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?
Looks cool, never played the original Z, just Steel Soldiers. I remember it being not particularly memorable in terms of the gameplay experience (there was a lot to choose from in terms of RTS game options at that time).
It’s also been 25 years or since I played Steel Soldiers, so my memory could be off.
It was either you are on top of everything or on the back foot losing there was nothing in-between
So true. Lose one flag and suddenly the whole map turns against you. That is what made it so tense.
Oh man, I cannot for the life of me remember if I actually enjoyed that game. I just remember I got it because it was so hyped in the media since its concept was so different from all other games.
Ha, fair enough. It was a very different kind of RTS, fast and a bit chaotic. Maybe a good excuse to find out if you still like it.
Either you were crushing it in this game or you were losing and nothing you could do about it. Losing momentum was losing the game.
I think also the pre-rendered cut scenes were something that impressed me at 10 years old or whatever. Stuff like this aged really badly but believe it or not these were impressive.
Same with tomb raider seeing real 3d etc. and you would consider it unplayable today.
You know, your first paragraph brings back some of those memories, I definitely remember feeling like that when I played it and would explain why I didn’t play it for long.
Awesome! Time for a nostalgia hit.
If I’m understanding the github page right, it currently only has 3 levels? If I’m wrong, just FYI that’s the impression it gives to a newcomer.
Thanks for sharing. I played the open source version of Z a few months back and it was a real nostalgia hit :)
Glad it brought back memories! That was probably the Zod Engine, which is great. OpenZ is a new 3D remake, so it should feel familiar but look quite different.
I never played the original but loved other Bitmap Brothers games like Xenon and Speedball so definitely will give this a whirl. Thanks!
Speedball 2 is still one of the best. Z has the same cheeky Bitmap humour, hope you have fun with it.
Thank you, let me try it up!
Hope you enjoy it! Let us know how it goes.
Out of curiosity, did you use AI at all?
