ULTIMATE GUIDE TARGET:RENEGADE

THE CITY STREETS ARE NEVER SAFE FOR LONG, ESPECIALLY IN THE DELIGHTFUL-SOUNDING SCUMVILLE, WHERE IT'S KILL OR BE KILLED. JOIN US AS WE REVEAL HOW WITH TARGET: RENEGADE, OCEAN SOFTWARE RETOLD THE STORY OF A VENGEFUL VIGILANTE AND CREATED ONE OF THE BEST EVER 8-BIT BRAWLERS

- MARTYN CARROLL

Flashback to 1987. The year’s software sales charts are dominated by coin-op conversions – Out Run from US Gold, Combat School from Ocean, Enduro Racer from Activision and Paperboy from Elite, to name just four. The outlook for 1988 looks to be no different, with publishers vying to sign up the hottest coin-ops, attracted by the ready-made audiences that are happy to see the games on their systems in some form or other. Expectations are now simmering for the home versions of Technos’ Double Dragon, one of the highest-grossing coin-ops of 1987. Which publisher will bag the rights? The smart money’s on Ocean, as it has =already scored a hit with its conversion of Renegade, the arcade forerunner to Double Dragon. But maybe US Gold or Firebird will muscle in?

The eventual winner turned out to be… Mastertronic. That’s right – the budget kings bamboozled the competition by doing a deal directly with Technos, leveraging its existing relationship with Tradewest, one of Technos’ distributors. Mastertronic announced plans to publish the game as a full-price title on its recently acquired Melbourne House label. As you might imagine, Ocean was disappointed. In fact, according to former Ocean artist Mark R Jones, as memorably related in RG 213, Ocean was “pissed”. There was a silver lining however. When licensing Renegade, Ocean had the foresight to have it written into the contract that it could produce its own sequels for the home market. And so with Double Dragon missed but not out of mind, the firm began planning Renegade II for release on Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64.