I'm afraid Kung Fu Master is the one that gets to me the most (one of my favourite arcade games) I remember playing it on my friends C64 and being blown away, then rushing out to my local WHSmiths, getting home and loading it up, utter garbage I was not a happy boy. Even today I would love to see someone do a Speccy remake just to heal the pain.
I forked out £8 for Double Dragon on the Speccy having fallen in love with the arcade version. I remember playing it for about an hour and thinking "ah well, at least it came in a nice box". I was back to Codemasters' budget titles for a while after that chastening experience!
Having grown up in Australia with a Nes I'm fascinated by the spectrum, It really seems like the little engine that could. Love the work Kim, keep crushing it and Merry Christmas.
Here’s something that will amaze you: Sir Clive Sinclair, who created the Spectrum, never envisaged it as a games machine, yet it had absolutely loads of games programmed for it, some of which became classics in their own right. He saw it as being an affordable colour-capable business machine for the home.
I had the Amstrad CPC 464 which got a lot of Spectrum ports being a very similar operating system. It did offer far more colours though when Devs used it properly such as the amazing Sorcery game.
The 48k Spectrum that I got as a child was bought to get me interested in computers. It got hammered as a games machine but equally I ended up getting a degree in Computing and wound up fascinated in all things computers. It really was an amazing little machine.
NES version of Kunio kun was great too. It absolutely holds up. As in, I didn't play original but had a blast with it in 2010s. Controls are absolutely tighter than many modern games.
The Renegade franchise has got to be one of the most convoluted in all of video games. The original was changed substantially between it's Japanese and international releases, the ports of the international releases got sequels of their own (as chronicled here,) and then the original developers made a spiritual successor in Double Dragon, which has its own complicated legacy. Then, when they made a proper sequel to the original, it was again given an overhaul internationally (becoming River City Ransom) that was completely unrelated to the international version of Renegade, and that overhaul eventually got a sequel of its own in River City Ransom: Underground. Then there were all the sports spinoffs, many of which were again divorced from the main series in their localizations, and eventually we got River City: Tokyo Rumble, which uses the name of one of the western releases but follows the original Japanese continuity. And then most recently we got River City Girls, which again uses the western title but the Japanese continuity, but is made by a western developer this time.
I really liked Renegade back in the day, but I absolutely LOVED Target Renegade! Playing 2 player Co-op was the best arcade like experience on the Speccy. Played the hell out of that thing from a pirated cassette copy... Ahh the 80's.
Renegade and Target Renegade were very much the "It games" of a couple of summers for my friends and I. They were to us back then what Fortnite and Minecraft are to kids today.
What the first two games on the Spectrum got right was scale and style. The sprites fit so well with the levels, that while both being detailed do not interfere with each other, there's so much play space. A true masterclass in Spectrum game design.
I remember playing Renegade in the Arcades and being battered by Big Bertha and her ladies of the night. I swore I would get revenge and couldn't wait to play the original. The spectrum artwork still ranks highly on nostalgic value for me. Target Renegade was probably my best experience on the humble speccy. Good times.
Back in '86 we had an Atari at home, and one day my brother told that a mate of his had a Spectrum 128k, and if I wanted to have a try on it. The game we played was Target Renegade, and I remember being blown away by the graphics, music, playability and most of all, being able to say "I got an extra life". My brother's mate had to put up with me for months, inviting myself over to his place, both of us knowing that I was there not for friendship but for the game only. Like you wrote, good times!
As always, well researched and presented clearly. I found out some stuff about the games I didn't know, even though they were a huge part of my childhood growing up. Thanks for all the hard work it takes to make the video.
Target Renegade and Renegade were stunning for the time. Dawn Drake had amazing vision with 8 bit sprite design on these games. Both were brilliantly playable and so addictive!
Some of my favourite gaming memories are playing Target Renegade on the Speccy with my friends and cousins. When I 'upgraded' to the C64 and once again acquired TR, I loved the graphics but it had somehow lost the magic of the rubber keyed wonder, as well as it's 2 player mode! This is such a well made documentary. Thanks for bringing back my childhood :)
I played Renegade and Target Renegade on the C64 when I was 7 years old. An issue I had with the first game was that when playing with joystick, only the stick worked but not the fire button on the joystick. So I tried playing it with the stick on the joystick and a button on the keyboard. But I never got past the first level. The only things I remember about Target Renegade was that I always ran out of time on the first level if I tried to play it like a normal beat em up. As in walk to the right and beat ip enemies as they come along. The solution was I keep walking all the way to the far right of the screen, beat some enemies and pick ip the phone. Don't remember how far I got in thay game. Only seen Renegade 3 in a commodore format magazine. Didn't know it was that bad. I wil also add that I actually enjoyed double dragon 2 and 3 on the C64. The best version of dd3 was on C64 in my opinion. Better than arcade and NES. Haven't played other versions. I was actually able to finish them Lastly, I played a version of the original double dragon on the C64 where when you move your character to the top of the screen and when you jump over them, they freeze in place. Making the game much easier to finish. Can't remember if I finished it without taking advantage of that glitch.
Target: Renegade is supposed to be set in America, but it's so very British in a lot of places. Particularly the end level in what looks like an old London pub, complete with "Geezer" bouncers and what looks like optics behind the bar. So much charm.
