History of M.U.G.E.N

Elecbyte released the customizable fighting game M.U.G.E.N in 1999. The engine was originally released on July 17, 2001. Beta versions of it were made to work on MS-DOS, Linux and Windows platforms, distributed through their website. 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. 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. 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. The meaning of "mugen" in Japanese, "unlimited", may have influenced the naming.M.U.G.E.N later expanded into a wide variety of teams and communities such as Mugen Fighters Guild, Mugen Infantry, Mugen Free For All and Club Syndicate.

-wikipedia.org