Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty is a real-time strategy game developed by Westwood Studios, produced by Brett Sperry and published by Virgin Games for DOS in December 1992. Players fight for the spice planet Arrakis as one of three houses: Atreides, Ordos or Harkonnen. It was not the first real-time strategy game, but it set the template later followed by Command & Conquer, Warcraft and Age of Empires.
The music was composed by Frank Klepacki and Dwight Okahara, and Dune II was one of the first games to support General MIDI.
In Europe the game appeared on Amiga in 1993 as Dune II: Battle for Arrakis. The Genesis version came out in North America on 1 May 1994 as Dune: The Battle for Arrakis, and the Mega Drive version reached Europe in June 1994 under the European title. A RISC OS port for Acorn computers followed in 1995, and Westwood later remade the game as Dune 2000 (1998).12
Names and releases
| Region | Title on the box | Platform | Date | Publisher | Src |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NA | Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty | MS-DOS | December 1992 | Virgin Games | 1 |
| NA | Dune: The Battle for Arrakis | Genesis | May 1, 1994 | Virgin Games | 1 |
| EU | Dune II: Battle for Arrakis | Amiga | 1993 | Virgin Games | 2 |
| EU | Dune II: Battle for Arrakis | Genesis | June 1994 | Virgin Games | 1 |
| EU | Dune IIRISC OS (Acorn) port. | Other | 1995 | — | 1 |
Also known as: Dune II: Battle for Arrakis EU1Dune: The Battle for Arrakis NA1Битва за Арракис RU2
Box art by region
NA Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty
Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: Wikipedia.
Version differences
-
GameplayMega Drive/Genesis
The Mega Drive/Genesis version has a gamepad-friendly interface with a context-sensitive cursor, an idea later used in Command & Conquer, and uses access codes instead of saved games.1
-
GraphicsMega Drive/Genesis
The Mega Drive/Genesis version has redrawn graphics compared with the PC original.1
-
ContentMega Drive/Genesis
In the Mega Drive version's final mission the Emperor has two bases instead of three.2
How to run it today
No current official digital release could be confirmed, so you need an original copy. The DOS version can be played through community engine recreations such as OpenDUNE or Dune Legacy, an open-source, cross-platform project that keeps the original gameplay but adds modern controls like multi-unit selection and right-click orders.
- Dune Legacy dunelegacy.sourceforge.net
Reception
Westwood reported more than 250,000 copies sold worldwide by November 1996, and Computer Gaming World named it Strategy Game of the Year in 1993.1
In lists
Sources
Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13
Spotted a mistake? Write to atlas@old-games.net.