Even with Adobe having recently ended support for Flash Player, Newgrounds and many other websites want to preserve the tradition of Flash development and media, hence the name Flash Forward, a look into Flash’s future. This jam challenges game devs to develop a Flash game (or interactive movie), in 2021, long after Flash’s heyday.

The good news is that there are still tools for developing Flash media, such as HaxeFlixel which supports .swf exports, and Flash Player emulators such as Ruffle.

Here’s the rules:

• Make something interactive with Flash, either a game or interactive movie, which could include an animation collab with a cool menu interface, or something with decisions / alternate endings.

• Make it with ActionScript 2 and confirm it works via Ruffle before publishing. You will see a “Test with Ruffle” link on your preview page. Ruffle is what we use to run Flash on NG without the Flash plugin, you can read more about it below!

• Upload any time in January and tag it “Flash-Forward-Jam” to participate!

The jam will have three award categories:

• Game (Top 7 Ranked), with a grand prize of $700 and an interview with Newground’s own TheInterviewer.
• Movie with Interactive Element (Top 3 Ranked), with a grand prize of $200 and an interview with TheInterviewer.
• Best Mobile-Friendly Entry (Game or Movie), a $100 prize for the entry which works best on a smartphone, it wouldn’t be Flash Forward without overcoming some demons after all!

For more details see: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1460728

Good luck and Flash on!

It currently boasts over 7 million views and 10 thousand favorites on Newgrounds, has been mirrored on hundreds of sites and has several thousand user generated levels. Suffice to say, the game has had a lasting impact on a lot of people.

As you may know, support for Flash Player comes to an end this December. But the Super Mario 63 community has taken the necessary steps to survive the end of Flash Player. So in honor of Flashcember, here’s a brief history of what SM63 is, was and will be in the near future…

Humble Beginnings

Believe it or not, the inspiration for Super Mario 63 was a fan-made spritesheet of all things. Sprite artist Flare, had edited Mario sprites ripped from Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga to give Mario his water pack F.L.U.D.D., in the style of Super Mario Sunshine. Intrigued, Runouw decided to make a 2D Mario Sunshine of his own. But who was Runouw?

Runouw is not the username of a person, but in fact a team! Twins Robert and Steven Hewitt to be exact. For over a decade, the duo have used the name Runouw to upload games, videos and sprite-art to various websites. Generally for their games, Robert oversaw programming and Steven the art design.

So Runouw got to work to make their own 2D Mario Sunshine and they debuted their first demo titled Super Mario Sunshine 128 in November 2006. Although the inspiration in Super Mario Sunshine was still very much there, Runouw had decided to incorporate mechanics and assets from other Mario games as well. Right from the get-go, the game featured levels from Super Mario 64 and spin-attacks a la Super Mario Galaxy.

Over the course of the next 3 years, this game would evolve into the SM63 we all know and love today. Updates that followed introduced new levels, power-ups and of course, the beloved level-editor. The name was changed to Super Mario 63 in 2008 and you might have unknowingly also played earlier versions of the game. A thorough version history is available on Runouw wiki for any readers who want to compare the gameplay across different versions.

Super Mario 63 Classic

The most popular, and likely most familiar, version of SM63 (aka SM63 1.4) was first released on SheezyArt on June 26th 2009, followed by the Newgrounds version one day after. You have your basic premise: Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach and it’s up to Mario to save her. Instead of Stars, you’ll be collecting Shine Sprites like Super Mario Sunshine. Couple this with perfect controls, superb level design and some very creative rehashing and you have a game which is already a ten. But it was the Level Designer which really cranked it up to 11.

The level editor allowed players to make their own levels by combining, and placing items Runouw had already programmed. Tiles, enemies, sling stars etc. While not everything in game was available in the editor (such as the lack of event-triggers), it probably had 95% coverage. You could reposition, replicate or repurpose anything you saw in the game with zero programming knowledge! And even better, you could share your levels on a portal where people could rate or comment.

Ingeniously, the level editor was very well-tied into the main game! Besides the Shine Sprites, SM63 had a second collectable: Star Coins. Unlike Shine Sprites which were required to progress the story, the Star Coins were off the beaten path and were needed for unlocking new features. Most notably, unlocking Luigi and new tilesets in the level editor. If you saw lava, which was unavailable by default, in someone else’s custom level, you had to go back to the main game and hunt down some tricky star coins to be able to unlock it for yourself. Or likewise, if you blindly played through the main story while ignoring the level editor, you would constantly be notified whenever you unlocked a new tileset, encouraging you to try it out.

