Changes

|Adobe Flash Player|align! colspan=left"6"|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS|Web}}Desktop / Plugin <ref group=N name=plugin />|[https:/Plugin versions of these players require a browser that supports NPAPI/wwwPPAPI.adobe.com</support/flashplayer/debug_downloads.html 32.0.0.465]|Reference ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✓}}ref>

|[https://github.com/vidkidz/waflash WAFlash]Flash Player|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS|Web}}|[https://clubpenguinadvancedweb.githubarchive.ioorg/waflash-demoweb/ Web20220331041116/https://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/debug_downloads.html 32.0.0.465]|High ||{{✗}} ||{{✓~}} <ref group=N>Adobe versions discontinued. Harman versions currently maintained for enterprise customers only.</ref> ||{{✓}}

|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS|Web}}|[https://githubruffle.com/ruffle-rs/ruffle/releases #downloads Nightly builds]|Mid ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓~}}<small> (WIP)</small>

|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 0.8.56.1]|Mid ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{~}}<small> (WIP)</small>

|[https://swf2jsgnu.comorg/ensoftware/ swf2jsgnash GNU Gnash]|align=left|{{Icon|WebWindows|Linux}}|[https://githubwww.gnu.comorg/software/swf2jsgnash/swf2js JavaScript file download.html 0.8.10]|{{✓}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}}|-|[http://tulrich.com/textweb.pl?path=geekstuff/gameswf.txt GameSWF]|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|macOS|Linux}}|[https://sourceforge.net/projects/tu-testbed/files/demos/gameswf-2009-08-08/ 2009-08-08]|{{✓}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}}|-|[https://web.archive.org/web/20090116113151/http://swfdec.freedesktop.org/wiki swfdec]|align=left|{{Icon|Linux|Web}}|[https://web.archive.org/web/20090116113151/http://swfdec.freedesktop.org/download/swfdec/0.8/swfdec-0.8.4.tar.gz 0.8.4]|{{✓}} ||{{✗}} ||{{~✗}}|-! colspan="6"|HTML5 / WebAssembly

|[https://leaningtech.com/cheerpx-for-flash/ CheerpX for Flash]Ruffle|alignrowspan=left|"7" {{Icon|Webna}}|[https://docs.leaningtechgithub.com/cheerpx-forruffle-flashrs/Changelog Version 31ruffle git]|? ||{{✗✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✗~}}<small> (WIP)</small>

|{{?✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓~}}<small> (WIP)</small>|-|[https://github.com/vidkidz/waflash WAFlash]| {{na}}|{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{~}}|-|[https://swf2js.com/en/ swf2js]|[https://github.com/swf2js/swf2js 0.7.8]|{{~}} ||{{✗}} ||{{~}}

|[https://gnuleaningtech.orgcom/softwarecheerpx-for-flash/gnash GNU GnashCheerpX for Flash]|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux}}|[https://wwwdocs.gnuleaningtech.orgcom/softwarecheerpx-for-flash/gnash/download.html 0.8.10Changelog Version 34]|Low ||{{✓✗}} ||{{✗✓}} ||{{✗}}

|{{?}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓✗}} ||{{✗}}

|Low ||{{✓}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}}

====Hybrid====;''Common aspects''Ruffle<small> ([https://ruffle.rs/demo/ web demo])</small>:''Pretty much all A Rust-based player that targets both HTML5 and desktop. Notably used by a bunch of veteran Flash content sites including [https://www.newgrounds.com Newgrounds], [https://homestarrunner.com Homestar Runner] and [https://www.coolmathgames.com CoolMathGames], and also by the HTML5 emulators listed here are targeted mainly towards website operators who want Internet Archive's [https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_flash Flash library]. By 2021, it had progressed to keep their the point where it can run many early Flash-based websites going even after games, including the forced obsolescence original Flash version of the in[https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/59593/format/flash?emulate=flash Alien Hominid]; support for newer AVM2-browser Flash pluginbased files is now underway, although still far from complete. Therefore Unlike the emulators are mostly not really intended for personal useother HTML5 options, however some of them (Ruffle, most notably) are officially available can actually be installed as a browser addons using addon, with the caveat that a website's hosted copy will usually override the addon even if the WebExtension standardsite is running an older build.''

;Adobe Flash Player====Desktop / NPAPI====:The official closed-source implementation by Adobe, who discontinued it in 2020. The web version relies on [[wikipedia:NPAPI|NPAPI/PPAPI]], in case you don't remember, is an obsolete browser plugin system that was used by a bunch of different in-browser software platforms that tried to co-exist in the earlier days of the Internet, before basically only existing for many years only stuck around specifically because the sake of this Flash plugin; when Player once the SWF format became properly dominant and pushed everything else out of the HTTP ecosystem. By the mid-2010s, the plugin system was officially dropped by increasingly being seen as an ancient relic that modern browsers would be better off without; and so, while Adobewas phasing out Flash Player in late 2020, so too NPAPI was the plugin system gradually being dropped by all the major browser vendors. The desktop player version It hasn't entirely disappeared (some smaller browser devs still maintain NPAPI in their own forks of stuff like Firefox and Chromium), but it is still available for download from the Adobe website's debug downloads section'mostly'' dead nowadays.

