Burning Rangers Prototype With VS Mode Found

A prototype of Burning Rangers has been unearthed, and it offers a playable look at the two-player versus mode that was stripped from the game before its release.

It’s barebones, with two players in the Training Space arena who are able to move around and shoot at each other while the theme song plays. But it’s the first time the mode has been seen in action since Sega Saturn Magazine UK wrote about it all the way back in their April 1998 issue.

Here is a video of Versus Mode in action.

Not shown: you can use debug mode to get both characters in the other rooms if you activate it with the second controller too. pic.twitter.com/ySiExmpbBg

— Bo (Low Context Burning Rangers) (@memory_fallen) January 8, 2023

The prototype was released by the Hidden Palace organization on Sunday and can be downloaded from their website.

The release is thanks to iGREKKESS, a blogger in France who wrote about playing the prototype back in 2005, and Bo Bayles, a Burning Ranger superfan who reached out to iGREKKESS recently to ask if he still had access to the prerelease disc. As luck would have it, he did, and he graciously shared it with Bayles, Hidden Palace and the world.

This is the second known prototype of Burning Rangers. The first was made public in July 2021. It had a VS mode on its main menu, but it could not be selected — there was no VS mode to play. Internal code reveals that it was built Dec. 1, 1997.

This month’s new prototype’s build date is Jan. 3, 1998, a month newer than the previous prerelease version and just 24 days before the final Japanese version’s build date.

The firefighting third-person shooter for the Saturn hit Japanese stores on Feb. 26, 1998, and it reached Western shelves in June that year.

The new prototype holds other goodies not found on the final release, too, as detailed on Bayles’ blog.

The main menu’s Mode screen includes a playable Burning Ship sub game. It’s still a bit rough around the edges and has debug text on-screen, but the background music sure does slap.

Here's the Burning Ship sub-game in the newly-resurfaced January 3 beta. It looks rough, but who can complain with that soundtrack.

There's a cool debug feature: you can pause and re-orient yourself (01:05 in the video).#BurningRangers #SegaSaturn pic.twitter.com/dWd4FLJUD7

— Bo (Low Context Burning Rangers) (@memory_fallen) January 11, 2023

The prototype also has a new video not found in the final game. It seems to show a villain experimenting on a mysterious girl in an orbital laboratory while an early version of the Burning Rangers theme plays.

Here's a video that's on the BR Beta (https://t.co/7CDmV81PtF) that's not on the final! #BurningRangers #SegaSaturn pic.twitter.com/jaM4HfzrQa

— Bo (Low Context Burning Rangers) (@memory_fallen) January 8, 2023

Another neat thing in the prototype is an antigravity mechanic in the third mission that was stripped out before shipping the game.

Here's something unexpected from the new BR beta: anti-gravity! At the end of Mission 3 is a switch that makes the character able to walk on the ceiling.

This isn't in the December 1 build or the final, so it must have only existed briefly.#BurningRangers #SegaSaturn pic.twitter.com/47Ucb716DD

— Bo (Low Context Burning Rangers) (@memory_fallen) January 10, 2023

As for the rest of the game, it’s still fairly incomplete. While training mode and mission 1 are largely complete, missions 2 through 4 are still buggy with empty sections and unfinished bosses.

The prototype comes just a couple weeks after Bayles announced he’d reverse-engineered Burning Rangers’ password system.