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August 6, 2013 4:41 PM   Subscribe

Saltybet.com is a ridiculous unending tournament of pirate Mugen (previously) characters from across a wide spectrum of games (and fan-made creations as well) duking it out while thousands of onlookers bet fake money.

General rules and tips:
You can sign up with any sort of credentials (no need to supply a real email if you don't want to), and bet "Salty Bucks" on each match. You start with $400, and if you lose your shirt you get an automatic $10 bailout (colloquially called "Salty Mining" for some reason), or you can cheat a little bit and just make a new account. It's surprisingly addictive. The soundtrack varies from theme songs from video game music to oldschool rap. Never bet on Dragon Ball Z characters unless you want to lose money. This also lets you finally know what would happen if Homer Simpson faced off against Astroboy.
posted by codacorolla (94 comments total) 33 users marked this as a favorite
 
And it is experiencing a near-crippling spike in popularity at the moment. But goddamn is it addictive and hilarious.
posted by penduluum at 4:46 PM on August 6, 2013


I used to work at a Saltymine.
posted by Artw at 4:56 PM on August 6, 2013 [1 favorite]


Well, I may never get anything done again.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 5:26 PM on August 6, 2013


This is so, so very stupid. It's currently background noise while I get some work done. I approve.
posted by ardgedee at 5:43 PM on August 6, 2013


every time people talk about pirate Mugen I get really excited-then-sad that it's never this guy
posted by nicebookrack at 5:43 PM on August 6, 2013 [1 favorite]


It's the stupidest.

1. Never bet on DBZ.
1a. Unless they are hand-drawn. Then flip a coin.
1b. Or if they speak Spanish. Then bet on them.

2. Never bet on Jojo characters.
2a. But if you see a little Boston Terrier named Iggy, bet the house on him.

3. Always bet on Cardcaptors characters.
3a. Good luck recognizing Cardcaptors characters.

4. Never bet on Naruto characters, except Sakura
4a. See 3a.

5. Always bet on:
a. Touhou
b. Uppercut (whoever that is)
c. Lavos Spawn
d. Onslaught
e. Alien Queen
f. Sad Claps
g. Characters with 71113 after their names

6. Almost always bet on:
a. SNK bosses
b. Samurai Showdown characters
c. Characters drawn in MS Paint
d. Marvel characters
e. Street Fighter characters that look pretty normal
f. Street Fighter characters that look kind of cyborg-y or devil-ish

7. Almost never bet on:
a. Family Guy characters
b. Anime characters that seem to not have enough frames of animation

8. Never bet on
a. Characters named after versions of Windows (98, 95, XP, Millenium)
b. Characters who clone themselves (clones are broken)

9. The chat will try to screw you up, unless they're not.

10. Ignore when people say a character is "real", "legit", or "fake". Except when they're telling the truth.

11. Don't follow any of my advice because I've lost all of my imaginary money at least once by the time you read this.
posted by penduluum at 5:55 PM on August 6, 2013 [12 favorites]


Who is controlling the characters?
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 5:58 PM on August 6, 2013


12. If chat is calling a character a "waifu", man I don't know, just keep your wallet in your pocket.
posted by penduluum at 5:58 PM on August 6, 2013


The characters are randomly selected and AI controlled.
posted by penduluum at 5:59 PM on August 6, 2013


Needs more Super Gem Fighter: Mini Mix (A.K.A., Pocket Fighter) versions of characters.
posted by aubilenon at 6:04 PM on August 6, 2013


As penduluum has said, they're AI controlled, but a great deal of victory lies behind which AI is controlling them. Sometimes it's well coded and absolutely brutal, sometimes it's amateur coded and... lackluster. Sometimes it's a reskin of a sure-thing character and no AI has been attached SO THEY FUCKING SIT THERE WHILE I LOSE ALL MY SALTIES BECAUSE YOU WERE A SURE THING FUCK YOU MEGAMAN.
posted by codacorolla at 6:33 PM on August 6, 2013 [4 favorites]


Also, this is why people will say "RYU IS REAL!!!" or "FRAUD RYU", because not all Ryus are built the same (although all Gokus are bad). Then again some people will try to convince you to bet against the best player in chat to juke the odds system.
posted by codacorolla at 6:36 PM on August 6, 2013


Man am I glad I put all my money on that butter cookie
posted by dubusadus at 6:45 PM on August 6, 2013 [2 favorites]


I have no idea what a Hato Sabure is (it looks like a clay bird thingy?) but it consumes about a third of the screen. I just saw it beat 2BanChan (uh?), mostly by bumping into its opponent repeatedly. Doesn't look like there's room for the opponent to do anything in response except basic moves.
posted by ardgedee at 6:46 PM on August 6, 2013


TABLE FLIPS at Ginew vs. Vegeta. TABLE GODDAMNED FLIPS.
posted by chrominance at 6:55 PM on August 6, 2013


The background music is great on this. Right now it's Mind Fusion Vol. 2 by Madlib.
posted by t3h933k at 6:57 PM on August 6, 2013


chrominance: "TABLE FLIPS at Ginew vs. Vegeta. TABLE GODDAMNED FLIPS."

greatest match
posted by Copronymus at 7:00 PM on August 6, 2013


I just lost all my money. DAMN YOU FOR BRINGING THIS TO MY ATTENTION.

Also the soundtrack is ace.
posted by chrominance at 7:00 PM on August 6, 2013


Blob vs. Superman was basically the best thing that ever happened.
posted by penduluum at 7:02 PM on August 6, 2013


> Blob vs. Superman was basically the best thing that ever happened.

Was that something or what the hell was that? I missed a couple rounds when I blinked, there.
posted by ardgedee at 7:13 PM on August 6, 2013


Superman, like Radish SSJ4, instant KOs with any hit. The chat didn't realize this when, in the first round of the fight, Superman didn't get a hit off and got perfected by the Blob.

He then had 3 perfect rounds. The chat went fully, gibberingly insane. In the midst I saw my favorite comment: "This game is pretty good."
posted by penduluum at 7:21 PM on August 6, 2013 [3 favorites]


this is wicked fun
posted by es_de_bah at 7:26 PM on August 6, 2013


zinc 4ever
posted by Copronymus at 7:27 PM on August 6, 2013 [1 favorite]


The funniest thing is when something viral gets into chat. During a Seiya/Juggernaut match, the chat window kept scrolling by with the same message "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" all by different people with alternating amounts of "O"s, and it was just the funniest thing to experience.
posted by cyberscythe at 7:43 PM on August 6, 2013 [2 favorites]


My favorite part of this is that it turns fantasy hierarchy on its head and makes Goku the lowest of the low.
posted by codacorolla at 7:43 PM on August 6, 2013


brokenangels00: IF YOU TRUST CHAT YOU DESERVE TO LOSE
posted by BiggerJ at 7:48 PM on August 6, 2013


Another nugget of wisdom:

clarkanoid: ALWAYS DON'T ALWAYS BET
posted by BiggerJ at 7:53 PM on August 6, 2013


codacorolla: "...while thousands of onlookers bet fake money."

So it uses Bitcoins?
posted by double block and bleed at 7:54 PM on August 6, 2013 [2 favorites]


So it uses Bitcoins?

im snding u a deepweb bike mssnger w/ my .onion on it. if u want 2 get real salty then chck it out.
posted by codacorolla at 7:57 PM on August 6, 2013 [2 favorites]


This is totally ridiculous.
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 8:10 PM on August 6, 2013


I'm afraid to drink while watching this because I think I'll wake up in a basement as a green-Sharpie-and-ginger-wig Blanka soaked in the blood of a grown man dressed as Detective Conan in a child's Sherlock Holmes costume while angry kids shout "waifu" and throw Monopoly money at us.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:11 PM on August 6, 2013 [11 favorites]


AGAIN
posted by jason_steakums at 8:11 PM on August 6, 2013 [1 favorite]


Grover just chumped the fuck out >:(
posted by codacorolla at 8:15 PM on August 6, 2013


Gah, I know. Stupid clones.
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 8:16 PM on August 6, 2013


Grover just got beaten up by Hugo from Street Fighter.

