web What will happen when Flash is gone to all Flash things.

[Winter Breeze 16]

I wasn't completely sure where to put this but I feel I have to ask..,
I have been searching across the internet an I have never found this answer to my question, but now I am going to ask it here in hopes of a answer. You all have probably played a flash game or two online. Be it the Pony creator or neopets or even doll divine (though technically all they do is steal other peoples flash games  to put them on their site and a lot of them are broken), you all have probably touched upon Flash. Now, the time is upon us when Flash is coming to a end. All I could find on the subject is that Adobe is going to stop updating and distributing Flash Player, the plugin used to play flash when you are doing it online. They also said supporting in there as well. but what does that mean. Does that mean that once it is gone it will stop working as well? Will browsers rip it off once 2020 ends? Will someone ever make a alternative to flash that will still allow us to run old things like some of our favorite games and other programs? Even though sites are being encouraged to change out old flash things with new, non-flash things, old sites will not do the same. Sites that have not been updated in years yet still contain some of the greatest things on the internet and if we lose Flash, then will those things instantly stop working? If this is true, can someone out in this great big internet find a way to still allow us to play our old Flash games in the modern day. i don't really care for C or C++ or JavaScript and even though that is the future, do we really need to update. Flash does have some security issues I guess, sure. But has anyone really said what those are (because I haven't heard of any). And what is the worst that it can do? Make our screen flash in its little tiny confining box or something? There are a bunch of things that I love about the internet that involve Flash (including YouTube, and as far as I know that still hasn't updated yet). I don't think that Adobe can be talked out of killing Flash Player. But we still haven't gotten enough answers as the doomed day nears and we need to learn more about what this could mean. If anyone has an answer to my question, please reply. That is all. Thanks!

[Arkadios 91]

JavaScript is as ubiquitous as, or more than Flash, and it's older.

I don't think we have to worry about obsolescence for Flash.

[Clod 8,293]

1 hour ago, Arkadios said:

JavaScript is as ubiquitous as, or more than Flash, and it's older.

I don't think we have to worry about obsolescence for Flash.

No, it's known that Flash support is ending, most browsers will get rid of it by 2020.

 

To answer your question, Flash games and stuff will no longer be usable in a browser, unless someone manages to either keep the flash plugins or make their own. There is still the Flash Player Projector which is a program that runs Flash files, and Flash games can be saved that way. I've got a few that I want to keep. They'll be playable long after browser support ends.

Flash will be gone due to security issues and it generally being outdated. That is final. All we can do is find alternatives after that. Whether that's downloading things and using them outside of your browser or someone else making something to run old websites, I don't know. We've still got some time until then.

It needed to happen, unfortunately. We need to move on from the past. Flash can't last forever.

There's an ongoing effort to preserve Flash games, if that's what you're worried about. They'll last years through the Projector. It won't all be lost.

Edit: Also, YouTube is in HTML5 now. It hasn't used Flash in years.

Edited November 15, 2018 by Clod

[Arkadios 91]

6 minutes ago, Clod said:

No, it's known that Flash support is ending, most browsers will get rid of it by 2020.

Dear God...

[EpicEnergy 22,082]

What will happen is that some of them will survive and some will not.

[Gaines 1,110]

9 minutes ago, InfernalEnergy said:

What will happen is that some of them will survive and some will not.

But how does one predict which will live and which will die? I'd rather be prepared to leave an online Flash game behind than have it suddenly disappear. 

[Vefka 1,499]

I don't think they'll forcefully remove flash from the whole internet, I think they'll just stop supporting it like Microsoft stopped supporting XP and 7

Also HTML5 exists, it's much better and can be ran on mobile devices

[Splashee 28,537]

I got message from Adobe yesterday, to try to uninstall Flash, like it never had existed. I find that cruel!

To me, trying to remove any instance of Flash just because it won't get updated anymore is worse to the history, than to simply just not do anything and have it die of its own. It is like Adobe is ashamed, trying to deny the rich history of their product. And it all started because of one man denying Flash for the iPad (like the iPad was that successful compared to Flash?). Adobe, very weak, I say!

[EpicEnergy 22,082]

17 hours ago, Gaines said:

But how does one predict which will live and which will die?

There is an effort to save those Flash games, I'm not sure where they are being saved though.

[Pentium100 2,056]

This is what happens when people think that everything on the internet is permanent. Not really:
1. The information you do not want to be public will stay on the internet forever and you wilk never be able to delete it, no matter how hard you try.
2. The information you want to access will disappear at the most inconvenient time.

