 Welcome back to Classy Replay. This, as they say, is a Stonewall Classy. You also feel, get a feeling, as though you're playing a Kung Fu movie. Only be it in pixels and not true colour. Also this is a review with a bit of a difference. It's a long play, don't get me wrong, but it's also a high score challenge. So hopefully something a little bit different for all my loyal subscribers. And I was thinking about this, I've got 1,379 subscribers now. And that's the equivalent of three jumbo jets packed with people. So that really motivates me to go on and do more and try to do something different and innovate wherever possible. So thanks and not to be sniffed at. And I really appreciate you guys and all your comments that you leave and thanks for subscribing. And for those that haven't subscribed, what are you waiting for? Come on! Now many people, including ZX Spectrum fans, they will be convinced that this is the best version. Now what I can say is that it's better than the arcade original and it's better than the Commodore 64 version. And it's also safe to say that it's one of the best games of all time. Now I thought Birmingham City on a Saturday night was rough, but this city really takes the biscuit with dollops of extreme violence on top. Our main protagonist looks like he's arrived straight from an episode of Happy Days. I'm not sure if I can tell this guy and the fonds apart. Come on, come on. Have it! Have it! Like riding a bike, you never forget. Still got it. I love this level. Absolutely beautiful. Look at the background. Just make sure I get this guy. Yeah, look at the detail in the background, the colors, the detail of the sprites, the thugs waiting. I mean, this is what I mean about a proper, almost kung fu-like movie. You can have a proper scrap and you can pull the moves off with relative ease. What I love as well is you can see the little details in the faces. At the time, it was definitely the best specky brawler I'd ever played. But unbeknownst to me, this was just more of a warm-up for the main event. What was yet to come in Target Renegade. And honestly, if you've never played this, which I find unbelievable, well, maybe you're a youngster. This will keep you staring at the specky, the specky screen, until your eyes start to bleed or fold over or break the matchsticks in a good way. So even though Target Renegade was amazing, there's still much to love here. As far as retro gaming goes, both are essential. I mean, it's almost as if Ocean, or Imagine, ignored the ZX Spectrum's limitations and crafted another fine beat-em-up. And as I think I mentioned earlier in the video, it solidly replicates the Big Brother arcade machine, but surpasses it in execution. And just to clarify on that, I mean in the control department and just as important, playability. For me, it's a better than expected scrapper with some ingenious, if potentially short-lived, innovations. Now, this is the Big Boss. I think she's called Big Bertha. And I've seen lots of different ways to bring her down, but this is my favorite. You just kind of get a bit of a distance and let her run at you. Just try and square it up. There we go. Yeah, it's a little bit long-winded, but it tends to work for me. I find the other methods a bit risky. This is the 128K version, but every level has got its own soundtrack. I mean, that's unheard of almost. I love the art style. It appeals to my aesthetics and I think being so stylized helps make it timeless. It's a fantastic achievement. I mean, the programmers have pretty much written a love letter to Kishimoto, the original arcade designer. But in doing so, they've almost said, anything you can do, we can do better. But in a good way, because imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. You've got to watch these buggers with the bloody knives. So I just try to play it safe. Use the back kick. Love the back kick. The way it's executed is fantastic and you can use it to just hold them off a little bit before you unleash a kick or a flying kick. So almost at the end now to the big boss. Always get nervous as well when recording a video and trying to play it, which is silly really because it's all psychological. It's in no way any harder. Woohoo! Here we go. The big boss himself. Now you've got to move quickly here, otherwise you shoot just straight in the head. Trap him up against the wall if you can. Now unfortunately, there's a bit of a bug in the ZX Spectrum version. Maybe bug's not the right word. A bit of an oversight from the programmers, which is a shame really. But literally, if you just get the boss up against the wall like this, the others don't attack. They just wait. And that's a real shame. Especially when you've come so far in the game and everything has been impeccable up until now. There's other ways to take the boss out. You don't have to do it this way. But that time limit is really strict. So in a way, I feel like I'm cheating a little bit or being cheated. But then I know the pressure these guys were under back in the day to get these games out before the summer or Christmas. So given the small allotted amount of time that they would have been given, there was probably hardly any time left for thorough game testing. But when you consider the package as a whole, the game as a whole, I'm probably nitpicking here. I mean, it's a creation. Kishimoto himself would probably have been in awe of. So that's it. Off we go to get the girl. Hopefully she's not too badly damaged. Just over six