Video games are not what they used to be. The entire gaming market changed when mobile phones became tools that could support high-quality video games, for their size and power, of course. That being said, there was a period in time where everybody could make a video game and put it into a browser, through the usage of Adobe Flash. Flash was an interesting product, but ultimately flawed, so in 2020, it was put out of commission. However, browser games took off because of Flash and they impacted an entire generation. Here is how.
Anybody Could Make a Game
The advantages of Flash were that anybody could make a game, so long as they knew how to draw, or rather, had the desire to draw and make animations in MS Paint or other drawing and painting software.
Flash was able to accept all kinds of content and turn it into a video game, from simple ones, to more complex and interesting titles. However, that also meant that ANYBODY could have made a game, but not all people were there to provide us with entertainment.
Malicious Content
The problem with Flash was that it had various security bugs and holes, which malicious programmers were making use of. They would load their games with malware and other types of viruses, which would in turn infect people’s computers, making them unusable and forcing a complete system reinstall.
At some point, there were little to no viruses, and that was when browsers were tuned to automatically block Flash content.
Fun For Everyone, With a Click of a Button
While there were years of fun with video games that looked terrible and performed even worse, they didn’t last long. Some browser games, the old ones, running in Flash, can still be found online, but they will not work, at least online.
There are variants of the Flash Player that Adobe itself hosts, available for free, that can still play SWF and other Flash-associated files. There are plenty of archived games from that time period that will still work at home.
Browser Games are Still Here
Even though it is now harder to make browser games, they are still here. Javascript and HTML5 are more than powerful enough to replace Flash and given their nature, they can make games which are faster. Better optimization and security allow for more browser games. However, the mobile market is still tough competition, but browser games are still here, they are simply better, going with the times.
Browser games changed us, allowing us to play with just an internet connection. They also taught us about not trusting everything we find online. They are still around, for the nostalgic ones as well as for those who want newer games.