I don't know about papers, but have you tried googling?
http://www.idevgames.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-3710.html
is one of the things I came across looking for "2d fighting game AI".

I myself am making Mortal Kombat vs Street Fighter. This may come in handy...

It's for educational purposes only. Plus it's my dream match! I may get sued by more than just Midway and Capcom. Man I got Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tornament Fighters, King of Fighters 95 - 2000, Pretty Fighter, Dragonball Z Super Butohden 1, 2, & 3, Killer Instinct, etc etc etc. The fighters will be chosen on a 3D sphere, something no fighting game developer has ever thought of... at least I hope not. I will give credit to the companies for the graphics, but the code is all mine.

Check out some screenshots of the game I'm working on here:

www.angelfire.com/fl5/memorydll/index.html

Those problems in the pics have already been solved long ago. I just had to make the near Z from 0.1 to 10. Plus I now have a skybox and soon will be able to load BSP files so they can fight in 3D level maps, like for example Quake 3 maps. I have the source code in C++ to do this but I have to convert it to VB and convert the OpenGL to DirectX8. Here is where I got the Quake 3 BSP file Loader source code which included a kickass map:

http://www.gametutorials.com/Tutorials/opengl/OpenGL_Pg5.htm

The Quake 3 maps will serve as a basis till I learn how to create my own maps.

Oh and TwelveGames, I noticed you IM'ed me about where I got the MK sprite pics. I ripped most of them off using the MAME arcade emulator. Only thing is though is that you can't remove background layers like you can on Nebula, and Nebula is more targeted towards CP1 (I think it stands for Capcom Player 1, which is games like Street Fighter 2 The World Warrior, Super SF2 Turbo, etc), CP2 (Games like XMen vs Street Fighter, Street Fighter Alpha, etc.) and SNK games (King of Fighters, Art of Fighting, etc.)

Does anyone know of any arcade emulators that can play the arcade versions of Mortal Kombat that contain all of these features:

-Pause/frame advance
-Snapshots
-Removing background layers

I dont know about an emulator that can remove background layers, but I do know that "Paint Shop Pro" has a background eraser... And it works surprisingly well... really amazing actually...

td

Well I know Nebula is one of them. And all of the console emulators allow it. There just has to be more Arcade emulators out there that remove background layers. Anyone else have any bright ideas?