minutes of play there. Oh, she seems to be in a bit of a zombie-like state there. Oh, isn't that nice? A little cuddle on the Amstrad CPC version. He's very naughty and he touches a bottom with no consideration for what she's been through the trauma. And we start again with a harsher time limit, more opponents, and they need three knockdowns now instead of two. And it's a slightly more difficult game. But now it's all about chasing that high score. The original arcade game takes place in a Japanese city, whereas in this version called Renegade, it's taken out on the mean streets of Brooklyn. Now, I haven't showed all the moves available in this game, but there's a wide range of quite aggressive moves that are on offer, headbutts, kicks, punches, flying kicks, and you can get them on the ground and pummel them to death. It's all done with a bit of tongue-in-cheek, if I'm honest. Now, apparently there are two versions of the game. I know there's a 48K and the 128, but this latter version apparently is an enhanced addition that contains an additional level, in-game music, and a shoulder-throw manoeuvre that I've not been able to pull off yet. And if anybody knows how to do so, I'm all ears because I can't wait to pull off yet another dirty tactic. Before I forget, I just want to say how amazing the detail is in the graphics, especially the underground train in the distance there, in the background, and colour clash has been kept to a minimal. You really get that ghetto gangland, you know, the environment they capture in a movie for all-out pure violence. Right, I'm not sure I'm going to make it now. I'm messed up badly. And I've lost my confidence a little bit. Well, not just that, complacency and fatigue starts to set in. Plus, there's that feeling of seemingly impossible odds. I mean, just look at those graphics. They're so crisp. And I remember them looking just like this on my cousin's Toshiba portable 12-inch TV. Okay, so it was black and white, but you know what I mean. Sometimes sit there and I look at my daughters and they're playing on the Wii U or the Switch or the iPad. It's all in colour. The graphics are fantastic. The music is just, you might as well be there. And I'm like, you bugger, you haven't got a clue. I didn't get a colour personal TV until I was about, I don't know, 14 or 15 for Christ's sake. When I did get one, it was an absolute game changer. And I replayed all the old games that I'd beaten or played in the past just to see what they look like in colour. And as you can imagine for games like Tetris, Klax, Arcanoid. Yeah, it was a massive game changer. So on we go to the next level. A little bit more difficult again. So slightly harder to smash their faces in. It would have been good if they'd have got up and smacked them in the head. You know, properly finish them off. Ah, there's all sorts of ways that you could improve this game if they were to re-release it. I kind of hope that they'll do a re-release of all these old ZX Spectrum games on the next and kind of upgrade all the colour. These little skirmishes, I never get tired of them. I love these little skirmishes because it's never the same. It's all about timing. Now if you think this is good, think this is a good game and this looks beautiful. You should try the Amtrak CPC version as well. It really is a thing of beauty. But I won't say any more on that because this is about the ZX Spectrum. So far, so good. I'm not doing a score up there, a decent score. I'm really enjoying this game. Some 30 years on and I'm still playing it. Can you believe it? I can't be the only one because this is high quality stuff. This is fantastic. And if they release this for the Nintendo Switch in like a classics collection, I'd buy it. I've just got to get rid of these idiots on the fringe of the boss. Otherwise he takes you down too quickly. So hopefully I can get this other one to just move away slightly. There we go. Bloody flying kick he does. Or roundhouse kick I think it's called. That's it. Come on. Oh no. I was trying to walk into him so that I could neem in the testicles. There we go. Come on. There we go. That's what I was trying to do. I have tried a few times to get the guy on the floor and pummel him. But it just seems to be a hit and miss whether you get on top of them or not. Oh well. Huge weight off my mind there, off my shoulders. A good score. Now this one's a little bit more tricky now. Because if you even get in front of them for a second, they whip you. So the safety of the back kick, you can always rely on that. Sometimes you're doing the back kick and he just turns around for some unknown reason. And leaves you in a right pickle. There we go. Come on. All big birthers on his way now. Her way. Very butch. There you go. You can have a visit to the sauna. Susie, yeah. Susies for $20. I wonder what you can get in there. Goodness me. I wonder what you could pick up in there. Seeing all this play out as a kid and all these different locations. It was proper mind blowing. And although I probably didn't understand the references in regards to money, it was still topic for debate at school. My mind was innocent until I found games such as this. $20. I mean that would have been a lot of money back then. Oh bugger. I'm not concentrating. There you go. There's a graphical depiction of what she looks like for $20. I wonder if she's a real blonde. Woohoo. That scores not you, not now. Oh. See, you've got to watch them. Buggers they are. I wasn't concentrating again. My