manually select ‘move’ or ‘attack’.
How was it going to look on a 4K
monitor? Would I be better off trying
to play it on a calculator? Would I
really get any satisfaction out of
finishing a mission without a badly
acted FMV sequence at the end?
Could I even be bothered to try and
get a 25-year-old game to work on a
modern PC?
Dune 2000 was the solution. Back
in 1998 Dune 2000 was little more
than a revamp of Dune II, but to be
able to easily revisit that universe
today that’s exactly what I needed.
While Dune 2000 isn’t available
through digital stores, you can
download and play it for free
courtesy of the legally murky Dune
2000: Gruntmods Edition. Gruntmods
has done a fantastic job of making it
easy to set up. It’s available to play in
just moments, and at about four
times its original resolution.
CRAFT BEARD
The icing on the cake is it still
includes all three sets of ludicrous
full motion video sequences from
each of the playable houses.
The game begins with an
introduction to the story by Bene
Gesserit concubine Lady Elara—
basically a bald witch with a
detachable poisonous fingernail.
I’m drawn to play as house
Atreides, not because they’re noble
heroes who liberate the oppressed
natives, but because I want to see
John Rhys-Davies’ beard. Playing the
role of mentat to house Atreides, he
delivers a brilliant piece of oratory
during one of the early FMV
sequences, proclaiming that
“Harkonnen would rather drink your
blood than their own mother’s milk”.
It’s classic Command & Conquer
movie territory, complete with a tiny
set, about three extras and a terrible
green screened desert backdrop.
As the game begins the first thing
I notice is that the unit animations
aren’t quite as polished as C&C, and
there are fewer frames when the
units move. It’s playable though. My
screen resolution for the first mission
is so high that I find the corners of
the map with a couple of infantry
then realize the mission area is
basically just a box in the middle
of the screen.
I notice early on that many of the
vehicles such as harvesters and trikes
take a form much more akin to theARRAKISS AND TELL
Three units that Dune did before C&C
DUNE 2000
1998SABOTEUR
Blows up buildings
but is now invisible.
Basically an
unarmed Tanya.DE VASTATOR
Identical to the
Dune II version but
fires plasma energy
instead of shells.THE DEATHHAND
Similar to the Dune
II Deathhand but
more like a Tiberian
Sun cluster missile.C&C
1993COMMANDO
Uses C4 to destroy
buildings but is also
armed with a deadly
anti-infantry gun.MAMMOTH TANK
The twin-cannon
behemoth with
anti-infantry
rockets.NUCLEAR MISSILE
C&C’s original villain
superweapon was a
Dune superweapon
first.DUNE II
1992SABOTEUR
Unarmed and
unplayable. Runs
into buildings and
blows them up.DE VASTATOR
The original
Mammoth—but with
a built in
self-destruct.THE DEATHHAND
A devastating
warhead available
with the Harkonnen
palace.EXTRA LIFE
NOW PLAYING (^) I UPDATE I GUIDE I DIARY I REINSTALL (^) I WHY I LOVE I MUS T P L A Y
The worm has
definitely turned.
Expect some very ’90s-looking
animated sequences.