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Adobe Flash gets one last update before being killed offWith Flash Player to start actively blocking Flash projects next month.
With Flash Player to start actively blocking Flash projects next month.
So long, Flash. After decades of driving independent game developers, animators and artists, the venerable web tool is being shut down for good at the end of the month. This week, Adobe pushed the final release of Flash Player to the web with a fond farewell - and an encouragement to uninstall the compromised tool before official support ends on December 31st. It’s not every day a patch release tells you to delete a piece of software, but there you go.
This week’s release notesconfirm on what we already knew - that official support for Flash will end on December 31st - adding that, after January 12th, Flash Player will start actively blocking Flash files from being run. All that said, Adobe “strongly recommends” you begin uninstalling Flash Player now, before it becomes useless at best and actively harmful at worst.
Flash’s death throes have been an ongoing concern for preservationists, mind. For a good decade there, Flash wasthego-to tool for countless game developers. Without Flash, we don’t have The Binding Of Isaac, Ridiculous Fishing, Alien Hominid, etc - but within Flash itself, you’re still looking at thousands of absolute classics. Fancy Pants Adventure! Yeti Sports!Line Rider! Early queer game works like LIM and Dys4ia, and a whole lotta animated brainworms from Weeblstuff, AlbinoBlackSheep, and other names that have long-since jettisoned themselves from my memory.
All of these risked being lost for good. Fortunately, standalone tools like Flashpoint have popped up to help preserve this lawless period of web history.Standalone launcher Flashpointhas immortalised a bespoke selection of playable Flash Games, whileThe Internet Archiverecently began accepting playable Flash submissions in its archives via the Ruffle emulator. Just this week, browser game hub Armor Gamesannounced similar plansto preserve its own catalogue of 3,500+ games, many stretching back into the late 00s.
So, Flash might be about to die. But thanks to the work of archivists, its legacy won’t be consigned to oblivion just quite yet.
