Herzog Zwei

Herzog Zwei
Herzog Zwei
North American cover art
Developer(s)Technosoft
Publisher(s)Sega
  • JP: Technosoft
Programmer(s)Takashi Iwanaga
Composer(s)Naosuke Arai
Tomomi Otani
Platform(s)Mega Drive/Genesis, Nintendo Switch
Release
  • JP: December 15, 1989
  • NA: April 1990
  • EU: 1990
Genre(s)Real-time strategy
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Herzog Zwei[a] (pronounced [ˈhɛʁtsoːk ˈtsvaɪ]; German for 'Duke Two') is a real-time strategy video game developed by Technosoft and published by Sega for the Mega Drive/Genesis. An early real-time strategy game, it predates the genre-popularizing Dune II. It was released first in Japan in 1989 and worldwide in 1990.[1] It is the sequel to Herzog, which was available on the Japanese MSX and PC-8801 personal computers.

Herzog Zwei combines the arcade-style play of Technosoft's own Thunder Force series with a simple, easy-to-grasp level of strategy. It has been cited as an inspiration to the developers of Warcraft, StarCraft, Dune II, and Command & Conquer[1][2][3][4][5] and is also considered a precursor to the MOBA genre.[6][7]


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  1. ^ a b Sharkey, Scott. "Essential Top 50: Herzog Zwei". 1UP. Archived from the original on 2012-06-04. Retrieved 2007-09-27.
  2. ^ Clarke-Willson, Stephen (August 18, 1998). "The Origin of Realtime Strategy Games on the PC". The Rise and Fall of Virgin Interactive. Above the Garage Productions. Archived from the original on 2011-11-22. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
  3. ^ "Herzog Zwei (Genesis)". Retrieved October 18, 2017.
  4. ^ "The Making of... Dune II". Edge. Next-Gen.biz. December 9, 2008. Archived from the original on December 8, 2012. Retrieved July 27, 2011. Herzog Zwei was a lot of fun, but I have to say the other inspiration for Dune II was the Mac software interface. The whole design/interface dynamics of mouse clicking and selecting desktop items got me thinking, 'Why not allow the same inside the game environment? Why not a context-sensitive playfield? To hell with all these hot keys, to hell with keyboard as the primary means of manipulating the game!
  5. ^ "Dune II was not the first RTS game". December 16, 2004. Archived from the original on September 27, 2013. We were all adicted to Herzog Zwei at Westwood. We played for hours on the SEGA. However, Dune was inspired by more than Herzog .. The whole industry was moving to more interactiviity. FTL had Dungeon Master that took the Ultima and Wizardry games to a new level. We were already doing "what if" games like DragonStrike and Eye of the Beholder.At that time it was all about usability, not just about the character or the story. That was the problem with Dune I, it was just Zork with graphics. We wanted to place the player into the environment and let them create their own story. I always felt that Warcraft was a clone of the original Dune. Virgin at that time had a close relationship with Blizard. But now, having years to reflect upon it, I think it was a common synergy going through the industry. There were probably five or six development teams thinking about the same thing. Anyway just my thoughts .. from a guy on the original Dune design team.
  6. ^ Lockley, Greg (June 3, 2014). "MOBA: The story so far". MCV.
  7. ^ Groen, Andrew (March 7, 2012). "Ask GR Anything: What's a MOBA?". GamesRadar.