It was really after this version of SM63 was released that the forums on runouw.com came to life, because people needed to register if they wanted to be able publish their levels on the portal. Although it had been used to share levels directly (via save/load codes) and talk about development prior to the 1.4 release, with the game’s popularity Runouw’s audience grew quite a bit. Before they knew it, the forums were frequently having level design and art contests.

Interim

Following the astounding success of SM63, Runouw was determined to keep making more games. While not all of these projects were successful (notably a canned Super Smash Bros. engine and Star Fox engine), they seem to have sought out a style of their own. Only a few months after SM63, came GT & the Evil Factory, a real-time RPG similar to Megaman Battle Network, with entirely original (albeit simplistic) character designs.

Runouw’s legacy is, funny enough, called Last Legacy. First released in 2013, LL took a lot of influence from Zelda II and was a 2D action RPG with some interesting mechanics. Almost as a call-back to the SM63 days, the player has the ability to terraform tiles using their mana. LL (and Null Space) also featured their own level editors, although neither were as popular as the SM63 editor. A third chapter to LL has been in development for a few years now, but it’s unlikely that it will ever be released seeing as Runouw seems to have lost interest.

Between GT and LL, Super Mario 63 received a final update, sometimes referred to as 1.5 or the 2012 version. But more commonly this final version is taken to be the canonical Super Mario 63 and the 2009 version is referred to as SM63 Classic.

The 2012 version also introduced some changes to the level portal, which migrated ratings/comments to the forum. The 2009 portal was dubbed the classic version and the archive sports an astounding 45,000 levels, a few times more than the modern SM63 portal. That being said, the modern portal also has its advantages, such as being able to jump right into levels from the forum without having to copy lengthy level-sharing codes. Finally, Runouw made an .exe version of the game also available, freeing SM63 from the clutches of Adobe, at the cost of no longer being cross-platform.

From then on, Runouw wasn’t actively involved in the development of SM63 any further, having relegated the role to the forum community who kept organizing events all the while. An unfortunate event was when Nintendo, who hadn’t taken any issue with the game in its heyday, decided to issue a Cease & Desist on SM63 in 2013. This resulted in the Newgrounds version of the game being taken down and jeopardizing the runouw.com version. Couple that with the death of SheezyArt that same year and you had a recipe for disaster.

During these dark days, the player-base of the game was severely crippled and any sense of community outside of the forums was nonexistent. The saying goes that it’s darkest before the dawn, and in hindsight this C&D would prove to be a trial by fire. The retaliation of the determined community in those days will inadvertently lead to SM63 surviving the Flash Player killswitch!

The Super Mario 63 Renaissance

Contrary to initial fears, Nintendo didn’t take any further action against the runouw.com version of SM63 or the forums. So for the next two years the forum community kept the fire burning. When Discord came around, they became early supporters starting a server called PixelLoaf in early 2015. Later that same year, the C&D on SM63 would expire, at least bringing back the Newgrounds version of the game.

After helping found PixelLoaf the Runouw brothers would slowly fade out of sight, presumably since they were continuing their education. From then on, PixelLoaf gradually replaced the forums, becoming the new SM63-central. Level design contests continued, and speed-running which was considerably much less popular during the forum days started to gain a lot attention, eventually splitting off into a server of its own.

So seeing as Runouw had ended development, where did that leave PixelLoaf? The community had been testing the limits of the level editor for years at this point, so of course the next step was modding the game.

There’s also a WIP project to introduce a new level editor, which does not depend on Flash.

So much for Super Mario 63! Let’s talk spiritual successors.

Super Mario 127 is a continuation of SM63 led by SuperMakerPlayer and other community members. Oh boy do the visuals and gameplay look good! It doesn’t use Flash, it’s being made in Godot! And of course people are already speed-running it:

Another continuation of SM63 is, Super Mario 63 Redux lead by @ShibaBBQ. Where SM127 is a modernization of SM63, SM63R aims to be a more of a remake from the ground up. So that means controls more akin to SM63 and other features to improve the gameplay experience without changing the core mechanics around too much.

It’s funny how Super Mario 63 started with a spritesheet, and now, years later, Super Mario 63 inspired an artist to make spritesheet of their own.

