4 ms·

I always thought the original Dune game doesn't get enough love. Dune II was obviously more influential being a template for a successful new type of game, but

I always thought the original Dune game doesn't get enough love. Dune II was obviously more influential being a template for a successful new type of game, but Dune actually told the story with beautiful pixelart cut scenes and required you to follow the steps in the book, (or maybe more based on the Lynch film.) Actually my teenage self discovered Dune through playing the Amiga version and only read and watched it after so it will always have a special place for me.

8f2ab37a-ed6c 4y ago
And let's not forget about its excellent ambient electronica soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF_0W1cYPYo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF_0W1cYPYo
- gman83 4y ago
  Ohh wow, I only ever heard the Adlib version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjHon6yg-r8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjHon6yg-r8
  - robinei 4y ago
    I actually prefer the Adlib version!
    - minusf 4y ago
      the dune ost by stephane picq is a master course in how to take full advantage of the fm chip, and that's where it sounds the best and i believe how it was intended. it's beautiful analogue electronica. the spice opera is a nice addition, but it's trying a bit too hard...
- boyter 4y ago
  Still one of my “I need this code today” soundtracks. I absolutely adore it.
- suprjami 4y ago
  Dune: Spice Opera is my favourite album of all time, and the rare CD is one of my most prized possessions. I'm friends with Stephane Picq on Facebook but he hasn't been on in years.
aidenn0 4y ago
The Digital Antiquarian agrees with you: > But, rather amazingly, Cryo’s Dune defies any knee-jerk prejudices that might be engendered by knowledge of Philippe Ulrich’s earlier or later output. While it’s every bit as unique a design concept as you might expect given its place of origin, in this case the concept works. For all that they spent the better part of three years at one another’s throats more often than not, Dune nevertheless wound up being a true meeting in the middle between the passionate digital artistes of Cryo and the more practical craftsmen in Virgin’s Anglosphere offices. For once, an exemplar of the French Touch has a depth worthy of its striking surface. Dune plays like a dispatch from an alternate reality in which Cryo cared as much about making good games in a design sense as they did about making beautiful and meaningful ones in an aesthetic and thematic sense — thus proving, should anyone have doubted it, that these things need not be mutually exclusive. https://www.filfre.net/2018/11/controlling-the-spice-part-2-cryos-dune/ https://www.filfre.net/2018/11/controlling-the-spice-part-2-...
gabaix 4y ago
One of the two creators of Dune is Philippe Ulrich. He did most of the design and development, including the digital soundtrack. Here is a recent interview of him (in French): https://www.cnc.fr/jeu-video/actualites/philippe-ulrich---avec-dune-nous-avons-imagine-le-premier-cdrom-de-lhistoire_941747 https://www.cnc.fr/jeu-video/actualites/philippe-ulrich---av...
- suprjami 4y ago
  No, he didn't. Remi Herbulot invented the HERAD music system, which used features of the sound chip that no other sound system did. Remi operated on a godlike level of FM sound production, the only other person who even approached him was Robert Prince (Doom musician). Stephane Picq wrote most of the Dune soundtrack as real electronic music then "backported" it to Remi's music system. Ulrich contributed one or two tracks. http://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php/Dune_(DOS) http://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php/Dune_(DOS) You can hear the obvious similarity between Dune and Stephane's other music: https://vgmrips.net/packs/composer/stephane-picq https://vgmrips.net/packs/composer/stephane-picq
  - gabaix 4y ago
    Thanks for adding notes! I only know Ulrich, from knowing his nephew. To this day, it is impressive to me what few people could achieve back then.
nlnn 4y ago
Same here. I first saw it on an episode of the UK TV show GamesMaster (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAFR2e92MlQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAFR2e92MlQ), and was blown away by the graphics at the time. Being a big fan of Dune at the time, I had to go out and buy it as soon as I could. I preferred it to Dune II by a long way, I felt it had much more of a story and atmosphere, and kept a lot of what I loved about the Dune universe.
madmoose 4y ago
I reverse engineered the Dune globe renderer and managed to get it compile to WASM: https://thomas.fach-pedersen.net/dune/wasm-dune-globe/ https://thomas.fach-pedersen.net/dune/wasm-dune-globe/ Did you ever notice that there's an eye on the bottom of Cryo's Arrakis? https://thomas.fach-pedersen.net/dune/arrakis-eye.png https://thomas.fach-pedersen.net/dune/arrakis-eye.png :)
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  That's really cool! The good all days of all SW rendering.
dbspin 4y ago
Absolutely agree! I was so disappointed when the industry as a whole moved away from the mishmash of gameplay styles that tried to fuse the narrative with gameplay, to generic play with narrative only as decoration. Fortunately we've had indie games reintroduce experimentalism in play types in more recent years. I suppose it's in the nature of game development and programming itself that things become essentialised and iterated, but for me the - somewhat clumsy - creation of something new is always more interesting than a perfected abstraction. Especially when storytelling and gameplay are so interlinked.
2000UltraDeluxe 4y ago
Both games were amazing for their time. The Cryo one just aged better. I still find myself listening to the soundtrack every now and then.
jicea 4y ago
Absolutely agree. The original Dune artworks and soundtracks are really appart, it's more an experience than a "traditional" video game (while at the time, there weren't traditional games, good memories...) The first Dune is also more faithful to the book regarding the ecology theme and the Fremen arc (in my mind at least)
- fatnoah 4y ago
  It's been a "few" years since I played Dune I & II, but I can still remember the Dune soundtrack and much of its imagery with amazing clarity. They were amazing achievements for the time.
GekkePrutser 4y ago
The pc CD-Rom version also had beautiful cutscenes, a movie clip and music. I liked it much more than Dune II thigh the replay value of the latter was much better. But I feel much more love for Dune I.