A tentacled alien just defeated an underage girl.

This site.
posted by BiggerJ at 8:17 PM on August 6, 2013


codacorolla: "Grover just chumped the fuck out >:("

brutal, Oscar was no help
posted by Copronymus at 8:17 PM on August 6, 2013


MARS PEOPLE
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 8:17 PM on August 6, 2013


Man now I just wish this stage was a real Windows XP loading screen.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:18 PM on August 6, 2013 [1 favorite]


My $13 investment in do-cock is ABOUT. TO. PAY. OFF.
posted by chrominance at 8:26 PM on August 6, 2013


J Walter Weatherman's arm flies off as Buster loses all his salties on a Goku clearly just screen captured from the TV Show

"AND. THAT'S. WHY. YOU. NEVER. BET. ON. DBZ."
posted by codacorolla at 8:27 PM on August 6, 2013 [3 favorites]


Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star just beat Ichigo from Bleach ez pz

ATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA
posted by dubusadus at 8:42 PM on August 6, 2013 [1 favorite]


Poor Guy Gardner, that was embarrassing.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:45 PM on August 6, 2013


bloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooob
posted by Copronymus at 9:06 PM on August 6, 2013


It's almost like The Blob only ever has 1 HP.
posted by BucketOBees at 9:12 PM on August 6, 2013


The bards will sing songs of Floren vs Shin Ryu
posted by dubusadus at 9:35 PM on August 6, 2013 [4 favorites]


The bards will sing songs of Floren vs Shin Ryu

Nobody thought that Moomintroll lookalike could pull it off, but he did!

Also, tons of people chat-screaming CAW CAW CAW CAW when one guy was attacking the other with swarms of crows = funniest thing ever
posted by mightygodking at 9:39 PM on August 6, 2013 [4 favorites]


The bards will sing songs of Floren vs Shin Ryu

The bards and my wallet.
posted by codacorolla at 9:40 PM on August 6, 2013


The trick seems to be that whoever is mentioned the most in chat is usually the disfavored one.
posted by Pyry at 11:55 PM on August 6, 2013


This is basically the worst thing ever. What just happened to the last six hours?
posted by motty at 12:12 AM on August 7, 2013


According to Twitter, they've only just now found out how to fix clone characters.
posted by BiggerJ at 1:37 AM on August 7, 2013


It's like a cockfight at a ShowBizz Pizza Place. /kors
posted by bleep-blop at 2:11 AM on August 7, 2013 [3 favorites]


It's down right now. There's a fight queued up but nothing is happening. The people in chat are acting like they are at a party and just realized that the drugs have run out.
posted by double block and bleed at 4:54 AM on August 7, 2013


This is the absolute best for ADHD types... the music, the fights... just leave it fullscreen as the live comment feeds are generally a lovely mix of racism and misogyny (but little or no homophobia, surprisingly). I'd have this going on my spare monitor at work all day if the web filter would let me.
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:23 AM on August 7, 2013


BiggerJ: "According to Twitter, they've only just now found out how to fix clone characters."

The clone characters are irritating, but I hope they never fix the broken DBZ characters that just do their charge move over and over and over and over and over again.
posted by Copronymus at 6:14 AM on August 7, 2013


The clone characters are irritating, but I hope they never fix the broken DBZ characters that just do their charge move over and over and over and over and over again.

