Blasting onto the scene of real-time combat games is the Bitmap Brothers' latest shooter, Z. The time is in the not-so-distant future. The place is on various fictional planets where you are in command of a league of ruthless, party-animal, twisted, cowboy-looking robots primed and ready to take over the galaxy. That's about the extent of the story line, as Z is geared for Duke Nukem-caliber bloodfests and humor. Z has the same feel as games like Command & Conquer and Close Combat, but with a few interesting twists. While other games of this genre have tried hard to make combat realistic and believable, Z adds a little spice and humor to the slaughtering of masses. Compared to the other games in its class, Z is simple and easy to play, and it is obvious that the main goal is to get the player into some major slaughterfests as soon as possible. The storyline is really just for laughs and the characters are cartoonish robots who act like they are always partying between massive bloodbaths. It is your job to progress through a multitude of missions (C&C style) to eventually wipe your worthless foe from the reaches of the universe. Each mission gets harder and lots of interesting weapons are obtained before you finally win the ultimate battle. Or … if you are not into beating up on your poor computer, you can work on your relationships with your friends as you smash their little robot faces to dust. Z supports a four-player network mode or connection via modem. Hopefully you are getting the idea; Z is high on action and low on storyline … a real planetary ego-romp.
Gameplay
The gameplay and interface for Z is very similar to that of Command & Conquer, and there are no surprises here. You look down on your overhead map and select units to take to battle; it's very easy to pick up, and you shouldn't need the manual. 
If C&C is your favorite game, you will be disappointed with Z. There is no base building in the game; in fact, you can't build any structures, which makes it obvious that the Bitmap Brothers wanted to remove everything that got in the way of pure death and destruction. So you are limited to units (troops and armor) and the bases and structures supplied when you start each new mission. There are flags posted at various strategic points on the battlefield (usually where there are structures), the capture of which should be the player's goal. Once you capture a flag, the associated building is yours to use, but beware—the enemy lurks near to snatch it back from you. The ultimate goal is to lay siege on the enemy's base (located at the opposite end of the battlefield, of course) and destroy it, causing your robots to tap a victory keg and act like tin egomaniacs as they party their way to the next mission. There are four missions per planet, then you fly off to a new planet (with new planetary graphics) to cause more death and destruction. I am an avid C&C player, and by far that is my favorite overhead war sim. But Z has its good points, and it does some things that I found to be a refreshing change. For instance, the simplicity is great, especially if you just want to cause havoc for a half-hour, then move on to something else. The missions are not really that long, and the simple idea of "capture the flag" kept me playing longer than I would have expected. On the other hand, unlike C&C, you can't sit down for hours and engross yourself in strategic and interesting scenarios. In the long run, Z is dry, and the humor and cut scenes are repetitive and get old after a while. Of course, you can remedy this with some good old-fashioned network play … fire up those modems!
Graphics
The graphics are great, done in SVGA, and are very smooth. When structures and units explode, the particles fly up in the air, giving the player a really neat 3D effect. Of course, realism gives way to Wile E. Coyote-style fluff at this point and you realize just how fragile the battlefield really is. In fact, there is a setting where the player can decide just how much explosion debris he/she wants during the game. I found it amusing to blow through canyons and cliffs and watch the debris fly into the air,only to land on and squish my unsuspecting foe. The cut-scenes in Z are nicely done, but they get repetitive fast, and you won't be amused by them for long. Overall, the graphics are nicely done.
Audio
Standard fare here. Good sound, lots of shooting and dying, etc. Nothing much to say here … or to write home about.
Documentation
Just fine for the simplicity of this game. I used it mostly to look up the different units to see which ones were better for certain situations, etc. I really liked the detail in this area. 
System Requirements
486-66 MHZ processor, 8 MB RAM, MS-DOS 6.0 or greater, VGA Graphics Adapter, 20 MB free hard disk space, 2X CD ROM, Microsoft compatible mouse. The game ran fine on my P-100 with 32 MB of RAM.
Bottom Line
Z is fun, Z is amusing, Z is simple, Z made me laugh (albeit momentarily); Z is action-packed, Z has nice graphics, Z was on my hard drive for more than a week. But Z is not Command & Conquer — case closed. I just can't get all that juiced over a game that inevitably gets pitted against the ultimate. For its good points, I give Z a 78 out of 100, and hey, if you just want to kill something, go get Z. Who needs to build a base anyway?
Download Z
You can download Bitmap Brother's Zed from 486games.net compressed in a Rar archive. File size: 10.1 MB (10,556,117 bytes). To run the game you must extract the Z folder contained in the archive to C:\Z otherwise you have to change some settings manually. Also for the sound to work properly in the Zed game you have to run SETSOUND.EXE and select your card model. I did the following: Select and configure digital audio driver -> Creative Labs Sound Blaster or 100% compatible -> Attempt to configure manually.
At last, double click(run) Z.BAT and the game will start. Enjoy!
50 Comments
muy buen juego,, fue mi infanciaa mall
q salga el 3
no si ni siquiera si easta el 2 pero q salga el 3 !!!!
Alguien sabe como instalar y jugar Z en una Pentium IV o una Dual Core 1.8 ? En realidad ya lo isntale pero cuando voy a jugar el juego se sale dayana_732@hotmail.com
No work in my pentium IV heplme please (sorry my english: venezuelan girl) dayana_732@hotmail.com
I am from the philippines. I first played this Game way back in college as a freshman, this game was like no other back then! even after playing the 3D version (i.e. steel soldiers in 2001) this game is still in my personal top 5 classics list* But I lost the CD* and I think it was under Virgin interactive’s license… do you have maybe any information where to order this awesome programming masterpiece? I’d even reinstall win95 all over again if I have to^^
Oh and by the way, I like it so much seeing those crazy robots get squished* under those tank tracks!
Works fine for me with XP and without DosBox but I only hear speech sounds, no weapon sounds etc
can someone help ? 
Hi just wondering if this game will work on vista? is it just the same and getting it to work on xp?
i download the rar file from the link given but it doesnt want to work. when i play it, it asks to install and only gets to about 40% saying volume #0 must be installed… and i say skip to next volume and that dont work so i have to quit … any help?
It says file is broken after extraction- can anyone help…. I just wanna play.
uhmmm why is it that its stop at 44% and it want to have the volume #0 please tell me how to intsall it
well…
i tryed to start z useing dosbox. i starts loading but suddenly i return to that black dos screen looking at c:\ > and the blinking line ….
no errormassage, nothing
whats wrong?
thx for help
(Vista) Hello, Z bitmap brothers on Vista NP!
I have the game original from 10 years back
( i just love this game), i installed it just from cd!
i used this topic from above : http://zzone.lewe.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28/
using Dosbox .65..
but just dont install it by using dosbox, try it from a cd! it workt for me so.
For futher things use the topic, it really works..
Now im running it on Vista with no problems !!
Greetings, Roland
I know I am digging this up, and I know you arleady know this:
any game like C&C, AoE, Warcraft 1-3, Dawn of war, Dune, etc are RTS. a “C&C like overhead war sim” is not the name most would attach to this type of game.
You must know this, but I just thought it odd that you would refer to the type of game in such a strange way.
RTS may not even be accurate for most titles, but that is just the name that people use to discuss them.
Hell, most websites would even categorize games like Gal. Civ (turn based) as RTS, despite them being TBS games.
It just nagged at me while I read the review. It sounds like someone who is not very acquainted with gaming terminology or, hell, even many games was the author.
I found the comments pretty funny as well.
anyway this game is pretty fun. definitely a good “old game” to have.
If you are into this exact type of gameplay: Dawn of War.
it uses the same capture based strategy, although you can build buildings.
and any RTS fan should always have a copy of total annihilation. Easily the best RTS ever.
it embodies what an RTS is all about: building an army and base. With the proper mods, you can have games that last 9 hours with 50,000 units. the game is excellent and it also embodies fan/user support as the game is essentially useless without countless user written mods.
Hi guys
i don’t know if anybody’s going to read this, but i can you a positive answer to all those who asked for how that download was going to work.
well it seems like the sound doesn’t work (and that extra sfx package indeed always stops at 44%) but the game basically does, so you mustn’t switch on the sound with setsound.exe but keep the setting just as it is, don’t activate the video clips either.
you’ll find the game going, though for sure it’s not quite the same without those fun robots talking =)
My computer is AMD 2500xp 1.8ghz, 768mb ram, Asus ATI 9200SE graphic card 128 mb, if you want to feel real expirience of this game you will need windows 98 installed on your machine and original Z-cd game. Not working on Vista and XP because of copy error and DOS is not working. If you have run time error during installation game you need to download Z patch for windows 98 from bitmap brothers site. You can download demo of this game but only one level easy to play, no music and boring. I repeat, for best expirience you will need windows 98 and original Z-cd. BEST things in this game is robots talking, music, real time gameplay, fantastic graphics, explosions, realtime combat and many more……..20.10.2008. Tom.
Need to say something more about this game. Incredible robots AI, this robots can kill enemy soldier who driving wehicle and capture tank, jeep, howitzer….. they can kill penguin on the ground, birds on the sky (with nice effects ), if you leave them in the water they can fishing, all for fun, in swamp crocodile can eat them, amazing, incredible ingame music following action of game. Unfortunately this game is not for sale any more and if you cant find original Z-cd game try to download from this site http://zzone.lewe.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=8 if you still cant find game contact me and I will sent you original copy of Z95-cd my email is tomislavija@hotmail.com
hi i also have the original game , and it is very easy to buy on ebay where i got mine , now the thing is , does this dos patch actually work ? or would it be easier to partition my hard drive and install windows 98/95 on it . on that note where would i find a 98 or 95 disk ,,,problems….. problems 9/10 for the game tho
I love you !!!!
I searched for this game for ages !!
Everyone please help me!!!! im on Windows XP
I’m trying to play Z the best game from Bitmap Brothers and i cant get it to work.HELP ME
I’ve downloaded dosbox .62 .65 .72. them fine but I don’t know what to type in the boxes to load the game. ive tried to mount the directory as it says but it says directory dont exist it says that to a,b,c,d,e which doesn’t make sense (its on c directory)
I Tried downloading all different versions of the game but something like missing main.pac was always coming up so eventually found my cd but is scratched to f**k so ive just bought a new cd of the game of of ebay for £3.50 (how about that!) i was well chuffed to get it for that price but i cant play it.
ive tried changing sound, video settings, pixel settings, ms-dos prompt & all the dosbox prompts i still cant get to work.
Someone please help
contact me ASAP golfkingjat@hotmail.co.uk
I will forver be in you debt.
Man i had the DOS version of this and it was friggin awesome, does the download work for Vista by any chance?