Another brilliant video..i was a c64 owner and so jealous of my friends spectrum verson of target with its 2 player mode.also i loved the soundtrack on the spectrum. Its almost like a slow black metal or doom album..
The closest thing to a decent version of Renegade 3 was Darkman on the Gameboy which was also coded by Mike Lamb, graphics by Dawn Drake & music by Jonathan Dunn 👍
As a kid games didn't seem cheap. My mum's new catalogue turned up. I looked through the game titles and for reasons I can't say I picked upcoming title renegade for my spectrum. That way I got to pay in instalments. When it finally turned up I fell in love with it. Played it endlessly for months and my friends loved it too. Then one got a 138k machine and suddenly we had music and a new move, the throw. Didn't play the arcade version until years later and couldn't get on with the control scheme. the spectrum controls were very nuanced - there's actually 3 ways to do a flying kick. the way shown in this video, a leap in the air with your leg flicking out at the top of your leap - which stuns the enemies a bit longer and a kick one way that then reverses into the direction of your opponent. target renegade was fun but not really as good as the original and renegade 3 was a travesty - how it got a crash smash i couldn't say. i used a poster of renegade beating up the prossies to cover my school science book, the science teacher did not approve. interesting fact - the ingame music didn't work on the plus 3
I was in primary school and friends would come over after class to play games on my HC91 Speccy clone. Renegade was one of the games I had on floppy, no load errors or fiddling with the cassette player! It was one of the few co-op games that I owned so we played it a lot. The funnest thing for me was in level 2 where you could line up enemies and get them shot by dodging the bullet at the last moment.
If I remember correctly, didn't the C64 version force you to use keyboard because the developers couldn't figure out a decent control scheme for attacking in two directions?
Target Renegade was one of the few games I could finish back in the day on the Spectrum. Renegade 1 was harder for me, but I loved Target, finished it every time by the end of the era. You cannot throw enemies in Target like you could in Renegade 1.
This is one of the games that came out after I'd sold my 48K Speccy and bought an Amiga 1000. In my Speccy years the best Arcade conversion was Ghosts n Goblins. Commando is another one that springs to mind. Are you going to do a history of Melbourne House at some point. Another good one would be the best 128K games - something I know basically nothing about. And what about one on the Russian and Eastern European afterlife of the Speccy with the many clones and games made on them long after most of us had mothballed our Speccies.
I wonder if it was a quirk of the original game or a feature of my particular cracked version (mind you I played it back in the original times when there was no "normal" games supply in Poland) - if you let yourself get caught from behind and let the health bar drop, when you freed yourself without getting hit, you'd have zero health but be immortal (maybe except for the boss fight; I don't remember) till the end of the level.
Hey mate, thanks for the excellent high quality content you always provide. Seasons greetings from a fan in Australia. I played Renegade on the Amstrad CPC 464 and thought at the time it was pretty cool. I preordered the Amiga 500 mini so I am hoping that turns out to be excellent. Have a very Happy Christmas and New Year to all.
I disagree with your opinion that renegade is best ported on spectrum. I think that it is better on amstrad cpc. I also disagree that all double dragon 8 bit ports were crap. Amstrad cpc 128k version was amazing!!! But i surely agree that your overall job is excellent!!! Keep up the good work!!!
I loved this game sooo much! I remember beating it multiple times on 48K and when I got the 128K version being amazed at the music and extra boss screen. Kim, you are brilliant!
The spectrum came few years before NES. For UK kids in the 80s it was the equivalent of the NES. I only played consoles when the mega drive arrived over here. Still playing on Xbox nowdays even though I'm 48 lol. O.A G.
Whatever caused the C64 version of Renegade becoming that bad, definitely wasn't the VIC chip - considering how much weaker the Spectrum is. Yes, the CPU might be slightly faster (far from "4x speed" often claimed), but much of that is wasted on manually blitting the "sprites" to bitmap - Zx Spectrum version is simply WAY better coded. As for Double Dragon being "C64 GS exclusive" - well, none of the games were, since they all work on "normal" C64s too. Technically you could check the system ROM differences and pretend to be incompatible if "standard" C64 is detected, but why would anyone do that? C64 (and GS, I assume?) is also backwards compatible with the very first machine of the C64 lineup - the failed Commodore Max console.
A thoroughly enjoyable video Kim! The first two games are magnificent, but wished I left the third installment on the shelf! Target Renegade is my personal favourite! I find it amazing that there wasn't an Amiga or ST side scrolling beat 'em up that was better. 😲
I agree, “Target: Renegade” should have been when Ocean stopped. They went to the well one time too many. Then came “River City Ransom”, “River City Ransom: Underground” and finally “River City Girls” with the second “RCG” chapter coming in 2022.
I vaguely remember the Renegade release on 8-bit home, wasn't the Speccy version far superior to the C64 version ? unthinkable ! Amazing research and presentation in this content Kim, you the top video game historian, you should work in a video game museum be the main curator there !
I was a C64 kid and had Target Renegade (soundtrack was excellent) but was always disappointed by the two enemies on screen limitation, I was of course aware of Renegade, but not how good the Spectrum version was with loads of sprites on screen (especially as the C64 had hardware sprites - which I don’t believe that the Spectrum did). Looking at Target Renegade on the Spectrum though (via TH-cam videos) it seems as though there are only three enemies on screen at once and so it would seem that the original would be more like an arcade experience with its half a dozen at once programming magic (despite the two player option)? I’m not sure if this is accurate but either way the Spectrum version of Renegade is a very impressive piece of programming.
