The classic 1992 Dune was a defining title at the time; however, a dedicated French fan recently decided not to port the game to any device in the form of a remake…

Do you remember Dune? No? So here’s a quick rundown: it’s a 1992 adventure-strategy video game based on Frank Herbert’s science fiction novel of the same name. Developed by Cryo Interactive and published by Virgin Interactive.

The game combined adventure with economic and military strategy. Loosely following the novel’s story, the player takes on the role of Paul Atreides. Of course, our ultimate goal is to drive the Harkonnens off Arrakis while controlling the spice extraction, the army and later the ecology with the help of the indigenous Fremen tribes.

As the player progresses, his troops acquire an arsenal of weapons ranging from crys-knives to nuclear bombs, get a taste of Paul’s latent psychic abilities, and meet book characters like Chani and Liet-Kynes.

Released for the Amiga and IBM PC-compatible computers, the game was one of the first floppy games to be converted to CD format. It included footage from the David Lynch film, voiceovers for all speaking characters, and enhanced 3D-rendered travel and location screens. This version, a mix of Amiga graphics and extras from the PC-CD version, was also released for the Sega CD / Mega CD console.

The “proto-synthwave” soundtrack created by Stéphane Picq and Philip Ulrich was released by Cryo (formerly Exxos) on the album Dune: Spice Opera (You can also listen to it at the end of the article.)

Amiga Dune – Converted to Amiga AGA?!

A few days ago, the geek community noticed Barjack’s post on the Amiga France forum. As it turns out, the person in question is a graphic designer. Also, he’s probably a huge fan because he didn’t cut his axe on just any project. He decided to make an adaptation of his Cryo Dune for Amiga AGA!

For the uninitiated, AGA is the Amiga’s 3rd generation chipset, which was the company’s last big attempt in the early 1990s to compete with the rapidly evolving PC and consoles.

Although it represented a vast improvement compared to the previous ones, the chip in the CD32, the Amiga 1200 and the Amiga 4000 ultimately did not bring the manufacturer a resounding success. Nevertheless, it is a serious step forward. And what Barjack was able to get out of it is an excellent example of this.

As the creator put it: “I wanted to keep all the essence of the original and the adventure, but since this is an adaptation, extra characters from Frank Herbert’s work were included, as well as extra plots, locations and content.”

But what can the Amiga AGA version of the game do?

• Battles now take place as a turn-based tactical RPG in isometric 3D.
• The management was also expanded with additional exchanges.
• No two locations are alike, each sietch boasting a different visual identity and unique chieftain.
• The resolution is 320×256, AGA has 256 colors.

“I know in advance that the adaptation of such a cult game will not suit everyone, but please note that this is not a copy and paste of the original, but rather a new game that pays homage to it…” – wrote the developer.

The result speaks for itself. Just take a look at the pictures below to see what we managed to get out of this Methuselah game. Amazingly, this remake is developed for almost the same machine, with much better graphics than what existed 30 years ago. (It’s true that the Amiga 1200 was more powerful and was released somewhat later than the original Amiga 500.) The retro-crazy French guy can probably see it as a kind of challenge.

In any case, it’s worth a look or two. If only to tune in to Denis Villeneuve’s second Dune movie, which is about to arrive…

Source: Amiga France, Reddit, YouTube