WHAT IS MUGEN (The FAQ)

Robotazy · 04-08-2008, 11:40 AM

Don't be surprised if these either take a while or are uploaded all at the same time.

If I have to, I will edit this to improve clarity.
-------------------------------------------

MUGEN....What is it?

Well, if you wanna get technical, MUGEN is "INFINITY" in Japanese, but it is also a Fighting Game Engine, and possibly one of the most open-source engines to exist today.

Have too much skill for a normal Fighting Game?

Want to have Mario and Naruto duke it out without problems like "Copywright Infringment"?

Do you want to make a Fighting Game, but don't want to start from scratch?

Well, MUGEN may be what you're looking for....

Interested?

PART 1: The Basics. (It is recommended that you do this as we go along, it will make more sense)

Naturally, you'll need the Engine.
here is the DOS and Linux versions, and here is the Windows version

This is the Engine. It starts you off with one character, and two stages.

This is Kung-Fu Man. This is the character you start with. He has basic Movements, and is the most copied character to date.

More on that later.

It is also Natural if you Mugen ends up with three of him, so don't freak out

Anyway, you obviously want more than just Kung-Fu Man, so you will have to go to a MUGEN website so you can get more MUGEN Characters.

Go here for instance.

You can also check out the MUGEN Sites Topic on this Forum if you wish.

Let's use an example.....

Go to Capcom Characters, then choose "Street Fighter III"

You'll know you did it right when you see the Street Fighter III Characters there.

Click any of them and it will show you if the character is available, though don't be surprised if what you're looking for can't be accessed yet.

If you CAN Download it, then do so. Then Wait until it is done.

Now move it to the characters folder for organization and safekeeping.

DO NOT START UP YOUR MUGEN THINKING THAT THE CHARACTER WILL BE ON THERE. IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY.

You must click of the Data Folder and go to Select.def

From there, you will see....

kfm,
kfm,
kfm,
randomselect
randomselect
randomselect
randomselect
randomselect
randomselect

The randomselect is like the random button, just so you know.

From there, put the file name of the character in there like so.

kfm,
kfm,
kfm,
urien,
randomselect
randomselect
randomselect
randomselect
randomselect

OR

kfm,
urien,
randomselect
randomselect
randomselect
randomselect
randomselect
randomselect
randomselect

whichever you want.

NOW YOU CAN LOAD UP MUGEN!

If the character is still not there, it is recommended that you fiddle with the name of the Character's folder so that it matches the .def program in the folder.

It should work afterwards.

Now, go get as many characters as you want!
---------------------------------------

NEXT: Stages, Screen Packs, and Music

Robotazy · 04-14-2008, 12:57 PM

PART 2: The Backdrop stuff.
So, you have a load of awesome Characters, but you can only fight in Mountainside Temple
and Training Room
How do you fix that?
Well....Let's make a trip to Randomselect again. (Linked to in Part 1)
From there we'll choose..... Hosted Stages, 'cause their is more of them

You can choose any of the authors here. I'm going to use One Winged Angel.
We can use Headquarters of Evil, and from there, download it and place it in the Stages
Folder.
I didn't say this earlier, but You may need the appropriate Driver to download these
things....Just giving you a heads up.
Anyway, from there you have to go back to the select.def, and add the stage....Like this.
kfm,
urien,stages/headquartersofevil.def (This isn't the real filename, but I can't download it
right now, since I'm on a school computer.)
chun-Li,
terry03,
athenaxi,
randomselect
randomselect
randomselect
randomselect
After that, it should work.
Now, you may notice that this screenpack you are currently using only allows 8 characters.
You can also change that.
Just go to Hosted Screenpacks and choose one....King of Fighters '96 for example.
Now, this is where it gets kind of difficult....
MAKE SURE YOU SAVE YOUR CURRRENT SELECT.DEF SOMEWHERE, YOU DON'T WANT TO LOSE
IT.
You have to put the proper files in the Data and Font Files, this included a new Select.Def
and other things. Hopefully, you won't have to do anything else.
If you saved your old Select.def, you can use it to add your characters onto the new
select.def via copy and paste.
Now start up your MUGEN and pray that if it works.
If it doesn't you'll have to pay attention to the error screen and try to fix it.
If worse comes to worse, you will have to redownload your MUGEN (AND JUST YOUR MUGEN,
EVERYTHING ELSE IS FINE) which is why you will want to do this as little as possible.
If it does work, you can enjoy your new MUGEN.