Games like Target Renegade are just further proof that it's not the power of the machine that matters, but how it's used. It doesn't get much humbler in terms of horsepower than the ZX Spectrum, but look at all the quality games for it!
Loved the master system port, later in life I tried the nes and arcade versions and it doesn’t hold up as well. Could be nostalgia glasses, but I still get a kick out of the sms port.
I got Renegade for the Spectrum off a compilation that included Rampage and Super Sprint from a mate from high school. I loved the 48k version but I could never get the 128k version to load. I feel sorry for blonde women everywhere for their fictional selves being beaten up on screen by the hero(s). I'm talking about Double Dragon, Golden Axe and Vendetta as well as Renegade and Target Renegade. It must be hard going through that.
I remember when i first discovered Target Renegade on some C64 pirate compilation cassette that a friend gave me. I was so much in love, i couldn't believe that such a good beat em up was possible on C64: great graphics, smooth action, violence, great tune...it was like an arcade game dream come true.
Didn't Renegade's "belt scrolling" come directly from Mat Mania / Exciting Hour / Mania Challenge, also by Technōs? Renegade seemed heavily inspired by those games including the art style and the left/right nature of the combat. I wouldn't even be surprised if they shared some code.
Great video of a classic game that so many of us enjoyed. It showed if the programmers worked to the system strengths u could get some fantastic titles
Wasn't Nemesis published by Konami on the ZX spectrum along with Jailbreak (there may have been others) Konami went through a phase of self publishing (did not last long) with a great long box style packaging.
@@Kim_Justice It was actually published by Konami first and then when Konami UK stopped publishing games (the UK arm wasn’t around for long) Nemesis & Salamander were re-released on the Imagine label before they were re-released again on the Hit Squad label.
@@SwainyAtRetroAsylum Just out of interest, was Salamander a self published title and did anybody pick up the re release of Jailbreak? Where there any other Konami published titles? Where these nothing more than sloppy MSX ports? Is it worth a video Kim?
@@miremare9052 I'm not sure if there's much at all beyond Jail Break and Salamander really? Looking at SpectrumComputing it appears Jail Break only got a re-release in Spain. There are some things here that are potentially worth a video though...the magazine coverage of these ports was a bit dodgy!
@@Kim_Justice Fair enough how about something on the likes of CRL a bit left field with an intriguing library for sure? Intresting (personal) fact Alchemist was the first Speccy game I ever purchased and Renegade III was the last, the latter signalled the beginning of the end for me and not long after i sold my huge speccy collection Inc +3 with the fantastic Multiface 3 and a lot (I mean a lot) of original games plus every single copy of Crash (up until that point) I Came close to purchasing a Samcoupe at the time but ended up with a second hand 520ST with a 1meg upgrade and of course the obligatory boxes full of "cracked" games, ah the good days!
"while the other 8 bit versions aren't that bad either" I always found the CPC version to be better overall. Particularly graphically with the sprites having altogether better proportions and of course colour despite being blockier (I really hated the sprites on the Spectrum version, they looked weird and lanky to me which just made their shuffling walk cycle seem even slower and more awkward) and they all look far too similar to each other (not helped by the lack of colour and the 'transparent' like look of the colour clash). I like a lot of Spectrum games but Renegade I far preferred on the CPC.
I never liked Renegade on the spec, but I had double dragon, and boy it was garbage, but didnt have anything else, until one day a friend double cassetted me Target Ren, and holy hell, we played the hell out if it, over and over, and then later, I got R3 on the CPC6128 that my mum had, and to this day, I dont think Ive fully recovered.
In your video on Speccy arcade ports, you said the third Renegade game was "quite good" and just as good as the first two in the series. I guess you hadn't really played it long enough to see how terrible it was! I never played it, but it does look like a stinker, even without the bugs.
When I was kid, I had ZX Spectrum and I always wanted NES, which I got 2 years later. My friends, however, thought that ZX Spectrum graphics are better than in NES and I charged money from them to play in my house hahaha, one pence per minute.
Great overview Kim. It’s hard to over emphasise what a big deal Renegade was at the time. I remember at school we used to practice the moves in the playground and Renegade was our favourite playground game- someone would get to be the hero and get to “beat up” the gang in a play fight! Needless to say this would cause a few scrapes and bruises and wasn’t encouraged by the lunch monitors
I remember the original Renegade because I could barely load it off tape, spent ages adjusting the tape volume tiny amounts.. You had to work for your games back then. But I played the hell out of Target Renegade on the CPC, great game
😂 Yea i remember the volume thing. I was amazed when someone's big brother told me to try it whenever i couldn't get a game to load!!! God ,id go back in a heartbeat too!
