Taito launched Renegade as a video game in 1986. It is a westernized conversion (including changes to all of the graphics and backdrops) of the Japanese arcade game Nekketsu Kha Kunio-kun, which was released by Technos earlier that year. It is the technological forerunner to Double Dragon, and Nekketsu Kha Kunio-kun is the first game in the Kunio-kun series (which includes Super Dodge Ball and River City Ransom).