Sometimes there's one who actually works (for whatever reason) or is a hilariously broken fan character someone made to pretend that they were invinsible-Goku, and you win 1:38 odds.
posted by codacorolla at 6:41 AM on August 7, 2013


Lotta people got rich on that Banshee/Eiji upset last night.
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 7:39 AM on August 7, 2013


Lotta people got rich on that Banshee/Eiji upset last night.

Hells yes, which I then blew on Goku/random clone. NEVER BET ON DBZ
posted by Copronymus at 7:53 AM on August 7, 2013


Lotta people got rich on that Banshee/Eiji upset last night.

I put in a pretty substantial (for me) bet of 20 dollars on it, because I thought Banshee was a sure thing (I'm pretty sure any fan-coded Marvel villain is a good bet) and the only way it'd be worth my time was to up my usual 5/10/15 scale a little. I was dumbfounded and disappointed when I got the odds I did, and then elated when it turned out chat had (as usual) no idea what it was talking about.
posted by codacorolla at 9:05 AM on August 7, 2013


I put in a pretty substantial (for me) bet of 20 dollars on it, because I thought Banshee was a sure thing (I'm pretty sure any fan-coded Marvel villain is a good bet) and the only way it'd be worth my time was to up my usual 5/10/15 scale a little. I was dumbfounded and disappointed when I got the odds I did, and then elated when it turned out chat had (as usual) no idea what it was talking about.

Basically the same, except there'd been a string of one-sided crap matches and I was sick of betting $15 to get $1, so I figured I'd have to throw down a lot of money to get a return for something as seemingly one-sided as Marvel vs. obvious clone. I dropped a couple hundred on it and it was easily the best decision I made all night.
posted by Copronymus at 9:15 AM on August 7, 2013


This is like ADHD crack.
posted by double block and bleed at 9:43 AM on August 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


What the hell is this?

I mean, I just saw "Ash" read from the Necronomicon and totally stomp Gohan SSJ2...and then turn around and get curb stomped in about five seconds in the next round by Gohan.

Why can't I stop watching this?
posted by lord_wolf at 9:50 AM on August 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


Why can't I stop watching this?

The real-time chat really makes it, I think. Watching people lose their shit over this in chat is as close as the internet gets to the atmosphere of the crowd holding up wads of cash/betting slips and shouting ringside at a seedy pit fight in some low-budget action movie.
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 12:58 PM on August 7, 2013 [5 favorites]


Never bet on Aquaman.
posted by squinty at 5:45 PM on August 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


Aquaman vs Goku Kaioken x4 was easily the most exciting thing I've seen all week.
posted by sporkwort at 6:19 PM on August 7, 2013


If any of you missed the match where the fox-head ninja flew up into the corner after getting 1 hit and won with a TIME SCAM, you really missed out.
posted by Copronymus at 7:05 PM on August 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


Some background info on Salty Bet:
"The site originally started as a means of covering major fighting game tournaments in real life, allowing stream viewers to bet their virtual currency on the outcome. The idea for using MUGEN AI-on-AI matches came about as a means of keeping the site running when there weren't any tournaments or other events going on.
...
Salty, the site's creator, claims to have over 1,300 custom characters, 750 battlefields and 500 music tracks at their disposal."

You can rewatch some of the matches on Salty Bet's YouTube channel, such as Son Goku vs. Naruto.
posted by needled at 7:15 PM on August 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


abui vs. plastic man never forget
posted by bleep-blop at 7:15 PM on August 7, 2013


Also, tomorrow there's something called the Shaker Classic which seems to be a tournament maybe?
posted by sporkwort at 7:24 PM on August 7, 2013


holy shit this Hagen/Michelangelo match

Round 1: Michelangelo gets frozen by a glitch halfway through, Hagen somehow can't get a single hit in, Michelangelo wins by Time Scam

Round 2: Exactly the same as Round 1

Round 3: Hagen instant kills Michelangelo before he can glitch into motionlessness that Hagen's AI can't deal with

Round 4: Michelangelo freezes again, but this time Hagen had more meter, so it's all tied

Round 5: Michelangelo manages to win by KO without glitching or getting insta-killed.