Mark from Retro Core (kinda) hated both Spectrum versions: Renegade and Chase HQ. I find it strange, as they are both exceptional conversions and he was born in UK... Oh well, we each have our opinions... I loved them both, though! 😁
There was always something very punk rock about Renegade - the first two anyway. I have great nostalgia for Target Renegade, even though it annoyed me to the point of breaking the safety screen on the front of my TV - I still have the scar, lol. Also, I always thought Mr Bigg looked like Sid The Sexist from Viz. :o)
Also in Renegade 3 if you was on the higher platform your attacks would hit the enemies below you! Absolutely terrible programming. Target Renegade was culturally amazing on the Speccy in the 80's I can still hear the music in my head. The gritty emotion. Like a western gun fight. R2 was a masterpiece of beat 'em up 8-bit code 💪😎
I had the C64 version of the original and my mate the ZX Spectrum. The C64 version was decent enough, but what the Speccy lacked in looking pretty, it made up for in the gameplay implementation overall. He also bought the Highlander game you mentioned. To say he wasn't happy with Ocean would be a wee bit of an understatement. Knowing now the reason the versions were all bad is hilarious in hindsight.
Imagine if you did a marathon of all three games enjoying the dark gritness of the first two. Only to get to the third and instantly your mind goes. "Wait Time Travel? Wah? Why is the graphics all ugly monochrome?.... and why am I beating up dinosaurs?"
I must agree. I also think Renegade on ZX is the best version. Even better than arcade. Target Renegade is the best on the ZX Spectrum version as well, although there was no throw hit. in the 48 version. Great games and was big inspiration for me. Renegade III is a complete failure. Someone who approved it didn't understand what Renegade was.
First off another brilliant documentary Kim. Renegade on the speccy to me is the best version even over the arcade. Target Renegade is the best game on the speccy for me. Again the speccy is the best version by a mile. Still haven't beaten it as Mr Big just kills me everytime. Still play both games on an emulator from Time to time. Getting a Spectrum Next so Target Renegade will be the first game I'll be firing up on it.
I enjoy Renegade 1 as a single player, but I have very nice memories playing Renegade 2 in 2 players :) You were even able to hit the other player with a hammer... :)
Favourite game on the speccy of all time. Better than the arcade version imo. Never got tired of throwing guys on the train track or high flying kicking the bikers. Take me back.
Also the old keyboard scramble on Target Renegade high score entry breaks through max characters and when you hit enter you go back to the game with infinite lives, the screen you return to is scrambled but then when you flip in the next screen its all clear again.
I will NEVER forget the cripplingly upsetting disappointment of buying Renegade III at full price.
I'm afraid Kung Fu Master is the one that gets to me the most (one of my favourite arcade games) I remember playing it on my friends C64 and being blown away, then rushing out to my local WHSmiths, getting home and loading it up, utter garbage I was not a happy boy.
Even today I would love to see someone do a Speccy remake just to heal the pain.
I forked out £8 for Double Dragon on the Speccy having fallen in love with the arcade version. I remember playing it for about an hour and thinking "ah well, at least it came in a nice box". I was back to Codemasters' budget titles for a while after that chastening experience!
All relative, that was either £5.99 or £10.99 depending on the shop
How many pounds was it. Where did you buy it? How old were you. Did it change you as a person?
Renegade 3? More like rubbishgade 3..
Having grown up in Australia with a Nes I'm fascinated by the spectrum, It really seems like the little engine that could. Love the work Kim, keep crushing it and Merry Christmas.
Here’s something that will amaze you: Sir Clive Sinclair, who created the Spectrum, never envisaged it as a games machine, yet it had absolutely loads of games programmed for it, some of which became classics in their own right. He saw it as being an affordable colour-capable business machine for the home.
@@Texy88 yeah fully Texy88 it's all part of why i like it. All the history that goes with it makes it all the cooler to me.
I had the Amstrad CPC 464 which got a lot of Spectrum ports being a very similar operating system. It did offer far more colours though when Devs used it properly such as the amazing Sorcery game.
The 48k Spectrum that I got as a child was bought to get me interested in computers. It got hammered as a games machine but equally I ended up getting a degree in Computing and wound up fascinated in all things computers. It really was an amazing little machine.
NES version of Kunio kun was great too. It absolutely holds up. As in, I didn't play original but had a blast with it in 2010s. Controls are absolutely tighter than many modern games.
The Renegade franchise has got to be one of the most convoluted in all of video games. The original was changed substantially between it's Japanese and international releases, the ports of the international releases got sequels of their own (as chronicled here,) and then the original developers made a spiritual successor in Double Dragon, which has its own complicated legacy. Then, when they made a proper sequel to the original, it was again given an overhaul internationally (becoming River City Ransom) that was completely unrelated to the international version of Renegade, and that overhaul eventually got a sequel of its own in River City Ransom: Underground. Then there were all the sports spinoffs, many of which were again divorced from the main series in their localizations, and eventually we got River City: Tokyo Rumble, which uses the name of one of the western releases but follows the original Japanese continuity. And then most recently we got River City Girls, which again uses the western title but the Japanese continuity, but is made by a western developer this time.
I really liked Renegade back in the day, but I absolutely LOVED Target Renegade! Playing 2 player Co-op was the best arcade like experience on the Speccy. Played the hell out of that thing from a pirated cassette copy... Ahh the 80's.
Renegade and Target Renegade were very much the "It games" of a couple of summers for my friends and I. They were to us back then what Fortnite and Minecraft are to kids today.
What the first two games on the Spectrum got right was scale and style. The sprites fit so well with the levels, that while both being detailed do not interfere with each other, there's so much play space. A true masterclass in Spectrum game design.
