I'll put my troopers here, my sonic tank there, and then when they come out I'm going to send in the engineers through the back door' strategy. And that's something we've tried really hard to emphasise is that diversity gives you lots of choices as a player, how you customise your army. All too often, real-time strategy games involve a host of generic units grinding each other down in a long-winded war of attrition. Westwood has taken steps to ensure this doesn't happen, and has concentrated on making the three main houses very different.

According to Longpre: "One of the big design goals that we had was to provide some really meaningful diversity in the sides and in the units. So, the Harkonnen are very evil, their whole unit selection really reflects their sort of attitude about how they treat warfare.

They're very brutal. They don't mind wasting resources, wasting their troops or your troops. The Atreides are the noble warriors. They're the ones that are very loyal and will do anything that the Duke asks them to do. A little bit more precise, when they rake out something they just want to blow up the building they need to stop the production and win the war. And their units kind of reflect this general philosophy.

The Ordos, which are treacherous and devious and insidious, they're the ones that have plans within plans, they're always manipulating something behind the scenes to get what they want. If you're a sneaky hit-and-run kind of player, Ordos are the way to go.

They're also expert traders, and they trade with everybody in the galaxy, so they've got a lot of really strange technologies nobody's ever seen before.

And let's not forget the worms, which actually come in three sizes. However, before Chris can tell us about them, the cheesy game music segues into something more exotic and far louder, as a real live belly dancer begins to gyrate behind the monitor.

Emperor might be a good-looking game, but there's simply no competition. And on that bombshell Westwood's policy of sometimes releasing games years after the original stated date has led to a degree of ribbing in the specialist press, not to mention tearful tantrums in games emporiums all over the world.

However, if people don't know that a game is coming out then they can't really complain that it's lata Secrecy would appear to be Westwood's current strategy, as demonstrated by the swift announcement and subseguent release of Red Alert 2. A similar tack has been taken with Emperor, whose producer admits "It's one of the best kept secrets we've had.

We're always striving to do better and better about shipping games on tima It's also important not to release all the information early because you're planning on it coming out on tima Tiberian Sun, if it had come out when we originally intended it to, it would have been just fina We think this is just the right time to announce Emperor. As for a release date? Whenever it's done. It'll be out definitely before Christmas next year, Not one, not two, but three different sides to choose from.

Westwood sure knows how to spoil a bloke This honourable house from Caladan employs unlikely methods in its struggle to secure Arrakis: noble spirit, iust ways and unfailing virtue Ruling its homeworld for ten generations with justice and generosity, House Atreides has perfected a form of government that results in a well-organised society and a spiritually satisfied people.

Hailing from an industrial wasteland of a planet called Giedi Prime, House Harkonnen is built on a simple foundation of fear and tenor, two tactics that make the Baron Harkonnen's troops that much more dangerous. With an order based on treachery, soldiers rise through the ranks through deceit, trickery and, if necessary, assassination. These aristocrats are shrouded in mystery and speculation, which is just how the statesmen of Ordos want to keep it.

Run by a secretive cartel of the rich and powerful who specialise in trade and smuggling, House Ordos has no identifiable leader. Even the citizens on the ice-coated, remote planet of Sigma Draconis have little grasp on who controls their fate.

In fact, Dune has become a phenomenon in the gaming world simply because the games have become more firmly entrenched in people's minds than the film, if not even the original books. Believe it or not, there was gaming life before Dune 2- Cryo Interactive's unsurprisingly titled Dune was released in I'm probably the only person left in the country who remembers that game fondly, in particular because it allowed you to do a spot of worm riding, something I'm glad to report is in the new spinny 3D remix.

Although shamelessly eclipsed by the second Dune title, the original adequately established that there was a market for Frank Herbert's spice-drenched world on the small screen. Now, thank god, Dune has gone 3D and, let's face it, Dune isn't going to keep things chugging along for much longer. But will it deliver the much-needed injection of inspiration into the Dune world? When you need the answer to that sort of question, you don't speak to the monkey, you need the organ grinder.

Why have you waited this long to move into 3D, and why did you decide now is the right time? We decided we didn't want to use 3D for the sake of 3D; we wanted to use it to enhance gameplay and add beauty and depth to the environments.

The diversity of the characters and environments make Emperor the perfect setting for an RTS. Also, we felt that the technology had finally advanced far enough and was accessible enough to the masses that we coul use effectively. We're adding whole new levels of strategy and tactics that haven't been seen before in an RTS game, primarily using our non-linear campaign map.

