ADG Episode 165 - Dune II

[@Garrette63]

Rest in peace, Westwood Studios. We'll never forget.

[@Tore299]

There's also a reimplementation (based on reverse engineering) of this game called OpenDune which runs on modern OS-es and if you want a more "user friendly" version you can try Dune Dynasty which is based on OpenDune and ads some Command & Conquer features to it like box selection of units. To play OpenDune or anything based on it you need the original game data. By the way in Westwood games the fog of war is referred to as "the shroud". ;) Many sites host versions of Dune 2, though I'm unsure if any one of them are really allowed to do so.

[@pepijnschermer5002]

I got all fuzzy feelings from this video. This game was actually my first introduction to the Dune universe in general. When I first read the books I was mildly dissapointed that the Ordos were nowhere to be found.

[@LuaanTi]

Heh, yeah. I actually read the first book before playing the game and Dune I before that, and there were some very confusing things in the games. It wasn't until much later that I finally figured out that the guys making the game never read the books - they just saw the Lynch movie :D

[@torgo_]

I love this game, so many memories! I remember using the spice harvester to squish the enemy foot soldiers.

[@CarlMahnke]

There was a trick with the ordos nerve gas rocket launcher. Once you had control over an enemy unit you would click on the attack button but wait with setting the target. Then, when the unit changed its color back you would give the attack order and the unit would follow your command (like attacking its own base).

[@somemong989]

Only reason to choose Ordos - worst house otherwise.

[@johnnyjohn9961]

"The spice extends life, the spice expands consciousness, the spice is vital to space travel."

[@1xWertzui]

Coming from someone with a faceplaming Captain Pickard icon makes this comment somehow very funny :D

[@MarianoDevourment]

I was working on a project and this video in the background listening to ti... I instantly recognized the intro from dune 2 with the first note. Loved this game and its music. Harkonnen all the way.

[@avabethmcghee3048]

All that click-click-click-click-click, back and forth, advancing all units manually and still maintaining clearly defined ranks.. you are far, far more patient than I am.

[@timlwetzel]

That PC speaker tune was music to my ears. Wait...I can't hear anything anymore........

[@Zamolxes77]

Memories! That's how I played Dune 2 for the 1st time, back in 1992/1993.

[@LuaanTi]

The computer player definitely does rely on an economy - there is a very famous exploit where if you attack the enemy harvesters with an infantry unit and let that poor guy get squashed, the harvester will not do anything anymore. This completely tanks the enemies' production, and after you defeat the initial units he has, it's trivial to steam-roll him even in the endgame levels.

[@LuderSatan1]

Great review. But It would have been cool if you also had used a minute on explaining how each house/faction have special units, that are unique to their faction. The Atredis have a Sonic tank, that destroes enemies via sound. Very destructive. And they have fremen mecenaries they get through their palace. The Harkonen have a Devastator tank, which has to tank barrels and is the most powerful unit (i think). And it can selfdestruct. The Harkonen also have a Scud-missile-ish missile they get through their palace: the death hand missile, which is very unaccurate. And the Ordos have a trike that is much quicker that the ones other have. They also have a rocket launcher that have gas in it, that makes enemy troops fight for you for a time being (deviator is it called). And they also have a spy or sabotor from their palace, which I never got to work correct. And the Emperor, with the color of purple, have its own ground-troops, the Sadauker. Love this game.

[@Pixelmusement]

Soren Sorensen I probably should've mentioned the Sadauker, but as for the special units, I've never been far enough in the game to use them so I don't know first-hand what their strengths and weaknesses are, plus I wouldn't've been able to show footage of them. :P

[@radiokies]

***** Thats too bad, also I guess you didn't find out that you only need half of a building to be founded on concrete (or was it 75%). i.e. a windtrap with 0/4 concrete has 50% hp, 1/4 concrete 75% and 2/4 concrete slabs 100%.The house special units were quite unique. Artreides had Sonic tanks that did quite some damage and did damage from the point of the tank towards the point it was shooting (dmging everything in it's path) but the tank had verry little hp. Ordos had the deveators, a MRLS tank that fired mind control missiles. Harkonnen had the Devastator, a hard hitting tank with lots of HP and a function to self destruct that does quite some damage to everything next to it. The Devastator is the Mammoth tank of the C&C games. Another thing that might be worth noting that the C&C games improved on is that even though you didn't have engineers in the game, you could capture buildings. Damage buildings untill they are red and then give a basic soldier the move command into that building. Dune 2 had quite a lot going for it, even more than some RTS games that came out the last few years. Also, one last thing that just popped into my head, the non-pc speaker sound was awesome. When I first played the game I only had my trustworthy PC speaker, but with a soundblaster the game didn't just gave you better sound and voice, but it even told you about being attacked, I still remember the announcer going: Harkonnen forces are attacking from the north. It's so sad to see that Westwood died in the sandpit called EA instead of becoming a great production/publisher company like Blizzard. Westwood was original, had great idea's that set some standards in the industry meanwhile Blizzard is the Apple of the gameindustry. Building on other idea's (Warcraft/Starcraft eventhough verry cool, every aspect came from other games and the universe was a ripoff of Warhammer) and not making anything noteworthy.