I remember playing Renegade in the Arcades and being battered by Big Bertha and her ladies of the night. I swore I would get revenge and couldn't wait to play the original. The spectrum artwork still ranks highly on nostalgic value for me. Target Renegade was probably my best experience on the humble speccy. Good times.
Back in '86 we had an Atari at home, and one day my brother told that a mate of his had a Spectrum 128k, and if I wanted to have a try on it. The game we played was Target Renegade, and I remember being blown away by the graphics, music, playability and most of all, being able to say "I got an extra life". My brother's mate had to put up with me for months, inviting myself over to his place, both of us knowing that I was there not for friendship but for the game only. Like you wrote, good times!
How Fab! The Dulcet Tones of Kim Justice! How much I miss them😊
As always, well researched and presented clearly. I found out some stuff about the games I didn't know, even though they were a huge part of my childhood growing up.
Thanks for all the hard work it takes to make the video.
I have really fond memories of the Melbourne House port of Double Dragon for the ST! I played it quite a bit with my sister when I was a kid.
Way of the exploding fist from M.H. was also an amazing game at the time.
Target Renegade and Renegade were stunning for the time. Dawn Drake had amazing vision with 8 bit sprite design on these games. Both were brilliantly playable and so addictive!
Used to play Target Renegade on my Amstrad CPC-464, 1 of the best games ever.
great subject Kim, such a classic on the CPC as well (which is the best, actually ....clearly )
Man, Europe was like an alternate universe of video games back in the 80s compared to what we had in the US. I love learning about stuff like this.
Some of my favourite gaming memories are playing Target Renegade on the Speccy with my friends and cousins. When I 'upgraded' to the C64 and once again acquired TR, I loved the graphics but it had somehow lost the magic of the rubber keyed wonder, as well as it's 2 player mode! This is such a well made documentary. Thanks for bringing back my childhood :)
I loved this game. Its not really known by anyone who didn't play it at the time. Great video Kim
As always a great history and look at the Renegade series. Always such great delivery! Thanks agaain Kim!!
As a kid I played hours and hours of Target Renegade. It was a brilliant sequel to Renegade.
I played Renegade and Target Renegade on the C64 when I was 7 years old. An issue I had with the first game was that when playing with joystick, only the stick worked but not the fire button on the joystick. So I tried playing it with the stick on the joystick and a button on the keyboard. But I never got past the first level.
The only things I remember about Target Renegade was that I always ran out of time on the first level if I tried to play it like a normal beat em up. As in walk to the right and beat ip enemies as they come along. The solution was I keep walking all the way to the far right of the screen, beat some enemies and pick ip the phone. Don't remember how far I got in thay game.
Only seen Renegade 3 in a commodore format magazine. Didn't know it was that bad.
I wil also add that I actually enjoyed double dragon 2 and 3 on the C64. The best version of dd3 was on C64 in my opinion. Better than arcade and NES. Haven't played other versions. I was actually able to finish them
Lastly, I played a version of the original double dragon on the C64 where when you move your character to the top of the screen and when you jump over them, they freeze in place. Making the game much easier to finish. Can't remember if I finished it without taking advantage of that glitch.
Speccy/Amiga/Mega Drive Kim is my favorite Kim.
Great video, Kim! Happy holidays!
Nice bit of history i enjoyed that thanks kim. Have a great crimbo.
17:14 Aphex Twin. Used to love playing Target Renegade two player!
Target: Renegade is supposed to be set in America, but it's so very British in a lot of places. Particularly the end level in what looks like an old London pub, complete with "Geezer" bouncers and what looks like optics behind the bar. So much charm.
My local on a Saturday night.
Another brilliant video..i was a c64 owner and so jealous of my friends spectrum verson of target with its 2 player mode.also i loved the soundtrack on the spectrum. Its almost like a slow black metal or doom album..
The closest thing to a decent version of Renegade 3 was Darkman on the Gameboy which was also coded by Mike Lamb, graphics by Dawn Drake & music by Jonathan Dunn 👍
Nice video. A shame the excellent Amstrad version of Target Renegade never got much attention. Arguably the better all round version.
Terrible version, nes like graphics with music all bugged, ZX was far superior for playability and C64 beat them all when it came to the music.
@@ZEUSDAZ completely disagree. Also why is NES like gfx a bad thing? Better than the ZX that’s for sure.
@@AdiSneakerFreak oh god no 🤮🤮🤮 🤣
@@ZEUSDAZ gotta disagree with this. It's brilliant on the Amstrad as well and holds its own to the Speccy version.
I enjoy the first 2, Classic beat em ups! The 3rd one kind of jumped the shark with the time travel and fighting dinosaurs!
…and the lack of a back-kick and the two-player option wouldn’t have helped either.
It didn't only jump the shark it shat all over it.
Great video - thank you
As a kid games didn't seem cheap. My mum's new catalogue turned up. I looked through the game titles and for reasons I can't say I picked upcoming title renegade for my spectrum. That way I got to pay in instalments. When it finally turned up I fell in love with it. Played it endlessly for months and my friends loved it too. Then one got a 138k machine and suddenly we had music and a new move, the throw. Didn't play the arcade version until years later and couldn't get on with the control scheme. the spectrum controls were very nuanced - there's actually 3 ways to do a flying kick. the way shown in this video, a leap in the air with your leg flicking out at the top of your leap - which stuns the enemies a bit longer and a kick one way that then reverses into the direction of your opponent.
target renegade was fun but not really as good as the original and renegade 3 was a travesty - how it got a crash smash i couldn't say. i used a poster of renegade beating up the prossies to cover my school science book, the science teacher did not approve. interesting fact - the ingame music didn't work on the plus 3
Hey Kim, I had Renegade and Target Renegade on the spectrum 128k and I absolutely loved them. Ahh fond memories of them, a bit of a flash back.