On that note, Runouw made a brief comeback recently. Seeing as the forum activity had moved to Discord they’ve frozen the forum and are now redirecting people to the server. Before vanishing off the face of the internet once more, Runouw finally uploaded the full Source Code of SM63 to GitHub. It’s safe to say SM63 couldn’t be in a more secure place than it is today.

What the future holds

The old levels might need some organizing and the search function of the level portal definitely needs fixing. But at least levels from over 10 years ago are still up and online. The forums might be dying, but the Discord server active as ever. In fact they recently rebranded themselves as Hazy Mazy Café.

When January comes around, Super Mario 63 will still be playable through the .exe version. And what’s more, Flash Emulation is coming along nicely. You should expect to be able to play the game on Newgrounds or the Internet Archive with Ruffle. Bugs? Thanks to Runouw graciously sharing the full source code testers and developers will have the perfect reference pinpoint issues in their Actionscript implementations.

Not only has SM 63 outlived flash, through fan-sequels like Super Mario 127 and Super Mario 63 Redux, I’d say we have a lot more good news to hear about.

Long story short, the SM 63 community has set a great example by showing the world how to go around walls that you can’t bring down. Time will tell what the future holds, but things are looking bright!

Now, they aren’t just uploading the games online (like that’s a worry). Like with our overlords Gaming Alexandria, they focus on things like promotional material or related memorabilia.

For example, here is a little comic based on the days when it was Madou Monogatari. Wish I understood a lick of what it says.

If this sort of thing sounds interesting to you, there is a page that links to their archive as well as things that they need to get done.

Note: the team over there is having some tough times and could use a little help.

– glmdgrielson

Looking to discover other archiving communities? Just follow Data Horde’s Twitter List and check out our other Community Spotlights.

The games in this collections span 4 decades! A lot of these have never seen the light of day, but now you can enjoy all of them from the comfort of your browser!

The collection is available at https://archive.org/details/hiddenpalace. So go on and dive into gaming history!

If you remember playing a browser game in the past on an old computer or perhaps on a current computer, you may still have a copy of the game even you don’t realize it! Because browsers try to improve load times of games and websites, they store files on your computer in something called a cache. The Flashpoint Cache Dumper gathers information about the files in your cache, allowing you to share information that helps locate lost web games with the game preservation community!

The Flashpoint Cache Dumper is simple to run. Simply download the self-extracting EXE file to a USB stick and transfer it to the computer on which you wish to dump the cache (opening a browser to download it directly to the computer is not recommended because it may clear its cache). Extract the files to the desktop on each account from which you wish to dump your cache. Run FlashpointCacheDumper.bat and follow the prompts. You can then send the generated DumpedCacheInfo.7z file, which contains a list of the files in your cache, to #web-cache in the Flashpoint Discord server or send it privately to a Flashpoint staff member. If you have files belonging to a lost game, you may be asked to send the full DumpedCache.7z file. Note that whoever you send these files to will be able to see the websites you visited as well as your computer account username.

It is important to note that, because of the way browser caches work, you may not be able to find the game you were looking to recover using the Flashpoint Cache Dumper. The Flashpoint Database wiki page has recommendations for additional methods for recovering lost games.

For more information about recovering lost game files from your browser cache and more detailed instructions on how to use the Flashpoint Cache Dumper, see the wiki post on the Flashpoint Database.

Do you ever recall watching something on TV which was aired once and never again? Or perhaps playing an obscure video game, which no one else seems to know about? These are symptoms of Lost Media, media which is no longer available due to all known copies of it having been destroyed, damaged, rotting in storage or outright lost.

Lost Media Wiki is a community which specializes in documenting such lost media, and trying to recover or piece together any such media which they can get their hands on.

What do they do?

Well they run a Wiki, but of course! The Wiki generally avoids hosting any lost/found media directly, it’s mostly used for documenting information or linking externally to lost/found items.

There are a whole bunch of categories: lost ads, lost literature and even lost puppetry! If it’s lost, they’ll know.

With so many categories navigating the website can be quite a chore, even for active users on the wiki, so every few weeks they make an “update” post to summarize the latest changes.

Beyond their own Wiki, the information they collect is often passed on to Wikipedia or IMDb editors, or YouTubers who help spread the word on these lost items to larger audiences.

How do they do it?

Given a particular piece of media, the question arises as to whether it is indeed lost, or if it ever existed at all. Users can start pages where they report their understanding of the status on a given item.