[@ByGeorge846]

I subbed as soon as I realized what ADG stands for.

[@RetroSwim]

Walk without rhythm, and it won't attract the wyrm...

[@ameerm4899]

Brother and I Played this game so much. Nostalgia

[@sideshowpianist]

Regarding support for playing music over PC speaker, I had come across a few games that actually had very good music over PC speaker. Two that come to mind are Duck Tales: The Quest for Gold and Tank Blasters. Tank Blasters is interesting since it somehow renders the wave data of the game's music and sound effects over the PC speaker, as though the PC speaker were a normal speaker. They might have used some kind of sound card emulator code.

[@antdude]

I played this on my IBM PS/2 model 30 286 10 Mhz PC!

[@MortimerZabi]

The Atreides Sonic Tank was the proto-Prism Tank from Red Alert 2.

[@fisk0]

Kinda, but they also included the Sonic tank in Tiberian Sun before RA2.

[@MortimerZabi]

@@fisk0 I was alluding to how broken it is. It outranges and melts everything at max gameplay speed, like the prism tank.

[@GeneralDudeMcAwesome]

Again a very nice video! Keep up the awesome work :)

[@MaximilienNoal]

Could you do an episode about Dune 1 ? Seems to be forgotten because of Dune 2 despite being as very good game. Played both games to death on an Amiga back in the day, good times. :)

[@antdude]

I played both on my IBM PS/2 model 30 286 10 Mhz PC. I didn't like the adventure game, but loved its RTS game.

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

I'd like to think I'm okay with RTS's, but this was totally a painful one to play, even back in the day - I guess the hostility of Dune itself didn't help that much. Great review as always!

[@Disthron]

So, I got the version I have on CD second hand so I don't know what updates were already applied. But I was told that the AI always targets your most expensive structure. On the assumption that it will be protected at your main base. I tested this in my game by building a second base that had only a really expensive structure and some walls around it and it seemed to work. They left my original base alone.

[@AlexeiVoronin]

It's 2019, and I have yet to beat this game. I'm not exactly an expert in strategy games to begin with, and this one is quite har,d mostly due to the controls...

[@antdude]

The later levels were too hard that I had to use trainers. :(

[@AllMightySanta]

This is one of those games I had on my old windows 3.1/DOS computer I had the shit out of, but never beat.

[@antdude]

For me, it was on my IBM PS/2 model 30 286 10 Mhz PC with IBM DOS v4.0 and Windows 3.x. :O

[@ClericPreston_]

Forget which one I preferred but there are a bunch of opensource engine remakes that rely on game files. Open Dune, Dune Dynasty and Dune legacy are the ones I remember some are more faithful and others control like command and conquer. with a unit and building sidemenu and mouse drag select control groups etc.

[@roguerifter9724]

I usually played as House Ordos or House Atreides. I actually never owned this but I played it at other people's houses, and owned the DUne 2000 remaster

[@BlackCatRedScarf]

0:11 - And then... the bass & _ear drums tearing_ was born. Back in the 90's, tweaking the settings for your soundcard and testing it was... kinda terrifying.

[@majmunx9703]

This games is awesome, but it's abnormally difficult due to fact that you have can't select a group of your units, and AI is brutal... Warcaft 1 also has this problem. I also found out about your channel just recently, and it's excellent!! Been watching LGR for quite some time, loving his stuff also. DOS gaming FTW :D Can you do Alien Carnage/Halloween Harry review? Yes I know LGR did it, but I would like to see your opinion on the game ;)

[@majmunx9703]

PS: Aaaand speaking of Warcraft 1....can you review that also pretty please :D

[@delatroy]

Copious levels of VGA badassary

[@FranklyTheSeeker1982]

why didn't you mention Dune2000? It's virtually identical to Dune2, except it runs on slightly newer systems and you can mark multiple units at one

[@Pixelmusement]

F. Uhlig Ironically, I did mention this in the initial draft of the script, then it got excised when I realized the thing supported PC Speaker music and it was awful. ;D The thing about Dune 2000 is that it's often considered to be very little of an improvement over the original game so I ultimately decided it wasn't really worth mentioning.

[@emscape2]

***** I LOVE Dune 2000, and it fixes some of the bugs you speak about. Multiplayer also was great

[@MaximilienNoal]

+Pixelmusement Being able to select multiple units alone is worth the upgrade, IMO. I can't play Dune 2 anymore because of how many clicks one needs to order units around.

