Renegade

Renegade arrived on the Commodore 64 in 1987 in a conversion by Ocean Software of the arcade machine by Japanese studio Technōs, which popularised the beat-'em-up genre in the West. The player, in the role of a young man named Mr. K, moves through a series of scenes — from a subway station through the street to the docks — facing rival gangs he must defeat with punches, kicks and grapples before advancing to the next area and eventually facing the boss of each level, while also having to deal with attacks from multiple directions at once along the way. Besides straightforward attacks, the game also offered the option to throw an enemy to the ground or hurl them into others, which was fairly sophisticated for its time and gave the fights a tactical dimension.

On the C64, the basic principle of successive combat against waves of enemies was successfully carried over while keeping the graphics legible, if simplified compared to the arcade original, with characters large enough and their movements clear enough that this remained essential for the fighting gameplay. The audio was economical, focused on hit sound effects that underscored the pace of the fights well, while the music played more of a supporting role. The game's difficulty was seen as fairly high, in keeping with the title's arcade origins, geared toward short, intense sessions full of combat.

Renegade was among the first notable representatives of the street-brawler genre on 8-bit home computers, and its success helped pave the way for a number of later games of this type, including more famous sequels and rival titles such as Double Dragon. Although the C64 conversion didn't match the quality of the arcade original, it was seen at the time of release as a solid, playable home port of a popular concept. Today the game holds mainly historical value as evidence of the early days of the brawler genre on 8-bit home platforms.

Why play it: Anyone interested in the early days of the street-brawler genre on home computers will find Renegade offers a solid port of a popular arcade concept, though today it holds mainly historical value.