(I debated on where to put this topic and settled here. If there's a better place for it, feel free to move it.)
So if you weren't aware, Adobe is finally sending Flash off to it's well earned retirement at the end of the year. Version 32.0.0.433 is still available for downloading until then, but nearly everything's already got it phased out ahead of that deadline though.
Flash used to be The Big Thing, man! Fancy intro pages, interactive web applets, a ton of games... There's been a herculean effort going on since 2018 to preserve as much of this soon-to-be-DOA content over at BlueMaxima's Flashpoint. I highly recommend checking it out! I feel like losing all those tens of thousands of Newgrounds or AlbinoBlackSheep flash games would be doing video game preservation a massive disservice, so I'm glad that team is doing what they can in the short time frame they've had.
I think it'd be a fun thing to reminisce with each other about our favorite Flash games and animations from years gone while there's still a chance to find them again. I've wracked my brain and done my best to track down the bits that I remember, so here's just some of my list to get the conversation going (and/or so you can openly judge Windows XP era Ixo for his taste in internet content.):
So if you weren't aware, Adobe is finally sending Flash off to it's well earned retirement at the end of the year. Version 32.0.0.433 is still available for downloading until then, but nearly everything's already got it phased out ahead of that deadline though.
Flash used to be The Big Thing, man! Fancy intro pages, interactive web applets, a ton of games... There's been a herculean effort going on since 2018 to preserve as much of this soon-to-be-DOA content over at BlueMaxima's Flashpoint. I highly recommend checking it out! I feel like losing all those tens of thousands of Newgrounds or AlbinoBlackSheep flash games would be doing video game preservation a massive disservice, so I'm glad that team is doing what they can in the short time frame they've had.
I think it'd be a fun thing to reminisce with each other about our favorite Flash games and animations from years gone while there's still a chance to find them again. I've wracked my brain and done my best to track down the bits that I remember, so here's just some of my list to get the conversation going (and/or so you can openly judge Windows XP era Ixo for his taste in internet content.):
Animation & Websites
- zombo.com The ur-Flash site that needs no introduction. Site's got it's own Wikipedia entry and an HTML5 conversion already, so no worries there.
- homestarrunner.com "It's dot COM!" The Chaps Bros sure have hauled some butt to get the toons uploaded to Youtube, but I'm not sure what the plans are for the actual domain itself, which includes the menus, games, and character bios.
- Kong Studios / Plastic Beach The fully interactive studio of Gorillaz. This thing ruled. Three floors, a basement, a parking garage, and grounds full of mini games, a scavenger hunt, demo songs, Jamie Hewlett art and more that changed to match the real time events of the band. It got replaced with an entire island to go with the Plastic Beach album. There's a group of mega-fans that have put a lot of work into reviving the old studios from bits of a working version of the site dug up through archive.org, but I think they're currently having hosting issues.
- Eddsworld RIP Edd Gould, man. 23 is way too young. Eddsworld was home to fully voiced and animated cartoons & shorts animated by Edd, starring him and his friends. The site's still up, but it's just an Under Construction graphic, so here's a Wayback Machine capture instead. These have also made their way to Youtube.
- Pianographique I can't find most of this website and it's upsetting, because it was so cool. The concept was to turn your keyboard into a multimedia creation tool. There were several different "pianos" to pick from, each with their own sound and look. You'd pick a piano, let it load (lol 2003 internet speed), and then each key on your keyboard produced a different sound with an accompanying animation that would drop in wherever you had the mouse placed. Some sounds repeated, others were just effects. Then you'd just create these amazing audio visual....things. There was a section to upload what you made to the site and you could browse other people's creations. The current site hasn't been updated in a decade, and all the pianos are gone anyway. Using the Wayback Machine got me here, but I can't get any of the swf I've found to work past the loading menu. Here are the only Youtube videos of it in action to give you an idea of how it worked.
- Nickelodeon's Click-a-ma-jigs Oldest thing for last here. Dial up era. These were exactly what they said on the tin; little interactive animations that you could click on and things would happen. I've seen the download list of these things floating around tumblr and deviantArt (????) but these haven't been available on Nick's site since like....the early 2000s if I had to take a guess.
Games
- The Escape Room Games of Toshimitsu Takagi That would be Crimson Room, Viridian Room, Blue Chamber, and White Chamber. There's a fan page currently hosting all four. Imagine an escape room party, but it's just you and the room's theme is flash game from 2004. I'm not sure how Crimson Room shakes out in 2020, since one of the in-game clues relies on part of Takagi's site at the time. I kid you not, the dang thing got a DS port. (If anyone knows how to get a hold of that, man lemme know.)
- Squares 2 Control a black square. Collect as many other black squares as you can while dodging red ones. Really simple premise, but it's a lot more fun than I've made it out to be. Still up on albinoblacksheep.
- Covetous THIS THING CREEPS ME OUT AND I AIN'T PLAYED IT SINCE JUNIOR HIGH. Here's the TVTropes for it. You're a....parasitic something....eating your "brother" from the inside out. There are a few sites that turn up when I search for it, but they aren't any that I'm familiar with.
- Uninvited Someone remade the entirety of Uninvited in Flash for reasons beyond me. Also up on albinoblacksheep.