ordos or Harkonen near the worm, they will automatically engage in combat with it. But the Artreides will start shooting at the worm only if the player orders them to do so.

7. In the last mission, you can capture the Emperor's factory. To do this, you need to leave a small amount of "health" for the building, and then send an infantryman there. After that, the factory will belong to you, and you will be able to produce both sonics and devastators there.



8. Enemy units have programmed attacks only at the beginning of each mission. Subsequently, the built units will be sent into battle immediately after they come off the conveyor.



9. Sonics are completely immune to each other's attacks. Yes, sonics are the signature technique of the blues, but, for example, the green ordos can subjugate them thanks to their deviators. And if in this case two Sonics meet, they simply will not be able to destroy each other.



10. The game "Dune 2" essentially became a guide to the world of real-time strategies, and it inspired the company "Blizzard" to create the game "Warcraft", which gained even greater fame. At one time, "Warcraft" was even called nothing other than "Dune with orcs".