Contents

What is the Emergency anyway?

Flash today is a fallen titan, once used to make games, animations and all kinds of interactive web content.
While no one uses Flash nowadays, there are still a lot of things that were made with Flash, scattered across the vast internet. All it takes is a Flash Player plugin to run these.

Unfortunately, Adobe has decided to end support for Flash Player. Modern versions of Flash Player will cease to function on 31 December of this year, and Adobe will also be removing any and all downloads for past versions on their website. As a result, thousands of websites across the internet, spanning decades are going to be blocked off.

What is the Flash Player Emergency Kit?

Believe it or not, there are a multiple independent efforts to circumvent the damage brought on by the end of Flash Player. There are preservationists, working to copy these games over into alternative formats. There are emulators, which can simulate Flash Player. And there are archives of Flash games and animations, which people have previously salvaged. If that’s too much to handle, you can just follow updates from these different projects, here on Data Horde.

This page serves as a list of resources, for anyone interested in the preservation of Flash media or anyone who just wants to learn how they can access a certain website post-31 December.

We’re currently conducting a Flash Player Usage Survey to see how dependent internet users are on Flash Player, even in its final days.

Workarounds:

Do you still need to be able to use Flash Player? We have compiled a list of EOL killswitch workarounds which you can read in detail here.

How to run Flash in 2021: Flash Player EOL Workarounds!

Data Horde Updates:

Click here to view our latest updates and stories on Flash.

Adobe’s Statements:

Communities:

Projects:

Flash Player Emulators (Run .swf files even if you don’t have Flash Player)

  • Ruffle, an actively developed, open-source Flash Player emulator written in Rust:
    http://ruffle.rs (Works best with ActionScript 1 & 2)
  • Lightspark, a semi-active, albeit mature Flash Player emulator written in C++/C:
    http://lightspark.github.io (Works best with ActionScript 3)
  • AwayFL, Flash Player emulator written in Typescript. Notably used by poki.com, AwayFL was one of the first Flash Player emulators capable of running games on mobile.
    https://awayfl.org/
  • swf2js, a .swf to HTML5 converter. A community version for ActionScript1&2 is available on GitHub with a commercial version for ActionScript3 forthcoming:
    https://swf2js.com
  • CheerpX is a commercial program for compiling binaries into Web Assembly. Recently they have unveiled CheerpX for Flash, which functions as a Flash Emulator.
    https://leaningtech.com/pages/cheerpxflash.html
    (Note: CheerpX is intended for use by businesses, so availability and pricing may vary)
  • Open Flash, a Free and Open Source project to preserve SWF files past the end of support of Adobe’s Flash Plugin:
    https://open-flash.github.io
  • Gnash, ancient Flash Player emulator:
    https://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/

Flash Player Exporters (Developing new .swf media)

  • Haxe is a programming language with a nifty cross-compiler, you can export apps and games targeting Flash, JS, Lua and more:
    https://haxe.org/
  • HaxeFlixel is cross-platform game engine built on top of Haxe, which can export games to Flash, HTML5, Android, iOS and more:
    https://haxeflixel.com/
  • OpenFL is a software framework which can be exported to a variety of platforms, including Flash. Applications can be written in Javascript, Typescript or Haxe. Notably, Papers, Please was made using OpenFL:
    https://www.openfl.org/

Utilities

For Animators

ALAN BECKER – Freeware Alternatives to Adobe Flash

Other Flash Tools

SWF to HTML5 Conversion Guides/Tools

Archives:

Want us to add a resource to this list? Just send it to [email protected].

Comments

No comments yet. Why don’t you start the discussion?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *