Target: Renegade (history and reception)

In April 1988 Your Sinclair's news pages announced Target Renegade as the sequel to Renegade, with no firm release date yet; it follows the martial artist of Renegade "after his brush with the street slime". target-renegade-history/spectrum-ys-news

The item names no machine and no publisher.

Commodore User's review of April 1988 says Ocean went to Taito with the idea for a sequel to Renegade and sold it to them, and that Ocean put Dave Collier, "the man responsible for" its Arkanoid and Green Beret, on the Commodore 64 version. target-renegade-history/sequel-origin-cu

The magazine's account, not a statement by Ocean or Taito. The review is of the Commodore 64 version (c64-cu-review).

Cited by: Target: Renegade

Imagine's Commodore 64/128 instructions credit David Collier with the coding, John Palmer and Martin McDonald with the graphics and design, Gary Biasillo with the music, and D.C. Ward as producer, and print "©1988 Imagine Software". target-renegade-history/c64-credits

The credits are the Commodore 64 version's. The French section spells the musician "Guy Biasillo", the Italian one "Gary Biasillo". The catalog's developer, Gary Biasillo, is the composer here.

Cited by: Target: Renegade

Crash and Sinclair User both name Mike Lamb as the author of the Spectrum version. Crash's review header gives the producer as Imagine, and Sinclair User's Fax Box gives the label as Ocean. In its Christmas 1988 issue Crash profiled Lamb, of Ocean/Imagine, as best known for Renegade, Combat School (with Andrew Deakin) and Target Renegade, the last with its 90% from issue 52. target-renegade-history/spectrum-author

Crash credits Imagine and Sinclair User Ocean. The Commodore 64 instructions give Imagine's address as 6 Central Street, Manchester (c64-credits), the address Ocean's own advertisements print (predator-history/in-crowd).

Cited by: Target: Renegade

Imagine's Commodore 64 instructions set the game in the city of Scumville. Matt, the player's brother, is caught investigating the gangland boss Mr Big and punished; the player fights through five stages, punching, kicking, and using weapons found on the ground or taken from opponents, to a final confrontation with Mr Big. The game loads in two parts, levels 1 to 3 and then levels 4 and 5, and the third level must be finished before the second load. target-renegade-history/c64-premise

Cited by: Target: Renegade

The Commodore 64 instructions name the five scenes: a multi-storey car park held by a motorcycle gang, whose riders must be kicked off their bikes; Seedy Street at night, where "ladies of the night" fight beside a boss with a gun and a limited number of bullets; the park, with skinheads; the shopping mall, with fans of the Beastie Boys and their dogs; and the bar, where Mr Big's bodyguards come before Mr Big himself. target-renegade-history/c64-scenes

Cited by: Target: Renegade

On the Commodore 64 the player starts with three lives, gains another at 50,000 points and one more for every further 100,000, and scores 200 to 2,000 points a move. The panel shows the level, score, endurance, lives and time left, and a pair of eyes that shows the damage taken. target-renegade-history/c64-lives-scoring

The instructions' account; not checked in the game.

Cited by: Target: Renegade

Mike Pattenden reviewed the Commodore 64 version for Commodore User in April 1988, at £8.95 on cassette and £12.95 on disk, made it a CU Screen Star, and rated it 8 out of 10. He called it "hugely entertaining and ample justification for a sequel", found it developed the theme and improved the gameplay of the original, and said Dave Collier had "done the business once again". target-renegade-history/c64-cu-review

Value: review Commodore User · of 10 · score 8

Cited by: Target: Renegade

Zzap!64 reviewed the Commodore 64 version in June 1988, at £8.95 on cassette and £12.95 on disk, joystick only, with 84% overall (presentation 78%, graphics 93%, sound 72%, hookability 86%, lastability 82%): "superb graphics turn a good fighting game into a very good one". The review describes eight point-scoring moves and five scenes, from a multi-storey car park to Mr Big's bar. One reviewer found the sprites like "tiny cartoon characters" and called it "a brilliant sequel"; another found many of the enemies easily beaten by holding the joystick in the punch position and pressing fire. target-renegade-history/c64-zzap-review

