Dune 2 .pak Files

Files

Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty (also known as Dune II: The Battle for Arrakis in Europe, and simply Dune: The Battle for Arrakis in the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis port) is a Dune computer game, released in 1992 by Westwood Studios. It is a loose sequel of the computer strategy game Dune (although it shared no storyline or gameplay). Both games were based upon David Lynch's 1984 movie Dune. Dec 27, 2016 Dune Legacy is an effort by a handful of developers to revitalize the first-ever real-time strategy game. The original game was the basis for the hugely successful Command and Conquer series, and the gameplay has been replicated an extended to a wide variety of storylines and series.

Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty
Developers
Publishers
Release dates
DOSDecember 1, 1992
Taxonomy
ModesSingleplayer
PacingReal-time
PerspectivesTop-down view
ControlsPoint and select
GenresRTS
ThemesSci-fi
SeriesDune
Dune
Dune1992
Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty1992
Dune 20001998
Emperor: Battle for Dune2001
Frank Herbert's Dune2001
  • 1Availability
  • 2Essential improvements
    • 2.1Patches
  • 3Game data
  • 6Audio
  • 7Network
  • 9Issues fixed
  • 10Other information

Key points

Released as Dune II: Battle for Arrakis in Europe.

General information

Dune Wiki - The Duniverse
Dune2K.com - A major Dune fansite with an active community

Availability[edit]

SourceDRMNotesKeysOS
Retail Manual-based copy protection
Although a Dune II 'demo' is available it is not actively playable; the executable more or less plays the missions out it's self without your intervention much like a pre-release demonstration video.

Version differences[edit]

The European version has a different title screen subtitle with its EU name and lacks the into voice over. These are minor aesthetic changes and can be changed back with this unofficial patch. Another similar patch that preserves the European title screen can be found here. Yet another minor graphical difference is that the pause menu is not centered in the EU version; a hack to fix it can be found here. The European version also has additional languages. There are also some minor version specific bugs for each though these are ironed out by the 107 patch fix below.

Essential improvements[edit]

Patches[edit]

1.07 patch[edit]

Download link
Official patch which corrects issues with the Starport building. The European versions come pre-updated, making this unnecessary for it.

Sound fix[edit]

Download link
Official patch which enables the use of multiple sound devices simultaneously (i.e. MT-32 music with SoundBlaster digital and FM audio). A separate version for the European release can be found here.

1.07 patch fix[edit]

Download link
Changelog
Unofficial patch which corrects issues introduced and unfixed by the 1.07 patch. Includes the sound fix above, though still requires patch 1.07 to be applied first.

Gravis Drivers[edit]

Thread & download link
Unofficial patch that adds support for the Gravis Ultrasound to Dune II. Note that there are two versions of this driver available, one for real machines and another for DOSBox. Select the correct version for your setup.

Miscellaneous[edit]

EMCPatch adds some game improvements: buildings no longer decay for no reason, carryalls always bring repaired units from the repair facility back where they picked them up (you no longer need to surround the repair facility with walls for this), and missile turrets get always out-ranged by rocket launchers (previously, they had to be positioned at certain angles to get out of turrets' range). It requires WWPak to install, a version for SuperDune (and derivatives) can be found here.
REP-HI-FIX adds missing animation frames to the repair facility and Hi-Tech factory. Like the fix above it requires WWPak to install. A separate version with a faster heavy factory 'production ended' animation can be found here.
Dune2Retro is a mod of the unpatched version of the game that adds fixes for the glitches but keeps the original balancing and other gameplay features. Also includes SuperDune2 (See below in fangames for details).

Dune II Mouse Helper[edit]

Enables more modern mouse controls: ordering units with the right mouse button, scrolling with the mouse wheel and building and placing structures with the middle mouse button.
Requires the original DOS game running in DOSBox under Windows.

Source ports[edit]

Full-featured ports which enable playing the game on modern systems (Windows/Linux). Support high-resolutions and widescreen. Employ modern interface with zooming, contemporary RTS controls and build queueing.
Include numerous bug fixes and optional gameplay enhancements.
Require original game assets (*.pak)
NameNotesRenderer
Dune LegacyIn active development, supports 64-bit and Mac OS X. Includes an optional upscaler to smooth out graphics. Introduces multiple difficulty levels for campaign mode and bot AIs for MP. Supports LAN and internet multiplayer with record/replay. Includes a map and scenario editor.Direct3D
Dune DynastyOffers borderless fullscreen and proper MIDI support with custom SoundFonts for music playback. Contains a jukebox and cutscene viewer. Includes a random map generator for local 'skirmish' mode.Direct3D, OpenGL

More detailed lists of unfinished ports, as well as fan-made campaigns, can be found at: Dune II fangames, Custom maps and Dune II clones and remakes

Game data[edit]

Configuration file(s) location[edit]

SystemLocation
DOS <path-to-game>*.cfg
Stored in hex values, Not human readable.

