The Dune Board Game (1984)

My friend got the Dune board game as a Christmas gift. He was extremely excited about it and called us all over to play. We managed to work out the rules well enough, but the game was a lot more special to him than it was for the rest of us. He had seen the movie and loved it. Most of us had not see it yet. Without that connection, the game was just a board game, and as board games go it was fine but not revelatory. I still thought about it for years afterward. Especially after having seen the movie myself on cable. So when I found a copy at a thrift store a few years ago for four dollars, I bought it.Support the Retroist on PatreonThe first thing worth knowing is that this game is frequently confused with another one. In 1979, Avalon Hill published a board game also called Dune, based on Frank Herbert’s novel. That is the one people usually mean when they call a Dune board game a classic. It was rereleased in 2019 by Gale Force Nine to considerable excitement. This is not that game.…