It was glorious.
posted by Copronymus at 7:41 PM on August 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


Shaker Classic bracket
posted by sporkwort at 5:56 PM on August 8, 2013


A semi-balance tournament is much, much more fun than winning one dollar on flash versus DBZ every other round.
posted by codacorolla at 6:48 PM on August 8, 2013


this is the best/worst.
posted by juv3nal at 11:48 PM on August 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


Never bet on Aquaman.

Truer words have never been spoken.
posted by aubilenon at 12:26 AM on August 10, 2013


> A semi-balance tournament is much, much more fun than winning one dollar on flash versus DBZ every other round.

On the other hand, a run of DBZ vs DBZ, DBZ vs Naruto, Naruto vs Naruto... is hilarious at first just for the chatroom reactions, and then gets boring as you watch inept game AIs futilely flail in the air while the timer runs down, game after game.
posted by ardgedee at 5:12 AM on August 10, 2013


I have seen some total shock upsets where the characters buck 15:1 betting odds due to the ai glitching out. Saltybet was literally my entire friday evening. It is like crack. Stay the hell away if you value your sanity.
posted by juv3nal at 10:37 AM on August 10, 2013 [3 favorites]


This thing sits alongside GeoGuessr as my top two picks for game of the year 2013.
posted by codacorolla at 10:25 PM on August 10, 2013


I had to work from home Friday and Saturday so I set saltybet up on the big screen and listened to the soundtrack while I worked... even with the random (usually glitched) voice samples and pummeling noises, it's pretty amazing as a background soundtrack.

And then occasionally glancing over to see some ridiculous pairing that's worth betting an imaginary dollar on just for shits and giggles, like Sesame Street's Grover fighting an otaku-idealized anime housemaid. (the maid won, I lost an imaginary dollar).
posted by ardgedee at 8:53 AM on August 11, 2013


I saw a giant chicken mcnugget kick ryu's butt yesterday. Always (never) bet on gigantic mspaint hitboxes.
posted by juv3nal at 3:25 PM on August 11, 2013 [2 favorites]


The giant pigeon cookie has: a cloning problem, a glass jaw, and a giant hitbox, and it's still one of the most powerful entities in the salty-verse.
posted by codacorolla at 4:35 PM on August 11, 2013 [2 favorites]


I'd like to go back in time to last Saturday, show that post to myself, and be like "THIS IS WHAT YOU BECOME, YOU MONSTER."
posted by codacorolla at 4:35 PM on August 11, 2013 [4 favorites]


oh man why did no one warn me that Ronald McDonald was the reallest?
posted by juv3nal at 5:37 PM on August 11, 2013


Ronald McDonald is a frequent Japanese web meme (KnowYourMeme has an entry or two about it), somewhat analogous to the Burger King facemask character meme in the U.S., only without being fueled by viral marketers working on behalf of the company.

Which reinforces my theory that any arbitrary Japanese web meme character is more likely to have good odds in a match: A 2ch or NND meme (Ronald McDonald, those cat heads made from kana characters) or subject of an otaku obsession (Touhou, robots, maids) will mean somebody will apply their talent and single-minded focus on a ruthless AI and brutal attacks (except when it's more entertaining to handicap it in amusing ways). The gotcha for any westerner who doesn't follow Japanese memes or even pay attention to 4chan is that you can't tell which are tuned characters in MS Paint bodies and which are toss-offs by people who didn't care enough to try.

This is also why the DBZ and Naruto characters tend to not be all that good; their fans lack the talent and skill to make anything of them. Which might be ironic considering the characters themselves are supposed to be all about giving their life to becoming ultimate fighters... except there are so damned many DBZ and Naruto characters in this MUGEN pool that ironic value is quickly blunted by the monotony of watching them lose, over and over again.
posted by ardgedee at 4:59 AM on August 13, 2013


If my free time wasn't already spoken for, I would learn how to code Mugen AI, and make the best Vegeta ever. I would give him a belt-buckle, or make him ever-so-slightly wall-eyed, so I could recognize him when he showed up.

