I propose you my Dune IV

[amonit]

Sorry for my bad english.

I'm developer, and made remake for Dune II - my game Dune IV. My game have 5 episodes with 10-12 mission in each. My web-site: http://amonit.sulfurzona.com

[amonit]

The game was created by Vladislav Demjanishin (01.09.03 - 14.05.04) in the glorious city Kiev, capital of Ukraine.

Current game WAS NOT developed by "Westwood Studios".

      Minimal system requirements:

Pentium 120 MHz, Ram 32 Mb, Video 1..2 Mb, DirectX 6.0 or higher.

      Recommended system configuration:

Pentium 700 MHz, Ram 128 Mb, Video 4 Mb, DirectX 7.0 or higher.

Space required on your hard disk 28 Mb (or 2.5Mb for the light version).

Supported OS: Win98, WinXP, Win2000(+SP3).

Guaranteed supported adapters: CirrusLogic5446, TNT2 Pro, Geforce2 MX-400 64Mb, MicroStar 8808 Geforce2 MX-400 32Mb 350Mhz RamDac, NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti200, ASUS GF-2TI 64mb, Voodoo 32000 PCI (WinXP), Voodoo Banshee 16Mb, Creative Graphics Blaster Exxtreme 4Mb (Permedia-2), GeForce4 Ti4200, Ati Radeon 9800Pro, GeForce FX5500 128 Mb 128 bit.

[amonit]

This game is a sequel of DUNE III created by the same author. DUNE IV, as well as DUNE III, is an advanced version of the game " DUNE II ". It was written completely from bland print. The game contains 12 levels for each dynasty (old episodes Atreides, Ordos, Harkonnen from DUNE III) and 10 new levels for each dynasty (episodes not present in Dune III), with original stories and maps (for comparison there were 9 levels only in "DUNE II"). Thus DUNE IV contains 5 episodes with the total number of missions equal to 56. So it's average playtime is about 40 hours.

      In new episodes Atreides fight Freemen. And Atreides are able to slay sandy worms without any assistance. The light infantry has also got abilities of engineers and can capture buildings.

[amonit]

DUNE IV, in comparison with DUNE III, has lots of improvements, such as: high resolution, advanced game control, improved artificial intelligence and many other features. Game package also contains video and MP3-music.

      From the very first missions you'll have to find the way to survive on planet Arrakis (Dune), learn how to mine resources (the basic wealth of this planet is spice), build bases (cities) and army.

      It gets worse and worse as it goes on... Don't expect it to be a piece of cake, as your opponent won't leave you and your base alone for a minute (well, probably you'll be given a one-minute-break). There are missions where a couple of alliances will unite against you and in others everyone's going to struggle against everyone (what an excellent show!). Some missions are time-limited, some need player to show his quick wit and dexterity to accomplish the mission.

      This time the opponent (AI) has grown wiser and will be searching for the weak sides of your defense. Forget about the times when player could with impunity attack opponent's harvesters. Those old fine days when player presumed to forget carelessly about own harvesters have sunk into oblivion. The opponent won't forgive it, do not underestimate him.

[amonit]

One more warning (though you'll see it in game too): be careful with sandy worms! Those are really malicious beings that can gobble up any unit. They are always hungry till your enemies or your army eliminates them (you'll doubtfully manage to do that yourself in case you play for Atreides as their "humanism feeling" has raised too high (it's right for old episodes only)).

[amonit]

If you want to get information about hot-keys enter "HELP" menu during game.

      "MENTAT" menu allows you to find out information about all game units, buildings and also get comments about frequently used terms. It is strongly recommended to familiarize with info in "MENTAT" and "HELP" menus.

      "ORDER" menu can remind your current level task in case you've forgotten it.

[amonit]

Cheats for DUNE IV

      You'll need DuneIV Launcher to use cheats. It supports execution of the game with cheats enabled. The game will be started in windowed mode. Keep ALT pressed and input:

+Enter - On/Off Full Screen

+G - On/Off God mode

+S - On/Off Map Shadow

+W - For Victory

+L - For Game Over

+I - For Debug Info (FPS, Time, Memory Use, Enemy's Credit/Units Info)

+D - Down refresh window (for debug)

+C - Add 5000 credits

[Dunenewt]

This looks pretty good!  Has anyone played it?

[MrFlibble]

Yup, I did. Overall, it's pretty nice. The developer certainly has a gift for doing good campaigns. The English translation is far from perfect though.

[hide]Apart from that, the guy is trying to make money by separately selling the "Dune IV Launcher" which unlocks the cheat mode and two more campaigns, as well as some other functions. Although Dune II can be found on abandonware sites, and the developer surely put some effort into his project, I find this unsettling.[/hide]

[Dunenewt]

You have to buy the launcher??

[MrFlibble]

Without the launcher, the game only runs in "shareware" mode. Two campaigns (out of five) are blocked, and so are some features.

The program was designed to serve launch and setup needs of "Dune IV" extended version (cheats, map/scenario editor mode, play video, no more restrictions etc).

Program costs $10 USD only. If You want to get "Dune IV Launcher", You simply need to pay the money using WebMoney system.

Source page here.

I remember that originally the Launcher was downloadable for free, and I even had it, but deleted it later.

[Dunenewt]

Oh, that's a bit rubbish.  So Amonit didn't make the game, he's just trying to profit from it?

[gunner154]

Is it even legal to make money out of something like that? It was Dune II, after all, despite it being abandonware...

[MrFlibble]

So Amonit didn't make the game, he's just trying to profit from it?

He didn't make Dune II, of course, but he did create Dune III and IV. But since these games use so many copyrighted stuff (the name "Dune", all the media made by WS, the whole concept of the game etc. etc., not to mention such things like a Starcraft mouse pointer and an image of the Imperial Shuttle from SW), then the question is quite appropriate:

Is it even legal to make money out of something like that?

Obviously, the whole "launcher" thing is a dubious attempt to circumvent copyright infringement issues.

However, no one is forced to participate in this. My ambiguous attitude towards the project is rooted in the fact that, in my opinion, the campaigns are actually quite cleverly and inventively designed, so you might very well try the "shareware" mode.

[Dunenewt]

So with the shareware version what do you get?

[MrFlibble]

3 campaigns that are the same as in Dune III, but in higher resolution, multiplayer, MIDI music; no cheats, no MP3 music support, no videos, and the two new campaigns and the scenario editor will be unavailable. Basically, everything is explained here.

[Dunenewt]

What does it offer that other Dune II clones don't?

[MrFlibble]

This is the only Dune II clone known to me that has custom-made campaigns with a mission variety comparable to post-Dune II games. I especially liked one Ordos mission in which you attack the Sardaukar in the guise of Harkonnen; for this mission, all your units and structures are red instead of green :). IMHO, some of the missions have been better designed than those in Dune 2000. Also, it has both single- and multiplayer working (although I haven't tested the latter). Do you want anything else?

I like the new font colour of yours btw :)

[Dunenewt]

I especially liked one Ordos mission in which you attack the Sardaukar in the guise of Harkonnen; for this mission, all your units and structures are red instead of green

That's a copy of an Emperor mission.

[MrFlibble]

Really? :O ??? I never played it... There was an "attack the Fremen with Atreides gholas" mission, but there wasn't any real unit color change.