Flash games

The Choice of a New Generation

First unleashed on an unsuspecting public in 1996, Flash games came to represent an entire generation of video games and video gamers. Based on developer Macromedia’s Flash technology, which made it possible to develop and play animations in any web browser with the use of a simple plugin, Flash games grew from a small group of individuals sharing games they had designed to a cultural phenomenon enjoyed by millions across the globe.

Making a Big Splash

Macromedia Flash was created in May 1996 by Jonathan Gay, who had been experimenting with writing programs in high school during the 1980s. It was initially conceived as a vector-based tool that would allow users to display graphics and animation over the internet, and was originally named FutureSplash Animator. It was then acquired by Macromedia, rebranded as Macromedia Flash and distributed as a free lightweight browser plugin, at which point more and more users began to adopt the software. By the early 2000s game developers—veterans and novices alike—were using it to build fun, creative online Flash games which anyone with a desktop computer could play and enjoy, with no need for an expensive dedicated console.

The Calm Before the Storm

In some ways you could say that Flash games and the sites that propagated them, such as Newgrounds (which was the first website to allow real-time publishing of movies and games) and Y3, are something of a precursor to GamePix, with our broad, exciting range of games available to play through any internet browser—although nowadays we are able to bring you the perfect gaming experience on your phone, tablet or any other online device.

School’s Out

Because these online Flash games were available to play on any desktop computer, enterprising children would come to discover that these sites were not always blocked by their schools’ firewalls, meaning kids might be found playing a game of Meat Boy or Kitten Cannon at lunchtime—or even in class! Thankfully nowadays, because of the widespread availability of high-speed mobile technology and the vast selection of titles on GamePix, children can access video games anytime, anywhere—though we don’t encourage that they play them during class time!

The World Ain't All Sunshine and Rainbows

The world of Flash games wasn’t all unbounded creativity and innovation, unfortunately. At their laziest, these games simply offered poorly programmed copies of pre-existing titles such as Super Mario 64 (the imaginatively titled Super Mario 63), with crudely animated imitations of the various characters and none of the smooth gameplay experience of the originals.

That does not tell the whole story though—in some cases, projects that started out as Flash games went on to be developed into mainstream releases for major consoles, proving online communities were breeding grounds for exciting new talents with compelling ideas. Titles such as Super Meat Boy, Bloons Tower Defence and VVVVVV all started out as flash games before being ported to consoles such as the PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo Switch.

Speedin' on the Freeway, Gotta Get a Leadway

When Flash games were first developed, internet speeds were significantly slower than they are now, meaning players sometimes had to spend a long time waiting for games to load. Nowadays, at GamePix, all of our online Flash games are available to play instantly at the touch of a button, regardless of which device or browser you use.

Crème de la Creme

Nowadays you can find hundreds of great Flash games online, with many of the best titles available on GamePix. Among these are the Bloons Tower Defence series, Earn To Die, the Papa’s series (including Papa’s Freezeria, Papa’s Cupcake - Bake & Sweet Shop and Papa’s Burgeria) and Kingdom Rush, and players will be relieved to learn that they can play all of these Flash games (and many more) for free, right here!

The Light That Burns Twice as Bright…

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and the sun began to set on the era of Flash games (at least, in their original sense) with the advent of mobile gaming. Apple CEO Steve Jobs famously refused to support Flash, at this point owned by Adobe, on the company’s iPhone, sparking a reaction from online game developers and a major shift towards developing games for mobile devices. The developers of Monster Truck Nitro, a massively successful Flash game, stated that in the year 2000, 95% of their revenue had come via the web and by 2012, 95% of their revenue was coming from mobile games.

That aside, few programs in video game history have provided as many tools to budding developers as Flash did, and don’t forget it also provided them with a platform to share the results of their creative impulses. You could even say it democratized video game development in the same way music production programs did for young producers without the resources to access professional studios, and this in turn afforded players an endless array of topical, unique and downright ridiculous games to choose from!

FAQs

Are any Flash games still playable?

Good news—they most certainly are! Huge developments in the complexity of video games, both graphically and narratively, mean that Flash games are mostly a thing of the past, enjoyed for their novelty value. But lots of these Flash games are as enjoyable today as they were when they were first created, and many of the core concepts they featured are now being recycled in the mobile games of today. Endless running games, tower defense games and dirt bike games are just a few examples of subgenres that featured in the Flash games of yesteryear. It’s important to remember (and often hard to imagine) that these games were predominantly being made by computer-savvy enthusiasts in their homes, with no games studios to help them and no budget to speak of—and now their work lives on through sites like GamePix.

Where can i play Flash games?

Despite the advent of HTML 5 and especially IO games making Flash games less and less popular, the titles themselves have remained eternal classics, and many of them are available to play online at GamePix whenever you please, regardless of which device or browser you choose to use.