8f2ab37a-ed6c 4y ago

And let's not forget about its excellent ambient electronica soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF_0W1cYPYo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF_0W1cYPYo

gman83 4y ago
Ohh wow, I only ever heard the Adlib version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjHon6yg-r8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjHon6yg-r8
- robinei 4y ago
  I actually prefer the Adlib version!
  - minusf 4y ago
    the dune ost by stephane picq is a master course in how to take full advantage of the fm chip, and that's where it sounds the best and i believe how it was intended. it's beautiful analogue electronica. the spice opera is a nice addition, but it's trying a bit too hard...
boyter 4y ago
Still one of my “I need this code today” soundtracks. I absolutely adore it.
suprjami 4y ago
Dune: Spice Opera is my favourite album of all time, and the rare CD is one of my most prized possessions. I'm friends with Stephane Picq on Facebook but he hasn't been on in years.

aidenn0 4y ago

The Digital Antiquarian agrees with you: > But, rather amazingly, Cryo’s Dune defies any knee-jerk prejudices that might be engendered by knowledge of Philippe Ulrich’s earlier or later output. While it’s every bit as unique a design concept as you might expect given its place of origin, in this case the concept works. For all that they spent the better part of three years at one another’s throats more often than not, Dune nevertheless wound up being a true meeting in the middle between the passionate digital artistes of Cryo and the more practical craftsmen in Virgin’s Anglosphere offices. For once, an exemplar of the French Touch has a depth worthy of its striking surface. Dune plays like a dispatch from an alternate reality in which Cryo cared as much about making good games in a design sense as they did about making beautiful and meaningful ones in an aesthetic and thematic sense — thus proving, should anyone have doubted it, that these things need not be mutually exclusive. https://www.filfre.net/2018/11/controlling-the-spice-part-2-cryos-dune/ https://www.filfre.net/2018/11/controlling-the-spice-part-2-...

gabaix 4y ago

One of the two creators of Dune is Philippe Ulrich. He did most of the design and development, including the digital soundtrack. Here is a recent interview of him (in French): https://www.cnc.fr/jeu-video/actualites/philippe-ulrich---avec-dune-nous-avons-imagine-le-premier-cdrom-de-lhistoire_941747 https://www.cnc.fr/jeu-video/actualites/philippe-ulrich---av...

suprjami 4y ago
No, he didn't. Remi Herbulot invented the HERAD music system, which used features of the sound chip that no other sound system did. Remi operated on a godlike level of FM sound production, the only other person who even approached him was Robert Prince (Doom musician). Stephane Picq wrote most of the Dune soundtrack as real electronic music then "backported" it to Remi's music system. Ulrich contributed one or two tracks. http://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php/Dune_(DOS) http://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php/Dune_(DOS) You can hear the obvious similarity between Dune and Stephane's other music: https://vgmrips.net/packs/composer/stephane-picq https://vgmrips.net/packs/composer/stephane-picq
- gabaix 4y ago
  Thanks for adding notes! I only know Ulrich, from knowing his nephew. To this day, it is impressive to me what few people could achieve back then.

nlnn 4y ago

Same here. I first saw it on an episode of the UK TV show GamesMaster (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAFR2e92MlQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAFR2e92MlQ), and was blown away by the graphics at the time. Being a big fan of Dune at the time, I had to go out and buy it as soon as I could. I preferred it to Dune II by a long way, I felt it had much more of a story and atmosphere, and kept a lot of what I loved about the Dune universe.

madmoose 4y ago

I reverse engineered the Dune globe renderer and managed to get it compile to WASM: https://thomas.fach-pedersen.net/dune/wasm-dune-globe/ https://thomas.fach-pedersen.net/dune/wasm-dune-globe/ Did you ever notice that there's an eye on the bottom of Cryo's Arrakis? https://thomas.fach-pedersen.net/dune/arrakis-eye.png https://thomas.fach-pedersen.net/dune/arrakis-eye.png :)

ChuckNorris89 4y ago
That's really cool! The good all days of all SW rendering.

dbspin 4y ago

Absolutely agree! I was so disappointed when the industry as a whole moved away from the mishmash of gameplay styles that tried to fuse the narrative with gameplay, to generic play with narrative only as decoration. Fortunately we've had indie games reintroduce experimentalism in play types in more recent years. I suppose it's in the nature of game development and programming itself that things become essentialised and iterated, but for me the - somewhat clumsy - creation of something new is always more interesting than a perfected abstraction. Especially when storytelling and gameplay are so interlinked.

2000UltraDeluxe 4y ago

Both games were amazing for their time. The Cryo one just aged better. I still find myself listening to the soundtrack every now and then.

jicea 4y ago

Absolutely agree. The original Dune artworks and soundtracks are really appart, it's more an experience than a "traditional" video game (while at the time, there weren't traditional games, good memories...) The first Dune is also more faithful to the book regarding the ecology theme and the Fremen arc (in my mind at least)

fatnoah 4y ago
It's been a "few" years since I played Dune I & II, but I can still remember the Dune soundtrack and much of its imagery with amazing clarity. They were amazing achievements for the time.

GekkePrutser 4y ago

The pc CD-Rom version also had beautiful cutscenes, a movie clip and music. I liked it much more than Dune II thigh the replay value of the latter was much better. But I feel much more love for Dune I.