Finally, we'll discuss Music.
Basically, you can use any .mp3 (or .ogg, if your computer can use it <_<). It's basically
easier to either copy or move your music to the sound folder in MUGEN if you wish to use
it. now go to the stage's .def file in the Stage Folder and go to this.
Music=
volume= 255
add your music like this.
Music= sound/Solja Boi.mp3 (ew. Why did I do this?)
Volume= 255
from there, load up MUGEN and play the stage.
If it's not working, then you will have to try to get rid of anything interfering with the
Music option.
However, it's more likely to work, so congrats!
--------------------------------
NEXT: The Goods and Bads of MUGEN.

Robotazy · 08-13-2008, 03:20 PM

Part 3: The MUGEN Community

So, you've got a good game going, hm? Want to talk to others like yourself so you can have friends that share your interests? Weeeeeell, MUGEN Politics are very complicated, and one annoying quirk could get you hated by everyone but the annoying fanboys.

This contains nothing technical. If you know about the MUGEN Community already, feel free to skip this part.

A. Copywright

Obviously, no one is above the law. (Don't give me that snicker) So, you have to have found out about Elecbyte, the original creators of the engine. You also have to wonder why they and every fighting game company don't rip the communtity into tiny shreads. This is because, of really good circumstances. Elecbyte pretty much had left without warning after creating the engine and releasing a few characters. This leaves the engine pretty much open source. There have been questions as to what would happen if Elecbyte were to come back, if they were to not care about the open-source, or become furious.
It has become very unlikely that Elecbyte would take any action, even if it still exists, so there's no worries there.

Capcom and the fighting game companies are another matter, as they could wave a few lawsuits around and MUGEN would fall into something only a few people know about.
Luckily most companies are fine with MUGEN, as long as no money is made off it. "French Bread", makers of Immaterial and Material Power have shown thier distaste of their characters being released, but have done nothing about it. Once again, no problem. However there are a few things that you will have to watch out for....

B. Warehouses

Warehouses are sites full of characters from other people. They are made for easy access, and when a creator's site is no longer available. However, there have been times where Warehousing would be done to take credit for other people's work. This has caused more than one creator to abandon MUGEN out of anger. It's better to go to a MUGEN Directory (Like the ones listed in this Forum) then to attempt to look for yourself.

C. Cheap/Broken Characters

Have you seen videos of Cheap Character beatdowns? They are pretty common, because everyone gets tricked by them. Cheapness usually goes hand in hand with Broken because one can fuel the other. General laziness, stupidity, and an attempt to get e-fame have driven people to make cheap and broken character by the truckload. This is why you should see a video, pictures, or someone's opinion (it has to be spelled correctly), before you decide to take a character of any kind.

D. Porn

Remember Rule 34? It's here too. If you delve deep enough, you'll find Porn Monsters, Naked Women, and Character twisted into perverted messes (oh, wait only Haruhi from choiya did that, HEYOO) This has made many people sick to thier stomachs, as all the characters made for this are....unsettling (yes even the nude fighters). Best thing to do is avoid "Nude ___" or "Naked ___" Also, avoid anything on a site that has "Slime" as a character on it. General Rule.

--------------------------------------------------------
NEXT: So, you want to make characters for MUGEN?

Fairlight Excalibur · 10-12-2010, 02:01 AM

Note: Your link to the windows version of the MUGEN engine is not exactly helpful, unless you are fluent in Japanese.

EDIT: Also, following your step by step instructions, I am still unable to play as anyone besides Kung Fu Man.

Vgfian · 10-18-2010, 01:46 PM

I posted this before, but my post was deleted.

Yeah, I couldn't get it working with Tazy's instructions either. I ended up learning from some Youtube videos.

