What Is Beats of Rage and How Does It Relate to OpenBOR?
Beats of Rage is the original 2D side-scrolling beat 'em up that gave its name to the BOR engine, and OpenBOR is the open-source continuation of that engine — the tool people now use to build and play community-made beat 'em ups. If you want to play existing games or create your own, the practical starting point is ChronoCrash, the home community for OpenBOR, where you can browse downloads, read the wiki, and get support. Note that forum registration is required to download games and resources.
Beats of Rage, BOR, and OpenBOR: how the names connect
The three terms get used almost interchangeably, but they refer to different layers of the same story:
| Term | What it refers to |
|---|---|
| Beats of Rage | The original beat 'em up game, and the name the engine inherited |
| BOR | Shorthand for the engine itself — the abbreviation you'll see in filenames, forum posts, and tooling |
| OpenBOR | The open-source engine that grew out of BOR and is now actively developed and supported |
So when someone says "a BOR game," they usually mean a game running on the OpenBOR engine. When they say "OpenBOR," they mean the engine and the ecosystem around it. The naming overlap is historical, not a sign that these are competing projects.
What you can actually do with the engine
OpenBOR is described by its home community as "the world's most powerful 2D side scrolling engine." In practice that means two distinct paths:
Play existing games
- Browse the downloads catalog on ChronoCrash for finished games and demos.
- Register on the forum first — downloads require a forum account.
- Watch playthroughs and previews on the OpenBOR YouTube channel to see what a given project looks like before committing to a download.
Build your own
- Use the OpenBOR Wiki as your reference: it's positioned as a knowledge base, lexicon, and technical manual, aimed at both new and experienced creators.
- Pull tools and assets from the same downloads catalog to speed up production.
- Ask questions on the forum when you hit a wall — the community explicitly supports independent game makers, not just players.
Where the community lives
ChronoCrash is the central hub, and its structure maps directly onto the two paths above:
- Forum — the center of the community, for questions and support on OpenBOR and other engines.
- Wiki — the technical reference and manual for the engine.
- Downloads — finished games, demos, tools, and assets. Forum registration required.
- YouTube channel — playthroughs, tutorials, and previews of new projects.
The site also supports other sprite-based engines such as Mugen, so if you're coming from that background, the same community can help.
Choosing your entry point
- Just want to play? Register on the forum, then browse downloads for a finished game or demo.
- Want to learn the engine? Start with the wiki, then ask specific questions on the forum.
- Coming from Mugen or another sprite engine? The community supports general sprite-based engine questions, so you don't need to start from zero.
One practical caveat worth knowing up front: the download requirement means you can't evaluate the catalog anonymously. Budget a few minutes for registration before you go looking for a specific game.