The readme file informs:
MUGEN is a 2D fighting game engine, but you probably knew that already. MUGEN is also an acronym for something, but we forgot what it is. :)
We created MUGEN not only to make a fighting game, but also to let others create their own fighting games. You can control almost every aspect of the engine to suit your tastes. That's the primary goal of MUGEN. […]
- Customizable title screen, character select screen, life and power bars, game sound effects, fonts and more
- Characters can have any number of sounds and sprites of any size limited by your computer's memory
- Up to 12 different color schemes for each character
- Background music can be mp3, mod, midi or CD audio
- Supports keyboard, joystick and Playstation joypads (through the use of a converter).
Game Engine
- Use up to 6 buttons for a character (7 if you count the Start button)
- Regular moves/Special moves/Supers
- Projectiles
- Multiple air jumps
- Move cancel/2-in-1 or whatever you want to call it
- Multi-part moves/throws
- What your character can do is defined by how you build his state machine
Development of M.U.G.E.N by Elecbyte has apparently ceased, as their website (http://www.elecbyte.com/) went offline in 2003—though it returned in 2007. It remains the best free 2D fighting game engine in existence.
Though the stated original purpose of M.U.G.E.N was the creation of completely original games, the engine is most frequently utilized to recreate and customize mixtures and aspects of commercial fighting games such as Capcom's Street Fighter and SNK Playmore's The King of Fighters series.
Elecbyte has never taken legal action. You should still be aware that using any M.U.G.E.N version today is in direct conflict with their License Agreement:
4. Agreement to this license grants you the right to use the MUGEN environment, version 2002.04.14, until and not beyond 12:01 AM (Greenwich Mean Time) on June 1, 2002. After this time, Elecbyte may, at its sole discretion, choose to offer, or not to offer, a new public license. If a new license is offered, its terms shall govern any continued use of the MUGEN 2002.04.14 beta. If no new license is offered, all use of the 2002.04.14 beta must cease.
5. Failure by Elecbyte to enforce any of the terms of this agreement shall not constitute forfeiture of Elecbyte's right to enforce said terms.
In 1999, a small company named Elecbyte made its first beta release of a 2D fighting game engine (written in the C programming language) for the DOS operating system: M.U.G.E.N 9X.06.27.
Elecbyte continued to develop new beta versions of this DOS M.U.G.E.N until the year 2001 and M.U.G.E.N version 2001.04.14.
Starting 2001, Elecbyte began to release new versions exclusively for Linux. The last beta release of Linux M.U.G.E.N was made available on their website in 2002: M.U.G.E.N 2002.04.14.
2002.04.14 was to be Elecbyte's last public M.U.G.E.N release.
Although they had also been working on a Windows version and had recieved a number of fan donations for that purpose, Windows M.U.G.E.N never made it to a public beta release.
Merely a restricted beta version had been made available to donators via email in 2002, which contained a link and username/password information. The downloadable version was limited in game modes and play time but basically aquivalent to the final Linux one.
Indeed, this private Windows M.U.G.E.N beta had the same version number and documentation as the Linux one: 2002.04.14, following all the latest standards.
In late 2002 or early 2003 the download was replaced with a poem about people doing something they shouldn't be doing: one or more people had apparently leaked their password information.
After the public Linux and private Windows releases Elecbyte's webpage remained silent until a final message on 2003-04-23:
We want to thank you for all of your concern. The project has hit a snag and is on hold. However, we have not cancelled it and will post an update when it is back on track.
Towards the end of that year, Elecbyte's site (http://www.elecbyte.com/) went offline without further comment. You can get an idea of what it looked like by using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. A new incarnation of the page surfaced in 2007.
Since the end of 2002 several different hacks of the secret beta found their way into the Internet. Some only for a short time, others on largely unkown Asian websites and still others were available on again off again on Geocitites pages.
The most commonly known of these was the Elecbyte1 hack, which merely sported a faked version number, "Elecbyte" changed to "Elecbyte1" and the blue overlay message—which reminded you that it was a private beta—removed from fights.
Since Elecbyte was still around or not yet long gone and the existence of a Windows M.U.G.E.N still unkown to the public, it was policy not to promote the various hacks on the community boards: they were a banned topic and mentions of them were usually removed within short notice.
Additionally, the everyday player found little joy in a M.U.G.E.N version restricted to two characters and the hacks were often disregarded by fans for that reason alone.
The "top secret" policy remained in effect until 2004 when a Japanese name of rouhei published his hack that was initially based on the Elecbyte1 "modifications." What set rouhei's hack apart was that it unlocked the character limit and all play modes. Therefore it would have been interesting for everyone and become known.
A few people then quickly decided to change policy: rouhei was contacted, supplied with Elecbyte's unaltered original beta for reference and a History of WinMUGEN textfile to be included in the download archive for the general public.
This complete turn-around (initiated in an IRC room, then executed on the no longer existing Mugen DEV Forum [http://www.shinmugen.net/dev/] by only a handful of persons) sparked a lot of discussion and confusion in the various communities over the following months, as is hinted at in this thread, for example—but like the initial decision itself, most of the fiercest arguments took place backstage.
rouhei continued to modify the executable and updated his version over a dozen times, eventually cracking most inbuilt restrictions and restoring all features; it became the most widely used version of M.U.G.E.N.
Disabled since 2003, Elecbyte's page returned in 2007 with an all-new look, logo—and little else.
Speculations abound, but nobody seems to actually know what's up. Until something more interesting happens, many deciced to consider the new page a superb hoax, but its genuity cannot be ruled out. That's what makes it superb, in my opinion: even though, for example, its text sounds quite tongue-in-cheek, so do parts of MUGEN's readme (see its "What MUGEN?" and "Why MUGEN?" sections).
Ⓚ All rites reversed