Rather than progressing through a static number of pre-defined missions, the player has to pick and choose which territories to attack based on the available information.

Do I have any reinforcements for previously conquered territories? What is the strength of my enemies in the nearby areas? Can I gain any allies if 1 move into this territory? All these questions must be answered before deciding how to proceed. Also, we allow the player to customise his army like never before. Along with choosing one of three houses to play, each with unique and diverse units, the player will be able to form alliances as the campaign progresses.

The player can ally with up to two of the five sub-houses, and doing so will give them access to those houses' technologies and units. This makes the number of meaningful combinations of units very high and we expect people will debate the best combination for some time.

We've tried to stay true to the overall theme of the Dune universe so that fans of Frank Herbert's Dune and Dune 2 will immediately feel at home with the game.

And although we are expanding on our traditional RTS model, we believe die-hard RTS fans, along with newcomers to the genre, will have a lot of fun with the game. Why did you choose to follow an independent storyline, rather than use characters from the books? We felt that if we followed the original story too closely, we might alienate people who are not that familiar with the characters and plot. Most unders won't be too familiar with David Lynch's film or Frank Herbert's books.

How have you kept the Dune universe fresh? The universe is enormous and open to interpretation, which is why we've seen so many different stories emerge from the original book.

Characters evolve and branch off from the original story; new political intrigues surface and must be resolved. Stories can be tailored to the interests of new generations of gamers.

The beautiful, lush worlds, the amazing and unique characters and the intriguing storylines all lend themselves to many stories and many ways to tell those stories. That's why the Dune universe has remained a phenomenon for more than 35 years and has been retold in print, movies, TV, online and in games.

Regardless of the house that the player chooses, he will begin as the new commander for that side and be in charge of its entire armed forces. Although the player will follow the individual stories and political machinations that arise during the campaign, he will begin and remain the house's commander, in charge of all that goes on in the battle. That was really the only way we could involve the player in the story - he must be in charge of the battle from the start.

You've used an engine custom-designed especially for Emperor. Many technical issues, such as sand and rock visualisation and camera movement, are specific to Emperor: Battle For Dune and we came up with unique solutions for each of them when designing the game's engine.

From the beginning, our main goal in using 3D technology was that it would serve to enhance gameplay. The engine not only adds beauty and depth to the game, but it's used in a way that will better allow the player to control the battle. The player will be able to control the camera to his benefit zooming in and out, rotating the battlefield , but the camera movements will never become difficult to manoeuvre.

Using real actors for cut scenes can sometimes be a bit hit and miss. What made you decide to do this and what do you think it adds to the game? Westwood has a tradition of using high-quality cut scenes to advance the stories, and Emperor will be no different. We were amazed at how they brought these characters to life and added to the interactive experience we are trying to give the players.

Westwood pioneered the RTS genre eight years ago with the release of Dune 2. That's another element we're bringing to Emperor: gameplay for all skill levels. Melange is the only resource in the game that can be used as currency, and it is only found on Arrakis Dune.

When the battle moves to the other planets - the lush, green Caladan; the industrial wasteland of Geidi Prime; and the ice world, Draconis IV - the players will receive regular money'shipments' to keep up production.

This adds an interesting layer of strategy to Emperor, in that it forces the player to truly manage his resources for building units and structures. The only limit to how many units the player can build and manage is how much money he has.

We are allowing the player to queue up 99 units for construction and he will be able to do that until his money runs out. How will you incorporate combat shifts between Dune and the home planets of the three main houses in the storyline? The main campaign will be fought on Arrakis, otherwise known as Dune. Controlling this planet and the spice is the key to victory. For that reason, it is necessary to capture all the territories before the battle moves to the homeworlds.

Only when the player has driven the enemy back to its homeworld and defeated them will he be able to claim victory. How will the concept of folding space basically, hyperspace travel using spice be incorporated? Folding space allows the Guild to transport Heighliners across great distances, delivering cargo and even other ships. They can effectively teleport themselves around the battle map for a surprise attack.

Could you tell us more about the five sub-houses you can ally with? Can you ally with more than one? And can you break alliances? The player will be able to ally with up to two of the five sub-houses during the single-player campaign. This is by no means necessary to complete the game, but forming alliances will give the player access to additional units and structures, allowing him to fully customise his army. The sub-houses include the native Fremen warriors, the Imperial Sardaukar soldiers, the tech-weapondealing lx, the bioengineering Tleixu and the spacer's Guild.

