I Rebuilt Z, the 1996 Bitmap Brothers RTS, in Godot 4

There are games you forget. And there are games that won't let you forget them.

Z belongs to the second category.

In 1996, The Bitmap Brothers released a strategy game that did everything differently. No resource gathering. No base building. No waiting. Just territories, factories, robots — and pure, unfiltered chaos.

I was instantly hooked.

Update — June 2026: It's Playable Now

When I first wrote this, Z was a dream and a stack of design docs. It isn't anymore.

Phase 1 — Z Classic (2D) is complete and playable. Built in Godot 4, AI-assisted with Claude:

• The full loop: main menu → map select (3 maps) → battle → victory/defeat
• All six robots — Grunt, Sniper, Tank, Psycho, Pyro, Tough
• Vehicles with a crew system: jump into a jeep or tank, snipe the driver to take it back
• Territory capture, factory production, road and water terrain
• An AI opponent that plays to a roughly 50/50 win rate
• Mini-map, drag-select, damage popups, death animations, speech-bubble barks, procedural sound

Phase 2 — Z Evolved (3D) is a playable technical spike. Third-person control, class select, bots with a real state machine, voxel factories and fortresses, capture zones — the "you ARE a robot" idea, walking around inside a Z battlefield.

No base-building. No resource-grinding. Just territories and robots — exactly like 1996, plus the twist the original never got to.

The build isn't public yet. Want it first when it drops? Follow the Werkstatt-Logbuch.

What Made Z Different

Most RTS games of the 90s followed the same recipe: Gather resources, build a base, produce units, attack. Command & Conquer. Warcraft. Age of Empires. All great — but all following the same pattern.

Z said: No.

In Z, there are no resources to gather. Instead, there's a map divided into territories. Each territory has a flag. Whoever holds the flag controls the area. And whoever controls more areas produces units faster.

That's it. That simple. That brilliant.

Speed Over Strategy

While other games forced you to chop wood for minutes before the first shot was fired, Z threw you directly into battle. The first minute was decisive. Hesitate and you lose.

The maps were small. The matches short. Every second counted.

Robots With Personality

The units in Z weren't faceless soldiers. They were robots with character. The Grunt was the average Joe — slow, weak, but reliable. The Psycho was a crazed close-combat fighter with two machine pistols. The Sniper could kill from distance, but get too close and he was helpless.

And then there were the vehicles. Jeeps, tanks, rocket launchers. Any unit could get into a vehicle and take control. A single Grunt could suddenly command a tank — if he reached it before the enemy did.

The General

But the best part was the General.

General Zod, the leader of your army, sat in his command tent commenting on your performance. When you did well, he praised you. When you did poorly... well.

"You are so crap."

That one line. In a British accent. Full of contempt. It burned into my memory like no other gaming moment.

The Last Time

The last version of Z I played ran on my iPad 3. That was 2012. Apple had just released iOS 6, and someone had made a mobile port of Z.

It was perfect. Touch controls for a touch game. The small maps fit the screen. The pace matched short sessions.

And then iOS 7 came. And iOS 8. And at some point, Z stopped launching. The app disappeared from the store. My iPad became too old. The game became incompatible.

Z was gone.

I never forgot it.

28 Years Later

It's 2026. I just turned 60. I have 40 years of software development behind me. IBM, PwC, countless projects. I've seen technologies come and go. COBOL, Java, JavaScript, Flutter, AI.

And I still think about Z.

Not out of nostalgia. Okay, maybe a little nostalgia. But mainly because I believe Z had an idea that was never fully explored.

The Question

What if you weren't the Commander — but one of the robots?

In the original, you control all units from above. You're the god of the battlefield. You click, and the robots obey.

But what if you were a robot yourself? What if you fought alongside real humans in a team? What if Z's territory mechanic was suddenly experienced from a first-person perspective?

That's the idea. That's Z Evolved.

The Vision: Three Phases

Phase 1: Z Classic

Before you can reinvent something, you have to understand it.

So first, I'm rebuilding Z. Faithful to the original. 2D. Pixel art. The same six units. The same territory mechanic. The same small, hectic maps.

