In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the internet was a different place, something of a Wild West time for those bursting with DIY energy. It was at this point that Macromedia Flash (later Adobe Flash) appeared, a tool that allowed everyday creators to build animations, interactive stories, and games that could run inside any browser.
- Sites like Newgrounds, Miniclip, and Armor Games became the breeding grounds for a new generation of developers.
- With simple graphics but endless elements of creativity, Flash games like Alien Hominid,
- The Crimson Room, and Stick RPG became viral sensations, often spreading faster than premium gaming titles at the time.
It was a wild time, but then things suddenly skidded to a halt. Or did they? Flash was supposed to end in 2020 when Adobe ended its support, and it did, but only up to a point. You can easily learn how to play Flash games online today, and, indeed, millions of players today are doing just that on emulators and gaming websites. But how did we get here? How did Flash die and get (kind of) resurrected? Let’s look at a potted history:
The golden era was the 2000s
Flash games hit their golden age and basically peaked in the 2000s. Gamers everywhere were introduced to quick, addictive experiences that could fill a few minutes or eat up entire afternoons. It felt like the dawn of causal gaming before the mobile era. Games like Bloons, Fancy Pants Adventure, Sonny, and Kingdom Rush showed that simple games could deliver. Some were hit-and-miss, sure, but some were technically brilliant. Meanwhile, educational games found their way into classrooms, and office workers everywhere mastered the art of sneakily switching tabs to hide their gaming from their bosses.
The first crack appeared when Steve Jobs published his famous “Thoughts on Flash” letter in 2010. In the letter, Jobs criticized Flash for being resource-hungry, insecure, and outdated.
The upshot was that he declared it wouldn’t be supported on iPhones or iPads.
That was a significant moment, although it is arguably more famous in hindsight.
At the same time that Jobs was bashing Flash, mobile games exploded in popularity, not least in the nascent App Store.
Players who once loaded up Flash games at their desks now pulled out their smartphones and tapped away on their touchscreen phones with titles like Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, and Temple Run.
Flash, which was burdened by performance issues and the need for plugins, couldn’t keep up. HTML5 and mobile-native development took its place. The upshot was that Adobe officially ended Flash support on December 31, 2020, ending one of the most creative—but somewhat punk—eras for game development on the internet.
Flash stayed alive
Yet, Flash games never truly disappeared. Five years after Adobe ‘killed’ Flash, the never-ending nostalgia of gamers and internet users has helped it live on, making Flash gaming hugely popular today. Some of this is accessible through preservation. For example, the Internet Archive hosts thousands of classic Flash games playable in browsers via emulators. Flashpoint, meanwhile, is a preservation project that has saved over 100,000 Flash games and animations for offline play.
What’s more, spiritual successors of Flash games now dominate mobile stores. Quick, casual and easy-to-play titles with roots in the Flash philosophy. We can even point to some modern indie games like Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac that trace their DNA directly back to Flash’s development beginnings. The boom in emulators, too, has benefitted from the nostalgia towards Flash gaming.
In a sense, Flash games were the precursors to modern indie games of today. But when you see online today the vast number of websites and emulators that boast of offering Flash games, you can appreciate that they have created their own genre, instantly recognizable to gamers who experienced it in the 2000s or those who wish to see why Flash games have such a cult status.