Updated for 2024!

Every now and again, I get a hankering for retro gaming, and it ends up on this blog. I never played Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty on a PC, only the Sega Genesis port Dune: The Battle for Arrakis, so it was news to me that you could play Dune II on MacOS. I assume anyone who is reading this probably knows the place that Dune plays in gaming history. Still, it's largely considered the title that defined the genre of the real-time strategy (RTS) or the first real-time strategy (even if not entirely correct). Also, Sim Ant is the real first RTS ;)


I can't say I have a special affinity for the genre, as pretty much the only other RTSes I've played are the original Command and Conquer and Warcraft 2, but I always liked Dune: The Battle for Arrakis. I've revisited via emulation a few times. I hoped Dune 2 or Dune 2000 would end up on a service like GOG.com, but sadly, it hasn't. Thanks to open source, both Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty and its sequel, Dune 2000, can be played on Mac OS, natively and with some modern improvements.

Disclaimer: By the letter-of-the-law, abandonware isn't 100% legal, but there's no real legal vector to obtain these games, each over 2 decades old. I don't see a moral quandary here, but you can always obtain the original game disks if you see fit.

Dune II using Dune Legacy

Dune Legacy on macOS 10.14

Dune Legacy gives a nice modern twist to the original shortcomings of Dune II, including better AI, head-to-head, ability to group select units, more hotkeys, modern resolutions, HD graphics, and so on.

  1. Search "Dune II Abandonware" or use archive.org. Download it.
  2. Download Dune Legacy
  3. Open the DMG, and drag the Dune Legacy app to your Applications folder. Also, decompress the PC copy of the abandonware Dune II
  4. Right-click the Dune Legacy App, and click Show Contents. Open within the app, Contents -> Resources
  5. Drag all the .PAK files from decompressed Dune II into the Dune Legacy -> Contents -> Resources
  6. Double-click to start. You will most likely see a security message. Instead, right-click the application and select open. You'll then see a message with an "Open" option. Select open. On older macOS versions, Go to system preferences -> Security and Privacy.

The security message relates to the signed code. The developers of Dune Legacy do not pay for an Apple dev license; thus, the code is unsigned.

Dune 2000 and/or Command and Conquer using Open RA

OpenRA Dune 2000 on macOS 10.14

Open RA stands for "Open Red Alert" but also includes Dune 2000 and Tiberian Dawn support with features that are much like Dune Legacy's modern screen resolutions and minor tweaks. Unlike some of the other ports, OpenRA Dune focuses on delivering re-creation rather than improvements and online play. OpenRA has been progressively improving over the years. It used to require installing Mono, an opensource framework for .NET functionality but no longer requires independently installing it. Also, at some point in the future, it'll support Tiberian Sun.

  1. Optional: Nab the Dune II ISO for Windows from a site like myabandonware or archive.org.
  2. Download OpenRA. Each game comes with an independent app. Install to your applications folder
  3. Launch the game and either select "Quick Install" or if you have the original game discs, mount the ISO and select advanced install.
  4. Also, see d2kplus for mods, some are supported in OpenRA.

Game assets are installed in /Library/Application Support/OpenRA. If you delete OpenRA games, be sure to delete this folder as well to completely delete OpenRA. (This may also delete your game saves).