What are your memories of the almighty Renegade and its sequels?
Target renegade was easily one of the best games I had on the Speccy +2 - I never knew there was a 3rd (almost wish I still didn't know..)
duf duf duf, nut-crunch, throw. Dufdufduf pummel pummel pummel ohhh f...
Best art work ever
I was in primary school and friends would come over after class to play games on my HC91 Speccy clone. Renegade was one of the games I had on floppy, no load errors or fiddling with the cassette player! It was one of the few co-op games that I owned so we played it a lot. The funnest thing for me was in level 2 where you could line up enemies and get them shot by dodging the bullet at the last moment.
If I remember correctly, didn't the C64 version force you to use keyboard because the developers couldn't figure out a decent control scheme for attacking in two directions?
Target Renegade was one of the few games I could finish back in the day on the Spectrum. Renegade 1 was harder for me, but I loved Target, finished it every time by the end of the era. You cannot throw enemies in Target like you could in Renegade 1.
Ocean always had the best box art. I'd definitely buy a book on it
Another great vid, thanks Kim…
This is one of the games that came out after I'd sold my 48K Speccy and bought an Amiga 1000. In my Speccy years the best Arcade conversion was Ghosts n Goblins. Commando is another one that springs to mind. Are you going to do a history of Melbourne House at some point. Another good one would be the best 128K games - something I know basically nothing about. And what about one on the Russian and Eastern European afterlife of the Speccy with the many clones and games made on them long after most of us had mothballed our Speccies.
I remember watching Stuart Ashen's video on Renegade III many years ago, and yes, it is indeed disastrous. Great video, Kim!
Love your content, brings back so much memories
I just heard that Ian Hetherington, the financial director of Imagine Software, has passed on.
I wonder if it was a quirk of the original game or a feature of my particular cracked version (mind you I played it back in the original times when there was no "normal" games supply in Poland) - if you let yourself get caught from behind and let the health bar drop, when you freed yourself without getting hit, you'd have zero health but be immortal (maybe except for the boss fight; I don't remember) till the end of the level.
Hey mate, thanks for the excellent high quality content you always provide. Seasons greetings from a fan in Australia. I played Renegade on the Amstrad CPC 464 and thought at the time it was pretty cool. I preordered the Amiga 500 mini so I am hoping that turns out to be excellent. Have a very Happy Christmas and New Year to all.
I disagree with your opinion that renegade is best ported on spectrum. I think that it is better on amstrad cpc. I also disagree that all double dragon 8 bit ports were crap. Amstrad cpc 128k version was amazing!!! But i surely agree that your overall job is excellent!!! Keep up the good work!!!
I loved this game sooo much! I remember beating it multiple times on 48K and when I got the 128K version being amazed at the music and extra boss screen. Kim, you are brilliant!
The only version of Renegade that I played a decent amount was the NES version. But I quickly moved on once I discovered Double Dragon.
The spectrum came few years before NES. For UK kids in the 80s it was the equivalent of the NES. I only played consoles when the mega drive arrived over here. Still playing on Xbox nowdays even though I'm 48 lol. O.A G.
I wonder how many non-UK viewers get that awesome Beadle reference!
Whatever caused the C64 version of Renegade becoming that bad, definitely wasn't the VIC chip - considering how much weaker the Spectrum is. Yes, the CPU might be slightly faster (far from "4x speed" often claimed), but much of that is wasted on manually blitting the "sprites" to bitmap - Zx Spectrum version is simply WAY better coded.
As for Double Dragon being "C64 GS exclusive" - well, none of the games were, since they all work on "normal" C64s too. Technically you could check the system ROM differences and pretend to be incompatible if "standard" C64 is detected, but why would anyone do that?
C64 (and GS, I assume?) is also backwards compatible with the very first machine of the C64 lineup - the failed Commodore Max console.
A thoroughly enjoyable video Kim! The first two games are magnificent, but wished I left the third installment on the shelf!
Target Renegade is my personal favourite!
I find it amazing that there wasn't an Amiga or ST side scrolling beat 'em up that was better. 😲
Target Renegade loaded once on my Spectrum then never loaded again. Even after I got the game replaced at the shop.
I agree, “Target: Renegade” should have been when Ocean stopped. They went to the well one time too many. Then came “River City Ransom”, “River City Ransom: Underground” and finally “River City Girls” with the second “RCG” chapter coming in 2022.
Target Renegade might just be my favourite Zx spectrum game ever. After Fantasy World Dizzy of course :)
I vaguely remember the Renegade release on 8-bit home, wasn't the Speccy version far superior to the C64 version ? unthinkable ! Amazing research and presentation in this content Kim, you the top video game historian, you should work in a video game museum be the main curator there !
