The faithful open-source 3D fan remake of Z (The Bitmap Brothers, 1996), made for its 30th anniversary.
Free forever. Never sold. 100% original assets.
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Mac version (experimental, 2.0 GB) · What's new in 1.1
Unzip it, run OpenZ.exe, play. No install, no account, no launcher.
How to install ·
Controls ·
Screenshots ·
Discord ·
YouTube ·
Bug list (GitHub Issues) ·
Report a bug / send an idea
- Level 16: Jungle, a third battlefield: ruins, waterfalls, wobbly rope bridges, rain, crocodiles in the swamp and monkeys on the temples.
- Alan & Brad join your army as a hero squad, and their shuttle is the first unit in OpenZ that flies (double right-click a far spot for a kickflip).
- Sniper headshots, jeeps that run robots over, high scores and army ranks, a smarter enemy with strike groups, new options, and a long list of polish and fixes on every level.
- An experimental Mac version.
Full list: change log.
openz_trailer_1_1_github_720p.mp4
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Hi guys! The legendary Z is celebrating its 30th anniversary, and to commemorate it, the community gets the long-awaited faithful remake of the original Z, now in full 3D!
Every single detail has been meticulously recreated and restored with an almost ridiculous level of attention. Every unit, robot, vehicle, building, interaction and gameplay stat has been faithfully reproduced, and then improved with 30 years of RTS game design experience. Even the smallest elements, down to the flora and fauna of each biome, are there.
And that's not all: several completely new ideas and brand-new content have been added, including new units like the Mech and the Electrobot! Every change from the original is listed in the game's Changes & Updates screen.
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- Pure Z gameplay. Capture flags to take whole territories. More territory means faster factories. Storm the enemy fort, or blow it to pieces. No resources to mine, no base building: just war.
- Three classic levels, fully restored: Level 2 (Desert), Level 16 (Jungle, new in 1.1) and Level 17 ("Car Park"), polished to an extreme level of detail, with day, night and weather.
- The whole robot army: Grunts, Psychos, Snipers, Toughs, Pyros and Lasers, plus the brand-new Electrobot.
- Vehicles and guns: jeeps, light, medium and heavy tanks, APCs, missile launchers, cranes, gatlings, howitzers, missile cannons, and the brand-new Mech. Any robot can board an empty vehicle, and a sniper can shoot the driver out of his seat.
- A real opponent: the CPU is ported from the open-source Zod Engine, with Easy, Medium and Hard difficulty.
- Everything goes boom: buildings break apart, bridges fall, wrecks burn, crews get thrown.
- Modern comfort: smooth zoom from a close tactical view out to the whole map, control groups, production queues, rally points, rebindable keys, game speed, 4K support.
- The humour is back: commander Zod and his robots have plenty to say. Every character, voice and line was re-created from scratch for OpenZ: new designs, new models, new recordings. No original assets or materials were used, and any likeness to other characters or real persons is purely coincidental.
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OpenZ is built in Unity 6 with the Universal Render Pipeline, and every model was shaped, rigged, animated and painted in Blender. The goal was simple: the Z you remember, at the visual standard of a modern game, in 4K at 60 fps.
- Living battlefields: a full day and night cycle, rain and storms, drifting fog, wind in the flags and palms, heat haze over fire, lamps, searchlights and headlights that light up the night.
- Modern rendering: real-time shadows, anti-aliasing, bloom, motion blur, soft atmospheric lighting, animated water with shorelines, wet ground in the rain, and custom shaders for fire, flames, lasers and electric arcs.
- Physics you can feel: buildings break into pieces, bridges collapse, wrecks burn out, turrets get tossed, crews are thrown clear, debris bounces, shells leave craters and scorch marks, and tracks and wheels leave trails in the sand.
- Animation with weight: inverse kinematics plants every Mech foot on the ground, robots aim, kneel, go prone and climb into vehicles, vehicles lean and bounce, and the camera shakes when the big guns fire.
- The little things: flora and fauna for each biome (palms, cacti, seagulls, eagles, sandworms), base props around every building, team paint and war paint, rust and grime, and idle antics: leave your robots alone and they will find something to do.
- Sound to match: every action has its own sound, and commander Zod and the robots comment on the battle.
Every one of these details was recreated, restored and polished by hand, pass after pass, until it matched the feeling of the original. This is where it started, and where it is now:
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- Download OpenZ_1.1_win64.zip (2.0 GB).
- Unzip it anywhere (right click, Extract All).
- Run
OpenZ.exe. That's it.
Windows says "Windows protected your PC"? Click More info, then Run anyway. It only appears because the game is not signed by a company. OpenZ sends nothing anywhere, and the full source code is right here.
You need: Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit), a DirectX 12 graphics card, about 3 GB of disk space.