Which is why, if you want to continue to be able to access something - download/record and keep it stored locally. Then it only depends on how good a job you can do to preserve the media and the equipment.

[Props Valroa 26,043]

Not everything is permanent. It will eventually evolve, change, into something else or be overtaken.

[Splashee 28,537]

4 hours ago, Scar said:

Not everything is permanent. It will eventually evolve, change, into something else or be overtaken.

Overtaken = Bought by Adobe.

 

That's what happened with that popular program from the 1990s, called Macromedia Flash

[RDDash 18,866]

The flash usage is already dying. Several developers that still use it don't really care about what would happen or they already offering offline versions of their game projects. I've even noticed the app versions iof old flash games in the app store.

[Winter Breeze 16]

Its been a long time... 2018 since I've been on this account? Wow...

Thread awoketh again and I got all these messages in my inbox. So now I have returned, nostalgic.

 

But glad to see that the discussion has re-awoken since the last time years ago (not sure how yall found it since I'm pretty sure it would have been buried at this point, being from so long ago, so that interesting). And ye, I got the same notification. My browser stopped letting me run it even though I had it set to automagically start many times, even deep within the weird floaty cookie space a few months prior, so that was already kinda a warning sign.

 

I guess by now I have kinda come to terms with it. I'm still gonna miss a lot of stuff though but I've tried to download as much as I can. So much time as passed since I've been here but I still got my old pony gen pfp (back before I could draw. BUT NOW I CAN HAH!), just a smol other product and memory of flash.

 

Still don't really agree though with just getting rid of it outright when so much older content would then end up generally lost to time. Like Geocities. Geocities had a lot of weird but cool old stuff, and then just- Poof, gone. But compatibility and all is annoying to keep up. I bet at some point Windows will just yeet out 32 bit support like MacOS has and then we won't be able to play older games like the ye oldie Source stuff, that def won't be good whenever that day comes. But I guess it is improvement. Out with the old, in with the new as they say. And thats why you don't see people using those old spindly wheel cars and candles for lighting unless they are trying to be aesthetic. But still, either way, a big chunk of internet history is going to be lost at the end of 2020. And thats why I've made a Windows XP VM with a really old browser and a saved offline installer of Flash so that whenever that day comes I can still get a fix of nostalgia on any site that still has old flash stuff.

 

Which also presents another question... Sites that still have old flash stuff (like DA, Newgrounds, Neopets? Miniclip, CoolMath, etc), whats gonna happen to them. DA has already kinda gotten rid of catagories as a whole, so I guess they got rid of the Flash catagory. But theres still a ton of cool Flash stuff on there that doesn't hvae the download button avaliable so... Is it just going to eternally be stuck there, are they going to delete it, or maybe convert it to html like Newgrounds I think is trying to do? And those other two sites, while not really important, also very nostalgic, but also have a ton of Flash games that will be unable to be used in the very near future (unless they intend to or already have at this point converted them all to Flash.)

[Splashee 28,537]

On 10/18/2020 at 9:25 PM, Pentium100 said:

Which is why, if you want to continue to be able to access something - download/record and keep it stored locally. Then it only depends on how good a job you can do to preserve the media and the equipment.

I did that with a scanner of mine that only works on 32-bit Windows XP. And now I cannot activate it, the only service is gone.

Flash might work for a while, but what about all those things that require online access to work, like buying games from Nintendo eShop, no physical copies, and 32 bit drivers never ported to 64 bit.

It is my mentality to save everything I like, from the past. Maybe that's why I never got myself a PS4, so that I never would become attached to something that isn't really physical, or will work forever.

R.I.P Flash!

[Pentium100 2,056]

2 hours ago, Splashee® said:

and 32 bit drivers never ported to 64 bit.

That's what old computers are for.

But this is one of the reasons why I prefer physical media (or no-DRM downloads) over any kind of streaming or "subscription". I know that if I had a subscription to some streaming service I would download/record everything I watch/listen anyway so as not to lose it.

[Splashee 28,537]

40 minutes ago, Pentium100 said:

That's what old computers are for.

But this is one of the reasons why I prefer physical media (or no-DRM downloads) over any kind of streaming or "subscription". I know that if I had a subscription to some streaming service I would download/record everything I watch/listen anyway so as not to lose it.

Thank god for old computers! Problems is, when you have to install Windows XP again, and there is no way to active (30 days left). Just to give you a hint, Windows XP is getting more fun now when I can modify it to my own liking. The source leak did not include the stuff for activation though

[Pentium100 2,056]

51 minutes ago, Splashee® said:

Problems is, when you have to install Windows XP again, and there is no way to active (30 days left).

