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Was anything "amazing" every created in Flash? It's obviously subjective, but things that would merit the "amazing" tag for me would be things like, Wikipedia,

Was anything "amazing" every created in Flash? It's obviously subjective, but things that would merit the "amazing" tag for me would be things like, Wikipedia, Google (the Search Engine), Facebook (love it or hate it, it's an awesome success), Google Maps, stuff like that. All I remember from the Flash days, and I was a flash developer bear in mind, was clunky, contentless, CPU hammering folly. None of which I think I miss.

Macha 9y ago
YouTube couldn't have started when it did without flash, even if it's moved on to html5 now. Also lots of indie game devs (e.g. team meat of super meat boy or binding of Isaac) got their start there, a lot of the early "upload your flash game here" might have paved the way for getting so many games on the app store model when it got going.
- tomelders 9y ago
  Had flash not existed, I suspect they would have used another video playback plugin, or rolled their own. I don't think YouTube's success was dependent on Flash. But the ubiquity of Flash certainly didn't hurt.
  - ygra 9y ago
    Imagine YouTube depending on QuickTime, Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, or Java Applets. Flash's user experience was just so much better than those options. I'd guess that YouTube couldn't have had that much success were there not such a ubiquitous (and downright good) plugin.
andybak 9y ago
> Was anything "amazing" every created in Flash? Not so many practical tools spring to mind but on the arts and creative side of things most definitely.
deniska 9y ago
> Was anything "amazing" every created in Flash? > Google Maps Here you go.
- tomelders 9y ago
  I'm fairly certain that Google Maps was Javascript from the beginning.
lmm 9y ago
A whole cultural generation of comedy happened on Flash; some of the early Flash pieces are touchstones that are still referenced today. Heck, professional cartoons were done in it, and its stylistic touches became established enough that even people working in other tech stacks adopted them - you can date a lot of animation from that era by the thick-outline style that comes from Flash. Programmers didn't create amazing programs in flash, but animators created amazing animation.
dspillett 9y ago
> Was anything "amazing" every created in Flash? http://www.zombo.com/ http://www.zombo.com/ Less facetiously many web based games would not have been possible with other options available at the time. I can't think of as many significant tools that it was in part responsible for and it massively outstayed its welcome (a few years before Google maps and http://www.elizium.nu/scripts/lemmings/ http://www.elizium.nu/scripts/lemmings/ I expect flash or java applets would have been needed to achieve the same effect both because of browser performance & compatibility issues at the time and the fact then JS was disabled in many environments too), but thre were some things it was still the least bad option for until a few years ago, video (thing youtube and similar) being the main one. > clunky, ..., CPU hammering Definitely, though there were some great programmers out there making efficient things in flash, it had the issue of making it easy to create a sub-optimal mess (some would say the tooling made it overly hasslesome to create something efficient, though I was never a flash programmer so I can't comment there myself). > contentless The same can be said of a great many things not involving flash; before, during and after flash's heyday! > folly One man's folly is another man's comic (or otherwise artistic) genius. There was a lot of dross, but flash allowed the creation of some great pieces in its time.
chongli 9y ago
The Binding of Isaac [0] was created in Flash. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Binding_of_Isaac_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Binding_of_Isaac_(video_ga...
dahauns 9y ago
Homestar Runner! I'd certainly miss that.
roywiggins 9y ago
Strong Bad counts, in my book.
ivm 9y ago
> folly Small cultural artifacts move humanity in more subtle ways than the utilitarian behemoths mentioned by you. Weebls Stuff and Rathergood influenced my thinking a lot by introducing 14yo me to absurd. I'm sure less popular creations made in Flash had some effect too.
robmcm 9y ago
A whole host of Single Dealer Trading platforms from major banks delivered on the web via flash (and Flex). Quite an ambitious achievement for a simple animation tool.
- tomelders 9y ago
  The past four years of my career have been spent replacing all that stuff. It was never good. It was just the best Flash could do.
  - robmcm 9y ago
    Perhaps in your retrospective opinion, but it was good enough for every major investment bank to invest millions in, and even enough for a company like Microsoft to try and copy...
    - tomelders 9y ago
      Having been sat at the table while big decisions have been made on important pieces of software for some of the worlds largest and most influential financial institutions, I can say with a fair degree of certainty that those decisions are rarely informed or reasonable. One thing I know to be true. The corporate world is run by insecure, ill informed pretenders who fear accountability above all else. People who only make a decision when someone under them has put their neck on the line. Flash and Flex's success in financial services was not based on merit. It was based on fear of deviating from the norm.

