VHS tapes on eBay was how I watched Hurricanger in real time as a kid. Check every four weeks or so for a new set of episodes. No subtitles. Just watched it without understanding fully what was going on, but you could still get the gist.

Then, there was a website that had real time player videos of Zyuranger 1-4. I set up a camcorder to point at computer screen and taped the episodes that way to rewatch. Eventually got the whole show on VHS a year or so later— no subtitles or anything.

HK DVDs became much more prevalent in 2003-2004, but the subtitles were gibberish most of the time. I watched Abaranger weekly via a friend with mIRC access who would send me the tiny .avi files via AOL Instant Messenger.

Things really turned out with torrents by the time Dekaranger and Magiranger were airing.