Z was the Bitmap Brothers RTS with no mining and no base building: you take flags, hold territory and your factories speed up.
OpenZ brings it back in 3D for free. Version 1.2 adds the blue side, with General EvilZod and his own briefings, plus a Unit editor where you set up both teams on an empty field and watch them fight.
Windows, with experimental Mac and Linux builds.
wz2100 is a great example. It still feels like nothing else in the genre.
Freeciv was a serious time sink. An open-source Total War would be something, though I can't imagine the amount of work.
Total Annihilation still feels huge when you pull back over a whole map. The Spring games kept that alive really well.
OpenRA is such a good way back into Dune 2000. Funny how well those old maps still hold up.
I love when fans keep an old game alive. OpenTTD, OpenRA, OpenMoHAA and friends are the obvious ones.
A recent one I came across is OpenZ, a free 3D fan remake of Z, the 1996 Bitmap Brothers RTS with no resources at all, just flags and territory. The Zod Engine did the 2D version years ago, so it's nice to see that odd little game still has people caring about it.
What other projects like this should more people know about?
(OpenZ is on itch, Game Jolt and GitHub, for anyone curious: https://github.com/playopenz/OpenZ)
Most RTS games of the 90s were about gathering: ore, gold, lumber, spice. Z threw all of that out. The map was split into sectors, you took one by getting a unit to its flag, and every sector you held made all your factories build faster. So every fight was really about ground and time, and a lost flag on the far side of the map could snowball into a lost game.
I still think that is one of the cleanest strategy ideas ever, and almost nobody copied it. Curious if anyone here played it, and whether you know any newer games that use a similar territory-drives-production system.
(There is also a free open-source 3D fan remake of Z called OpenZ, if you want to see the idea in action again: https://github.com/playopenz/OpenZ)
It is pretty easy to get into: grab flags, the more you hold the faster you build. Hope you have fun with it, and the new 1.2 even lets you play the blue side.
Nice to hear from someone who played it back then! If you try the remake, tell us how it compares to your memories.
they had also win 95 version for Z.. later it was also ported to mobiles and modern pc on steam
z (first one) was really a masterpiece rts for its time, very original concept of flags and terrirotires and great humor
level 16 is featured in Openz.. the trick is to win the early heavy tank vs heavy tank duel on the road between two forts
Z was such an odd one compared to everything else at the time. No harvesting, no base building, just territory flags and factories that build faster the more sectors you hold. Every match turned into a mad scramble where losing one flag could flip the whole map.
And the robots had real personality, with the cigar chomping commander and Allan and Brad slacking off in the cutscenes.
Steel Soldiers went much more traditional later, and I always felt the original's idea never really got a proper successor. Did anyone here play it back then? What did you think of the time-as-resource design?
For anyone curious, there's a free open-source 3D fan remake of it now, OpenZ: https://github.com/playopenz/OpenZ
give it a try, it's the same vibe of Bitmap Brothers games
Steel Soldiers was a very different game. The original is faster and a lot more chaotic, so it might surprise you. Worth a try on a free evening.
The cutscenes were a big deal back then. Half the fun of finishing a level was seeing what Allan and Brad would get up to next. I made several small cutscenes i nthe same style in the game
Remember Z, the original from 1996, not Steel Soldiers? The RTS where time was the only resource: no mining, no base building, just flags, territory and factories that build faster the more ground you hold. It turned 30 this year, so I rebuilt it in 3D in Unity with several of the classic levels. Version 1.1 just came out with a jungle level, a flying shuttle and Alan and Brad as a hero squad.
It's free and open source (code GPL-3.0, assets CC BY-NC-SA), nothing is sold, and it's not affiliated with Rebellion or The Bitmap Brothers.
https://github.com/playopenz/OpenZ
Would love to hear from anyone who played the original. What did you love or hate about it?
