How to continue to enjoy Flash content in 2021and beyond

[1sky1heart]

Flash Player will be blocked in all browsers after December 31.
And Flash will be completely removed from all browsers by December 31, 2020, via Windows Update.

But a solution is to download an Adobe stand alone Flash Player to your desktop to open flash content outside your browser.

Adobe hides the stand alone Flash Player very well. It's actually called the "Flash Player content debugger" on Adobe's website.

I use a stand alone desktop flash player for Win10.
And I have saved a second copy of it in a thumb drive. Because it just makes sense.

The file name is flashplayer_32_sa_debug.
The Adobe Shockwave Flash version is 32.0.0.453

Get it here:

https://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/debug_downloads.html

This is the file you want for Windows based operating systems:

Download the Flash Player projector content debugger
(direct download link):

https://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/updaters/32/flashplayer_32_sa_debug.exe



I usually save downloads directly to my desktop so I don't have to hunt for them. If you've saved the file to another folder (like 'downloads'), simply drag it to your desktop for easy access.

On Windows, you'll have an EXE file that needs no installation. Just double-click it to run it.

You'll get a simple Adobe Flash Player window. To open an SWF file, either drag and drop it to the window or click File > Open.

Hope this helps anyone wanting to keep playing flash games.

NB: I wanted to add some images to this post but how-to is puzzling.
If anyone wants to give me some pointers, I'll happily come back and add them via an edit, or a second reply to this thread.

[pixelhuntress]

Thanks so much! I had already downloaded this, but had no idea how to use it.
So how do you find the swf file for an online flash game?

[1sky1heart]

Yes, you will not find swf files for all games!
All the .swf files are not necessarily accessible and downloadable.

One work around is to change the end of the url to the flash game from .php to .swf and then click enter.

Let us use this as an example:

http://melting-mindz.com/Dragon-Den-Escape.php

http://melting-mindz.com/Dragon-Den-Escape.swf

If it is available as a .swf file, a new pop up window "save as" will display, where you can select where to save it. (I save to desktop).

Once you have the file saved, it will appear on your desktop as a flash file: a red box with the 'f' symbol and the name of the game underneath as the file name. Just click on it to open it in the stand alone Flash Player.

                                                          ********

Alternatively, you can use FlashPoint.

https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/
https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/downloads/

To use it, you must have a fairly recent PC, and At least 2 GB of free space on a disk, because it's pretty top-heavy.

Two versions:

1.  Ultimate version, which contains a total archive of all the games -- a whopping almost 500 GB.
With installing this, every game and animation archived by bluemaxima will available on your hard drive from the get-go - no internet required. A massive 70,000 games and 8,000 animations! (link to Games Master List list below)



2.  Infinity version "only" 500 MB zip file to download that expands on extraction to 2Gb.
Once downloaded, extracted and launched, you can search for a particular game in the search window that opens up. You will need an internet connection. If the game is referenced, it will appear in the next window. All you have to do is select it and then launch it by clicking on Start.

Here are the FlashPoint Games Master List of games and the Animations Master List of animations submitted by game developers to bluemaxima that will open in FlashPoint:

https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/datahub/Game_Master_List

https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/datahub/Animation_Master_List

..... and SD has many of his games on the list   
..... and developers can request that their games be added, but unfortunately only one game at a time so that's pretty labor intensive.


You can install either/both Ultimate or Infinity on a device hard drive or a external storage device such as a thumb drive, usb stick, etc.

Hope that helps.... 

[selfdefiant]

I have actually found a player that will work on most of my games. It doesn't save the data but it works even on mobile devices! I will have to spend a lot of time getting it all set up but it looks promising.

[pixelhuntress]

To 1sky1heart: Thanks!! No wonder I couldn't figure it out. Odd that all the posts recommending the flash debugger don't tell you how.
Yes, I ave Flashpoint bookmarked but it's just too big a file for my current laptop. Flash player is like 35 mb, so dunno why their standalone emulator needs to be 2 GB?

To Selfdefiant: Glad to hear you're making progress with this. Is it the ruffle player? (just curious)

[1sky1heart]

I have actually found a player that will work on most of my games. It doesn't save the data but it works even on mobile devices! I will have to spend a lot of time getting it all set up but it looks promising.

Yay!! 
Two birds, one solution   

Will this be embedded on your site?



Actually, I (DO) have a small problem with using Flash Player stand alone projector to play legacy and new flash content. Because flash files have to be downloaded and saved to a device in order to play them with this, the developer's ownership of the file/game/animation is compromised.
Honestly, that's not ok (with me, anyway).

Looking forward to see what you have got in your developer toolkit to solve the end of flash problem.   

[1sky1heart]

To 1sky1heart: Thanks!! No wonder I couldn't figure it out. Odd that all the posts recommending the flash debugger don't tell you how.
Yes, I ave Flashpoint bookmarked but it's just too big a file for my current laptop. Flash player is like 35 mb, so dunno why their standalone emulator needs to be 2 GB?


To Selfdefiant: Glad to hear you're making progress with this. Is it the ruffle player? (just curious)

LOL, I couldn't figure it out either.... a nice person in France explained it to me LOL!!

No idea why Flashpoint app had to be such a goliath.
I can imagine the production room was littered with empty coffee cups and pizza boxes and coders sleeping under their desks hahah

[MegaMan87X]

One Question: Since you can play SWF Flash files beyond, Is there a Solution of how to play DIR Shockwave Flash files as well on a player? I tried one but didn't work.

[1sky1heart]

The simple answer is I don't know.

I am to understand that DIR Shockwave Flash files are editable and different to Shockwave Flash files -which are end user interactive.

If you find out how to open and interact with DIR Shockwave Flash files do let us know

[D@vidByrn3]

I did this and it opens in the stand alone flash but after it gets started loading it comes up and says "oh no this games has been jacked" I've seen that before online on one of his games but why would it do this here? I tried Black Creek Manor and Shining Asylum and I know neither of them were jacked online so I don't get that.

[selfdefiant]

Yes, some games have a lock built in to prevent theft. I will fix them all manually if you can tell me specifically which games are doing this. Sorry!