Saving Classic Flash Games

Flash games aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Addicting Games may have built its name on free Flash games but the past is the past. If you've read any of our blogs, then you might know we’ve long since moved on to mobile games, io games, HTML5 games and have even ported some of our favorite Flash games over to HTML5. 

It’s all the buzz in tech media these days: Flash games are dead. But it seems recently the conversation has switched from counting down the impending doom of Flash to figuring out ways to save it. Case in point: Wired Magazine’s “The Ragtag Squad That Saved 38,000 Flash Games From Internet Oblivion.”

Wired Magazine’s article is mostly about a labor of love carried out by a loose community of Flash game enthusiasts who have taken it upon themselves to catalog and preserve tens of thousands of classic free Flash games. Staff writer Cecilia D'Anastasio manages to get to the heart of why somebody would spend hours of their time cataloging a dying art form and why Flash games were such an integral part of nascent internet culture, pre-social media and pre-mobile. 

While the article is a great read, as are all of Cecilia’s takes on video games, we here at Addicting Games want to remind everyone that we won’t be following Flash into the void. What better way to celebrate the noble efforts of those nerds around the world who have come together to archive the entirety of Flash gaming than by sharing a list of our own Flash Games which we personally ported to HTML5 to ensure their immortality.
 

What are the most popular flash games?

1. Impossible Quiz
   Remember this game? Well, it is back. And if you want to know a little secret it’s life isn’t gonna end with this port. We’re actually secretly rebuilding it from the ground up. It’ll be mobile, multiplayer, and as brain-burning as the original. Until then you’ll have to just entertain yourself with our marquee game which has garnered literally over a billion plays.

2. Helicopter
   The original Flappy Bird. OK, that might not be true but hoo-boy does this one ever hook you fast and keep you playing. There are more complex versions of this with spaceships and stuff but if you like your games elegant, the choice is clear: get to the chopper.

3. Age of War
   Another classic that we weren’t just going to let disappear into oblivion. The anachronistic nature of the way this game upgrades and the types of battles you can play out are just too cool to let go.

4. Kitten Cannon
   This game has sincerely transcended the surly bonds of our website. It’s launched generations of launch-games (pun intended) and is referenced in everything from first-person shooters to Hard Times articles. Play it, remember it, love it!

5. Tanks
   We like explosions and Tanks delivered them in spades. Simple top-down 2-D shooters are a dying art and 1v1 games of attrition have gotten left behind in this world of FPS madness and arena kill-em-alls. Truly a more elegant game for a more dignified time.

6. Bubble Spinner
   This is another one of those games with a name that has basically become synonymous with its genre. Much like with Match 3 games, it's hard to believe that before there was a genre called Bubble Spinner there was just a game called Bubble Spinner.

7. Bloons
   You just can’t stop popping! Bloons was one of the games our users most requested we port over so of course we had to do right by them and get it done. We’ve also taken the liberty of porting over some of the tower defense versions of this game since those are just as recognizable.

8. Stunt Dirt Bike
   Platform games and balance games basically owe their existence to Stunt Dirt Bike. An absolute favorite which is as frustrating to play now as it was back when we first published it.

9. 4 Wheel Madness
   There has always been something uncanny and cool about Flash games' penchant for combining photos with animation and illustrations. It really was its own aesthetic which owed a lot to a certain time and place. Add the satisfaction of crushing cars and climbing cliffs and you have yourself a classic Flash game.

10. Miniputt
    Much to our surprise this turned out to be one of our highest played ports. Maybe it's nostalgia, maybe it's the simplicity of the name, maybe there has been a downturn in real life Miniputt courses. Whatever it is we were kind of surprised to see the amount of play this game still gets after we ported it over. 

We at Addicting Games intend to continue porting over all our old Flash titles, so people can play these games for generations to come!