When I was young I had heard of the dune games but never actually played any of them or even saw others play them. Then at age 15 I had gotten the game Alpha Centauri and while reading the 200+ page manual learned about a novel called dune (it was in the last appendix listed as "suggested reading"). I immedialy made the connection to the games and noted the novels as interresting. However it wasn't until about two years ago when I finally read Dune after seeing the miniseries on TV. Now I have read both messiah and Children and intend to read God Emperor this summer as well as reading the first novel again.
In the game Fallout there is a drug called mentats which increases intelligence, there are also other references to Dune but I cant remember them right now also, in Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon, one can find a postcard from arrakis