[Energy]

Hi all -

Sorry if this is in the wrong place it's not Sonic, but it's sega & sonic team.

Burning Rangers has some real interesting history behind it, yet it rarely gets much interest. Whatever you feel for the game from a gameplay standpoint - it was an important game in the Saturn's life. A dying age gave it less time than it needed in development and many features and gameplay mechanics were tweaked and removed prior to release.

I've seen little evidence of people playing with the contents of the released game to see what maybe hidden - yet there are clues on the disc that there might be more than the standard contents. Within the game you get a code for access to a soundtest, this allows you to hear a large amount of speech that never made the game.

There is audio from the removed multiplayer mode, and what appears to be speech for every character to go through levels with (yet when you play as them you just get the soundtrack on repeat). According to someone there was at one point a co-op mode for the game too. I've done a bit of programming but would love to try and play with the ISO to try and unlock some of its secrets. If there was a way to access the multiplayer mode (screenshots can be seen on this site: http://www.theghz.com/br/br/br.html) that would be the jackpot to me.

So far the most I've done is rename some files, I noticed that some of the levels were called TAISEN - which google told me was competiton in Japanese. I tried replacing the TUTORIAL files with the TAISEN ones to see what would happen. Very buggy but does appear to show possibly a bit of a test level (?).
http://imgur.com/eEcEgED

Does anyone here know much about the engine the BR runs on? Is there a way to view the models of the levels and characters / items?
Some pushes to get started would be really helpful.
Thanks

[Energy]

Ok sorry for the double post but found something interesting.
First off there is a refrence or two to both Nights & Xmas Nights on the disc.

The really weird thing that I've found though is that there seems to be a lot of HTML data contained within the WAV files included on the disc. It appears to be emails from and to sonic team.

Grab yourself an ISO or your disc of BR: copy a wav file out of the EXTRA\WAV directory and rename the file to something.html and view in chrome or firefox. At first there will be garbled text (the actual wav data) then you start to get something that actually looks like an email. The encoding is screwed up so you can't read it all, but there's stuff like this:

Quote

Is Sonic Anime coming to America ?



���o�l: HOLT345

����: sonicteam

�����F�@�\�j�b�N Anime (Sonic Anime) ���A�����J (America) ���������H



�e������ Sonicteam �A

�����������������Q�����\�j�b�N�@�U�@�w�b�W�z�b�N Anime �r�f�I���A�����J

(America) ���������������������������������������m�������B

���������������������A�����d�q���[�����������������B

�����������P���A�����\�j�b�N (Sonic) �Q�[�����I�������������H

�T�^�[�� (Saturn) �����������������V�����M�����u���V�X�e����

���������O���������������������H


E-mail Address: **REMOVED**@aol.com.

[Trunks]

Well, that's definitely interesting. I wonder if there's a way to read what's in the �'s.

[Energy]

Trunks, on 16 April 2014 - 12:21 PM, said:

Well, that's definitely interesting. I wonder if there's a way to read what's in the �'s.

My guess is that it's just an encoding issue of the HTML. This is utf-8, and it's obviously not worked. I haven't had time to try lots of different encodings. I did look at some more files and it seems the files are just padded with random files off the PC, though there seems to be a large amount of these email files.

[Overlord]

Possibly, provided that the actual text is pasted in and that's not already just been lost to question marks in the data, it's possible the board's eaten what the letters should actually be. Throw it into this thing and see what it spits out: http://www.elanex.co...e-recovery.aspx

[Meat Miracle]

Which files have that, I'm checking the disc now but a string search to "sonic" or "aol" returned 0 results in that wav folder.

[Cooljerk]

So, I'm guessing this is some sort of buffer deal? Like they had to buffer the wav files to specific sizes and just used whatever was in memory at the time?

[Shadow Hog]

Meat Miracle, on 16 April 2014 - 08:31 PM, said:

Which files have that, I'm checking the disc now but a string search to "sonic" or "aol" returned 0 results in that wav folder.

