After 25 years, Flash Player stops and with it tens of thousands of online games

Whether it conjures up fond childhood memories of zero internet games or nightmares about constant updates, almost every computer user still knows: Flash Player.

After 25 years and a warning three years ago, the software developer Adobe is finally throwing the computer program in the trash today. Flash was used less and less and regularly faced security issues.

For years, Flash has been one of the most important plugins for online videos, games and other mobile elements on the Internet. The first version, then again Macromedia Flash Player was released on New Years 1996.

70,000 games

Originally, the program was intended for animation and online design, but soon after, game developers decided to use the software as well.

“Flash is where it all began,” says video game journalist Len Maessen. “It was a catalyst: suddenly, it was easier to play games.” According to Maessen, Flash games laid the foundation for the further development of Indie games. “They have inspired many games today.”

Many older Internet games therefore also work on Flash. And that means that starting today, thousands of these games will be difficult, if not impossible to play.

A group of hackers are trying to counter this and started early 2018 already a non-profit project to archive Flash games and keep them safe to play. So far, they’ve done it for over 70,000 games. Also the website Internet Archives archived over 2,000 Flash items.

A well-known Flash game is Line Rider from 2006: