Renovation Genesis Carts

[AB Positive]

What's up with these games? The box art is odd, and i've heard tales of these being special in some way. I got a couple complete at Gamestop for 3 bucks a piece so I figured they couldn't be all that bad. They were "Arcus Oddyssey" and "Gaiares". AO seems like an odd mix between Ultima and Gauntlet, while Gaiares played like a really really neat shooter. I like the grabbing of enemies and turning them into power ups.

Anyone know any more about this company? Never heard of them until now.

-AG

[Gunstarhero]

Best Publisher on the Genesis if you ask me. Awesome shooters, plain and simple, including a totally awesome arcade conversion of Gain Ground. Jennifer Capriati Tennis is a good one too, one of the better 16-bit tennis games IMO. Nothing spectacular, but it really does play great.

Gaiares is way hard, but I'm not a shooter veteran, although I do love the genre. This was probably the most advertised game from Renovation, I remember it being all over the mags during its day, along with that mullet-haired dude that was claimed to be 'video game champion'.

[maxlords]

Renovation ported a lot of the best Genesis games, including a BUNCH of stuff from Wolfteam. They're not special carts, they're just overall very good games. I highly recommend:

Elemental Master
Gaires
Arcus Odyssey
Final Zone
Gain Ground
Master Of Monsters
Granada
Valis
Syd of Valis

and any other Renovation titles you can get your hands on! I collect their stuff (at least most of it) and it's some of my favorite Genesis stuff!

[Kid Fenris]

From what I understand, Renovation was Wolfteam, or at least so closely affiliated with Telenet and Wolfteam to make no odds.

Anyway, I've been steadily trying out their releases since I started collecting Genesis carts, and I've found some great lesser-known titles. Here's my brief rundown:

Excellent:
El Viento
Gaiares
Granada

Decent:
Arcus Odyssey
Final Zone
Time Gal
Valis III

Average:
Dinoland
Gain Ground
Sol-Deace/Sol-Feace (It DOESN'T EVEN COMPARE to Gates of Thunder)
Syd of Valis
Traysia
Valis

Awful:
Earnest Evans
Master of Monsters

As you've seen, Renovation games are also a good source of strange box art. My favorite is the El Viento (http://www.kidfenris.com/evcover.html) cover.

By the way, does anyone know what their last American release was? I'm guessing Time Gal, but I can't be sure.

[snorter]

I've got all the games...scans are online at my website: www.genesiscollective.com.

Snorter

[Nescollector]

Granada was a sleeper of a title. I loved the game, I like the music to the game also.

[Bighab]

Nice site :D

[digitalpress]

I was pretty tight with the Renovation rep back in the day, they were one of the few game companies that would send review copies to "fanzine" editors.

Here's the list:

Game Title
Arcus Odyssey (by Renovation, for Genesis)
Arcus Odyssey (by Renovation, for SNES)
Arrow Flash (by Renovation, for Genesis)
Beast Wrestler (by Renovation, for Genesis)
Dino Land (by Renovation, for Genesis)
Doomsday Warrior (by Renovation, for SNES)
Dream Probe (by Renovation, for SNES)
Earnest Evans (by Renovation, for Genesis)
El Viento (by Renovation, for Genesis)
Elemental Master (by Renovation, for Genesis)
Exile (by Renovation, for Genesis)
Final Zone (by Renovation, for Genesis)
Gaiares (by Renovation, for Genesis)
Gain Ground (by Renovation, for Genesis)
Granada (by Renovation, for Genesis)
Jennifer Capriati Tennis (by Renovation, for Genesis)
Master of Monsters (by Renovation, for Genesis)
Revenge of the Ninja (by Renovation, for Sega CD)
Road Avenger (by Renovation, for Sega CD)
Sol-Deace (by Renovation, for Genesis)
Syd of Valis (by Renovation, for Genesis)
Time Gal (by Renovation, for Sega CD)
Todd's Adventures in Slime World (by Renovation, for Genesis)
Traysia (by Renovation, for Genesis)
Valis III (by Renovation, for Genesis)
Valis: The Phantasm Soldier (by Renovation, for Genesis)
Vapor Trail (by Renovation, for Genesis)
Whip Rush (by Renovation, for Genesis)
Y's III: Wanderers From Y's (by Renovation, for Genesis)

[ClubNinja]

Yeah, they're one of my favorite makers for the Genesis. So far, the only one I haven't liked at all is Beast Wrestler... I can even stand Earnest E. My favorite though is Arrow Flash - great little shooter and one of my overall favorite Genesis titles. It's definitely a sub-goal of mine to catch all of the Renovation releases.

[AB Positive]

I didn't know Beast Wrestler was Renovation, I played that when I was young and loved it. I'll have to get it. And I notice some other titles that I know I'd like to get.

I just wasn't sure if they were really hard to find. Now I know they're good quality. I've definitly gotten my 3 bucks worth out of Gaiares

-AG