Dune 2 in 2026?

[Andrew NDB]

Like my Emperor question, I'm just interested in knowing what would be the very best way to play Dune 2 in 2026? On Windows 11? I'm not super interested in fan-made sequels or anything (but please tell me if there's any quality ones out there), just what I need to do to get it playing perfectly with the best quality of music, etc., as was available when the game was originally released. 

[Cm_blast]

2 hours ago, Andrew NDB said:

Like my Emperor question, I'm just interested in knowing what would be the very best way to play Dune 2 in 2026? On Windows 11? I'm not super interested in fan-made sequels or anything (but please tell me if there's any quality ones out there), just what I need to do to get it playing perfectly with the best quality of music, etc., as was available when the game was originally released. 

Ok so, if we stay strictly into the original Dune 2, the best way is to download the game from any abandonware site, and then running it using dosbox (Ms dos emulator). It require a bit of settings, and a couple of ms-dos commands, but you can get the original experience.

There are pages that let you play on the browser, such as internet archive, but I have no idea if you can save, or if the game will run slower (this can also happens in dosbox, but in dosbox you can "speed up" the game).

There is a spanish game that has the game as "repacked", which means you only need to download, unzip and just play, but I think by default is in spanish, don´t remember now if you can change anything to be in english. It will be the "dosbox" emulation but no Ms-dos commands needed.

For the no oficial thing, I only know Dune Legacy and dune 2 the golden path or dune 2 the maker. I played the first, which use modern controls, but last time I played, because the enemy has so little economy (and with modern controls that´s not good enough), the AI started building multiple factories and I couldn´t past but a few levels due enemy sending plenty of units against me. I didn´t play the other 2, so I cannot tell how they are, but I remember hearing about them some years ago.

This post was done 15 years ago, so it´s possible that things listed there no longer exist, but you can check what it is on their own.

I usually stick with the dune 2 + dosbox setting and I only briefly toyed with any fan made dune 2. At least in that regard I can help you; maybe that spanish site editing a file is enough, or applying the only english on top of it, I don´t know, but considering that the objetive on all levels is "destroy everything but turrets/walls" language is not a big issue.
 

Edited 20 hours ago by Cm_blast

[Andrew NDB]

Will just plugging it into DosBox give Soundblaster quality sound and all, or is that plug-ins? 

[Cm_blast]

17 hours ago, Andrew NDB said:

Will just plugging it into DosBox give Soundblaster quality sound and all, or is that plug-ins? 

Usually Ms-dos games have a "setup" so you can select soundblaster, adlib or other options, usually games come with soundblaster by default.

I can send you that specific page that has the game portable and working (and I will tell you how to increase the cycles to avoid game slowing around past mission 3), or the harder way is you installing dosbox, downloading the game and doing all the Ms-dos commands required, depending on how you deal with that can be rather easy or hard.

The easy game will be in spanish unfornatelly, but these may be the only options to play the original thing.

Dosbox + game (and knowing to put commands), not extra things, but just know how to enter the folder and executing the game using Dos commands.

Or... if you even have any windows 95/98/XP emulator that you use for other older windows games, game can work there way easier.