It is rare indeed for a single game to become the progenitor of an entire new genre.

Although it had its precedents, with some fans attempting to retcon a gaggle of faintly similar 8bit titles for the role, the world’s first realtime strategy game can be named with little real controversy.

But going back to Dune II today is an eye-opening experience, as it becomes clear how very little the genre has moved forwards in the last 16 years – like finding out Halo had really been released in 1982. The same basic viewpoint, interface, controls and gameplay underpinning Dune II are still being reused today, with only the most minimal level of evolutionary advancement.

Lacking any of the hexes or grid squares of contemporary turn-based strategies, Dune II was loosely based upon the David Lynch movie, at least in terms of visual design. The gameplay featured three different factions (one invented for the game) all with individual structures, units and superweapons.

Although it is hard to appreciate now, being able to control each directly with the mouse – simply by pointing and clicking wherever you want them to move to or attack – was  revolutionary. As was the need to harvest spice to act as the resource that feeds the expansion of your army.

“The inspiration for Dune II was partly from Populous, partly from my work on Eye Of The Beholder and the final and perhaps most crucial part came from an argument I once had with Chuck Kroegel, then vice president of Strategic Simulations Inc,” recalls Westwood Studios co-founder and Dune II producer Brett Sperry.

“The crux of my argument with Chuck was that wargames sucked because of a lack of innovation and poor design. Chuck felt the category was in a long, slow decline, because the players were moving to more exciting genres,” he explains.

“I felt that the genre had a lot of potential – the surface was barely scratched as far as I as concerned, especially from a design standpoint. So I took it as a personal challenge and figured how to harness realtime dynamics with great game controls into a fast-paced wargame.”