MD Herzog Zwei

Tecnho Soft's greatest game! Ok, so it's not a Thunder Force game, but it does use Thunder Force II engine (from the top down view parts of the game). Herzog Zwei (German for "Duke Two")is the one, the genesis of RTS games as you know them (apart from Herzog on the MSX, it's prequel), since Westwood was inspired on this to make Dune 2. You control a transformer ship (changes from plane to robot) that can fight, carry and deploy units in the battlefield. The single player was good, the CPU outnumbered you many units to one, but it wasn't impossible. However, two players head-to-head split screen competition made this a winner! Im lucky to have the European version of the game, complete with box and manual, it was lost in perfect conditions in a local pawn shop. Costed me 5 €uros in 1998! What a bargain! I have played this do death.

Correction from shodan404:
No, it actually means "Duke two". "Zwei Herzöge" would mean "Two Dukes".

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• MD
• Sega
• Megadrive
• Genesis
• Thunderforce
• Herzog
• Zwei
• Techno
• Soft
• Shiryu

[CoIdHeat]

Heya! Gotta have to correct Shodan404. Herzog Zwei does not mean 2 Dukes. Your initial idea was correct. Its simply the sequel to Herzog. Dune II ain't "Two Dunes" neither. ;)

[ShiryuGL]

@CoIdHeat Thanks.

[AnsatsuRaKarth]

lol I still have my cartridge somewhere, no this isnt the first RTS, there were ones on dos before genesis even existed. In fact, Dune 2 came out a year before the orriginal Herzog and is the predecessor to C&C series. But this one will always be one of my favs.

They should remake the game in 3d but at the same time 2d so its just the same, only for PC with up to 8 players.

[ShiryuGL]

@AnsatsuRaKarth Of course thi is nto the first RTS, becaus this is a sequel to Herzog, the original MSX outing of the game that had lots of similar features. It was just from this one that Westwood took inspiration to make Dune, giving birth the the current conception of what the RTS genre is.

[AnsatsuRaKarth]

@ShiryuGL Actually the first RTS game was Utopia made by Intellivision in 1982, it predates herzog (on msx) by 6 years. Herzog had many different features though which also helped set the way for modern RTS games.

[ShiryuGL]

@AnsatsuRaKarth Man, were old because we knwo stuff liek that. T_T

[Jagged85]

@st1ka

Dune II's lead designer Brett Sperry acknowledged that he had played Herzog Zwei before he worked on Dune II. Therefore, I think it's safe to say that Herzog Zwei did inspire Dune II.

[Jagged85]

@AnsatsuRaKarth

Utopia was not a RTS, but rather it was a turn-based strategy with some real-time elements. Herzog Zwei was the first true RTS because it was the first strategy game to run entirely in real-time and without any turn-based mechanics.

[Jagged85]

@ImperialGenKlenner

The creators of AirMech may as well have called it Herzog Drei. Since Herzog Zwei's original developer TechnoSoft went bankrupt over a decade ago, wouldn't that make the Herzog license public domain?

[Jagged85]

@rankco357

I looked it up and it was an interesting article. Thanks for the info. In case anyone else can't find it, the article is called "The Rise and Fall of Virgin Interactive" and it describes the role of "Duke 2" in the "genesis" of "Dune II" (pun intended).

[rankco357]

@Jagged85 google virgin interactive herzog zwei and you can read about how one guy had a part in bringing RTS to the PC. Basically Stephen Clarke-Willson was the impetus for having westwood studio look into hergoz zwei. But I still consider Dune 2 to be the first true modern RTS.

[Halo933]

Airmech

[un7ucky]

@soldjahboy some one is remaking this game under the name AirMech :D

[VadimPVO]

бля игра охуенна

[ImperialGenKlenner]

It looks like HZ will finally get the update we all been waiting for w/ AirMech. Am having a hard time staying calm since I got very exited w/ what I saw. People are already calling it Herzog Drei. I see it as the spiritual sucessor, but after witnessing all the similarities, I was really taken back 20 years. It been that long since my last HZ victory! I play Total Annihilation, Starcraft & M.A.X. now still. My PC can't handle newer games, but I have seen Supreme Commander.

[Peshi80]

Now imagine this games premise combined with G1 Transformers on an HD platform.....Need I say more?

[Humster]

Orz reminds me of the rumors of Herzog part 3..... before techno Soft closes down...

[Humster]

@nobinobita2095

Ya, read that mag during that time too. Computer Gaming World <-- lol anyone still remember this mag?, also ran and article on it too.