MUGEN ARCHIVE

MUGEN ARCHIVE
Logo (top) and front page (bottom)
URL	http://mugenarchive.com
Function	Warehouse, Forum, Wiki
Status	Active
Years Active	2009 - Present

The MUGEN ARCHIVE (formerly known as The Chronicles of Mugen) is primarily a collaborative M.U.G.E.N warehouse, where all members can upload, rate and comment on content, though it also features a forum, chatbox, and wiki. Unregistered users are able to browse the warehouse and forums in addition to having access to file downloads below a certain size, past which registration is required to increase this limit or remove it entirely, with restricted users being referred to as 'leechers'; downloads also become unavailable to these users during what the website calls a 'community growing event', which usually takes place over the weekend.

The MUGEN ARCHIVE is known for its collection of hard-to-find characters and stages that most other warehouses do not have, with the added bonus of them being hosted on their own server. Certain content on the site is not safe for work and is typically marked with an [18+] label, so viewer discretion is advised. Content hosted on the website is not necessarily the original version, despite stating that it is, which is particularly notable with stages as the background music bundled with the stage is often different from what it was originally released with.

History

The website was created by That Man and Blade Art in 2009 under the name The Chronicles of Mugen, primarily serving as a warehouse to "limit the depletion of mugen resources" by archiving as many creations as possible, though it has since formed into its own community with the introduction of forums and other social features. It is currently hosting over 50,000 creations, making it the largest M.U.G.E.N warehouse online.

During June 2016, the MUGEN ARCHIVE introduced a change to how downloads are managed, requiring registered users who are not considered to be part of the website's community to go through adf​.ly (and later shorte.st) in order to download files, which has been met with a significant amount of negativity; certain users who raised issues with this change were banned from the website indefinitely, though some have since been unbanned. Due to the negative reception surrounding the website, such as major security risks associated with adf​.ly and ethical concerns involving monetization of creator content, many M.U.G.E.N related websites and communities have blacklisted content download pages hosted on MUGEN ARCHIVE, including but not limited to: The Mugen Fighters Guild, Mugen Free For All, and The MUGEN Database. On an unknown date, the MUGEN ARCHIVE quietly stopped using adf​.ly and shorte​.st, instead leaving the option for users to donate to help cover the server fees and costs of site maintenance.

On 17th February 2017, the MUGEN ARCHIVE reopened its wiki after several years of its closure with the premise of being an encyclopedia for everything related to M.U.G.E.N, including characters, stages, engine documentation, series, and even gaming platforms, citing it as "a massive and demanding documentation project focused on quality and consistency" and explicitly stating that the majority of its content has been copied "form ^[sic] [...] a selection of high-quality wikis". An account is required to contribute to the wiki, though this account is shared across the entire MUGEN ARCHIVE domain.

Trivia

• The first 25 members of the MUGEN ARCHIVE are all named after Guilty Gear characters, complete with matching avatars; with the exception of That Man, Justice, Dizzy, and Sol, all of these users hold the Support Staff role, though the majority of them appear to be inactive.