Flashpoint
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| Developer(s) | The Flashpoint Project |
|---|---|
| Latest version | 13 "Dart Frog" [+] |
| Active | Yes |
| Platform(s) | Windows Linux (experimental) macOS |
| Emulates | Web game servers |
| Website | flashpointarchive.org |
| License | MIT (Launcher) |
| Source code | GitHub (Launcher) |
Flashpoint Archive (formerly BlueMaxima’s Flashpoint) is an ongoing preservation effort for games and animations designed in commercial web frameworks. Named after Flash (which was discontinued in 2020), the maintainers have preserved over 190,000 games and animations since its inception. The full list of games is available via the "archive database". Flashpoint covers games, animations and tools developed in Adobe Flash, Adobe Shockwave, Unity Web Player, Java Applets, Microsoft Silverlight, ActiveX, 3DVIA Player, 3D Groove GX, PopCap Plugin, HTML5, Superscape Viscape, Vitalize!, Authorware, GoBit Games Plugin, ShiVa3D, Hypercosm, Pulse, Burster, TCL and VRML, with support for all web technologies to add in this list and (natively) Scratch possibly coming in the future.
Flashpoint (and every game in it) was originally released as one gigantic download until a system was developed to download these games on-the-fly. The full download (which, upon completion, requires no further internet connection to use) has since been retroactively titled "Flashpoint Ultimate", and the "lite" version was given the name "Flashpoint Infinity". When the limitations of Launchbox started to show, a discrete launcher was developed.
Download[edit]
  
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Official release Includes both Ultimate and Infinity versions. Read our overview for details. | |
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Launcher Standalone builds of the launcher on GitHub | |
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Linux support Datahub page about Linux support. | |
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Mac support Datahub page about Mac support. | |
Overview[edit]
Flashpoint began on December 26th, 2017, a little while after Adobe announced it was ending support for Flash at the end of 2020, as an attempt to preserve as many Flash games and applications from the early 2000s onward as possible before the cutoff point. The focus has since shifted to all web browser technologies as they face the same risk of obsoletion.
Flashpoint is not a conventional emulator; none of the frameworks it targets is being emulated which is why it requires users to have the original platforms these frameworks were on. (It's also why Linux doesn't have a lot of the frameworks that Windows does.) Many games also use some form of copy protection by connecting to a server to test if a game can be played, thus requiring an internet connection for it to work. Flashpoint is a server emulator that repeats and relays the responses and files that were originally captured at the time the game was preserved. This causes problems for Avast and AVG as they've detailed on the Datahub.
Flashpoint is available in two different versions:
- Flashpoint Ultimate - The full package, ready for use offline. 1.68 TB download, 1.68 TB extracted. You'll want to use a download manager and the latest version of 7-Zip.
- Flashpoint Infinity - 1.9MB download, ~1.9-3.5 GB installed; filesize increases with use.
Resources[edit]
- BlueMaxima's articles:
- Discord
- Changelog
- Wiki
- instance_archive(); - A similar project for games made with GameMaker.
- Kahvibreak - Another project for J2ME games.
- FlashLite - Android Flash emulator that support download Flash games from the Flashpoint Archive.
