M.U.G.E.N  Overview
===================
Elecbyte (c)1999



Contents
--------
I.  Introduction
II. The Files



I. Overview
-----------
M.U.G.E.N is designed to be a 2D fighting game engine that lets you 
create your own characters and stages. Oriented more towards 
flexibility, making characters with M.U.G.E.N may initially seem a 
daunting task, but once you understand the basics, learning the rest of 
the tricks should come naturally.

M.U.G.E.N runs in DOS, and should work fine in a DOS box under Windows.



II. The Files
-------------
A quick note: Here, we will use slashes (/) interchangeably with 
backslashes (\) when referring to paths and filenames. For example, 
"DATA/MUGEN.CFG" would be considered equivalent to "DATA\MUGEN.CFG". 

To begin, let us introduce the file types (denoted by their extension.)
AIR - Animation file; tells the program how to play back a sequence of
      sprites to form an animation.
CFG - Configuration file (see mugen.cfg in the following paragraph)
CNS - Character behavior file; defines how a character acts and moves
DEF - Definition file; has various purposes
SFF - Sprite file; contains one or more sprites
SND - Sound file; contains one or more sounds


(a) Files needed to run

There are several files you will need to run M.U.G.E.N. Here is a list 
of important files you will find in the program-only distribution, and 
what they do.

mugen.exe       The executable file
data/
  common1.cns   Contains behavior information common to all characters
  fight.def     Defines the way the "fight screen" looks
  mugen.cfg     Configuration file - preferences and settings
  select.cfg    Defines what characters are to included in the game
graphics/
  fight.sff     Sprite file for "fight screen" graphics
  staticfx.air  Animation file for hit sparks, dust, and other effects
  staticfx.sff  The sprite file for staticfx.air
sound/
  fight.snd     Sound effects used in the "fight screen"


(b) Files needed for a character

All files for a certain character should be placed in its own directory 
under the chars/ directory. For example, if you have a character named 
"fighter", it will go into the directory "chars/fighter/".

Within each character's directory, you should have the following files. 
As an example, we will use the name "fighter". Substitute the name of 
your character for "fighter".

Required:
  fighter.air   Animation file for the character
  fighter.cmd   Tells how you start a "move"
  fighter.cns   1. Important data, such as speeds and sizes
                2. Defines how the character executes moves
  fighter.def   Short file that has a list of filenames
  fighter.sff   Sprite file
  fighter.snd   Sound file
Optional:
  fighter1.act  Palette file (you can have up to 6)
  ...
  fighter6.act

See the document on creating characters for more details.



III. Running the game
---------------------
Assuming you have all the files ready, just type MUGEN at the DOS Prompt 
to begin.

Support may be added later for multiple game configurations.

First of all, here is the default key configuration.

Button      Player 1      Player 2
------      --------      --------
  Up        Up arrow      Numpad Up
 Down       Down arrow    Numpad Down
 Left       Left arrow    Numpad Left
Right       Right arrow   Numpad Right
  X         L             Numlock 
  Y         semicolon     Numpad slash
  Z         double-quote  Numpad asterisk
  A         comma         Numpad -
  B         period        Numpad +
  C         slash         Numpad Enter


(a) The Main Menu
Choose from the following selections. To make a selection, press one of 
the keys corresponding to a button of a player. Pressing the Escape key 
will quit.

Arcade     Starts up a one-player mode where you fight all the 
           characters in random sequence.
Versus     Lets two players go against each other.
Watch      See the computer duke it out with another computer player.
Options    Set your preferences.
Exit       Quits M.U.G.E.N

For "arcade" mode, the key you hit will determine which side you play 
on. If you chose with one of Player One's keys, your character will play 
on the left side. If you chose with Player Two's keys, you will start on 
the right side.

In "watch" mode, first choose the one character to be on Player One's 
side, then choose a second to be his opponent.




Document is incomplete. Please be patient.


To Write:
1. steps for creating a BG
- sprites, recommended sizes, talk about scroll speed to size ratio
- use sprmaker to make it
- where to put
- how to make the def file
- colour 0 is transparent for "masked" sprites