Later other users who go over these pages can pitch in to verify the information or go hunting after the more elusive lost items. Hunting down lost media itself is perhaps a discussion for another time, but to give an idea of how one might go about this, someone who’s looking for a lost tv-commercial might try searching for VHS recordings which may have captured it.

This database doesn’t come cheap though, for funding Lost Media Wiki turns to Patreon. Neither does the hunt! In order to put pressure on property owners/organisations who might have access to the final copies of a particular media, members run a number of petitions.

How do I sign up?

Well it depends on how actively involved you’d like to be. If you just want to see what’s been lost to time for yourself you can simply browse https://www.lostmediawiki.com.

If you’re looking for people to talk about Lost Media, there’s the calmer forums and the chaotic Discord server.

Or if you think that you’d like to actively contribute, you could sign up for an account on the Wiki to make/edit pages yourself. So then what are you waiting for? Find lost things, today!

Looking to discover other archiving communities? Just follow Data Horde’s Twitter List and check out our other Community Spotlights.

What do they do?

Flashpoint is a community dedicated to archiving web games, animations and widgets. Although they were originally focussed on content made in Adobe Flash, hence the name, they’ve since branched out to HTML5 games, Unity Web Player and even ActiveX, just to name a few.

Things which they’ve grabbed is made accessible on the flashpoint launcher, available on their website: https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/downloads/

How do they do it?

Flashpoint is a very organized project with specialized roles.

Content at risk of (or after, in some cases) breaking or disappearing are collected into a pair of Master Lists, usually being submitted through the Requests System. Curators then pick items from this list that they would like to add to the collection, or curate so to say.

Once a curation passes testing (from other Flashpoint volunteers) it’ll be most likely be added in the next release. Depending on whether you’re using the Ultimate or Infinity client, you’ll either be running these locally or downloading what you’re trying to access from Flashpoint’s server automatically.

The process and many other details are further described on their Wiki.

How do I sign up?

There’s always more help wanted! As stated above Flashpoint is entirely run by volunteers, so you can waltz in as you please. Most communication takes place on the massive Flashpoint Discord, which can be accessed from a link on the website: https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/

Besides requesting and curation, there’s always help wanted on all sorts of things from ensuring compatibility to maintaining the project on GitHub. So what are you waiting for? Join Flashpoint to start Flash Freezing today!

Looking to discover other archiving communities? Just follow Data Horde’s Twitter List and check out our other Community Spotlights.

Game preservation isn’t just about “oh, let’s dump some ROMs online”. (Believe me, there are several other people who’d be willing to do that.) There’s also several other elements of it too. There’s the manual (important if you’re talking about a Sierra game), the box (important if you’re talking about Metal Gear Solid), and assorted trinkets (important if you’re talking about a game like StarTropics). And the cartridge/disc too.

There’s also the surrounding culture. Things like Nintendo Power were just as essential as actually owning the game back in those days (in part because it was the only way to beat some of them). Here’s a good place to start if you want to start scanning things.

And remember that in the end, no matter how insignificant your find may be, somebody will be sad if it disappears. I’m only here because of the annotation project, which I only joined because of Some Guy on YouTube that I really liked. So feel free to reach out to people. No matter how hard you try, you’re not going to be able to do it all on your own. And there will be people who’d like to help.

– glmdgrielson

For those of you scratching your heads, this game was available on a particular forum, the Pink Rose Garden, dedicated to PinkKittyRose. Now then, from what I can find, this was released around 2012(?). (I have a video mentioning it was just released dating back to that time.) This was back when annotations were still a thing and Pink was still using YouTube and text, as opposed to Twitch. Those forums have since gone down. When? Uh, I don’t know. I was never on them.

But I still have the zip file on my hard drive and I just might upload some place for posterity. Perhaps I could talk to our new overlords partners, Gaming Alexandria, about hosting it.

So What is This Blasted Thing?

If you recognized that last word, you may have an idea of how it plays. If I had to make a comparison, it’s to Pink as A Super Mario Thing is to raocow in that it’s a game themed around a particular internet person and their community. And they start as early as the first level theme.

In terms of gameplay, it’s a bullet hell game. What does that mean? Imagine a game like Gradius or Galaga. Now fill the screen with bullets and other deadly things. You have a pretty good idea of what it is. Or just imagine a Touhou game.

– glmdgrielson