[@timking3587]

Pixelmusement Come on you had thumpers in Dune 2000 that should be a excuse to say something about the game. That in my view was missing from the original 😉

[@antdude]

I played this on my IBM PS/2 model 30 286 10 Mhz! Remember Dune 1 RPG? :P

[@wesleybcrowen]

I just want to add a couple of things.. You can try out the game right now in the web-browser by going to epicport.com/en/dune2/browser . Kind of a weird thing, but its amusing to see. Also, I attempted to play the game on dosbox (with a real commitment unlike most RTS games I try to play and just give up) and found it completely unwieldy with how I need to individually select units and keep ordering them one-by-one. Luckily, the source port Dune Legacy (dunelegacy.sourceforge.net/website/) fixes all of the flaws of the original by introducing modern RTS features and higher resolutions, and this is the way I recommend to play over the original DOS version.

[@MaximilienNoal]

+WesleyB Crowen Thanks, I'll try Dune Legacy right away ! :)

[@Kumimono]

Klepacki from PC-speaker? Sign me in.

[@Hamdad]

No sound card? Really? This has a midi soundtrack IIRC you just need a soundblaster or similar to hear it. PC speaker is murder on the ears

[@Pixelmusement]

+I Chose Hampture I mention that Dune II has AdLib support; that's what I was using in the video... or was this comment intended for a different video?

[@Hamdad]

@@Pixelmusement No, it's the right video. I just remember it sounding much better than this.

[@PhoenixOfOrion]

True fact, this was my first PC game I ever played as a wee idiot and boy oh boy did I think the PC speaker stuff I was hearing was mind blowing.

[@TeraunceFoaloke]

Under 300 club. Also nice to know this is freeware.

[@SevenDeMagnus]

Cool. This is the Shenmue (the first and father of 3D open world, the father of GTA 4 & 5, Fallout 3 to 76', Witcher, Skyrim, Cyberpunk 2077, Yakuza, Breath of the Wild, etc.). Any site whereby they explain the code of Doom 1 and Wolfenstein 3D (90's)? God bless, Proverbs 31

[@wesleybcrowen]

Chrome blocked that link, telling me it's malware yadda-yadda.. Is it morally and karmically okay to download it from other old games repository?

[@Pixelmusement]

WesleyB Crowen You may've typed in the URL wrong. The website is still up, working fine, and has no malware of any kind.

[@wesleybcrowen]

***** couldn't have because I've went through the link on your website, and when I click to see the game's page, Chrome goes bonkers. I do think it's a false flag (because the site is old) but I just installed Windows 10 preview on the laptop and right now I ought to be better safe than sorry and just grab it from the source that doesn't make Chrome go nuts.

[@Pixelmusement]

Levi Powell WesleyB Crowen Waitaminute... is the website itself causing issues or the ZIP file download? I should probably quickly point out that in the process of making this episode, I found an issue with the download available, notified the site author, and he fixed the file. So to that end, it's possible that because the file's been modified, and because of how few people are aware of this website, some people's browsers may react badly to it given the lack of downloads for the new file. I have Avast for my virus scanning needs and it says the website is in good standing and no viruses are detected in the download, so yeah, everything's good and you guys should report false positives if possible. (I can't report false positives because my stuff isn't saying anything's wrong!)

[@wesleybcrowen]

The downloads do that (and if you try to force download the browser blocks it suspecting it's malware), the website in itself is fine.

[@Pixelmusement]

WesleyB Crowen Yeah, you're gonna have to report that as a false positive.

[@darkobelisk4076]

The Genesis version is worth a play. Rare exception where the console version was better.

[@Pixelmusement]

Funnily enough, there's a fair number of games which ended up on both DOS PCs and the Genesis where the Genesis version is better. :o

[@fisk0]

Yeah, it was right on the edge of the era where PC games were often inferior to the Amiga/Atari ST ports of games (and since the Amiga and Atari ST used the same CPU as the Genesis, the Genesis ports were usually based on that). And Dune II in particular has such a rudimentary RTS interface that it really doesn't make much of a difference when you play it with a controller or mouse, since the game doesn't take advantage of any of the advantages the mouse would've had.

[@quarkbent9165]

Ah, Dune II. What a nexus point.

[@executivebexley252]

The units in command and conquer say exactly the same things as they do in this!! Yes sir, acknowledged, affirmative, moving out etc

[@premsing88]

Do kknd. Krush kill and destroy

[@1xWertzui]

Westwood never had good PC Speaker support in their games. They were more Adlib oriented.

[@calisteniabb]

NOT AGED VERY WELL GOD DAMN IT PLAY IT WITH THE DUNE LEGACY PORT AND REVIEW IT AGAIN