Overview
MUGEN is a 2D fighting game engine produced by Elecbyte.
The official name is "M.U.G.E.N.", but it is often abbreviated to MUGEN.
M.U.G.E.N. was originally developed as an application for MS-DOS but later when Windows was released and became the mainstream OS, a Win-compatible version of MUGEN (WinMUGEN) was released.
However, the development of MUGEN was stopped for a while with the website being shut down in 2003. Several modified versions by non-regular users were released, and these non-regular modified versions were collectively called "WinMUGEN". The modified version of WinMUGEN became the standard, as it exploded in popularity within Nico Nico Douga, Twitch and other Internet communities.
A few years later, the official website was revived and the official version, MUGEN 1.0, was released.
In 2016, There was a sudden statement on the official twitter that "development is not finished, we are currently cooperating in the development of an indie fighting game", but there has been no movement on either MUGEN or that game.
So, in effect, the MUGEN 1.1 beta version is the current final version.
Because of this background, there have been various unofficial modified versions and cloned versions aimed at running on commercial game consoles, but most of them have been discontinued, leaving only a few.
The versions that can still be used today include the "I.K.E.M.E.N" series, which supports the functions of MUGEN 1.0 or later and has online battle functions, and the "Pain Town" series, a modified version that can create a 2D side-scrolling action games.
Functions and Features
The game is designed to allow a high degree of freedom by expanding the areas that can be customized on the user side to the limit, allowing the user to customize almost all visible aspects of the game. From character creation to the system, select screen, life bar, round calls, and background music.
Although the drawing functions are a little less advanced than those of current game engines, they provide the functions necessary to make a 2D fighting game, and with sufficient knowledge, there is no problem in creating basic items.
Originally, high-resolution sprites were not supported, but after it was discovered that high-resolution support was possible by rewriting the settings, the original term "D4" was used to refer to the name of the setting item.
For a long time, WinMUGEN only supported pseudo-high-resolution sprites with D4, but since MUGEN 1.0, it has been possible to use high-resolution sprites and create HD characters.
MUGEN 1.0 and later officially support the use of high-resolution sprites, allowing for the creation of HD-ready characters. Because of the openness of the character creation documents and specifications, the character creation process has been much more active than with other gaming tools.
Characters
A variety of characters have been created by users:
- Original characters
- Characters that did not appear in the original game due to headcount adjustments
- Characters from famous fighting games
- Characters from games other than fighting games
- Characters from anime and manga
- Characterized versions of real-life celebrities
In any case, MUGEN have a unique culture where anything goes when it comes to character creation.
However, this is not the way Elecbyte originally envisioned the game to be played, and in particular, the appropriation of characters from existing games into MUGEN has legal ramifications.
Legal Issues
Creating and releasing a character based on graphics and audio extracted from an existing game is an infringement of copyrighted content.
From a legal standpoint, this is completely black and white, simply because the rights holders have not yet taken any concrete measures such as litigation.
In addition, even in cases where the graphics are created by the character creator, there are cases where the effects and sound materials are appropriated from existing materials, so the same applies here.
In addition, characters based on famous people may infringe on the right of publicity, or on the rightful owner of the image in a strict sense.
In particular, there have been groups that have advocated the concept of time release, fearing that the act of re-creating a character from a newly released fighting game or the game itself in a MUGEN format would have a negative impact on the sales of the game.
However, at one time, there were some people who extracted and released the leaked data from the commercial version of the game before its release, and then used it to create MUGEN characters.
Elecbyte's official position on the situation is that "the use of MUGEN itself and its creations is left to the discretion of the individual," and that they are not aware of the situation.
This problem has been around for a long time with game creation tools in general, and the use of ripped data from commercial works in the Fighter Maker series, especially the 2D Fighter Maker series, has often been a problem.
However, in the case of MUGEN, it was a deep-rooted problem, since it was mainly a style of distributing character data by itself, and since it was easy to extract images and sounds from each character data again, once someone distributed it, it could be used as data for other characters one after another.
However, on the other hand, the countless characters created in this way became samples, and as a result, they functioned as a catalyst to attract more people.
As a result of the large number of users, the number of creators has increased, and it is a fact that the creative side of the game is also more popular than other gaming tools, with people creating high quality characters that rival the characters in commercial works, using online voice actors as cast members for such characters, and releasing related materials such as effects for free.
Of course, there are no legal issues with completely original characters created through such procedures.
It is important to note that Elecbyte's original plan was to use Kung Fu Man as a sample and not to port characters from commercial works.
Nevertheless, in the official catalogue of the "Type-Moon Exhibition Fate/Stay Night - 15 Years of Trajectory", an article that should have used a Melty Blood image somehow ended up using a MUGEN image (with another copyrighted character as the opponent, of all things). It was a scandalous situation for the original creator.