Not as a nostalgia trip. As a proof of concept. As a foundation.

Phase 2: Z Evolved

This is where the twist happens.

The Commander is gone. You're now a Grunt. Or a Psycho. Or a Sniper. Your teammates are real humans. Together, you fight for territories.

The camera shifts from bird's eye to third-person. The voxel graphics echo the pixelated original, but in 3D. The factories still produce units — but now new players spawn there.

What happens when an RTS battlefield is suddenly experienced from ground level? That's what I want to find out.

Phase 3: Z Field Ops

And then it gets crazy.

What if the battlefield was real?

Imagine: A soccer field. Two teams. Every player holds their smartphone. GPS tracks position. The app shows the map — but the map IS the field.

You run to the flag to capture a territory. Actually run. With your legs. You duck, and the accelerometer detects it. You aim with the camera, and AR shows you the enemies.

"Touch grass. Capture flags."

Sounds insane? Maybe. But that's exactly why I want to build it.

Why Godot?

I could have chosen Unity. Or Unreal. The industry standards.

But I chose Godot 4. For three reasons:

1. Open Source. No license fees. No runtime fees. No surprises.

2. One engine for everything. Godot handles 2D and 3D. Phase 1 and Phase 2 can share the same code. The same territory classes. The same production logic.

3. GDScript. Godot's scripting language is Python-like. Simple. Readable. And — this matters in 2026 — AI-codeable. Claude can write GDScript. That speeds up everything.

What I've Already Learned

This project taught me something before I wrote a single line of code:

Listen first. Then do.

My first instinct was to jump right in. Create a Flutter project. Write code. Forward!

Wrong.

Without a clear vision, you write code you'll delete later. Without defined goals, you build features nobody needs. Without a tech stack decision, you waste time on the wrong engine.

So I stopped. Thought. Documented.

• VISION.md — Why am I building this?
• GOALS.md — What exactly do I want to achieve?
• TECH_STACK.md — What tools am I using?

Only when these questions are answered does implementation begin.

This applies not just to games. It applies to every project.

Will Z Ever Be Finished?

When I first asked that question, I genuinely didn't know.

Now Phase 1 is done and playable. Phase 2 walks. That's further than most of the projects I started in 40 years ever got — and it took weeks, not years, because Claude writes GDScript alongside me.

I'm still realistic. Phase 3 — the outdoor AR version — might never happen. But "finished" was never really the point.

The point is: Is it fun? Yes.

The point is: Am I learning something? Absolutely. Godot. Voxel rendering. AI-assisted gamedev. Next up: multiplayer networking.

The point is: Does what I want to build already exist? No. There's still no game that combines Z's territory mechanic with team-shooter gameplay. There's no outdoor AR game where you capture real flags.

So I'm building it. And now there's something to play.

One Sentence

If I had to summarize Z in one sentence, it would be this:

Z takes a forgotten RTS gem and asks: What if the player isn't God, but a soldier?

General Zod would probably say I'm crazy.

"You are so crap."

Maybe he's right. But I'm doing it anyway.

Want to Build Z With Me?

Here's the honest pitch: Z is a side project I love, and I don't have nearly enough time for it. Phase 1 is playable. Phase 2 — 3D multiplayer — is where it gets big, and that's exactly where I could use a small crew.

This isn't a startup. No funding, no deadline, no equity paperwork. Just a cult RTS from 1996, rebuilt in Godot, and one question: what if we took it further, together?

I'd love to hear from you if you're into:

• Godot / GDScript — gameplay, 3D, and the multiplayer netcode (ENet) that's the next big rock
• Pixel & voxel art — the sprites and 3D models are procedural placeholders; they deserve better
• Game design & balance — territory mechanics, unit tuning, map design
• Playtesting — you remember Z, you have opinions, you want to break things

You don't have to commit to anything. Curious counts.

→ Email me: "Z — I want to build" — tell me what you'd want to work on.

This is open development — I document the build as it happens. Want the playable build when it drops? Follow the Werkstatt-Logbuch.

Links:

• Original Z (1996): Wikipedia
• The Bitmap Brothers: Wikipedia