
Dune II and the three rules of a good licensed game - tosh
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-03-13-why-i-love-dune-ii-the-battle-for-arrakis
======
Braini
Same topic, a very nice and interesting article about Dune II:
[https://www.filfre.net/2018/12/controlling-the-spice-
part-3-...](https://www.filfre.net/2018/12/controlling-the-spice-
part-3-westwoods-dune/)

The previous one about Dune I is also very interesting.

------
dvh
I played it on 386 with CM8330 sound blaster clone, and although I've heard
the soundtrack many times later on, different versions too, it never sounded
as good as it did back then. I wonder if it is just my imagination.

~~~
tosh
Wikipedia has a bit about the different versions (e.g. the Mega Drive version
also had quite different unit graphics).

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_II#Release](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_II#Release)

------
CM30
Yep, the rules definitely make sense here.

Key being 'make a good game to begin with'. Too many licensed games just take
the IP, slap it on a poorly done, generic template and call it a day.

Of course, there are some exceptions to every rule here. Ecks vs Sever was a
series of two amazing video games based on one of the worst films of all time.
In that case, ignoring the IP altogether was probably the best move.

------
lucianf
Am I the only one who saw IP mentioned like a hundred times without knowing
what it meant?

~~~
grenoire
Intellectual property, i.e. the Dune branding/universe in this case.

~~~
tosh
link:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(franchise)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_\(franchise\))

------
eps
That read... forced. More to plug this guy's company than to offer any
actually interesting insight.

~~~
bayindirh
Actually I've played Dune-II for a very long time on my 486, and have many
fond memories from that era.

Maybe because of that, the read didn't feel forced. It also enlightened me,
why everything in the game clicked so well in my head.

I still play it in DOSBox sometimes. It's worth a spin.

~~~
tosh
it definitely is an angle through the lens of someone who cares about
licensing IP.

That’s what I found interesting because the combination of licensing aspects +
creativity + execution is what makes these game (book, and movie) adaptions
amazing evergreen pieces or really bad.

so few examples that transitioned well from medium to medium (just think of
all the movies turned/forced into video games and vice versa).

