Hi, Rodger,

There are a bunch of classic JibJab political cartoons and other things
I've saved from the web that are on my server as SWF files.

When I started one, it asked me if I wanted to look in the Windows store
for an app or use IfranView which I already had installed...and it
worked, no nastygrams.

So, from an archival perspective, it looks as if there is one viewer
that works and preserves motion and interactivity.

Of course, this brings up the broader issue of file formats and
reinforces why focusing no a few major formats (such as WAV, TIF, and
PDF) is preferred for long-term archiving.

However, the interactivity of Flash is not shared by the above-mentioned
file formats.

After typing the above, I thought there might be a better solution
online and I found other 3rd party Flash viewers but did not check them
out. The important link is this explainer:
https://www.howtogeek.com/438141/how-to-play-adobe-flash-swf-files-outside-your-web-browser/

Which points to an official debugging flash player page from Adobe
https://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/debug_downloads.html

And a specific file is the one suggested and it seems to work well:
<https://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/updaters/32/flashplayer_32_sa_debug.exe>

Open the application and start dropping SWF files onto it.

I realize that doesn't help easily navigate an Flash-based website with
all the browsers and firewalls blocking the content, but if you can
still download the target file and save it locally, at least you can
play it.

I was more worried about content I had archived for my own use,
including some JibJab parodies from the 2004 and 2008 US Presidential
elections.

Also, this Adobe player was updated 09/08/2020 and contains fixes for
critical vulnerabilities, which obviously my 2007 edition of IfranView
does not contain, but I did not check for a more recent version as I
almost never use it now.

I hope that helps a bit.

Cheers,

Richard


On 2020-09-29 11:10 a.m., Rodger Holtin wrote:
> Forgive me if this has been batted around here already.
>
> As a returning ARSC member of decades ago, I finally decided to sign up for
> The List a few weeks ago, making me a newbee.
>
>
>
> I went to the DAHR to get my Uncle Josh fix and got this message:
>
> “Flash Player will no longer be supported after December 2020.” I’ve been
> seeing this for a while now but stuff has played anyway. Today I got the
> message and a black box where the Play button should have been. Apparently
> it is no longer supported already.
>
> I thought this was a browser-specific warning, but apparently not. I was
> using Chrome but Avast says Flash Player is blocked and Edge says the same
> thing.
>
> What am I missing?
>
> Can we assume there’s fix in the works for all the LC and DAHR fans who
> can’t get enough of Edward M. Favor on Pandora?
>

>

--
Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask]
Aurora, Ontario, Canada 647 479 2800
http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Track Format - Speed - Equalization - Azimuth - Noise Reduction
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.