Save game data location[edit]

SystemLocation
DOS <path-to-game>_SAVE???.DAT

Video[edit]

General settings.
Graphics featureStateNotes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
WindowedFor DOSBox toggle withAlt+ Enter(see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Borderless fullscreen windowedSee the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)For DOSBox use an unofficial build (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
60 FPS
120+ FPS

Input[edit]

Keyboard and mouseStateNotes
RemappingFor DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivityFor DOSBox set in the DOSBox configuration file.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller supportFor DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).

Audio[edit]

Audio featureStateNotes
Separate volume controlsMusic and Sound Effects/Speech; toggle only
Surround sound
SubtitlesAll dialog is text-based. In-game notifications are either displayed text or audio.
Closed captionsMajor notifications have displayed text when audio can't be played.
Mute on focus lost
General MIDI audio

Localizations

Changing the active language requires you to re-run the entire setup precess through the setup.exe. If you find this annoying you can use the setuplan.exe which is a slimmed down setup program meant only for switching the active language.
LanguageUIAudioSubNotes
English
FrenchEuropean version only.
GermanEuropean version only.
SpanishFound in rare European versions only. Replaces German language in typical EU release.
ItalianFound in rare European versions only. Replaces French language in typical EU release.
RussianOnly available in Russian retail release. There are no official patches for this version leaving it at version 1. Unofficial patches to port newer patches can be found here.

Network[edit]

Multiplayer types

TypeNativePlayersNotes
LAN play6 Use Dune Legacy
Online play6 Use Dune Legacy
Nahoo

Issues unresolved[edit]

There are numerous bugs that remain in the game that haven't been addressed by any patches, official or unofficial. A good source list is available in this PDF. An experimental compilation of hex fixes are available here (sign in required to download document).

Issues fixed[edit]

Hey Guys, How Do We Edit The Mentat Text Descriptions For Each Unit And Structure In The Game? I Used WWPAK To Extract All Of The Files Within Ment...

Windows sound crash[edit]

Although Dune can run on older versions of Windows (without restarting in MS-DOS mode), sound corruption usually occurs followed by an eventual crash. This is due to some of the sound files being damaged and causing memory leaks.

Replace the sound files[1]

Download this and replace the files.

Other information[edit]

API[edit]

Technical specsSupportedNotes
DOS video modesMCGA, VGA

System requirements[edit]

Dune 2 .pak Files
DOS
Minimum
Operating system (OS)3.3
Processor (CPU)Intel 80286
System memory (RAM)640 KB
2 MB for digitized sound
Hard disk drive (HDD)10 MB
Video card (GPU) VGA

References

  1. https://forums.cncnet.org/topic/934-dune-ii-windows-soundspeech-fix/

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What is pak file?

Files with pak extension are traditionally used for package files. These files are used in many programs and especially in computer games. A typical .pak file can contain various resources used in the game, such as graphics or sounds. Can be extracted with specialized tools and sometimes with common archivers.

pak file description

File extension pak is used by some computer games for their resource archives.

The .pak files are archives or compressed files, which contains various game files such as graphic files, sprites, game sounds, music, objects and another data, that are required in order to play the game.

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Software that will open pak file

Dragon UnPACKer

A unpacking tool for resource files from computer games

Other pak file extensions

pak - CrazyTalk SFX data

Files with pak file extension can also occasionally be found as some kind of old packages for CrazyTalk facial animation software. Is not used in latest versions.

pak - Orgadata LogiKal data

A pak file extension is related to the Orgadata LogiKal and used for its data files.

pak - Simutrans object

Files with pak file suffix are related to the Simutrans computer game and used for its object data.

pak - ZLIB PAK archive

Added The 'Dune II Scenario Editing Pack' (attached To The First Post), Which Basically Contains All The Original Scenario Files With All Errors Re...

A pak file extension is related to the PAK compressed archive files used by some archive tools for MS-DOS.