I was a C64 kid and had Target Renegade (soundtrack was excellent) but was always disappointed by the two enemies on screen limitation, I was of course aware of Renegade, but not how good the Spectrum version was with loads of sprites on screen (especially as the C64 had hardware sprites - which I don’t believe that the Spectrum did).
Looking at Target Renegade on the Spectrum though (via TH-cam videos) it seems as though there are only three enemies on screen at once and so it would seem that the original would be more like an arcade experience with its half a dozen at once programming magic (despite the two player option)?
I’m not sure if this is accurate but either way the Spectrum version of Renegade is a very impressive piece of programming.
Seeing as Ocean owned a hefty lump of US Gold, you could definitely say that they released more coin-op conversions than anyone else. 🤷♂️
Games like Target Renegade are just further proof that it's not the power of the machine that matters, but how it's used. It doesn't get much humbler in terms of horsepower than the ZX Spectrum, but look at all the quality games for it!
Loved the master system port, later in life I tried the nes and arcade versions and it doesn’t hold up as well. Could be nostalgia glasses, but I still get a kick out of the sms port.
I got Renegade for the Spectrum off a compilation that included Rampage and Super Sprint from a mate from high school. I loved the 48k version but I could never get the 128k version to load.
I feel sorry for blonde women everywhere for their fictional selves being beaten up on screen by the hero(s). I'm talking about Double Dragon, Golden Axe and Vendetta as well as Renegade and Target Renegade. It must be hard going through that.
I remember when i first discovered Target Renegade on some C64 pirate compilation cassette that a friend gave me. I was so much in love, i couldn't believe that such a good beat em up was possible on C64: great graphics, smooth action, violence, great tune...it was like an arcade game dream come true.
There is a W.I.P port of the Spectrum version of Renegade to the Amiga. No released code yet, but it looks promising.
Didn't Renegade's "belt scrolling" come directly from Mat Mania / Exciting Hour / Mania Challenge, also by Technōs? Renegade seemed heavily inspired by those games including the art style and the left/right nature of the combat. I wouldn't even be surprised if they shared some code.
Same company made both games.
Great video of a classic game that so many of us enjoyed. It showed if the programmers worked to the system strengths u could get some fantastic titles
A wee video on manic miner,blagger and Chuckie Egg would be cool 3 of my favourite old school games
Cool beans Kim....cool beans!
I had it on the master system. Great childhood memories of jump kicking dudes off of motorbikes.
Wasn't Nemesis published by Konami on the ZX spectrum along with Jailbreak (there may have been others) Konami went through a phase of self publishing (did not last long) with a great long box style packaging.
Yeah, you're right. I always think of Nemesis as Ocean because I had the budget release which was on Hit Squad, but it wasn't originally.
@@Kim_Justice It was actually published by Konami first and then when Konami UK stopped publishing games (the UK arm wasn’t around for long) Nemesis & Salamander were re-released on the Imagine label before they were re-released again on the Hit Squad label.
@@SwainyAtRetroAsylum
Just out of interest, was Salamander a self published title and did anybody pick up the re release of Jailbreak?
Where there any other Konami published titles?
Where these nothing more than sloppy MSX ports?
Is it worth a video Kim?
@@miremare9052 I'm not sure if there's much at all beyond Jail Break and Salamander really? Looking at SpectrumComputing it appears Jail Break only got a re-release in Spain. There are some things here that are potentially worth a video though...the magazine coverage of these ports was a bit dodgy!
@@Kim_Justice Fair enough how about something on the likes of CRL a bit left field with an intriguing library for sure?
Intresting (personal) fact Alchemist was the first Speccy game I ever purchased and Renegade III was the last, the latter signalled the beginning of the end for me and not long after i sold my huge speccy collection Inc +3 with the fantastic Multiface 3 and a lot (I mean a lot) of original games plus every single copy of Crash (up until that point)
I Came close to purchasing a Samcoupe at the time but ended up with a second hand 520ST with a 1meg upgrade and of course the obligatory boxes full of "cracked" games, ah the good days!
"while the other 8 bit versions aren't that bad either" I always found the CPC version to be better overall. Particularly graphically with the sprites having altogether better proportions and of course colour despite being blockier (I really hated the sprites on the Spectrum version, they looked weird and lanky to me which just made their shuffling walk cycle seem even slower and more awkward) and they all look far too similar to each other (not helped by the lack of colour and the 'transparent' like look of the colour clash). I like a lot of Spectrum games but Renegade I far preferred on the CPC.
Even though I owned the speccy version the Cpc was the best version.
Amstrad version was the best out of all the 8 bit versions for me.
Classic!
Keep up the good work Kim and stay safe!
Remember playing Subway Vigilante on the Speccy. Really enjoyed it. Would love to play Target Renegade.
I never liked Renegade on the spec, but I had double dragon, and boy it was garbage, but didnt have anything else, until one day a friend double cassetted me Target Ren, and holy hell, we played the hell out if it, over and over, and then later, I got R3 on the CPC6128 that my mum had, and to this day, I dont think Ive fully recovered.
I whish someone remade target renegade with the sprites and graphics of the renegade arcade version
In your video on Speccy arcade ports, you said the third Renegade game was "quite good" and just as good as the first two in the series. I guess you hadn't really played it long enough to see how terrible it was! I never played it, but it does look like a stinker, even without the bugs.
I cant stand this game and it existence. Never get to go past the first screen with the train in any version. This game is just broken beyond repair.
