Tuesday, March 2, 2021

I don't know, have you tried turning it off and back on again?

 Hello again internet!

Yeah, lotta hate in the comments from last time, and they're well deserved.  It *HAS* been a while.  Not intentional.  "Funny" how life just punches you in teh face when you're just minding your own business.  But enough about me.  




Those of you still checking this blog probably know I only post when I've actually worked on the game.  And hey, I'm posting.  I wake up early maybe twice a week and work for like half an hour.  It's not fast progress, but it is progress.  (I suppose it's light speed compared to 2020 - lol).  Normally I'd wait and post when the next game update is actually ready.  But two events have forced my hand - figure I better get in front of both of them.

First, Patreon closed my account.  Oddly, this is a mixed blessing, something I was waffling on doing for a while.  As much as I like the idea of a side hustle that actually makes money, having it connected to my real life just isn't okay for me.  And without a real name and address, Patreon decided I wasn't serious enough to have an account.  I may come back to this later in life, I kinda like the idea of picking it up seriously as a gig once I retire from the day job.  But for now, I'm content to make games for fun (and hey, that means they're free again too).

Second, Flash died.  Okay, that's not a shock to anyone, they've been announcing it for years.  What I didn't expect was that they would actively remove old Flash installations and prevent new ones.  I just sorta assumed it would linger on like a zombie forever.  Sorta like Cobol and Fortran.  But that's not what happened.  

So this is the part where I start asking y'all for help.  If you know of some good alternative programs to run old Flash games, please post them in the comments.  There's no shortage of "How do I run this" in the comments, but I'm lousy at tech support.  If you know the answer, don't be shy!

For what it's worth, my game uses ActionScript2, which is one of the older 'flavors' of Flash.  It doesn't port automatically to HTML5, but by the same token it should be easier for Flash emulators.  At the moment, I'm aware of Ruffle, but my quick attempt didn't seem to work.  I'm also aware that NewGrounds has built their own emulator (maybe?), and that old Flash games there seem to still work.  So maybe I just need to upload my game there?  Talk about going full circle - that's where this show started in the first place.

That's all for now.  I am aiming for a release sometime this summer, hopefully with the beach/Naga level completed.  But we all know how bad I am with release dates.  So here's hoping we speak again before 2022.  Til then, take care!  It's been a scary world these days.

-DirtyC101

25 comments:

  1. Oh hey, you're back! Good to see you.

    I've been using the standalone Flash Projector to play Flash games and animations. Most games work flawlessly, a few others don't work at all.
    For the sake of playing Flash games in a browser, other than ruffle and Newgrounds, I know you can play in fullstacks flashplayer. I'm not sure if that's what you're looking for.

    Another choice could be porting everything to another language, but that is kind of a fever dream, isn't it?

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  2. I should honestly stop getting surprised when you randomly drag your ass out of the shadow realm to post. I myself have been using standalone players since I found this game way back when, and it hasn't stopped working for me since. Downloads are still floating around, but I don't know of any real alternatives to porting the game to something non flash

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  3. https://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/debug_downloads.html

    I downloaded "Download the Flash Player projector" and all I have to do to play the is either to type in the URL of the site, or just download the SWF file and play it

    and also nice to see that you're not dead lol

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  4. Using ActionScript 2 is actually ideal; over on the Legend of Krystal forums I've started using Ruffle.js to keep older ActionScript 2 games playable in the browser, here's the post about it (and links to demos):
    https://legendofkrystal.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=10010

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  5. I don't know if it would work but I've been using the newgrounds browser to play old flash games maybe something there?

    Also it's wonderful to hear from you and thank you for not abandoning the project.

    Much love!

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  6. Oh my gosh ! OH MY GOSH ! I kept checking your website from time to time ! I just knew you'd come back ! I'm so happy ! <3 I'm very glad you are safe and sound, i'll be patient for these updates and i'll be overjoyed to play them. Thank you very much for you work ! Take care !

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  7. Same here, i'm using the adobe flash player standalone since a while now and it always worked perfectly :)

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  8. glad to see u back pal! hope u doing well!

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  9. I wish we can see some scissoring with this one c:

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  10. Gonna be honest, I didn't expect a return, but it's a welcome surprise to be sure! Very glad that I kept this page saved even after all this time! Looking forward to seeing how the game turns out in the end, no matter how quickly or slowly that happens!

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  11. if you don't like wanting to rely on Ruffle and such, there is a Flashpatcher out there which removes the killswitch.

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  12. yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

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  13. Dude, you don't know how much I waited for you, but finally you came back, I love this game and I thought it would be abandoned ;-;)

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  14. Yoo I though you were dead fo sure, wb man

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  15. Funny, I just tested Ruffle and got your game working on my site. There's just a black screen for a long time while it loads, though. NewGrounds uses Ruffle as well, so it'd work there. Another thing, if you're using Flash 8 or later (even the CS ones!) is you can export as a "projector" and it'll give you a .exe file and a Mac one (Linux people will know how to make exes run on their computers, don't worry). S'nice to know you're back and I don't have to comment out lines of actionscript to cheat, hee. Is there some way to get your Email or Discord or something that isn't this comment section?

    AND Ruffle works great, for your game! It's not perfect, no—enter doesn't work for cheats, I saw an NPC's brain get fried and she stood there until I lunged at her—but it's more than playable. It's almost perfect! Ruffle's getting closer to the real deal all the time, too.

    So, people DESPERATE to make Flash work can make Flash work, but Ruffle's deal is you install it on your site and it will work for the huddled masses, just not as well. Still very recommend!

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  16. ...there is an old version of flash floating around that does not have the timebomb code in it not mentioning where outta paranoia of a dmca strike dick move adobe, but the folks over at swfchan have been talking about getting flash to work for those interested might be worth a look

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  17. We welcome you back to the land of the living with open arms.

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  18. Good to see you back again! Even if you don't have progress for the game, it would be nice for people to have some place to interact with you, and/or for you to talk about games/stuff you're interested etc (that isn't just comments on blogspot); It helps to drive interest!

    I shall hopefully continue on the Legend of the Twin Orbs fan art project I started a while back, which I hope you may like it as it (eventually) develops.

    All the best man :)

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    1. I forgot about that, I sure do hope you get around continuing that project

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  19. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  20. Hey! Super glad your back I have heckin missed your content and updates. Your games always get me goin. xoxo your biggest fan girl!

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  21. At the moment, the .swf file for the game can be opened and ran via the Flash Debugging software that you can download from their site, I've tested a bit and most if not all o the gameplay is still accessible, so that'd be a good place to start

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