Dune

Dune combines elements of real-time strategy and adventure games. The player assumes the role of Paul Atreides, son of Duke Leto Atreides and Lady Jessica, as House Atreides takes control of the desert planet Arrakis at the Emperor Shaddam IV's request. The family's goal is to mine the valuable spice melange while forging alliances with the native Fremen to resist the rival House Harkonnen.

The game is presented entirely through Paul's perspective, blending strategic resource management with narrative-driven exploration. Conversations with characters advance the story and provide information on spice production, military strength, or Harkonnen activity. Some dialogues include limited choices that can influence the outcome of certain interactions.

Martin Alper, the founder of Mastertronic (later renamed Virgin Interactive), was fascinated by the novel Dune and had been trying to buy the interactive adaptation rights since 1988. He conducted a study to measure the viability of such an adaptation, estimating that there were between 3 and 4 million fans of the novel in the United States. He found that Dino De Laurentiis, the producer of David Lynch's film Dune, held the adaptation rights. Following the release of the film, the production company had gone bankrupt.

After the death of Frank Herbert, there were several legal trials to determine who then owned the rights. Martin Alper was finally able to buy the rights from Universal Pictures in the spring of 1990.

Dune was commercially successful, with sales of 20,000 units in its first week alone. By 1997, it had sold 300,000 units. Cryo Interactive's Philippe Ulrich later noted that the company had "bet a lot on the explosion of the PC and the CD-ROM" with Dune, and that the game's hit status was heavily responsible for Cryo's quick growth.

Maxwell Eden for Computer Gaming World wrote in September 1992 that the developer "had succeeded in distilling the book's complex plot into a game that involves the player in the outcome". It praised the graphics and animation, and concluded that the game was "a light and interesting challenge" easy enough for most players to finish. In April 1994 the magazine said of the CD version that "many of the actors come off better on the PC screen than they fared in the real cinema, and the addition of digitized speech spices up many of the dull parts of the game". QuestBusters wrote: "I really enjoyed this game, a high quality product with many surprisingly entertaining aspects".