Here's a tutorial I posted on Youtube and then here. It may help.

http://www.vgf.com/forums/anti-balan...haracters.html

If it doesn't, then search "Mugenlord" on youtube. His videos are some of the easiest to learn from. He has many videos unrelated to tutorials now though, and simply searching his name won't bring up the video so you have to browse through his uploads...

Fairlight Excalibur · 10-18-2010, 08:18 PM

Oh, I got it to work a while ago through trial and error, only took a few minutes.

Zaden · 10-25-2010, 03:43 PM

So some time ago I downloaded Mortal Kombat Anthology and I just recently downloaded MUGEN, and I noticed they're by the same developer.

I figured since I already have a crapload of MK characters on my computer from the Anthology download, I might as well copy some of my favorite characters into MUGEN and see if it works. Lo and behold, it did.

Problem is, the MK sprites are so huge compared to the other MUGEN sprites that they all look 8 feet tall and half the moves go over their head unless you're playing against another MK character.

At least I didn't expect perfection. I also now understand why it's called the Anti-Balance forum.

Fairlight Excalibur · 10-25-2010, 03:55 PM

Click to view video.

Zaden · 10-25-2010, 09:03 PM

Ha ha. When I beat the MUGEN arcade mode with Reptile, it immediately cut out to a scene of Shao Kahn exploding and told me I was the Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 champion.

Robotazy · 10-25-2010, 09:28 PM

As of right now, this topic is an FAQ, so feel free to ask questions here if you want.

04-08-2008, 11:40 AM	#1
Robotazy PRESS ANY KEY TO PANIC! Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: A Tiny Shed Gender: Posts: 16,483 Thanks: 529 Thanked 1,254 Times in 897 Posts Blog Entries: 46	WHAT IS MUGEN (The FAQ) Don't be surprised if these either take a while or are uploaded all at the same time. If I have to, I will edit this to improve clarity. ------------------------------------------- MUGEN....What is it? Well, if you wanna get technical, MUGEN is "INFINITY" in Japanese, but it is also a Fighting Game Engine, and possibly one of the most open-source engines to exist today. Have too much skill for a normal Fighting Game? Want to have Mario and Naruto duke it out without problems like "Copywright Infringment"? Do you want to make a Fighting Game, but don't want to start from scratch? Well, MUGEN may be what you're looking for.... Interested? PART 1: The Basics. (It is recommended that you do this as we go along, it will make more sense) Naturally, you'll need the Engine. here is the DOS and Linux versions, and here is the Windows version This is the Engine. It starts you off with one character, and two stages. This is Kung-Fu Man. This is the character you start with. He has basic Movements, and is the most copied character to date. More on that later. It is also Natural if you Mugen ends up with three of him, so don't freak out Anyway, you obviously want more than just Kung-Fu Man, so you will have to go to a MUGEN website so you can get more MUGEN Characters. Go here for instance. You can also check out the MUGEN Sites Topic on this Forum if you wish. Let's use an example..... Go to Capcom Characters, then choose "Street Fighter III" You'll know you did it right when you see the Street Fighter III Characters there. Click any of them and it will show you if the character is available, though don't be surprised if what you're looking for can't be accessed yet. If you CAN Download it, then do so. Then Wait until it is done. Now move it to the characters folder for organization and safekeeping. DO NOT START UP YOUR MUGEN THINKING THAT THE CHARACTER WILL BE ON THERE. IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY. You must click of the Data Folder and go to Select.def From there, you will see.... kfm, kfm, kfm, randomselect randomselect randomselect randomselect randomselect randomselect The randomselect is like the random button, just so you know. From there, put the file name of the character in there like so. kfm, kfm, kfm, urien, randomselect randomselect randomselect randomselect randomselect OR kfm, urien, randomselect randomselect randomselect randomselect randomselect randomselect randomselect whichever you want. NOW YOU CAN LOAD UP MUGEN! If the character is still not there, it is recommended that you fiddle with the name of the Character's folder so that it matches the .def program in the folder. It should work afterwards. Now, go get as many characters as you want! --------------------------------------- NEXT: Stages, Screen Packs, and Music

