Volume 2 Issue 6 December 2006 Sony ... - Hardcore Gamer

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Feature by Honestgamer
An Urban Dictionary user famously dened the
M.U.G.E.N. creators as “thieves and emotional
basket cases.” Another user retaliated with a
description of the M.U.G.E.N. creator that portrays
him or her as an often-persecuted but essentially
inspired individual who loves games and just wants
to be left alone to enjoy that passion. You’ll nd a
lot of debates like that if you look the phrase up on
the Internet, along with terms like “warehousing”
and “Elecbyte” and “intellectual property.” What
do such things really mean, though? What’s the
excitement all about? How does it all t together?
To understand M.U.G.E.N. it helps to rst understand
the enigmatic company known as Elecbyte. If you check the
domain now you’ll nd a page that cannot be displayed. Until
2003, you would’ve found something else entirely, a site devoted
to the creation and further development of an emulation and
game creation program known simply as M.U.G.E.N.
Developed originally for DOS systems but later modied so that
it would also work for Linux systems, the M.U.G.E.N. engine
enjoyed solid support from a variety of diehard fans who were
pleased at the opportunity it provided. In an attempt to attract a
wider audience than the Linux engine afforded them, the folks at
Elecbyte began raising money for the development of a Windows
version. This brought the system into 2003, and that’s when things
stalled. The Elecbyte
site dropped off the
Internet and the
M.U.G.E.N. program
itself might have died
altogether if not for
underground support
from enthusiasts.
Though the last ofcial
version of M.U.G.E.N. that
was released by Elecbyte
featured limitations some
didn’t much care for (only
so many ghters could
actually be assembled
and many features were
locked in the beta version),
programmers took it upon
themselves to aggressively modify it. Suddenly, the result was a
completely unofcial and very popular way to throw ghters into
a game and watch them kick one another’s butts.
At its heart, that’s what M.U.G.E.N. really is: a way for fans to
answer questions they’ve always had. What if Ryu and Sonic met
in front of a roaring waterfall and suddenly decided to knock the
crap out of each other? Surely you’ve wondered what the outcome
would be. M.U.G.E.N. was designed so that the answers to those
burning questions need no longer remain irritatingly out of reach.
The engine does most of the work. All gamers have to do is nd
copies of the software, then rip out the desired animations and
backgrounds. From there, a robust system allows them to tweak
everything, from damage to combo rates to life meters. One of
the only things they can’t change is the questionable legality of
making such projects.
From the beginning, it was obvious that M.U.G.E.N. presented
some legal obstacles to the budding game developer. For starters,
the program itself isn’t precisely free domain. People talk about
it being freeware or shareware or abandonware. As some have
observed, Elecbyte isn’t exactly around to protect the program
it created. Moving past that, though, there are still concerns.
The primary one of those is the simple fact that most people who
create M.U.G.E.N. games aren’t really creating at all. Instead,
they’re grabbing assets from their favorite ghters, throwing
them together and calling them original.
To be fair, many such people are simply tweaking the games
they love. They’re designing them to play them for themselves
and maybe with a few friends. Whether because they fear legal
retribution, or because they just like to keep something special
by keeping it small, they’re
not going out of their way to
distribute their projects outside
the fan community.
King Kong on HD DVD and
Universal Media Remote included
for a limited time.
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. All trademarks are property of
their respective owners. © 2006 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.
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HARDCORE GAMER MAGAZINE_VOLUME 2_ISSUE 6_ELECTRIC PEEN