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|title = Adobe Flash|logo = Adobe_Flash_Logo.png|developer logowidth= Adobe160|type = |generation developer= Adobe|release = 1996|discontinued = 2020|predecessor =

Used '''Flash''' (previously FutureSplash Animator, before that SmartSketch) is a software platform created by FutureWave Software and is currently owned by an overwhelming majority of websites in the early 2000s Adobe (formerly Macromedia). Originally a drawing program for PenPoint OS, later ported to Windows and Macintosh when pen computing failed to the midtake off, frame-2010s, Flash has been the goby-frame animation features were added to platform for multimedia and animationit in a new program called FutureSplash Animator. The company was acquired by Macromedia in December 1996, being utilised for streaming video providers such as YouTube, children's websites due rebranding FutureSplash Animator to its rich contentFlash, an amalgamation of "Future" and has spawned a subculture of animators as exemplified "Splash". In turn, Macromedia was acquired by the likes of NewgroundsAdobe on December 3, 2005. A number of popular animated series were also animated using FlashTheir operations, most notably ''My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic''networks, ''Phineas and Ferb'' and ''Happy Tree Friends'' to name a fewcustomer care organizations were merged shortly after.

Used by an overwhelming majority of websites between the early 2000s and the mid 2010s, Flash was very much the go-to platform for online cartoons and games, being especially popular for various entertainment sites and children's sites due to its rich content, and has spawned its own subculture of animators and game developers as exemplified by the likes of Newgrounds. SWF elements also proved to be a crucial tool for many multimedia hosting sites so that they could actually play audio/video inside a browser, given the lack of viable alternatives in the pre-HTML5 days. However, around the start of 2010 YouTube started pushing really hard for HTML5 media elements, which have since become a standard feature in modern browsers and single-handedly made Flash Player obsolete for multimedia playback. In fact, Flash's popularity declined as a whole started declining steeply in the mid-to-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 would ''never'' support Flash. Google followed suit when it dropped support for the platform in subsequent new releases of 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 the official player in 2020. The Flash authoring toolkit, since renamed Adobe Animate, is still actively supported and has undergone a total market shift towards animators; a number of popular cartoon series are already produced using Animate, most notably ''My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic'', ''Phineas and Ferb'' and ''Happy Tree Friends'', to name a few.

; If you don't want to mess with these tools, just use [[Flashpoint]] - preservation effort for games and animations designed in commercial web frameworks (not just Flash).<div style="overflow-x:auto;width:100%">{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;width:100%"! scope="col"|Name! scope="col"|Platform(s)! scope="col"|Latest version! scope="col"|Accuracy[[#ScaleForm GFx|ScaleForm GFx]]!scope="col"|[[#Adobe AIR|Adobe AIR]]! scope="col"|<abbr title="Free/Libre and Open-Source Software">FLOSS</abbr>! scope="col"|Active! scope="col"|[[Recommended Emulators|Recommended]]

!colspan="8"|Desktop & NPAPI|-|Flash Player|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS|Web}}<ref group=N name=plugin>Web version requires a browser that supports NPAPI.</ref>|[https://ruffleweb.archive.org/web/20220331041116/https://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/debug_downloads.html 32.0.0.465]|{{~}} <ref group=N name=scaleform>Requires the third-party software component to access it.</ref> ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{~}} <ref group=N>Adobe versions discontinued. Harman versions are currently maintained for enterprise customers only.</ref> ||{{✓}}|-|[https://gitlab.rscom/cleanflash/ Ruffleinstaller Clean Flash Player]|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS|Web}}<ref group=N name=plugin/>|[https://github.com/ruffledarktohka/clean-flash-builds 34.0.0.289] (Windows, Mac)<br />[https://github.com/darktohka/clean-flash-builds/releases/tag/v1.7 34.0.0.137] (Linux)|{{~}} <ref group=N name=scaleform/> ||{{✗}}||{{✗}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}}|-rs|[[Ruffle]]|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS}}|[https://ruffle.rs/releases downloads Nightly builds]|Mid {{~}} ||{{~}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}}<small> (WIP)</small>