04-14-2008, 12:57 PM	#2
Robotazy PRESS ANY KEY TO PANIC! Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: A Tiny Shed Gender: Posts: 16,483 Thanks: 529 Thanked 1,254 Times in 897 Posts Blog Entries: 46	PART 2: The Backdrop stuff. So, you have a load of awesome Characters, but you can only fight in Mountainside Temple and Training Room How do you fix that? Well....Let's make a trip to Randomselect again. (Linked to in Part 1) From there we'll choose..... Hosted Stages, 'cause their is more of them You can choose any of the authors here. I'm going to use One Winged Angel. We can use Headquarters of Evil, and from there, download it and place it in the Stages Folder. I didn't say this earlier, but You may need the appropriate Driver to download these things....Just giving you a heads up. Anyway, from there you have to go back to the select.def, and add the stage....Like this. kfm, urien,stages/headquartersofevil.def (This isn't the real filename, but I can't download it right now, since I'm on a school computer.) chun-Li, terry03, athenaxi, randomselect randomselect randomselect randomselect After that, it should work. Now, you may notice that this screenpack you are currently using only allows 8 characters. You can also change that. Just go to Hosted Screenpacks and choose one....King of Fighters '96 for example. Now, this is where it gets kind of difficult.... MAKE SURE YOU SAVE YOUR CURRRENT SELECT.DEF SOMEWHERE, YOU DON'T WANT TO LOSE IT. You have to put the proper files in the Data and Font Files, this included a new Select.Def and other things. Hopefully, you won't have to do anything else. If you saved your old Select.def, you can use it to add your characters onto the new select.def via copy and paste. Now start up your MUGEN and pray that if it works. If it doesn't you'll have to pay attention to the error screen and try to fix it. If worse comes to worse, you will have to redownload your MUGEN (AND JUST YOUR MUGEN, EVERYTHING ELSE IS FINE) which is why you will want to do this as little as possible. If it does work, you can enjoy your new MUGEN. Finally, we'll discuss Music. Basically, you can use any .mp3 (or .ogg, if your computer can use it <_<). It's basically easier to either copy or move your music to the sound folder in MUGEN if you wish to use it. now go to the stage's .def file in the Stage Folder and go to this. Music= volume= 255 add your music like this. Music= sound/Solja Boi.mp3 (ew. Why did I do this?) Volume= 255 from there, load up MUGEN and play the stage. If it's not working, then you will have to try to get rid of anything interfering with the Music option. However, it's more likely to work, so congrats! -------------------------------- NEXT: The Goods and Bads of MUGEN. Last edited by Robotazy; 04-22-2008 at 12:40 PM.

10-12-2010, 02:01 AM	#4
Fairlight Excalibur Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: LA Gender: Posts: 880 Thanks: 72 Thanked 111 Times in 82 Posts Blog Entries: 1	Note: Your link to the windows version of the MUGEN engine is not exactly helpful, unless you are fluent in Japanese. EDIT: Also, following your step by step instructions, I am still unable to play as anyone besides Kung Fu Man. Last edited by Fairlight Excalibur; 10-12-2010 at 03:01 AM.

