Dune 2 - The Building of a Dynasty

Anyone remembers Dune 2?

While most people will remember Command & Conquer as the hit real-time strategy PC game, not as many will remember Dune 2, which was actually the granddad of RTS games. Based on the sci-fi world created by Frank Herbert for his Dune series of novels, the player gets to play as one of the three Houses, Atreides, Harkonnen or Ordos. Each House comes with similar basic units, and special units peculiar to each House. The standard units of foot soldier/infantry, fast scout, tank and resource gatherer have made it in one form or another into future RTS games. The basic concept was simple: gather resources, build up a base, create an army, destroy the opponent's army and base. Sounds familiar?

I got so hooked to the game, I used to play 10 hours straight during the weekends. I was still a student then, else I would have been playing 10 hours straight on weekdays too. The result? My CRT monitor decided it had enough abuse, and burnt out on me. But that didn't stop me. I took out an older CRT monitor (from a previous computer) and continued to play.

The game got me interested in the world of Dune. I went on to read the whole Dune series by Frank Herbert, all six books. The interest in Dune did not stop there. When Frank Herbert's son Brian decided to expand on the world created by his father, I read the books written by him and Kevin J. Anderson. It was a computer game that drew me into the intriguing world of Dune.