|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|Web}}<ref group=N name=plugin>Web version only available as an [[wikipedia:NPAPI|NPAPI]] plugin.</ref>|[https://github.com/lightspark/lightspark/releases 0.8.37]|Mid {{✗}} ||{{~}} [https://github.com/lightspark/lightspark/blob/master/src/main.cpp#L365 *]||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{~}}<small> (WIP)</small>

|[https://swf2js.com/en/ swf2js]Moco|align=left|{{Icon|WebWindows}}|[https://github.com/swf2jsnaomiEve/swf2js JavaScript file downloadMoco git]|{{?}} ||{{✓✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{~}}|-|Adobe Flash Player|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS|Web}}<ref group=N name=plugin />|[https://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/debug_downloads.html 32.0.0.465]|Reference ||{{✗✓}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}}

|Low {{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}}|-|[http://tulrich.com/textweb.pl?path=geekstuff/gameswf.txt GameSWF]|align=left|{{Icon|Windows7|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}}<ref group=N name=plugin/>|[https://web.archive.org/web/20090116113151/http://swfdec.freedesktop.org/download/swfdec/0.8/swfdec-0.8.4.tar.gz 0.8.4]|{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}}|-!colspan="8"|HTML5 / WebAssembly|-|[[Ruffle]]| rowspan="7" {{na}}|[https://github.com/ruffle-rs/ruffle git]|{{~}} ||{{~}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}}<small> (WIP)</small>|-|[https://awayfl.org/ AwayFL]|[https://github.com/awayfl/awayfl-player git]|{{✗}} ||{{~}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{~}}<small> (WIP)</small>|-|[https://vidkidz.github.io WAFlash]|{{Na}}|{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{~}}|-|[https://swf2js.com/en/ swf2js]|[https://github.com/swf2js/swf2js 0.7.8]|{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{~}} ||{{✗}} ||{{~}}|-|[https://leaningtech.com/cheerpx-for-flash/ CheerpX for Flash]|[https://docs.leaningtech.com/cheerpx-for-flash/Changelog Version 35]|{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✗}}

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

|[https://github.com/mozilla/shumway git]|{{✗}} ||{{~}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}}|-!colspan="8"|Mobile|-|[[Ruffle]]|align=left|{{Icon|WebAndroid}}|[https://github.com/mozillaruffle-rs/ruffle-android git]|{{~}} ||{{~}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}}|-!colspan="8"|Consoles|-|FGP3|align=left|{{Icon|PS3}}|[https://github.com/DropSonic0/shumway GitFlash-Player-PS3-Store 1.06]|Low ? ||? ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}}|-|PSP Flash Player|align=left|{{Icon|PSP}}|[https://archive.org/details/swfplayerv13.7z v13]|? ||? ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}}

====Hybrid====;[[Ruffle]] <small class="plainlinks" style="font-weight:normal;">([https://ruffle.rs/demo/ web demo]) ([https://github.com/ruffle-rs/ruffle/issues/310 avm1 compatibility]) ([https://ruffle.rs/avm2.html avm2 compatibility])</small>:A Rust implementation -based player that easily compiles to several platforms, but mainly targets both HTML5and desktop. The devs are planning Ruffle has been able to run many early Flash games since 2021, and the main development focus is now on ActionScript 1 and 2 support firstfor newer AVM2-based files, with AS3 support coming lateralthough that's still far from complete as of 2024. Development of Unlike the other HTML5 options, Ruffle is sponsored by multiple veteran Flash game archivescan be installed as a WebExtension in browsers that support it, most notably Newgrounds. Itwith the caveat that a website's progressed to hosted copy will sometimes override the extension even if the point where it can run many early site is running an older build.:Ruffle has become hugely popular as an alternative SWF player, being notably used by a bunch of veteran Flash games, content sites including the original Flash version of [https://www.newgrounds.comNewgrounds], [https:/portal/viewhomestarrunner.com Homestar Runner] and [https:/59593/format/flash?emulate=flash Alien Hominidwww.coolmathgames.com CoolMathGames], as well as playing and also by the vast majority of Internet Archive's [https://oldarchive.homestarrunnerorg/details/softwarelibrary_flash Flash library].com Homestar Runner] toonsIt's also the most actively developed and arguably the most accurate of the open-source players that are available today, so this is likely your next best option if you don't want to bother with Flash Player or anything that's been forked from it.

