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Ruffle - The Future of Flash

Ruffle aims to preserve Flash animations, and games through emulation.

By Three of Seven Mon 21 Dec, 2020 9:36 PM
Many internet users will be aware of Adobe Flash Player, which outputs animations, and games, used on many websites over the years like Newgrounds, Armor Games, Cool Math Games, and the list could go on. There have also been many exploits for the Flash Player, which Adobe tried to keep up with, but with the rise of HTLM5, and other alternatives. Adobe are going to end support for Flash on the 31st of December 2020, with the final nail going in one the 12th of January 2021, you can read all about the Adobe EOL plan here.

The end of Flash will mean a lot of internet history would be lost, however, many are attempting various forms of emulation, and one of those is Ruffle, built in the Rust programming language. The main aim is to preserve old content on websites that have built up on flash, such as those mentioned earlier, as well as many others.

On the issue of security, the Ruffle website states that it will be "Leveraging the safety of the modern browser sandbox and the memory safety guarantees of Rust, we can confidently avoid all the security pitfalls that Flash had a reputation for.".

Currently, the emulator only realistically supports ActionSctipt 1 and 2 for interactive files, with ActionScript 3 not really working at all for the moment. So while emulation might work for most older content, it's unlikley to be fully functional when Adobe kill off flash player for good. Although, it might well be good enough to play some cool maths games! All that said, you can read more about the emulator here, and if you have the skills to help out, lend them a hand!

How much does the preservation of flash animations, and games mean to you?

WRITTEN & EDITED BY Three of Seven - rena.hobden@ufplanets.com
5 Comments
Mon 21 Dec, 2020 10:41 PM
It’s nice that they’ll continue to exist, but sometimes some things just need to die. That includes flash.
Well, yes, those website are moving away from Flash content, to having others, like HTML5, WebGL, OpenGL, etc but I mean, we emulate old games consoles that are no longer in production, so in a sense, Flash is no different, it's an old medium for games.
Mon 21 Dec, 2020 10:55 PM
Saw article title...thought it was about the DC superhero.....much confusion ensued..Suspicious Facepalm
Mon 21 Dec, 2020 10:59 PM
Just like websites 'Built for Internet Explorer', Windows XP, and that ancient bit of software made by a vendor long since gone, Flash will still be around for many years to come.
Mon 21 Dec, 2020 11:00 PM
Saw article title...thought it was about the DC superhero.....much confusion ensued..Suspicious Facepalm
I thought they were talking about the chips.
Mon 21 Dec, 2020 11:46 PM
If you open package of Ruffles they will be gone in a flash.....