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|predecessor = SmartSketch

'''Flash''' (previously FutureSplash Animator, before that SmartSketch) is a software platform created by FutureWave Software, and currently owned by Adobe (previously Macromedia). Originally a drawing program for PenPoint OS, later ported to Windows and Macintosh when pen computing failed to take off, frame-by-frame animation features were added to it in a new program called FutureSplash Animator. The company was acquired by Macromedia in December 1996, rebranding FutureSplash Animator to Flash, an amalgamation of "Future" and "Splash". In turn, Macromedia was acquired by Adobe on December 3, 2005. Their operations, networks, and customer care organizations were merged shortly after. Used by an overwhelming majority of websites in the early 2000s to the mid-2010s, Flash has been the go-to platform for multimedia and animation, being utilised for streaming video providers such as YouTube, children's websites due to its rich content, and has spawned a subculture of animators as exemplified by the likes of Newgrounds. A number of popular animated series were also animated using Flash, most notably ''My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic'', ''Phineas and Ferb'' and ''Happy Tree Friends'' to name a few. Flash's popularity declined in the late 2010s due to the rise of alternative (and open) web standards such as HTML5 and mobile device manufacturers dropping support for the platform, a prominent example being Apple who publicly stated that iOS will ''never'' support Flash. Google followed suit when it dropped support for the platform in subsequent Android releases, and it didn't help that a series of security issues, coupled with Flash itself being a closed standard, has led Adobe to wind down on Flash and retire it in 2020. ==EmulatorsImplementations==

! scope="col"|Operating SystemPlatform(s)

|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|Web}}<ref group=N name=plugin>Web version is only available as an NPAPI/PPAPI plugin, and is therefore not OS-agnostic.</ref>|[https://github.com/lightspark/lightspark/releases 0.8.25]|{{✓}}||{{✓}} ||{{~}}|-|[https://swf2js.com/en/ swf2js]|align=left|{{Icon|Web}}|[https://github.com/swf2js/swf2js JavaScript file download]<br />Demos: [https://swf2js.com/free/index.html Free], [https://swf2js.com/prod/index.html Prod]|{{~}} ||{{✗}} ||{{~}}|-|[https://leaningtech.com/cheerpx-for-flash/ CheerpX for Flash]|align=left|{{Icon|Web}}|[https://docs.leaningtech.com/cheerpx-for-flash/Changelog Version 31]|{{✗}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✗}}|-|Shumway|align=left|{{Icon|Web}}|[https://github.com/mozilla/shumway git]|{{✓}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}}

|{{✗✓}}||{{✗}}|-|[https://ruffle.rs/ Ruffle]|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS|Web}}|[http://ruffle-rs.s3-website-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/ Nightly builds]|{{✓}}|{{✗}}

|[https://github.com/open-flash/domu-player Gitgit]|{{✓}}|{{✗}}|-|[https://mozilla.github.io/shumway/ Shumway]|align=left|{{Icon|Web✓}}|[https://github.com/mozilla/shumway Git]|{{✗}}|{{✗?}}

==Comparisons==;AwayFL:An open-source HTML5 implementation developed by the Away Foundation, under sponsorship from Poki.com. Sometimes works better than Ruffle, depending on the specific Flash file you're trying to run. ;Lightspark:An open-source C++ implementation that's designed specifically to provide a drop-in FLOSS alternative to both the desktop and NPAPI versions of Adobe Flash Player. Says it has 79% of the APIs covered as of January 2022. ;swf2js:An open-core HTML5 implementation that uses a dynamic recompiler. The source-available "Free" version supports limited features, such as AS1, AS2 and ZLIB compression, whereas the payware "Production" version is better suited to newer Flash files using such features as AS3 and LZMA compression. Uses normal JavaScript rather than WebAssembly, so performance is less than ideal. ;Shumway:A relatively very early HTML5 implementation. Developed rather actively for a few years under Mozilla sponsorship, but ultimately abandoned in 2016 before it could reach a usable beta state. ;GNU Gnash:An open-source desktop player that has made very little progress since early 2012. It focuses on older versions of Flash that Lightspark was originally less focused on supporting properly, hence why Lightspark could use Gnash as an automatic fallback if both are installed simultaneously. However, newer versions of Lightspark have all but completely superseded Gnash and there's not much reason to use it anymore.

* [[Flashpoint]] - preservation effort for games designed in commercial web frameworks(not just Flash). == Resources == * [https://nosamu.medium.com/flash-player-emulators-how-to-play-swfs-in-2021-and-beyond-d56c3899b7e6 Article by nosamu (of Flashpoint): Flash Player Emulators: How to Play SWF Files in 2021 and Beyond]  [[Category:Not really emulators]]