J:\EXTRA\WAV>grep -I sonic *.wav
Binary file BOOT01.WAV matches
Binary file OTHER01.WAV matches
Binary file OTHER04.WAV matches
Binary file OTHER05.WAV matches
Binary file OTHER07.WAV matches
Binary file OTHER08.WAV matches
Binary file OTHER10.WAV matches

J:\EXTRA\WAV>grep -I aol *.wav
Binary file OTHER05.WAV matches
Binary file OTHER07.WAV matches
Binary file OTHER08.WAV matches

J:\EXTRA\WAV>grep -I "<HTML>" *.wav
Binary file BOOT01.WAV matches
Binary file BOOT02.WAV matches
Binary file BOOT04.WAV matches
Binary file CLEAN04.WAV matches
Binary file CLEAN05.WAV matches
Binary file CLEAN06.WAV matches
Binary file ERROR02.WAV matches
Binary file MAIL01.WAV matches
Binary file MAIL03.WAV matches
Binary file MAIL05.WAV matches
Binary file MAIL06.WAV matches
Binary file OTHER01.WAV matches
Binary file OTHER03.WAV matches
Binary file OTHER04.WAV matches
Binary file OTHER05.WAV matches
Binary file OTHER07.WAV matches
Binary file OTHER08.WAV matches
Binary file OTHER09.WAV matches
Binary file OTHER10.WAV matches
Binary file OTHER13.WAV matches

Checking out BOOT01.WAV in Notepad++, there's definitely HTML shoehorned in the middle of the file. To wit:

<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>tools</TITLE><HEAD><BODY BGCOLOR="#555555" TEXT="#ffcccc" LINK="#ffffaa" VLINK="#88ffff">
<CENTER>
<h2>Ninja ŠÖŒW‚̃c[ƒ‹‰ðà</h2>
<hr>
<P>
<TABLE BORDER=0>
<TR>
<TD><IMG SRC="http://157.109.65.8:8081/sonicteam/gif/stitle3.gif" width=176 height=290></TD>
<TD>
<CENTER>
<hr>
<B>I@@N@@D@@E@@X</B>
<hr>
</CENTER>
<P><br><P>
<A HREF="NJView.html">
œNJViewer‚ÌŽg‚¢•û (03/02/98 0.72alpha1)</A><BLINK>! NEW !</BLINK>
<br><P>
<A HREF="SoNJE_FRAME.html">
œNinja Export Version (0.72ƒ¿2) SGI”Å/NT”Å</A><BLINK>! NEW !</BLINK>
<br><P>
<A HREF="08VQ.htm">
œ‚u‚p@ver.0.3IƒeƒNƒXƒ`ƒƒ[ˆ³k‚¨‚½‚ß‚µ”Łj</A>
<br><P>
<A HREF="pvrconv.html">
œpvrconv—pvrŒ`Ž®‚ւ̃Rƒ“ƒo[ƒg(ver.0.72alpha1) SGI”Å</A>
<br><P>
<A HREF="pvpv.html">
œpvpv—pvrŒ`Ž®‚Ö•¡”ƒtƒ@ƒCƒ‹‚̃Rƒ“ƒo[ƒg</A>
<br><P>
<A HREF="pl.html">
œrgb.pl(rbg-indy.pl)</A>
<br><P>
<hr>
<br><P>
<A HREF="http://157.109.201.100/manual/index.html">
œOnline Manual---ƒ\ƒt‹ZƒeƒNƒjƒJƒ‹ƒTƒ|[ƒgWWWƒT[ƒo[</A>

</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
<br><P>
<hr>
<I>
<script LANGUAGE="javascript">
<!-- To hide javascript from old browsers
document.write("<font size=2>Last updated on " + document.lastModified +".")
// end of javascript -->
</script>
<br>
</I>

</CENTER>
</BODY></HTML>

This post has been edited by Shadow Hog: 16 April 2014 - 09:41 PM

[Energy]

Overlord, on 16 April 2014 - 03:42 PM, said:

Possibly, provided that the actual text is pasted in and that's not already just been lost to question marks in the data, it's possible the board's eaten what the letters should actually be. Throw it into this thing and see what it spits out: http://www.elanex.co...e-recovery.aspx

Overlord, that tool works! Thank you, will post some findings at the bottom of this post.

Meat Miracle, on 16 April 2014 - 08:31 PM, said:

Which files have that, I'm checking the disc now but a string search to "sonic" or "aol" returned 0 results in that wav folder.

The files are dated post JAP release, so it may just be US releases with this issue. I'm working with an ISO file but will check my PAL release later if I can find it.

Cooljerk, on 16 April 2014 - 09:33 PM, said:

So, I'm guessing this is some sort of buffer deal? Like they had to buffer the wav files to specific sizes and just used whatever was in memory at the time?

That's my guess, but it seems really odd! Padding is normal in commercial releases, but in WAV files (that have been thrown on as an extra?), and containing random emails and other files off a pc?. It seems really odd!


----------------

So thanks to the tool that Overlord suggested I can start to read some of the files. They're obviously in Japanese so I'm having to put them in Google translate. So far most seem to be fan requests...

