On December 31, 2020, Adobe will end support for Flash. This will also lead to the discontinuation of a whole generation of games. However, the Flashpoint project has made it its mission to save these games.
What kind of project is this? Flashpoint is a project that has collected various Flash games which you can download for free.
The project currently contains more than 36,000 games that you can play offline, including classics such as:
- The World’s Hardest Game
- Bowman
- Doom 2D
- Age of War
- Desktop Tower Defense
- or Bejeweled.
On this website, you can view the complete list. The download of all games is around 290 gigabytes in size. If you find a game missing from the list, you can suggest it to Flashpoint.
Why was the project started? At the end of 2020, support for Flash will be discontinued. Adobe is working with major companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft to make the transition as smooth as possible.
Many modern browser games are now created in HTML5 or Unity. There, you may hardly notice the absence of Flash. However, many classics that have existed for years may not survive the transition.
Flash games were once well-known and popular
What is special about Flash games? Especially in the 2000s, Flash games were hugely popular. They were easy to play in the browser, free, and often even featured multiplayer functions.
I remember them from the times I sat in the computer room at school and secretly played Bowman with friends. The goal was to shoot the other player with arrows.
However, you did not know the exact position of your opponent, as they were standing outside of the visible screen. The first shots served to probe until you had spotted their exact location. Then, of course, the goal was to aim for a headshot.
But also aside from Bowman, I spent a lot of time with friends playing Flash games. 2021 marks the end of a small era.
Flash games as a part of gaming history: While Flash games are no longer as impressive and relevant as they once were, they play an important role in the history of gaming.
They helped in the rise of indie games and also laid the foundation for today’s mobile games. Furthermore, they were often a good entry point into the development industry.
With the Flashpoint project, they will be preserved, even if they will no longer be playable in the browser.
