#3: Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty
Platform(s): MS-DOS, Amiga, Mega Drive, RISC OS
Year: January, 1992
Why Did it Change Gaming? (The Genesis of Real Time Strategy):
Although most can argue Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft actually innovated the RTS genre even further; Dune II pioneered it. Dune II is widely accepted as the first real RTS game and is still accepted even today as a great title. Some key features that were first seen in the series were later seen in many other RTS titles, some of these features include:
- Resource-gathering to fund unit construction
- A world map system that allowed you to go to the next mission
- Building construction dependencies
- Mobile units that can be deployed as actual buildings
- Different factions each with unique unit-types and super weapons
- A context-sensitive mouse cursor to issue commands (introduced in later versions of the game)
Dune II received overall positive reviews from critics. CU Amiga magazine rated the game with a high score of 85% praising its innovation of features, controls, and smooth gameplay. Dune II changed the genre making this game stand in the number 3 spot on the Gamer Headlines list.
Runner Up(s) : Warcraft I