08-13-2008, 03:20 PM	#3
Robotazy PRESS ANY KEY TO PANIC! Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: A Tiny Shed Gender: Posts: 16,483 Thanks: 529 Thanked 1,254 Times in 897 Posts Blog Entries: 46	Part 3: The MUGEN Community So, you've got a good game going, hm? Want to talk to others like yourself so you can have friends that share your interests? Weeeeeell, MUGEN Politics are very complicated, and one annoying quirk could get you hated by everyone but the annoying fanboys. This contains nothing technical. If you know about the MUGEN Community already, feel free to skip this part. A. Copywright Obviously, no one is above the law. (Don't give me that snicker) So, you have to have found out about Elecbyte, the original creators of the engine. You also have to wonder why they and every fighting game company don't rip the communtity into tiny shreads. This is because, of really good circumstances. Elecbyte pretty much had left without warning after creating the engine and releasing a few characters. This leaves the engine pretty much open source. There have been questions as to what would happen if Elecbyte were to come back, if they were to not care about the open-source, or become furious. It has become very unlikely that Elecbyte would take any action, even if it still exists, so there's no worries there. Capcom and the fighting game companies are another matter, as they could wave a few lawsuits around and MUGEN would fall into something only a few people know about. Luckily most companies are fine with MUGEN, as long as no money is made off it. "French Bread", makers of Immaterial and Material Power have shown thier distaste of their characters being released, but have done nothing about it. Once again, no problem. However there are a few things that you will have to watch out for.... B. Warehouses Warehouses are sites full of characters from other people. They are made for easy access, and when a creator's site is no longer available. However, there have been times where Warehousing would be done to take credit for other people's work. This has caused more than one creator to abandon MUGEN out of anger. It's better to go to a MUGEN Directory (Like the ones listed in this Forum) then to attempt to look for yourself. C. Cheap/Broken Characters Have you seen videos of Cheap Character beatdowns? They are pretty common, because everyone gets tricked by them. Cheapness usually goes hand in hand with Broken because one can fuel the other. General laziness, stupidity, and an attempt to get e-fame have driven people to make cheap and broken character by the truckload. This is why you should see a video, pictures, or someone's opinion (it has to be spelled correctly), before you decide to take a character of any kind. D. Porn Remember Rule 34? It's here too. If you delve deep enough, you'll find Porn Monsters, Naked Women, and Character twisted into perverted messes (oh, wait only Haruhi from choiya did that, HEYOO) This has made many people sick to thier stomachs, as all the characters made for this are....unsettling (yes even the nude fighters). Best thing to do is avoid "Nude ___" or "Naked ___" Also, avoid anything on a site that has "Slime" as a character on it. General Rule. -------------------------------------------------------- NEXT: So, you want to make characters for MUGEN?

10-18-2010, 01:46 PM	#5
Vgfian Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Listening to Seeking 7 Seven and giving out free hugs. :) Gender: Posts: 6,862 Thanks: 2,433 Thanked 398 Times in 311 Posts	I posted this before, but my post was deleted. Yeah, I couldn't get it working with Tazy's instructions either. I ended up learning from some Youtube videos. Here's a tutorial I posted on Youtube and then here. It may help. http://www.vgf.com/forums/anti-balan...haracters.html If it doesn't, then search "Mugenlord" on youtube. His videos are some of the easiest to learn from. He has many videos unrelated to tutorials now though, and simply searching his name won't bring up the video so you have to browse through his uploads...

10-18-2010, 08:18 PM	#6
Fairlight Excalibur Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: LA Gender: Posts: 880 Thanks: 72 Thanked 111 Times in 82 Posts Blog Entries: 1	Oh, I got it to work a while ago through trial and error, only took a few minutes.

10-25-2010, 03:43 PM	#7
Zaden Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: in the beak of a mighty condor Gender: Posts: 991 Thanks: 273 Thanked 88 Times in 51 Posts Blog Entries: 5	So some time ago I downloaded Mortal Kombat Anthology and I just recently downloaded MUGEN, and I noticed they're by the same developer. I figured since I already have a crapload of MK characters on my computer from the Anthology download, I might as well copy some of my favorite characters into MUGEN and see if it works. Lo and behold, it did. Problem is, the MK sprites are so huge compared to the other MUGEN sprites that they all look 8 feet tall and half the moves go over their head unless you're playing against another MK character. At least I didn't expect perfection. I also now understand why it's called the Anti-Balance forum.

10-25-2010, 09:03 PM	#9
Zaden Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: in the beak of a mighty condor Gender: Posts: 991 Thanks: 273 Thanked 88 Times in 51 Posts Blog Entries: 5	Ha ha. When I beat the MUGEN arcade mode with Reptile, it immediately cut out to a scene of Shao Kahn exploding and told me I was the Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 champion.

10-25-2010, 09:28 PM	#10
Robotazy PRESS ANY KEY TO PANIC! Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: A Tiny Shed Gender: Posts: 16,483 Thanks: 529 Thanked 1,254 Times in 897 Posts Blog Entries: 46	As of right now, this topic is an FAQ, so feel free to ask questions here if you want.