site preserves classic Flash games

Flashpoint: site preserves classic Flash games

Kill the nostalgia of Flash games with the huge collection of titles on Flashpoint

Do you remember the Adobe Flash Player (popularly known only as Flash)? Before modern media playback programs on web browsers, content produced on the Adobe Flash platform reigned! The Flash Player was nothing more than a small program that was installed in your browser to play this type of media. In addition to movies, GIFs and other types of content, the “Flash era” has become a highlight for games!

The return of Flash games

Flash’s arduous war against other media players on the web ended years ago and Flash lost. Perhaps it was not such a sad defeat, as the service had serious security flaws and the players were known to quickly deplete the battery of mobile electronic devices. Currently, much of the content displayed on web browsers runs using the HTML5 language, which is not exactly the best platform to run games the way it was done by Flash.

For this reason, a new project for the preservation of abandonware (abandoned software) is helping to ensure that the tens of thousands of games produced in Flash, such as Fancy Pants Adventure (this was one of my favorite games to pass the time while a website was loading) and Desktop Tower Defense, among others, do not risk disappearing from the Internet. The Flashpoint website, from BlueMaxima, preserves more than 38,000 games in Flash that have been abandoned, according to the Kotaku portal.

The Flashpoint collection has tens of thousands of Flash gamesThe Flashpoint collection has tens of thousands of Flash games

Before the emergence of Flashpoint, lovers of classic Flash games could only rely on portals like Newgrounds and Kongregate to access this type of content. However, with the decline of Flash, these sites soon lost their funding and it became almost unsustainable for their owners to keep them active and continue to offer access to thousands of games completely free. Fortunately, some users more passionate about games and programming have emerged to bring Flash games back to the light of the Internet!

Fancy Pants Adventure was a classic Flash game that is now available on FlashpointFancy Pants Adventure was a classic Flash game that is now available on Flashpoint

Using a large server, Flashpoint hosts any and all games produced in Flash, accepting suggestions from any user who registers on the site – and we hope that copyright owners do not complain or call lawyers to remove or block the various games that already makes up the website’s library. You can play any of the games in the game library, even offline.

Best of all, if you really want to commit and do your part to make sure these games are saved in some way, you can download the entire collection at approximately 300 GB. They are games of every style you can imagine. If you are a big fan of Flash games or are just curious to know what the games produced during the Internet boom were like, run to Flashpoint and download the collection while the site is making everything available for free!

Flashpoint: the “cradle” of indies games

A warning to today’s players: many of these games will be difficult! Especially for the 2020 gameplay standards, but they represent an important historical context. This collection brings together anarchic games made for naughty children playing on the school’s computers. Many of them served as inspiration for the growing market for independent games that we currently have. Examples of games that could have come straight from the era of Flash games and today are a success: Braid, FEZ, Celeste, The Messenger, etc.

Flash games inspired indie games like Super Meat BoyFlash games inspired indie games like Super Meat Boy

It is no surprise that some of our most famous modern indie developers have deep roots in Flash. Super Meat Boy, for example, is essentially the Citizen Kane of Flash games if we analyze in terms of importance and milestones in the history of games. Don’t be surprised if you find in this immense library of games many titles with simple visuals (even using stick figures) and productions that could be done in about 5 minutes in current game publishers like Unity. After all, simplicity is the essence of Flash games.

Flash games were the starting point for many game developers to learn about programming and game design. In the «golden age» of Flash, anyone could use Adobe Flash (be it legitimate or even pirate) to let their creativity run wild and create a simple game but with interesting and fun gameplay that attracts players and fans. Today’s indies games follow the same principle: programming and simple concepts that use innovative mechanics to create an exciting, captivating and, above all, addictive experience!

Check out Flashpoint to support the preservation of art that the gaming and technology sectors ignore, and share your experiences in our comments!