The C64 was defintley over-hyped IMHO, similair to Green Beret. I found it too difficult and not much fun tbh
The Amstrad version is better! 😁
One of the best beat em ups back in the day
When I was kid, I had ZX Spectrum and I always wanted NES, which I got 2 years later. My friends, however, thought that ZX Spectrum graphics are better than in NES and I charged money from them to play in my house hahaha, one pence per minute.
This game was a gem. Used to play it at my friends house on his Rubber Keyed beauty in I reckon 1985ish. Maybe later.
O,P. Left right Q A. Up down space fire?
Great overview Kim. It’s hard to over emphasise what a big deal Renegade was at the time. I remember at school we used to practice the moves in the playground and Renegade was our favourite playground game- someone would get to be the hero and get to “beat up” the gang in a play fight! Needless to say this would cause a few scrapes and bruises and wasn’t encouraged by the lunch monitors
Haha same! We used to laugh "if only we had the hammer"
I remember the original Renegade because I could barely load it off tape, spent ages adjusting the tape volume tiny amounts.. You had to work for your games back then.
But I played the hell out of Target Renegade on the CPC, great game
😂 Yea i remember the volume thing. I was amazed when someone's big brother told me to try it whenever i couldn't get a game to load!!!
God ,id go back in a heartbeat too!
Me too!!
Yes! I had several little tippex marks on the volume knob of different settings that suited different games. 😆
@@danmoney9932 oh shit I never thought of that.. I spent ages trying to crack it like a safe :D
i loved the 1st 2, goodtimes
Played this loads on my amstrad cpc464
Mark from Retro Core (kinda) hated both Spectrum versions: Renegade and Chase HQ. I find it strange, as they are both exceptional conversions and he was born in UK...
Oh well, we each have our opinions...
I loved them both, though! 😁
There was always something very punk rock about Renegade - the first two anyway. I have great nostalgia for Target Renegade, even though it annoyed me to the point of breaking the safety screen on the front of my TV - I still have the scar, lol. Also, I always thought Mr Bigg looked like Sid The Sexist from Viz. :o)
Also in Renegade 3 if you was on the higher platform your attacks would hit the enemies below you! Absolutely terrible programming. Target Renegade was culturally amazing on the Speccy in the 80's I can still hear the music in my head. The gritty emotion. Like a western gun fight. R2 was a masterpiece of beat 'em up 8-bit code 💪😎
I had the C64 version of the original and my mate the ZX Spectrum. The C64 version was decent enough, but what the Speccy lacked in looking pretty, it made up for in the gameplay implementation overall. He also bought the Highlander game you mentioned. To say he wasn't happy with Ocean would be a wee bit of an understatement. Knowing now the reason the versions were all bad is hilarious in hindsight.
Imagine if you did a marathon of all three games enjoying the dark gritness of the first two. Only to get to the third and instantly your mind goes. "Wait Time Travel? Wah? Why is the graphics all ugly monochrome?.... and why am I beating up dinosaurs?"
I must agree. I also think Renegade on ZX is the best version. Even better than arcade. Target Renegade is the best on the ZX Spectrum version as well, although there was no throw hit. in the 48 version. Great games and was big inspiration for me. Renegade III is a complete failure. Someone who approved it didn't understand what Renegade was.
Back in the 80's, my "friend" kneed me in the balls in the playground after learning the move from the ZX Spectrum version of Renegade.
The main theme from Target Renegade has been my ringtone on all of my phones for over a decade now.
First off another brilliant documentary Kim. Renegade on the speccy to me is the best version even over the arcade. Target Renegade is the best game on the speccy for me. Again the speccy is the best version by a mile. Still haven't beaten it as Mr Big just kills me everytime. Still play both games on an emulator from Time to time. Getting a Spectrum Next so Target Renegade will be the first game I'll be firing up on it.
Superb. R3 was absolute trash for C64 kid me. Minds't T:R was fucking terrible on C64 too.
I enjoy Renegade 1 as a single player, but I have very nice memories playing Renegade 2 in 2 players :) You were even able to hit the other player with a hammer... :)
Renegade only loaded successfully about 5 times (out of countless attempts), for me, on the Spectrum. Heartbreaking stuff.
Wonder how many people get the Jeremy Beadle reference?
What a Terrible Game I hadn't (probably) heard of....in the last 12 years.
Ooh I was just putting this on while eating not knowing or expecting much but it instantly seems interesting! Only 5 minutes in too!
Favourite game on the speccy of all time. Better than the arcade version imo. Never got tired of throwing guys on the train track or high flying kicking the bikers. Take me back.
Also the old keyboard scramble on Target Renegade high score entry breaks through max characters and when you hit enter you go back to the game with infinite lives, the screen you return to is scrambled but then when you flip in the next screen its all clear again.
Renegade and target renegade are the only reason I was jealous of my mates speccy.
With the likes of streets of rage 4 now on current consoles it would be AMAZING to get a current gen port of Renegade and Target Renegade.
"In a sound?....euuuuurrrrgh" - love it Kim, but the history books will have to be re-written 😉
My wee self asked my parents for Double Dragon on the Speccy because I liked the arcade. Oh boy.
Renegade III is always supercool to me… how can a beat em up where you fight dinosaurs 🦖 and mummy’s be bad!