{
 "review": "Zzap!64",
 "of": 100,
 "scores": {
  "presentation": 78,
  "graphics": 93,
  "sound": 72,
  "hookability": 86,
  "lastability": 82,
  "overall": 84
 }
}

Cited by: Target: Renegade

Crash reviewed the Spectrum version in May 1988 at £7.95 on cassette and £14.95 on disk and made it a Crash Smash with 90% overall (presentation 83%, graphics 89%, playability 93%, addictive qualities 93%). It describes five multiloaded levels for one player or two at once. Nick called it the best bash 'em up of all time; Kati found it as good as its predecessor, if not better, with jerky flick-screen scrolling its one drawback; Paul said Mike Lamb had done Imagine proud. target-renegade-history/spectrum-crash-review

{
 "review": "Crash",
 "of": 100,
 "scores": {
  "presentation": 83,
  "graphics": 89,
  "playability": 93,
  "addictive qualities": 93,
  "overall": 90
 }
}

Cited by: Target: Renegade

Sinclair User reviewed the Spectrum version in June 1988 with ten stars out of ten, at £7.95, for 48K and 128K machines. Its Fax Box called it "Great to look at and better to play. Fast, exciting and terribly wince-making at points. Top-notch". The reviewer, whose signature reads as Jim Douglas, named the two-player co-operative option as the main difference from Renegade, likened the game to the coin-op Double Dragon, and called it "the most addictive game of its type I've played on the Spec", though one player alone has no computer partner and many screens are near impossible without teamwork. target-renegade-history/spectrum-su-review

Value: review Sinclair User · of 10 · score 10

The page carries Sinclair User's "Arcade Review" badge.

Cited by: Target: Renegade

Amstrad Action made the Amstrad CPC version its Mastergame in August 1988, at £8.95 on cassette and £14.95 on disk, with an AA rating of 86% (graphics 87%, sonics 74%, grab factor 93%, staying power 81%): an "excellent sequel". Its story has Matt, the player's brother, captured and executed while on Mr Big's trail. Its reviewer, GBH, found simultaneous two-player action the one major difference from Renegade and noted that the controls had been simplified to one attack key. The second opinion, signed PbM, found the two-player option compelling but the game "simply a spiced up punch-'n'-kick game". target-renegade-history/cpc-aa-review

{
 "review": "Amstrad Action",
 "of": 100,
 "scores": {
  "graphics": 87,
  "sonics": 74,
  "grab factor": 93,
  "staying power": 81,
  "overall": 86
 }
}

Cited by: Target: Renegade

By February 1989 Target Renegade was one of the eight games of Ocean's compilation The In Crowd, with Karnov, Gryzor, Barbarian, Crazy Cars, Predator, Combat School and Platoon, on cassette for the Spectrum, Amstrad and Commodore at £14.95; on the Commodore, The Last Ninja replaced Crazy Cars. target-renegade-history/in-crowd

The retailers' lists in the same issue sell the compilation cheaper ("THE IN CROWD Only £9.99", image 4); £14.95 is Ocean's price.

Cited by: Target: Renegade

In April 1989 The One reported that all three Renegade games were being converted to 16-bit machines: Renegade by Software Creations, while teams for Target: Renegade and Renegade: The Final Chapter had not yet been assigned. target-renegade-history/sixteen-bit-plans

A plan, not a release: no source read here shows a 16-bit Target: Renegade on sale.

Cited by: Target: Renegade

By June 1992 the Spectrum Target Renegade was a Hit Squad budget game, and Your Sinclair's budget round-up ranked it first among beat-'em-ups: "Renegade with two players", with huge levels, weapons to pick up, and a final enemy with a gun. target-renegade-history/hit-squad-budget

By Jon Pillar, per the issue's contents index; not re-read on the page. "Issue 61" is the Your Sinclair issue the round-up gives for the budget release's review, not read here.

Cited by: Target: Renegade

Computer Entertainer's report on the Consumer Electronics Show, in its June 1989 issue, says Target Renegade, "a street fighting sequel to 'Renegade,'" was new at Taito's showing, beside Demon Sword. target-renegade-history/nes-ces-1989

The report is under Taito's NES games ("The next NES game from this company is SKY SHARK").

