The Making of... Dune II, Edge Magazine
Just finished reading this nice feature on the retro-design making of a true classic.

Thanks for the link! This was one of the first PC games I really remember getting in to.

Whenever I hear people mention "command and conquer-like" for RTS games, I always get a little voice in my head that says "Dune II-like, you mean!"
Was possibly the first RTS I played, although the single unit selection drove me nuts when I tried replaying it more recently. Same sorta thing with the first Warcraft.

Every time my dad sees me playing a modern RTS, no matter how flashy it is (like World in Conflict or something), he always says "Ah, Dune 2."
I just wish this article's writers had talked to Frank Klepacki about the game's excellent soundtrack. It's actually the reason I became a musician.

well this was the first real time strategy game ever and was created by Westwood before they were currutpeted by EA my fav faction was the harrkonen especuilly the troopers

Its not you know.
I thought it was too for a long time.Till i was given a rude awakening
Apparently the first RTS was a very obscure megadrive game called Herzog zwei. (ithe first Herzong is a little too different to be a RTS)
Compared to Dune 2 it is pretty bad, but you can see where the seeds had been planted just waiting to grow
If you have a few mins to spare I dont think anyone would mind you finding the rom of it and having a bash.
( I do warn you its not very user friendly but well you can take its age into account and be forgiving)

Yes! I've always felt the exact same way!

Ever heard of punctuation? :-/
It was most definitely not the first ever RTS, but it was the first to use the sort of interface that most later RTS's have adopted.
I think one of the earliest RTS's I can think of was the original Populous.

I really liked all the Dune titles and it would be good to see more (DRM Free of course!).

Dune II was really nice, though the controls would drive me insane today. Too bad he didn't mention Warcraft (as in RTS, not MMORPG...), would have been nice to see what he thinks about, especially what they did better or worse or different and so.
And he could have peeked into the future or at least not so far back and talked about why they made this and that decision about C&C, what he thinks about Warcraft III with the RPG elements or Starcraft II as sequel to one of the direct competitors to their C&C series, and as the next big RTS hit.
Still, the article was nice.

Well, I think Populous would be classified more like a "god game", like the infamous Spore in brief, because there you don't simply move your group of units toward a glorious victory but you manage a broader range of resources, minions and so on.....