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What are Flash games?
The Flash Player is a plugin that was used to make online games before browsers could handle complex animations. Way back when the internet was new, it was just web pages, images, and links. The technology to create the animations needed to play a complex 2D game were missing in the early browsers like Netscape, Internet Explorer and even early versions of modern browsers like Chrome. However, there was a company called Macromedia, that was an early developer of The Flash plugin. It was originally meant to just play animations. Once the technology was purchased by Adobe Inc, Flash player use enabled an entire platform of games and apps. Over one hundred thousand Flash games were made and maybe equally as many Flash animations representing a generation of the early internet. Fast forward 20 years, fast paced developments from large tech companies have enabled open standards more capable of creating rich web applications and games. See Html5 Games and Webgl Games.
Why is Y8 Games preserving Flash games?
As so many games have been created, we believe they are worth keeping online as long as possible to preserve the history they showcase. Some of these games were made during the Dot Com Bubble and during the Great Recession, many of the darkest games had to be disabled as social norms have shifted. The majority of games are positive and represent the interactive art created over the first 30 years of the early internet. Although Y8 Games has previously also maintained and discarded older plugins, Flash is truly unique in the scale of media created.
Where are the Flash games going?
Browser support for the Flash plugin is ending after Decemeber 2020 and it will become more difficult to play these games. Y8 has developed the Y8 Browser to keep these games playable.
How to play Flash games?
- For desktop only, Download Y8 Browser for Windows, MacOS, Linux