The shitty characters I made while I was still learning how to code the best Vegeta ever, would all be Darkstalkers characters.

And once I'd perfected Vegeta, I'd make the guys from Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006.
posted by rifflesby at 10:59 PM on August 13, 2013 [1 favorite]


Stick figures. I haven't seen any stick figures yet.

Just imagine what Cynicalman's fighting style would be like.
posted by ardgedee at 4:02 AM on August 14, 2013


Looks like it's down. Oh well.
posted by ardgedee at 3:07 PM on August 14, 2013


It's been down before and still sometimes worked when accessed directly via ip address (which google tells me is 192.249.63.41?) although it doesn't look like that's working at the moment either.
posted by juv3nal at 3:19 PM on August 14, 2013


I really want a Roku channel for this... I cannot imagine a better party ambiance for my kind of shindig (tho a way to turn off the racist/sexist comments would be nice).
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:11 AM on August 15, 2013 [2 favorites]


Yeah, it's back up again.

I'd be leery of using its IP directly, since it seems to be using a service to spread the load around. Too many people accessing the originating server will slow things down disproportionately for everybody.
posted by ardgedee at 12:27 PM on August 15, 2013


> (tho a way to turn off the racist/sexist comments would be nice)

You can turn off chat completely. Otherwise you'll have to try your hand at greasemonkey.
posted by ardgedee at 1:30 PM on August 15, 2013


It'd be a hell of a RegEx...
posted by Artw at 1:31 PM on August 15, 2013


Turning off the comment stream is increasingly a good idea on principle. The video quality improves noticeably when it isn't sharing bandwidth with the chatter.

Although I'm still mostly using Salty as a goofy-butt sort of background music while I work.
posted by ardgedee at 4:22 AM on August 16, 2013


If anyone's still tuning in, tonight's Marvin the Martian v. Oozaru Bebi match was probably the greatest thing I've ever seen. If you haven't seen either of them, Marvin spams a billion different goofy projectiles and Oozaru is a giant, weird-looking 3D sprite that lurches around and whose only redeeming feature is that it has (according to chat) more HP than it's possible to get to 0 in a single round. I looked at them and figured Marvin's superior AI and ability to keep Oozaru at bay would win. The bets came out 6:1 for Oozaru, I think.

It was unbearably close. Marvin's AI is pretty good, but not so good that he didn't wander in for punishment for seemingly no reason, and more than 2 or 3 hits from Oozaru meant that he just didn't have the time to wear down Oozaru's massive HP enough. Of course it went all five rounds, although Marvin almost had it in four but for getting a little too close with a few seconds left and taking a hit that dropped him just below Oozaru. Knowing that, the end of round 5 was agonizing. I slowly curled into the fetal position watching the timer run out, but in the end I was right and Marvin pulled out the upset. Good AI (and the right moveset) can beat even stupidly overpowered characters. I'm also always glad when the high rollers who have memorized tier lists and just put down big money on the stuff they already know is broken get their comeuppance. All in all it was a match for the ages, and put my bankroll into four digits, which I will almost certainly blow on some terrible gimmick character.

Holy hell, now they're actually playing Darude - Sandstorm and chat is losing it. Tonight is the greatest.
posted by Copronymus at 11:30 PM on August 19, 2013 [3 favorites]


Oh god, now it's Bison... an actual Bison in an M. Bison hat.
posted by ShawnStruck at 4:11 AM on August 24, 2013 [3 favorites]


Literal Bison has a lot of HP, but doesn't block so he's kinda awful.
In other news, anything with "Arrange" as their first name is pretty OP.
posted by juv3nal at 2:22 PM on August 24, 2013


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