On July 26, though, a FAQ was added to the site. In mid 2007, Elecbyte's site returned, though not without some controversy as to the legitimacy of it, as it only showed a single logo with Google ads on the side.
In December 2007, a hack from an anonymous source allowed both low-res and hi-res stages to be functional in the same build, requiring only a single line of code to be added to hi-res stages.
In July 2007 another hack created by Sion and Kung Fu Man based on the last high-res hack allowed for only the select screen to be high-res and not the stages. Later that month, another hack was done to add support for high-res select screens. In May 2007, a hacked version of WinM.U.G.E.N was released by a third party that added support for high resolution stages (like those seen in Guilty Gear X) at the cost of losing support to standard resolution M.U.G.E.N stages.
Because of the changes between the DOS and Linux versions of M.U.G.E.N however, many older characters required at least the SFF files to be modified to show palettes correctly (notably on portraits) as well as some changes in how certain CNS script controllers functioned, causing some minor upset and those that could still run the DOS version in some form sticking to that, as well as DOS patches to downgrade characters to be compatible with the older version of the engine. is functionally the same as the last Linux release, though with subtle differences and unique issues, mostly revolving around proper music and music plugin support. With the beta leaked and Elecbyte gone, a "no limit" hack that removed most of these limitations was made available in 2004 by Rou Hei, followed by subsequent updates to deal with bugs and other issues. The private WinM.U.G.E.N beta contained a two-character roster limit, locked game modes, and nag screens. Later speculation pointed at leaks made public of a private Windows-based M.U.G.E.N beta that was provided to donators. However, the development group discontinued the project in 2003 and shut down their site.
For a time, Elecbyte had posted a request for donations on their site to legally obtain a Windows compiler to make a Windows version of M.U.G.E.N. Development of the DOS version ceased when Elecbyte switched to the Linux platform in November 2001. The engine allows for most of the same type of functionality found in most any commercial 2D fighting games, up to and including close recreation of those games' characters and gameplay.įirst released on July 17, 1999, M.U.G.E.N was initially created for MS-DOS. It supports various types of audio formats such as MP3 and MIDI initially, although it can be configured to play various audio formats via Winamp plugins, such as ADX and OGG, as background music during gameplay or at other points such as an introduction or the select screen. The engine allows anyone to create characters, background stages and other game objects through interpreted text files, graphics, and sound compilations. Officially, Elecbyte claims to have forgotten what the acronym M.U.G.E.N stood for, but the readme documentation states that its meaning referred to the days when the engine was meant to emulate shooting games as opposed to fighting games. While the engine is set up primarily for fighting game development, several other game types have been developed using it, including shooter and platform style games. The engine allows users to insert created characters, background stages, and other game objects through interpreted text files, graphics, and sound compilations to create a functioning fighting game similar to commercial games. Beta versions of it were made to work on DOS, Linux and Windows platforms, distributed through their website. The engine was originally released in July 17, 2001. 2.2 Windows version and subsequent hacks.