DOS Days

Dune 2: Battle for Arrakis / Building of a Dynasty

Released: 1992
Published by: Virgin Games
Developed by: Westwood Studios
Author(s): Joseph Bostic, Aaron E Powell, Scott K Bowen, Elie Arabian, Ren Olsen, Judith Peterson, Eric Shults, Paul S Mudra, Frank Klepacki, Dwight Kenichi Okahara, Brett W Sperry, Lyle Hall

System Requirements

System Requirements 80286 CPU, 564 KB RAM.
Graphics support for MCGA/VGA only.
- Best graphics mode is 320 x 200 in 256 colours.
Audio support for Tandy/PCjr, Ad Lib, Ad Lib Gold, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, Roland MT-32, Roland Sound Canvas. (GUS support via unofficial patch).
Mouse optional (but recommended).
Original Media Five 5.25" 1.2 MB DS/HD or four 3.5" 1.44 MB DS/HD floppy disks. CD-ROM version released later.
Installed Size -


Introduction

Dune 2 puts you in control of either the Atreides, Ordos, or Harkonnen empire on the Planet of Arrakis in one of the first real-time strategy games on the PC. The aim of the game is to dominate the planet's spice mining over your opponents. "Battle for Arrakis" is the European title of the game, but in USA it's "The Building of a Dynasty".

Build and manage your resources, move your units around, and protect what you have built from your foes. The storyline of Battle for Arrakis is very loosely based on the world of Dune, authored by Frank Herbert.

 

From where can it be run?

The game must be installed to your hard disk. Insert disk 1, run INSTALL and follow the on-screen prompts.

 

 

Game Audio/Video

Sync Play    Audio loading, please wait...

Sound Blaster 16 (CT2770)
ESS1868 AudioDrive
Ad Lib MSC16 PnP
Aztech SG Pro 16-II 3D
Aztech SG Nova 16 Extra
OPL3SAx


Game Introduction (video)
For a complete review and comparison of some of these cards, visit my Sound Blaster 16 (CT2770) review page.
ESS1868 recordings are from a Compaq ES1868 Audio Feature Board. Game configuration set to Sound Blaster Pro.

 

Copy Protection

Dune II has manual copy protection. There are cracks available as well as a copy of the manual further down this page.

 

How to Setup

*** This section is still to be completed ***

 

Problems

Symptom: I have configured the game for digitized audio, but I'm not hearing any.
Cause: The game requires minimum 2 MB of extended memory free.
Resolution: Make sure you have the line DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS (or similar) in your CONFIG.SYS file.

Symptom: I am running Dune II from Windows, but I'm having issues with sound lagging and occasional crashes.
Resolution: Copy these files into your game directory, overwriting the files already there.

 

To Quit the Game

Press Ctrl-C at any time to return to the DOS prompt. Be aware you will lose any unsaved progress, so be sure to save your game first.

 

Supporting Documents

Here are the original documents that came with the game:

And here are other documents that may help:

 

Additional Files, Drivers and Utilities

At launch, Dune II only supported a single sound device at a time- you had to choose between either MIDI music and no speech, or no music and speech. A tough choice, for as good as the music is with a Roland or GM device, that slightly mechanical voice announcing "Atreides harvester deployed" or "Enemy unit approaching" does add a lot to the atmosphere in the game. Fortunately there is a later, unofficial patch that adds support for two different sound devices. The file is called d2sound.exe, but I don't have this file - let me know via the Contact Us link if you have this.

 

Save Games

-

 

Versions of the game known to exist

Version Date Comments
Demo Sep 1992 Playable demo
Demo Apr 1993 Demo of Dune II and Legend of Kyrandia
1.00 Nov 1992 First release.
1.07 ? Patched release.

 


Installed Directory Contents

Once installed, the following directory structure exists in the game directory.

Directory of C:\GAMES\DUNE2
.            <DIR>         06/05/21   20:42
..           <DIR>         06/05/21   20:42
ATRE PAK 411,391 11-14-92 2:37p
DUNE CFG 10 11-06-21 5:17p
DUNE PAK 438,114 11-21-92 11:35a
DUNE2 EXE 365,504 12-17-92 5:33p
DUNE2 ICO 1,792 10-23-92 1:19p
DUNE2 PIF 995 08-09-00 9:32p
DUNE2 TXT 60,738 12-22-04 5:36p
ENGLISH PAK 50,435 11-20-92 1:18p
FINALE PAK 592,797 11-16-92 12:26p
HARK PAK 434,162 11-07-92 11:49a
INTRO PAK 1,225,454 11-21-92 11:35a
INTROVOC PAK 975,460 11-07-92 11:50a
MENTAT PAK 573,697 11-14-92 5:04p
MERC PAK 45,589 11-07-92 11:50a
ONETIME DAT 0 12-17-92 5:26p
OPTIONS CFG 10 11-01-21 8:16p
ORDOS PAK 462,480 11-07-92 11:49a
SAVEFAME DAT 288 11-01-21 8:24p
SCENARIO PAK 315,946 11-21-92 11:35a
SETUP EXE 90,896 11-17-92 5:56p
SETUPENG DIP 1,963 11-13-92 5:10p
SOUND PAK 1,310,138 11-14-92 5:04p
VOC PAK 262,738 11-07-92 11:50a
_SAVE000 DAT 4,610 11-01-21 8:16p
26 file(s) 7,625,207 bytes