On a Mac (experimental): download
OpenZ_1.1_mac_EXPERIMENTAL.zip,
unzip it, then right-click the game and choose Open on the first start (it is not signed). See
HOW_TO_START_ON_A_MAC.txt inside. It is an Intel build and has not been tested on many Macs yet.
Apple Silicon Mac or Linux: see the community builds by fenio (unofficial, 1.1, native Apple Silicon + Intel Mac and Linux).
Want to be sure your download is the original? The checksums are in
RELEASE_SHA256.txt. Check yours in
PowerShell: Get-FileHash OpenZ_1.1_win64.zip -Algorithm SHA256
New to Z? Read how to play and all the controls, or open CONTROLS in the game's main menu.
Together as a community we can bring Z back to its former glory: more restored classic levels, completely original new levels, new units and maybe even multiplayer. Your feedback shapes what comes next! Play it, report every bug you find, and tell us what you want to see. Every single report gets read.
Have a GitHub account? Use GitHub Issues: you can see every bug that is already reported, add a thumbs up or a comment, and follow the fix. No account? The form works just as well. Screenshots and short clips help squash bugs much faster. We are not taking code or art contributions right now: what we need most is players and their feedback.
Enjoying it? Drop a on this page and share OpenZ with every Z fan you know!
OpenZ is open source. The source folder holds the game code (C# and shaders) for reading. The complete Unity project
with every model, texture, sound and scene is attached to each
release as OpenZ_1.1_source_part1.zip and
OpenZ_1.1_source_part2.zip. See Building OpenZ from source (Unity 6.3 LTS).
- Code: GNU GPL-3.0. OpenZ ports the gameplay rules of the GPL-3.0 Zod Engine, huge respect to its creators!
- Art, audio and all other assets: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: share and adapt them with credit, under the same terms, never for commercial use.
- OpenZ is free and will never be sold: no price, no donations, no ads, no commercial use.
- No original materials: nothing from the original Z game is used. No sprites, sounds, music, voices, art or logos were taken from it; everything in OpenZ was made new, from scratch.
- No affiliation: OpenZ is a faithful fan recreation built from scratch. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by The Bitmap Brothers or Rebellion.
Full credits: CREDITS.md.
What is new in the 1.1 update? Pack your sunscreen and watch your step around the water, soldiers! 1.1 adds a whole new battlefield, Level 16: Jungle, with ruins, waterfalls, wobbly rope bridges and rain. Crocodiles drag robots under in the swamp, and monkeys flee the temples when the shooting starts. Alan & Brad finally join your army as a tough hero squad, straight off their sun loungers, and their shuttle is the first unit that flies: carry a squad over swamps, cliffs and trees, and double right-click a far spot for a corkscrew kickflip. On top of that: sniper headshots, jeeps that run over big robots, high scores and army ranks from Private to General, Pyros that burn buildings, an enemy that sends strike groups, new options and a huge pile of polish and fixes on every level. Everything is in the change log.
Do you have a Mac version?
Yes, an experimental one: OpenZ_1.1_mac_EXPERIMENTAL.zip on the
release page. It is an Intel build and not signed, so on the
first start right-click the game and choose Open (see HOW_TO_START_ON_A_MAC.txt inside). It has not been tested
on many Macs yet, so please tell us how it runs for you.
Is there a Linux version? Not from us yet. Our fan fenio made unofficial OpenZ 1.1 builds for Linux and for Mac (native Apple Silicon and Intel), for anyone who would like to try it without building it themselves: fenio's 1.1 builds. Thank you, fenio! These builds are made and looked after by him, not by us.
Are any original models or resources used? No. Everything in OpenZ was made from scratch: every model, texture, animation, sound, voice line, music track and interface element. Nothing was taken or converted from the original game.
Do you accept donations or plan to sell it? No. OpenZ is a fully non-commercial fan remake. It is free, it will never be sold, and there are no donations, ads or paid extras of any kind.
Does it use models or resources from Z: Steel Soldiers? No. Nothing from Z: Steel Soldiers is used. All models and resources were made from scratch for OpenZ.
Is it a remake of Z: Steel Soldiers? No. Honestly, we were never big fans of Steel Soldiers. OpenZ is focused only on the original Z from 1996.
What are the unit stats and game rules? The same as in the original game, taken from the open-source Zod Engine: unit stats, build times, territory rules and the CPU opponent. On top of that there are some updates and improvements, and every one of them is listed in the game's Changes & Updates screen.
OpenZ is an unofficial, fan-made faithful remake of Z (The Bitmap Brothers, 1996), created for its 30th anniversary. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Rebellion or The Bitmap Brothers. Z, its names and its characters belong to their respective owners.
All assets are 100% original. No copyrighted material from the original game is used: no original sprites, sounds, music, voice recordings, art or logos. Every model, texture, sound, voice, music track and interface element was newly made for OpenZ.
More about the original Z: Z Wiki · ZZone fan site · PCGamingWiki
Contact: openzhq@gmail.com · Discord (ZZone server) · YouTube