Elecbyte and Mugen Have Returned
If you don’t know what M.U.G.E.N (Mugen) is, you have been living under a rock or have never watched YouTube. Mugen is a 2d fighting Game Engine created by Elecbyte. It started on DOS format and moved on to Linux later. People could create any type of fighting game they want. Most creations are Mash ups from other fighting games like Street Fighter and the Mortal Kombat Series.
The Creators of M.U.G.E.N
Elecbyte was working on a Windows version of the game and released a limited demo in 2001. Then Elecbyte disappeared. They left no source code and no contact info. This was a huge bummer for the very large community that formed around the game engine.
The Mugen community would not be held back. A member hacked the limited demo making an unlimited version for windows. Other hacks were created later that gave even more features. The community started backward engineering Mugen and was making several Mugen Clones. As of today, none of these clones have measured up to the hacked Windows version of Mugen. The Mugen community was putting all of its hopes and dreams into these projects.
Then suddenly on September 22, 2009, Elecbyte returned with a whole new M.U.G.E.N Engine. The community was shocked and the downloading went crazy. People who had left the community returned just to see what the new toy could do.
The new Engine is backwards compatible with existing mugen creations. It works in HD Resolutions and features an easier AI trigger and built in win quote screens. While the new features of this engine are not anything that the old engine couldn’t do without a lot of work, the community and fighting game fans are ecstatic that Elecbyte has returned.
“I’m just happy that Mugen isn’t dead anymore. Maybe now we can get all those features we have been talking about for so many years. Online game play, a tournament mode, who knows? All we do know is that all of that is ninety percent more possibly then it was a day ago”
A Mugen Community Member
2009 marked the return of fighting games for the big game companies. This year also marked the return of the most loved independent fighting game engine. It seems fighting games and their fans will be around for many years to come.
Image By barneyboom
Until the next major update of Mugen, all I have to say is “Sonic Boom!”
You can download Mugen for free at http://elecbyte.com/ .