mind was in the gutter as usual. So I'm going to go around in this time. Trying to get through the bottom. You go anywhere near them and just bloody lash out and stab you. Rough place this New York. Well, it was in the 80s. Come on. Steady as she goes. Now, when we do get through those double blue doors, the time limit on Mr. Big is really measly. So you've got to really can't mess about. You've got to finish them off quite quickly. If I make it, that is talk about celebrating too early. Again, I do love the detail in the graphics. Okay, there's a distinct lack of color on the sprites, but everything else seems to be colored in. So when people say the ZX Spectrum is monochrome, it's BS, isn't it? Because there's lots of examples where there's color all over the shop. Right, we've made it. Come on, Mr. Big. You've got two choices. You are coming with me or you are coming with me. I'm literally going to smash this guy's face in. Again, look at the detail in this room. Look at the color choice. It's not as vibrant as outside or on previous levels, but look at the detail. You can make everything out. Pictures on the wall. There we go. Got him again. Yeah, this is the other way you can take him out. I mean, these bouncers have basically deserted him. He pays them all that money for protection. And look at them just watching him, getting his head kicked in, laughing at him. This is either a technical glitch or somebody's sick sense of humor. Now, there's only 35 seconds left on the clock there. Now, if I had to take out those thugs as well as the boss, I don't think I could do it. I don't believe there's enough time. So maybe this is by design. Maybe this was planned all along. Right, we've got him. We've nailed him to a pulp. All his teeth are in the back of my hand. Hopefully, she's still waiting for us. Let's see. There she is. Ever-dependable, ever-reliable. She's a keeper. And we go again. Flipping heck, I'm getting tired now. Goodness. Love the music there. I wish she'd stopped going out. Now, I'm not sure if this gets any harder now, or whether it's just the time limit that counts down faster. And on the ZX Spectrum, this is the furthest I've ever been. So we're really talking uncharted waters here. And I'm also taking a bit of a risk. I'm trying to work out where possible how I can do this throw. Ace Magazine in November 1987, they gave this version 84%. But they mentioned that the keyboard response can be a bit slow. But I've not come across that. Computer and video games absolutely love this game. And they gave it a Golden Joystick Award in 1988. So I think Ace were a little bit harsh on the ZX Spectrum at times, when really they should have considered that the ZX Spectrum, the 48K, came out in 1982. So queued us all around for even getting this to run on hardware that by this point could have been considered ancient. Could you imagine the property prices in this area of New York? Brooklyn, with all these thugs on the street, gangs, and vigilantes. I mean, Renegade could be considered a vision of the future because things haven't gotten better. There's more violence now than at any other point in history. There's 700 people shot every week in America. 700 a week. That's 36,400 a year. Those figures look like a sort of casualty rate. We had in the London Blitz when the Germans bombed for 10 weeks solid. And has anybody noticed how many homeless there are on the streets these days? It's off the scale. Another thing to consider though about this game, getting back to this game, Final Fight, Double Dragon, Streets of Rage, would they have even existed without Renegade? Now, I know the original designer based this game on the 1970s cult classic, The Warriors, but that was just to appeal to a Western audience. The game existed before then and was called Hot Bloody Tough Guy where you had to rescue your brother or defend your brother from bullies at school as opposed to rescuing your girlfriend. Also in the arcade version, there was like a dash where you punched at the same time and that didn't make the translation over to the 8-bits. I think the Western version of Renegade, especially on the 8-bits, feels a bit more dirtier and definitely more realistic. You feel every kick, punch and knife attack. It was in Retro Gamer Load 108, page 74, where Kishimoto said, I just wanted to make a game based on my own high school experiences but they told us it was two Japanese for the US and don't forget, this was the same guy that went on to make Double Dragon and apparently, he knew nothing about Target Renegade or Renegade 3 that was produced by Ocean. But this game was in sync with his childhood, his experience at school. I read that he was into Bruce Lee and into Kung Fu but really? Was this how his childhood played out? Goodness. Kishimoto must be as hard as nails. That's all I can think. I mean, I think I read that in Retro Gamer. He was always getting into fights at school. Don't get me wrong. He was no bully. I think it was just self-defense. In this world, if you show an ounce of ambition or you're talented in any way, shape or form, people call you a nerd or a geek but what it all comes down to is they're jealous but had Kishimoto not gone through that because you end up a product of your environment, we wouldn't have had things like Renegade and we'd probably be about ten years behind in regards to this type of game design. So it's always worth remembering what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I think Renegade