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No street is safe these days is it? All these beat 'em up games are full of nasty people who like nothing more than to bash you on the head with a metal bar or punch you where the sun doesn't shine! It's a bit of a pity then that your girl has arranged to meet you at the end of one of the toughest streets in the city, isn't it really?

Fight your way through levels of villains, drug pushers and thugs using your martial art skills to get to your date (isn't it always the same!).

This is the original Renegade game (after it game Target; Renegade and Renegade III: The Final Chapter) and I'd forgotten how slow it was. Compared to newer games this looks like Renegade has had one too many of the snail pills! The graphics are good though: excellently drawn and coloured backgrounds with detailed characters fighting it out underneath. Not only do you have to cope with people on foot attacking you, you also have to find some way of beating the motorcyclists who zoom past now and then trying to knock you over.

Each level in Renegade gets harder and harder, and the backgrounds change too. You start off in the subway then take a lift to come to the junk yard and street scenes. You can collect weapons found lying about to help you smash your way through each level, or if you 're feeling particularly nasty you get to beat up someone who has a chain or pipe and steal it.

Renegade is one of the classic Spectrum games and will always be known as an original beat 'em up: this is the one all the others copied!