I totally agree. Though I think they brought classics here because they aren't Valve, Valve puts many classic games on Steam (The Fallout Games and Railroad Tycoon 2 for example.), while there aren't that many classic games on Origin, if there are any.

It's not Valve actually putting those classics there, it's whoever has the rights for those games.

Right. But doesn't Valve decide what comes in and what doesn't?

Well... As far as I know, even tho Valve does retain the right to veto anything they dislike, once you start releasing games on Steam, you can pretty much get anything you want there. So the requirement basically seems to be that Valve only needs to allow a single game you own onto their service. I might be terribly misinformed tho.

Ah OK. I might have to do some research.

One little thing I adored in Dune 2 and totally missed in Emperor was the fact that, in Dune 2, you had to build "tiles" before constructing any building. This little detail of having to prepare, level, solidify the ground first felt very right, and felt very arrakis. Felt very desert-y. Its absence made Emperor's planet feel more generic.

How was Dune 2000 in that respect ? Was there still a "build blank tile" necessity, there ?

Yeah, concrete slabs, otherwise the buildings would be built damaged. That's one of the things that OpenRA takes out because they're crazy people over there.

Yeah, the mechanic is still there. I kinda liked the mechanic initially, but then it just seemed like additional bother - if you need solid foundation for every building anyway, why is it not just built alongside the building itself in the first place?

Legitimate question, let me quote one of the developers on that: "Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh..."
Westwood logic.

Seriously, as much as I adore the C&C and Dune series, those are by no means examples of brilliant game design and it feels like Westwood was missing the kind of guy who'd ask questions like the one you just asked, at least until Tiberian Sun (and that one still had some really dumb ideas).

Nothing beats Dune 2 imho :) It's my first RTS game that time and it was the first time playing the genre. It was freaking revolutionary, the sound, the graphics, the Sandworms eating my precious harvesters and tanks.

I'd talk to a friend for 2 hours just talking about Dune 2 at that time. Oh the early 90s, how I miss thee.

Two years ago I beat Dune 2 for the first time ever, playing as the Atreides in the DOS version (while originally I almost exclusively played the Amiga version, always as Harkonnen). It holds up pretty well, considering that it was the first game of its genre. The awkward controls didn't even bother me much. The main problem (IIRC) is that in the PC version the enemy doesn't rebuild any structures (while he does so in the Amiga version, at least according to my brother) which made it a bit too easy and boring at times. Still, a pretty good and fun game, I've certainly played much much worse RTS that were supposedly much more advanced. And I actually enjoyed Dune 2 more than Warcraft 1 (which I beat just one or two weeks after beating Dune 2). Can't really agree on "nothing beats Dune 2", though. I certainly consider Dune 2000 an improvement over that one. :)

Has anyone played Dune Wars (the civ 4 mod)?

Yes Dune 2000 is awesome!
It's got great music too and is the first RTS I ever played :)
I never got around to finishing it though.

Indeed, Dune 2000 is probably the only real-time strategy game I've thoroughly liked. The genre is definitely not my cup of tea, but I did enjoy this one in the early 2000's.

If there's one game GOG should bring here, it's probably this one.

On a 17 inch LCD? It's terribly low.
Have you tried Dune legacy? It gives Dune 2 click to move functionality etc etc without changing the core of the game.