;Lightspark & Gnash====Desktop / NPAPI====[[wikipedia:Both C++ implementations, both NPAPI|NPAPI]]—in case you don't remember—is an obsolete browser plugin system designed specifically to provide allow for interactive web-page elements beyond what early versions of HTML could do on their own. While there were a FLOSS alternative to Adobe's official bunch of different in-browser software platforms co-existing in the earlier days of the internet, NPAPI effectively existed only for the sake of SWF playersonce the format became properly dominant and pushed everything else out of the in-browser ecosystem. Lightspark says it has 78% With the shrinking relevance of SWF in the APIs coveredlate 2010s, while Gnash has focused the plugin system that the players relied on older versions of Flash was increasingly seen as an ancient relic that modern browsers would be better off without, and so NPAPI started being phased out by all the major browser vendors in late 2020 (around the same time that Lightspark is less likely Adobe was preparing to support properlydrop Flash Player itself). NPAPI hasn't entirely gone away though, hence why Lightspark can use Gnash as an automatic fallback if both are installed simultaneouslysome indie browser devs still maintain it in their own forks of Firefox and Chromium and such.

;swf2jsFlash Player:An openThe proprietary reference player, which Adobe stopped directly supporting at the end of 2020 and has since fully delisted from their website. The plugin version has a built-in kill-core HTML5 implementation switch that was flipped in January 2021, so it's probably not much use even in browsers that uses still support NPAPI, but the desktop player version is still usable if you download it from an archived version of the Adobe website. It's also worth noting that the player hasn't been completely discontinued: Harman International continues to maintain [https://airsdk.harman.com/flashplayer an extended support version] intended for enterprise users; and there's also a dynamic recompilerconsumer-level Chinese version which is actively developed by Zhongcheng, although you shouldn't get it from their official site (Flash [dot] cn) because it'll be full of bundled malware. The open:Despite the hard discontinuation and a lack of support for user-source "Free Version" supports limited friendly features, such as AS1URL spoofing, AS2 and ZLIB compressionAdobe's Flash Player still remains the most widely-compatible desktop player for Flash games as of 2023, whereas which is why the payware "Production Version" supports further features, such [[Flashpoint]] preservation project still relies on Flash Player to run its SWF games.:;Clean Flash Player::An unofficial effort that takes the still-active Zhongcheng version of Flash Player and repacks it minus as much malware as AS3 and LZMA compressionthe Clean Flash project can remove. This might be the better option if you're looking for an NPAPI player specifically.