Cited by: Target: Renegade

In January 1990 Computer Entertainer's report on Taito's games at the Consumer Electronics Show said Target Renegade had "much better graphics than the first game" and an original rock soundtrack. target-renegade-history/nes-ces-1990

The item names no machine; it sits among Taito's NES titles (Demon Sword, Wrath of the Black Manta).

Cited by: Target: Renegade

Target: Renegade came out for the NES in North America in March 1990, with Taito Software as licensee. target-renegade-history/nes-release

Cited by: Target: Renegade

The US NES booklet is Taito Software's. It prints a copyright of 1989 and calls "Target: Renegade" a trademark of Ocean Software Ltd.; Taito's NES advertisement of 1990 says the same and calls the game "the bone-crushing sequel to the original smash arcade hit, Renegade". target-renegade-history/nes-booklet

The advertisement is Taito's own, the publisher's statement, so it stays at T2 beside the booklet. The booklet names no programmer or development company. The pinned text has the booklet's pages as PDF pages, two booklet pages to each.

Cited by: Target: Renegade

The NES booklet's story has Mr. Big kidnap Renegade's brother Matt and hold him in Big's Pig Pen, on the upper side of town. The game has seven levels of four scenes each: a scene ends when every gang member in it is beaten, and a level when its gang leader is. Strength falls when the player is hit or knocked down, the game ends when the status indicator reaches zero, and hearts dropped by beaten enemies, and the end of a level, restore it. A continue is offered once a game, from level two on. target-renegade-history/nes-premise

In the computer versions' story Mr Big has already punished Matt "in the usual gruesome style" (c64-premise), and Amstrad Action says executed (cpc-aa-review); here he is a prisoner to be rescued. The booklet mentions no second player.

Cited by: Target: Renegade

On the NES, A punches and B throws a side kick. Up and B is a flying kick, up with left or right and B a running flying kick, and down and B a foot sweep; with a weapon in hand A swings or throws it. Weapons include fire extinguishers, garbage cans, and baseball bats. A heart is picked up by standing on it and pressing down and A together. target-renegade-history/nes-controls

The booklet's account; not checked in the game.

Cited by: Target: Renegade

The NES booklet's levels are the parking garage (levels one to three), downtown (four), the park (five), uptown (six), and Mr. Big's Pig Pen (seven). Its gangs include the Sleazy Riders, Bat Boys and South Side Stranglers in the garage, with Big Boo; the Dagger Dudes, knife throwers, and the Bruise Brigade downtown, with Siggy; the skateboarding Skate Lords and the Hammer Heads in the park; the Karate Clan uptown, with a warning to show the Bouncers identification at the Pig Pen; and, in the Pig Pen, more Bouncers, the Bruise Brigade by the pool tables, and Mr. Big. target-renegade-history/nes-levels

Cited by: Target: Renegade

Howard H. Wen reviewed the NES game, at $39.95, in VideoGames & Computer Entertainment in July 1990 and rated it 4 out of 10 overall (sound/music 5, graphics 4, playability 4). He called it "a disappointment", "just another sequel that is not as fun—or as good—as its predecessor": several of Renegade's moves, such as throwing an enemy overhead or punching one who is down, can't be done, and "one would probably argue" that the graphics are worse than the original's. He found its portrayal of the player attacking women on the second stage "quite disturbing". target-renegade-history/nes-vgce-review

{
 "review": "VideoGames & Computer Entertainment",
 "of": 10,
 "scores": {
  "sound/music": 5,
  "graphics": 4,
  "playability": 4,
  "overall": 4
 }
}

The review runs on p. 42 and ends on p. 44; p. 43 is an advertisement.

Cited by: Target: Renegade

Chris Scullion's NES encyclopedia (2019) lists the NES game as 1990, published by Taito and developed by Ocean, which held the rights to make home-computer ports of Technōs's Renegade and its own sequels. It counts seven stages, from a parking garage to Mr Big's "pig pen", and says the NES cover "borrows" its art from a work credited to Joe Lewis, "world's greatest fighter". target-renegade-history/nes-scullion

A secondary source of 2019. It is the only source read that names the NES version's developer; the booklet names none.

Cited by: Target: Renegade