Macha 9y ago

YouTube couldn't have started when it did without flash, even if it's moved on to html5 now. Also lots of indie game devs (e.g. team meat of super meat boy or binding of Isaac) got their start there, a lot of the early "upload your flash game here" might have paved the way for getting so many games on the app store model when it got going.

tomelders 9y ago
Had flash not existed, I suspect they would have used another video playback plugin, or rolled their own. I don't think YouTube's success was dependent on Flash. But the ubiquity of Flash certainly didn't hurt.
- ygra 9y ago
  Imagine YouTube depending on QuickTime, Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, or Java Applets. Flash's user experience was just so much better than those options. I'd guess that YouTube couldn't have had that much success were there not such a ubiquitous (and downright good) plugin.

andybak 9y ago

> Was anything "amazing" every created in Flash? Not so many practical tools spring to mind but on the arts and creative side of things most definitely.

deniska 9y ago

> Was anything "amazing" every created in Flash? > Google Maps Here you go.

tomelders 9y ago
I'm fairly certain that Google Maps was Javascript from the beginning.

lmm 9y ago

A whole cultural generation of comedy happened on Flash; some of the early Flash pieces are touchstones that are still referenced today. Heck, professional cartoons were done in it, and its stylistic touches became established enough that even people working in other tech stacks adopted them - you can date a lot of animation from that era by the thick-outline style that comes from Flash. Programmers didn't create amazing programs in flash, but animators created amazing animation.

dspillett 9y ago

> Was anything "amazing" every created in Flash? http://www.zombo.com/ http://www.zombo.com/ Less facetiously many web based games would not have been possible with other options available at the time. I can't think of as many significant tools that it was in part responsible for and it massively outstayed its welcome (a few years before Google maps and http://www.elizium.nu/scripts/lemmings/ http://www.elizium.nu/scripts/lemmings/ I expect flash or java applets would have been needed to achieve the same effect both because of browser performance & compatibility issues at the time and the fact then JS was disabled in many environments too), but thre were some things it was still the least bad option for until a few years ago, video (thing youtube and similar) being the main one. > clunky, ..., CPU hammering Definitely, though there were some great programmers out there making efficient things in flash, it had the issue of making it easy to create a sub-optimal mess (some would say the tooling made it overly hasslesome to create something efficient, though I was never a flash programmer so I can't comment there myself). > contentless The same can be said of a great many things not involving flash; before, during and after flash's heyday! > folly One man's folly is another man's comic (or otherwise artistic) genius. There was a lot of dross, but flash allowed the creation of some great pieces in its time.

chongli 9y ago

The Binding of Isaac [0] was created in Flash. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Binding_of_Isaac_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Binding_of_Isaac_(video_ga...

dahauns 9y ago

Homestar Runner! I'd certainly miss that.

roywiggins 9y ago

Strong Bad counts, in my book.

ivm 9y ago

> folly Small cultural artifacts move humanity in more subtle ways than the utilitarian behemoths mentioned by you. Weebls Stuff and Rathergood influenced my thinking a lot by introducing 14yo me to absurd. I'm sure less popular creations made in Flash had some effect too.

robmcm 9y ago

A whole host of Single Dealer Trading platforms from major banks delivered on the web via flash (and Flex). Quite an ambitious achievement for a simple animation tool.

tomelders 9y ago
The past four years of my career have been spent replacing all that stuff. It was never good. It was just the best Flash could do.
- robmcm 9y ago
  Perhaps in your retrospective opinion, but it was good enough for every major investment bank to invest millions in, and even enough for a company like Microsoft to try and copy...
  - tomelders 9y ago
    Having been sat at the table while big decisions have been made on important pieces of software for some of the worlds largest and most influential financial institutions, I can say with a fair degree of certainty that those decisions are rarely informed or reasonable. One thing I know to be true. The corporate world is run by insecure, ill informed pretenders who fear accountability above all else. People who only make a decision when someone under them has put their neck on the line. Flash and Flex's success in financial services was not based on merit. It was based on fear of deviating from the norm.