;Ruffle:A pure Rust implementation mainly targeting HTML5, but You may also available as notice that a desktop lot of older Flash playerprojects specifically fizzled out around 2009-2010. One likely reason for that is because, before then, many multimedia hosting sites actually needed some type of SWF element to be able play audio and/or video in a browser. The devs are planning development of open-source alternatives was motivated by people not wanting an increasingly large part of the Internet to focus hinge on ActionScript 1 and 2 support firsta single proprietary software platform, along with AS3 Macromedia/Adobe not necessarily seeing Linux support coming later. Development of Ruffle is sponsored by multiple veteran Flash game archives, most notably Newgroundsas a top priority. Itwasn's progressed to t until the point where it can run many early Flash gamesstart of 2010 that YouTube in particular started pushing really hard for HTML5 media elements, including the original which have since become a standard feature in modern browsers and single-handedly made Flash version of [https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/59593/format/flash?emulate=flash Alien Hominid], as well as playing the vast majority of [https://old.homestarrunner.com Homestar Runner] toonsPlayer completely redundant for multimedia playback.

;Lightspark & GnashFlash Player:Two C++ implementations that somewhat complement each otherThe proprietary reference player, which Adobe stopped directly supporting in at the end of 2020 and are both designed specifically to provide a FLOSS alternative to Adobe's official playershas since fully delisted from their website. Lightspark says it The plugin version has 78% of the APIs covered, while Gnash has focused on older versions of Flash a built-in kill-switch that Lightspark is less likely to support properly, hence why Lightspark can use Gnash as an automatic fallback if both are installed simultaneously. Lightspark's external dependencies would make it cumbersome to port it to HTML5was flipped in January 2021, so it's only available probably not much use even in browsers as an that still support NPAPI/PPAPI plugin, similar to but the official one desktop player version is still usable if you download it from an archived version of the Adobewebsite. Harman International is also [https://airsdk.harman.com/flashplayer maintaining an extended support version specifically for enterprise users].

;swf2jsLightspark:An openA C++ player that's designed specifically to provide drop-in FLOSS replacements for both the desktop and NPAPI versions of Flash Player. It claims to have 83% of the overall SWF spec covered, as of August 2022, but development has been fairly slow since 2015 when it became a mostly one-person effort. Lightspark historically focused on more recent versions of the SWF spec that weren't supported by Gnash, hence why Lightspark could (and still can) use Gnash as an automatic fallback if both are installed simultaneously. ;GNU Gnash:A desktop-core HTML5 implementation only C++ player that uses a dynamic recompilerwent inactive in 2017, with the most recent stable release dating back to 2012. Probably not much reason to use it over newer versions of Lightspark, which seem to have mostly (if not entirely) superseded Gnash for compatibility. The  ;GameSWF:An ''extremely'' old C++ player, definitely one of the first serious efforts to reverse-engineer Flash Player into an open-source "Free Version" supports limited featurespackage. Inactive since 2009, though it did lay the foundations for Gnash. ;swfdec:Another very early effort to create an non-proprietary replacement for Flash Player. Actually pretty advanced for 2008-09, such but it hasn't been active since. ====HTML5====Pretty much all of the players listed here are specifically designed to be used as AS1, AS2 and ZLIB compression, whereas [[wikipedia:Polyfill (programming)|polyfills]] by webmasters who want to keep their Flash-based sites going despite the payware "Production Version" supports further featuresforced obsolescence of Adobe's in-browser Flash plugin. They are therefore largely not intended for personal use, such as AS3 although it's usually not impossible and LZMA compressionsome of them even have official demo pages that you can use to load whatever SWF file you want.

:A payware HTML5 emulation proprietary software package which seems designed to work make the Harman version of Flash Player usable in modern browsers by running it inside CheerpX, a binary Flash plugin inside an payware x86 emulatorin WebAssembly. As No-one on this wiki has had the chance to properly evaluate it, but we'd expect reference-level accuracy at the cost of woeful performance. That being said, CheerpX apparently has an alternate mode of operation that offloads most of December 2021the emulation and processing work to a server app, at which point the in-browser part is effectively just a streaming client. ;AwayFL<small> ([https://exponenta.games/games/AFL/ web demo])</small>:Developed by the Away Foundation, this is arguably the only emulator being endorsed most direct alternative to Ruffle, which it's roughly even with in terms of compatibility although there are still a bunch of SWFs that'll work fine in any way by Adobe or its partners one but not the other. ;WAFlash<small> (specifically[https://clubpenguinadvanced.github.io/waflash-demo/ web demo])</small>:An inactive, by Harman International closed-source C++-to-WebAssembly player that technically hasn't been made available to outside users, although there are a few sites where you can use it. It was considered the most accurate of the unofficial Flash players as of late 2021, although other still-active projects have caught up significantly. ;swf2js<small> (web demos: [https://airsdkswf2js.harmancom/free/index.html free], [https://swf2js.com/ on their Flash & AIR developers siteprod/index.html production])</small>:An open-core player 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. Built on more traditional JavaScript code, so it pretty much always performs worse than the WebAssembly-based options, sometimes noticeably so.

:A relatively very early HTML5 implementation. Developed player, developed rather actively for a few years, under Mozilla sponsorship, between 2012 and 2016 but ultimately abandoned in 2016 before it could reach a usable beta state.