Dune

Dune © 1984 Atari, Incorporated.

Dune was to be an action/adventure game similar to the classic 2600 Adventure. The player plays the part of Paul Atreides, who ironically is represented by a square (probably due to the same technical limitations as Adventure). The player must help Paul navigate through Arrakis while dealing with the planets. Along the way Paul can pick tools to help him in his quest to defeat the evil Baron Harkonnen and free Arrakis.

Instead of taking place in a large open desert (which one might expect in a game based on Dune), the game appears to take place in a strange multi-colored maze. This is due to the fact that the code which defined the room structure wasn't completed. To get the prototype working, a simple maze was constructed for each room. In the final game it is thought that the rooms would have had simple barriers and objects similar to Adventure or the SwordQuest series. Also unfinished were many of the character graphics, instead an evil looking smiley face was used as a placeholder. Everything from the sand worms to the Baron himself is represented by evil looking smiley faces. These placeholder graphics and lack of room structure show just how early this game was in the development process.

At the bottom of the screen there are two gauges, the blue one represents Paul's water level, while the red one represents Paul's spice level. The water gauge starts at 100% and slowly depletes during the course of the game, when it reaches zero Paul dies (however this isn't implemented yet). The only way to increase Paul's water level is to find one of the 'Water Rooms' and touch the walls (Water Rooms look just like the rest of the maze). The first Water Room is four rooms to the right of where you begin the game, and the other water rooms can be found two screens up or down from the first. The Spice gauge starts at zero, and can be increased by collecting spice jars. Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be any way to use the spice.