Each of the houses has its own secret weapon. Can you tell us about how these will be used within the gameplay? Each house has a super weapon, similar to the nuke or weather storm in Red Alert 2 - incredibly powerful and only available once the player has progressed to the top of the tech tree.

The Harkonnen Death-Hand missile makes a glorious and brutal return. The Atreides can terrorise and demoralise their enemies with the Hawk Strike. And an Ordos twist on mind control, Chaos Lightning, throws your troops into a berserk rage, killing anything in sight We designed the AI with the goal of making it feel like you're playing against a real person, with all the uncertainty, surprise factors'tffid various game strategies. Therefore, we developed a complex system that teaches the AI about map features and player strategies.

When a mission starts, the AI knows nothing about the map it cannot see, and will usually start a scout mission to push back the shroud and keep the fog-of-war away. After that, it uses the war strategies of the house it is playing to defend its base and start an offence. The AI is aware of unit positions it can see and will plan accordingly. It's good at finding your weakest link and hitting it - hard. Controlling camera angles can often be very problematic in 3D games.

In particular, it is a sequel to Dune , carrying on from where it left off, with several of the characters and actors returning. Like Dune and many of the other Westwood games that came before it, Emperor features cut scenes filmed with live actors.

We might have the game available for more than one platform. Emperor: Battle for Dune is currently available on these platforms:. Emperor: Battle for Dune Manual. Emperor: Battle for Dune 1. Press ESC to close. OldGamesDownload December 1, 0. Benedito matador de porco 5 points. Sturnn -1 point. ColonelZoren 0 point. To menage to install and run correctly we really need a detail tutorial. I usually can get around all this stuff most of the time, but this is too much.

If someone do that, i'll build him a golden statue. Has anyone had any luck with the videos? Currently on Win 10 bit I applied the 1. Steffan-Danish-DuneFan 0 point. Could someone.. BlackLadisCZ -1 point. Runtime Error! Hey'yall In the CD1 there is a crack to emperor.

After replacing the installed emperor. Obeliske 0 point. First I wanna say this is a game I come back to every few years the customization of gameplay is fantastic. I couldn't get this version to work however.

The install went fine the patch works. The game requires that you run it in admin mode for some reason and you need to run with compatibility mode on. However running it all the game itself wont open no matter what I do, it comes to the splash screen where I can hit play then nothing happens, no error report no anything : windows 10 64 bit os.

Simitar 1 point. I've tried different ISO's. The steps are the same or pretty close no matter where you down load the game, but I always have Game1. Perry Rhodan 2 points. For people having problems running the game. I also recommend using dgVodoo2 which enables you to play the game at higher resolutions. Thanks a lot. This game seems to have disappeared from my regular sources.

Truly abandoned. Webbysan 1 point. DuneFan 1 point. I have the original copy of this game since it was released In Israel. Nuttawet -7 points. When ever i try to install patch of emperor battle for dune 1. What is xwis? How to install emperor battle for dune because they are 4 ISO files? Nuttawet points. Nuttawet -2 points. Veilfire 2 points. Thank you so much, straight forward and easy to download. Can someone please help me with this, I'm 14, and I have no idea what I'm doing Dude 1 point. The setup.

Santana 1 point. Instalei com ISO mas nao consigo jogar. Abre a tela para o play mas nao responde a partir dai. Alguma dica. Morpho 1 point. Billy 1 point. Hello www. I do not find any difficulty navigating across it. Pretty much appreciate and great Thanks for this.

BattleForDune 13 points. Dune 1 point. This game is fantastic, however the AI is abysmal if you use a rush strategy. Very low challenge and no one to play in multiplayer. Arpeggi 0 point. And I can't figure out how to make the game recognize the other mounted ISOs.

At least I can play skirmish. Dune 0 point. Other Tips In that resource. Dune -2 points. This game originally had four CD's. So the game still expects this. Fading Light 0 point. Bob -1 point. Fedaygin -2 points. Please Assist : Kindly: Fedaygin. Fedaygin 0 point. How to apply patch file?

Do i just double click the file and then find the install location? Fedaygin -1 point. I have Win 7 x Rumor is that they're developing open world Dune adventure. You can still play this online I do not know if you need a Orginal CD key to play online, I say this as I have a key from when I brought the game long time ago.

I can't typing cd-key in installation procedure : does anyone have same issue? Leifu Song 2 points. It's quite a while since any epic "true" RTS were launched. I think a new Dune RTS made with heart will be a great hit! I prophesize that it will happen in 12 months' time.