I'm absolutely certain it is possible to find a way around that.

[Splashee 28,537]

16 minutes ago, Pentium100 said:

I'm absolutely certain it is possible to find a way around that.

I remember when the WPA first showed up in the betas of Windows Whistler (XP's codename), and it was not fun. Different hacks and all, I still don't trust them and their sources. Usually packed with trojans and maybe even root kits.

[Winter Breeze 16]

 

On 10/23/2020 at 4:58 AM, Pentium100 said:

I'm absolutely certain it is possible to find a way around that.

I once was able to get around it by modding registry data via safe mode. It was on a VM but it probably could still work on an actual physical PC. I think Windows Service Pack 3 broke the way I did it though because I installed that and now it doesn't let me use it anymore. But if I remember right, Service Pack 3 was released kinda late into the lifespan (if at all. I think the special thing about it was it was released after the lifespan)  so it shouldn't be that important (and it doesn't come automatically installed on the OS). Probably shouldn't link that method here because that may or may not be promoting piracy (tho XP is a super old OS and its source has been leaked anyways so idk-), but you can probably find it somewhere.

[Nsxile 25,675]

On 10/18/2020 at 8:09 PM, InfernalEnergy said:

There is an effort to save those Flash games, I'm not sure where they are being saved though.

On 10/19/2020 at 3:33 AM, Winter Breeze said:

Its been a long time... 2018 since I've been on this account? Wow...

Thread awoketh again and I got all these messages in my inbox. So now I have returned, nostalgic.

 

But glad to see that the discussion has re-awoken since the last time years ago (not sure how yall found it since I'm pretty sure it would have been buried at this point, being from so long ago, so that interesting). And ye, I got the same notification. My browser stopped letting me run it even though I had it set to automagically start many times, even deep within the weird floaty cookie space a few months prior, so that was already kinda a warning sign.

 

I guess by now I have kinda come to terms with it. I'm still gonna miss a lot of stuff though but I've tried to download as much as I can. So much time as passed since I've been here but I still got my old pony gen pfp (back before I could draw. BUT NOW I CAN HAH!), just a smol other product and memory of flash.

 

Still don't really agree though with just getting rid of it outright when so much older content would then end up generally lost to time. Like Geocities. Geocities had a lot of weird but cool old stuff, and then just- Poof, gone. But compatibility and all is annoying to keep up. I bet at some point Windows will just yeet out 32 bit support like MacOS has and then we won't be able to play older games like the ye oldie Source stuff, that def won't be good whenever that day comes. But I guess it is improvement. Out with the old, in with the new as they say. And thats why you don't see people using those old spindly wheel cars and candles for lighting unless they are trying to be aesthetic. But still, either way, a big chunk of internet history is going to be lost at the end of 2020. And thats why I've made a Windows XP VM with a really old browser and a saved offline installer of Flash so that whenever that day comes I can still get a fix of nostalgia on any site that still has old flash stuff.

 

Which also presents another question... Sites that still have old flash stuff (like DA, Newgrounds, Neopets? Miniclip, CoolMath, etc), whats gonna happen to them. DA has already kinda gotten rid of catagories as a whole, so I guess they got rid of the Flash catagory. But theres still a ton of cool Flash stuff on there that doesn't hvae the download button avaliable so... Is it just going to eternally be stuck there, are they going to delete it, or maybe convert it to html like Newgrounds I think is trying to do? And those other two sites, while not really important, also very nostalgic, but also have a ton of Flash games that will be unable to be used in the very near future (unless they intend to or already have at this point converted them all to Flash.)

There's a project to preserve and continue to run Flash games, which is called Flashpoint:

Also you can save Flash files (.swf) through using developer tools, looking through the source code, then locating where the Flash file is stored on the server and then copying and pasting the link into your address bar (which should start an automatic download); you should be able to play them with a standalone Flash player (although some flash files need a browser to run). And there's one browser, called Palemoon, that isn't removing Flash.

[ExplosionMare 18,007]

There goes my dreams of creating a nice flash game :/

[CypherHoof 26,479]

Isn't html5 canvas the new flash though?

[Dark Bun 681]

Here's a pretty good video detailing some possibilities for the future of currently existing Flash media 

 

[TransitPony 219]

I hope the websites undertake efforts to preserve flash. I can't imagine the amount of history for the first decade of the 21st Century and the early half of the 2010s being gone to waste. In pop culture terms, this is alot of historical content here. A good chunk of video game makers and artists we know and love today started off with flash. It'd be a total loss if every single flash game or animated project is lost to time...