should be regarded as a piece of art and I think Kishimoto, well, I hope Kishimoto is really proud of his legacy and it doesn't end here. There's Double Dragon and God knows how many other games. Also, Kishimoto mentioned that the police had called him because they found his original game too violent for children and I think his response was sorry, but children are not supposed to be inside game centers without an adult. So take more care of your children. And I think after that, they just took the phone off the hook of crazy. But seriously, I think that's true in a way. Parents see something on the TV and automatically think, oh, what if the kids see this? Well, news flash, stop flipping exposing them to it. Don't just pop them in a corner or on a sofa, on an iPad or an iPhone with unfettered access to the internet so you can go about your day and then blame everybody else because you haven't taken the safeguards or precautions. My daughters are four and six and they haven't even been allowed to watch gremlins. But seriously, my daughter, she said to me, to both of us, can I have an iPad for my birthday or Christmas? And we said you can have an iPad when you can afford it. And she went, oh, okay. And the reality is she's not going to be able to afford it until she's in her teens. And what I find bewildering is that most of her friends that are only six have their own mobile phones. I mean, where does it end? Where will the madness end? And of course, I'd have loved an iPad, an Android device or the latest Samsung Galaxy phone. But the reality is it's dangerous for a kid. I know, I know, I've made myself sound ancient, but hey-oh. The other thing about Renegade and you can add this to a lot of Ocean Imagine games is that the cover art wasn't an anti-climax. So you'd see the box by the game, play the game and nine times out of 10, you'd collapse with grief. But in the rare occasion, you've got high quality games like Operation Wolf, Griswold, Renegade, Target Renegade. But I think on average, you were pretty safe if you purchased an Ocean game. Just don't mention Highlander or Night Rider, Street Hawk or Miami Vice. I mean, this is a genuine golden oldie. Yep, it's still alive and kicking and it plays as good as it looks. Now, as much as I love retro gaming, I still get excited about new hardware and graphical improvements. You know, of course, the evolution of graphics is delightful. I'm not stuck in the past. I'm very interested in exploring new ideas, especially online gaming. We're all gamers at the end of the day and as much as I like to explore new games and new systems, I like to rediscover older systems and older games as well. So I like to think that my opinions are deeply thoughtful. So when I say Renegade was a fantastic game and still is fun to play, I think you know where I'm coming from now. And nothing gives me greater pleasure than seeing a lifeless body crumple to the floor after a well-timed kick. I mean, I've said it earlier on in the video, but Renegade is built to feel like a kung fu flick and that's right from the start up until the close. It is a horrible cliche, but you really do have to see Renegade up and running on the ZX Spectrum or better, play it to understand its true beauty. And if you haven't played it or want to revisit and haven't got a copy, this game's easily sourced for peanuts on eBay or you can download it from pretty much any website. And some websites even allow you to play it in a browser. And this game flows perfectly and it's accessible without reverting to button mashing. You can even throw the gang members off the side of a platform. They don't make them like this anymore. Yep, the oldest swinger in town still has form. Also, Ocean will always be remembered for the team behind some of the best brawlers on the 8-bit and 16-bits. I'm not sure how much longer I can last. My eyes are glazing over now because I'm extremely tired. But I'm going to do my best. Come on, you boogers. Just takes longer to take them out now because you have to hit them multiple times. Almost there. Now, interestingly, in the arcade, I think it is, or on the Amstrad CPC, if you knock them down, blood comes out the back of the head on the ZX Spectrum. They get stars around their head. No biggie, but here we go. Force them into that corner and then walk them up the other way. Look at that time limit. Goodness me. Try and get them up against the wall there. Oh, no. It's a valuable time. That is that I'm going to have lost. That's it. Come on then. That should be enough time. You should just make it. I'm just watching. Unbelievable. I like the way he punches, like, up in the air, right to the chin. Yeah, we're going to make this one. Okay, the problem with these types of games is you just run out of gusto energy because, I mean, not in the game. I'm talking about physically playing them and sitting in front of the TV. Oh, that's it. He's down. He's gone. He's gone. We've done it. What? I've been mugged. The game has mugged me off. Well, I hope you enjoyed this video. Very frustrating there at the end. Let me know your thoughts. Are there any other games that you want me to waffle on about for 25 minutes? Personally, I really enjoyed doing this and it was great revisiting an old classic. Don't forget to check out my other videos on the ZX Spectrum, including a top 10. Also, don't forget to ring that bell. Please subscribe. Leave a comment and share this video with other like-minded retro gamers. So until next time, bye.