Quote

<HTML> <HEAD><TITLE>98/3/14</TITLE><HEAD> <BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff"> <PRE> <h2>すてきな仕事！！！！</h2> 差出人: Leetewu 宛先: sonicteam 件名：すてきな仕事！！！！ 日付: 1998年3月14日 16:02午後 親愛なる SONICTEAM ： 私は「ソニックＲ」と「ソニック (SONIC) ジャム」を買ったTORONTO.I からのヘンリー (HENRY) である。 私はそれらが素晴らしかったと思う。 それは SEGA サターン (SEGA SATURN) で私の大好きなゲームである。 そして私は SONICTEAM がサターン (SATURN) のためにもっと多くのソ ニック (SONIC) ゲームを作ることができることを希望する、皆がそれらが 好きであった！！ ヘンリー (HENRY) 　３月 (MAR) 　１９９８ </PRE> </BODY></HTML>

Quote

<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE> 98/3/14 </ TITLE> <HEAD> <BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff"> <PRE> <h2> nice work! ! ! ! </ h2> From: Leetewu destination: sonicteam Subject: nice work! ! ! ! SONICTEAM Dear 14, 16:02 pm March 1998: Henry Date of TORONTO.I from which I bought "Sonic (SONIC) jam" and the "Sonic R" I am a (HENRY). I think they said it was amazing. It is a favorite game of my SEGA Saturn in (SEGA SATURN). And hope that it is possible to make Sonic SONICTEAM many (SONIC) game for more of Saturn (SATURN), everyone was like them I! ! Henry (HENRY) March (MAR) 1998 </ PRE> </ BODY> </ HTML>

This post has been edited by Energy: 17 April 2014 - 03:34 AM

[Meat Miracle]

edit: nevermind. It's in the US version, I was checking the JP one.

It appears that they changed the WAV files, but did not update the script that compiled the disc data, so all the changed WAV files still come out to the same size despite being smaller (maybe even bigger in same cases).

BOOT1.WAV, in the usa version, should be 101366 bytes long - but it is instead 226744 bytes long just as the file in the Japanese version. The disc compilation script padded the rest of the stuff with junk from who-knows-where, but judging from the parts, they are most likely from the RAM or the temp files of the machine that was used. Perhaps even directly the hdd sectors adjacent to where the WAV files were.

Just in those files I see HTML pages from Sega and Sonic Team bulletin boards, partial registry database snapshots (they had Office, Lotus 1-2-3, McAffee antivirus, and Norton Utilities installed on the machine).

This isn't some super secret hidden stuff... just a lot of random, disorganized computer junk. I doubt you will find anything meaningful or remotely useful there.

Still interesting stuff.

This post has been edited by Meat Miracle: 17 April 2014 - 02:27 PM

[Cooljerk]

Meat Miracle, on 17 April 2014 - 02:00 PM, said:

edit: nevermind. It's in the US version, I was checking the JP one.

It appears that they changed the WAV files, but did not update the script that compiled the disc data, so all the changed WAV files still come out to the same size despite being smaller (maybe even bigger in same cases).

BOOT1.WAV, in the usa version, should be 101366 bytes long - but it is instead 226744 bytes long just as the file in the Japanese version. The disc compilation script padded the rest of the stuff with junk from who-knows-where, but judging from the parts, they are most likely from the RAM or the temp files of the machine that was used. Perhaps even directly the hdd sectors adjacent to where the WAV files were.

Just in those files I see HTML pages from Sega and Sonic Team bulletin boards, partial registry database snapshots (they had Office, Lotus 1-2-3, McAffee antivirus, and Norton Utilities installed on the machine).

This isn't some super secret hidden stuff... just a lot of random, disorganized computer junk. I doubt you will find anything meaningful or remotely useful there.

Still interesting stuff.

Reminder: A large portion of Zelda: LA DX's source code was found this way. Just sayin'.

[Energy]

Cooljerk, on 17 April 2014 - 02:48 PM, said:

Reminder: A large portion of Zelda: LA DX's source code was found this way. Just sayin'.

Yeah - don't think I'll be that lucky, but it's an interesting error with an interesting outcome.

None of this helps me working out the models or anything really. Supposedly the engine is similar to Nights / Sonic World. Anyone know of how to view models on those games?

[Andrew75]

The only person that I know of that can rip models from Sonic World and Nights is SANiK. He's pretty much vanished from the community and took all his Sega Saturn hacking secrets with him....

This post has been edited by Andrew75: 22 April 2014 - 06:49 AM