;Lightspark:A C++ player designed 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 slow ever since it became a mostly one-person effort circa 2015. 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-only C++ player that went 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. ;GameSWF & swfdec:Two very early efforts to create non-proprietary replacements for the desktop Flash Player, both inactive since 2009 and very much obsolete nowadays. Gnash began as a fork of GameSWF. ====HTML5====Pretty much all of the players listed here are specifically designed to be used as [[wikipedia:Polyfill (programming)|polyfills]] by webmasters who want to keep their Flash-based sites going despite the forced obsolescence of Adobe 's in-browser Flash plugin. They are, therefore, largely not intended for personal use, although it's usually not impossible and some of them even have official demo pages that you can use to load whatever SWF file you want. ;CheerpX for Flash:A proprietary software package designed to make the Harman version of Flash Playerusable in modern browsers by running it inside CheerpX, a payware x86 emulator in WebAssembly. 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 can also function as a streaming client to a bundled server app that does the emulation and processing work instead. ;AwayFL <small class="plainlinks" style="font-weight:normal;">([https://exponenta.games/games/AFL/ web demo])</small>:Developed by the Away Foundation, this is arguably the most direct alternative to Ruffle, although it has fallen behind in terms of compatibility. ;WAFlash <small class="plainlinks" style="font-weight:normal;">([https:The official //clubpenguinadvanced.github.io/waflash-demo/ web demo])</small>:An inactive, closed-source implementation by AdobeC++-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 discontinued in 2020considered the most accurate of the unofficial Flash players as of late 2021, although other still-active projects have caught up significantly. ;swf2js <small class="plainlinks" style="font-weight:normal;">(web demos: [https://swf2js.com/free/index.html free], [https://swf2js.com/prod/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. In contrast, the payware "Production" version is better suited to newer Flash files using AS3 and LZMA compression features. Built on more traditional JavaScript code, so it pretty much always performs worse than any of the WebAssembly players, sometimes noticeably so.

:An A relatively early HTML5 implementation. Developed rather player, actively for a few years, developed under Mozilla sponsorshipbetween 2012 and 2016 but then abandoned before reaching a usable beta state. ==Peripherals=====ScaleForm GFx===Scaleform GFx is a discontinued game development middleware package, a vector graphics rendering engine used to display Adobe Flash-based user interfaces and HUDs for video games. In March 2011, Autodesk acquired Scaleform Corporation and Scaleform GFx became part of the Autodesk Gameware line of middleware. On July 12, 2018, Autodesk discontinued Scaleform GFx, and it is no longer available for purchase. Authors created user interfaces using Adobe Flash authoring tools, such as Adobe Animate (formerly Adobe Flash Professional); the resulting SWF files were used directly by the GFx libraries, providing similar functionality to the Adobe Flash Player but ultimately abandoned optimized for use within game engines. Scaleform GFx supported all major platforms, including game consoles, mobile and PC operating systems. Scaleform provides APIs for direct communication between Flash content and the game engine, and pre-built integrations for popular engines such as Unity, Unreal Engine, and CryENGINE. Scaleform GFx could also be licensed for use as a standalone Flash runtime system on mobile platforms, competing with Adobe AIR. ===Adobe AIR===Adobe AIR (also known as Adobe Integrated Runtime and codenamed Apollo) is a cross-platform runtime system currently developed by Harman International, in collaboration with Adobe Inc., for building desktop and mobile applications, programmed using Adobe Animate, ActionScript, and optionally Apache Flex. It was originally released in 2008. The runtime supports installable applications on Windows, macOS, and mobile operating systems, including Android, iOS, and BlackBerry Tablet OS. AIR is a runtime environment that allows Adobe Animate content and ActionScript 3.0 coders to construct applications and video games that run as a stand-alone executable and behave similarly to a native application on supported platforms. An HTML5 application used in 2016a browser does not require installation, while AIR applications require installation from an installer file (Windows and macOS) or the appropriate App Store (iOS and Android). AIR applications have unrestricted access to local storage and file systems, while browser-based applications only have access to individual files selected by users.

* [[Flashpoint]https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_flash?tab=collection Archive.org-Software Library: Flash] - preservation effort Internet Archive's Flash Games Software Library is abundant with options for any level of computer gaming. With an in-site emulator ready to run thousands of games designed in commercial web frameworks the Software Library, the Internet Archive can turn your computer into a mini arcade at the click of a button. == 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]* [https://huwdp.github.io/Flash-Matrix/ Huw Pritchard's Flash Matrix] (not just [https://github.com/huwdp/Flash-Matrix source repo]).&mdash; an effort to calculate AVM2/AS3 support across multiple Flash players