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Adobe to Discontinue Shockwave on April 9th

28 points by endofcapital 8y ago

Animats 8y ago
I liked Shockwave for the year or two it had the Havok physics engine. But Macromedia didn't keep up the payments and had to take it out.
egypturnash 8y ago
Holy crap, they were still updating Director as late as ~2016? I don't think I've heard anyone talk about using it since like 2000. Feels super weird to see "Adobe Director". I always just figured they dropped it like they did Freehand after they bought Macromedia for Flash.
- godzillabrennus 8y ago
  Still hurts that they killed Fireworks. Best photo editor ever for quick web ready edits.
  - propelol 8y ago
    The Sketch before Sketch
    - godzillabrennus 8y ago
      Yep. Except sketch still isn’t up to delivering the same level of usability that fireworks had. Not to mention it was bundled in Creative Suite.
ydnaclementine 8y ago
I think I remember playing games and watching videos ~2001 on shockwave.com. Shockwave powered a lot of web games for a long time
- tobr 8y ago
  I have very fond, if somewhat hazy, memories of shockwave.com too. For some reason, I have much warmer feelings for the Shockwave brand than Flash, which I mostly think of as a resource hogging nuisance.
Wowfunhappy 8y ago
They really shouldn't make Flash completely unavailable to download. They're cutting off a lot of legacy content with cultural significance. Yes, using unmaintained software is bad for security. However, the alternative of forcing people to use third party sources—which will all be somewhat shady, since Flash is technically under copyright—is even worse for security! Now, you might be downloading a fake, malicious copy of Adobe Flash! God knows there are enough of those already in circulation... Put it up on a public company archive server somewhere. I really like what Panic does, all software vendors should have something similar: https://download.panic.com https://download.panic.com
- timw4mail 8y ago
  Shockwave !== Flash. Confusing, yes, as Flash was sometimes labeled as Shockwave Flash.
  - Wowfunhappy 8y ago
    The article says they're also discontinuing normal Adobe Flash. In addition, everything I said applies to Shockwave as well, albeit to a lesser extent. (Also, what the heck is with that confusing name? It made troubleshooting a Shockwave issue quite annoying a couple years back, because all my searches for "Shockwave" turned up results related to "Shockwave Flash".)
    - basch 8y ago
      The article literally says that Flash will not be discontinued. >Adobe continues to offer a rich set of content creation tools through Creative Cloud, including Adobe Animate CC for authoring interactive content for multiple platforms, such HTML5 Canvas, WebGL, Flash/Adobe AIR and others.
      - Wowfunhappy 8y ago
        I'm not sure why they mentioned Flash in that press release. I suppose Adobe technically "continues to offer it" as of right now. Scroll down a little further. There's a subhead titled "Adobe Flash marked for retirement as well"
mortenjorck 8y ago
> Released in 1995 by Macromind, Shockwave brought interactive content and games to the web in a way that was never seen before. In 2005, Adobe purchased Macromind and all of their interactive web products such as Flash and Shockwave continued under the Adobe name. Not Macromedia – “MacroMind"?! I had never even heard the name MacroMind until I looked it up just now, to learn it existed until its 1992 merger with Authorware, when it became the vastly better-known Macromedia. How on earth did the writer of this article accidentally use the name of Macromedia's obscure predecessor?
- godzillabrennus 8y ago
  I’m surprised they didn’t just state “Macromind, co-founded in part by Marc Canter”.
- tomysshadow 8y ago
  Probably because Director was originally created under a different name, VideoWorks, which WAS released by MacroMind before they eventually became Macromedia.
Theodores 8y ago
A decade ago people were able to put together very impressive things in Flash. I was never wanting to take that route however that content still deserves to be viewable by future generations. Sure the Flash viewer might open your computer to hackers but if I wanted to see what my music mad workmate was trying to impress me with a decade ago then it would be nice to be able to risk my computer viewing it. With browsers now 'evergreen' and auto-updating I am not sure about this complete disconnect with allegedly bad web pages of the past. Having to dig out a ten year old PC running 'Vista' to view a Flash based website of yesteryear is far from accessible. I wonder how people in the archive business view this. HTML is essentially backwards compatible although I think the blink tag has finally gone from Firefox. Flash deserves a legacy final edition that grownups can use to show stuff to their grandchildren in decades to come.
- Wowfunhappy 8y ago
  Adobe has a standalone program called Flash Projector that can load swf files. That's what I'd generally recommend for viewing Flash content, though you do need to isolate and save any swf files beforehand.
  - Theodores 8y ago
    They even have a linux 64 bit version! That is great news. That downloads page takes me back a bit. I remember that time when I would boot into Windows and there would always be a pop up saying there was an update to Flash for me. It was one of the more reliable surprises in the universe, even if ignored by everyone you could at least rely on the Flash installer to be wanting your attention with that familiar download page there for you, just waiting to keep you safe on your adventures online.
jonplackett 8y ago
Can't believe they're still updating it. I do still miss the ease of use fo flash though. Wish someone would make something this simple outputting web standards. Flash let a whole bunch of creative people make interactive experiments and websites that they just don't have the technical skills to do now you need to use a more formal setup. Flash sucked for many reasons, but for this it was excellent and hasn't been replaced.
- Wowfunhappy 8y ago
  Adobe Animate is basically a rebranded version of Flash, and it can export html5. I don't know how complete/compatible the export option is, but I know we've used it at my company for a small project.
- basch 8y ago
  Flash and Shockwave are two different things. Flash is still around as Animate.
DEADBEEFC0FFEE 8y ago
I wonder if Unity and Electron will be the Shockwave of tomorrow.
nosamu 8y ago
Note that this announcement is about Shockwave, not Flash. Here is an article about the difference between the two: https://medium.com/@nosamu/the-difference-between-flash-and-shockwave-b27609808a02 https://medium.com/@nosamu/the-difference-between-flash-and-... While Shockwave Player will be discontinued on April 9, Flash Player will be discontinued at the end of 2020: https://theblog.adobe.com/adobe-flash-update/ https://theblog.adobe.com/adobe-flash-update/
tomysshadow 8y ago
Note that Shockwave installers will also stop working after that point, as even the "full" installer downloads components from the web during the install.

28 points by endofcapital 8y ago

I liked Shockwave for the year or two it had the Havok physics engine. But Macromedia didn't keep up the payments and had to take it out.

egypturnash 8y ago

Holy crap, they were still updating Director as late as ~2016? I don't think I've heard anyone talk about using it since like 2000. Feels super weird to see "Adobe Director". I always just figured they dropped it like they did Freehand after they bought Macromedia for Flash.

godzillabrennus 8y ago
Still hurts that they killed Fireworks. Best photo editor ever for quick web ready edits.
- propelol 8y ago
  The Sketch before Sketch
  - godzillabrennus 8y ago
    Yep. Except sketch still isn’t up to delivering the same level of usability that fireworks had. Not to mention it was bundled in Creative Suite.

ydnaclementine 8y ago

I think I remember playing games and watching videos ~2001 on shockwave.com. Shockwave powered a lot of web games for a long time

tobr 8y ago
I have very fond, if somewhat hazy, memories of shockwave.com too. For some reason, I have much warmer feelings for the Shockwave brand than Flash, which I mostly think of as a resource hogging nuisance.

Wowfunhappy 8y ago

They really shouldn't make Flash completely unavailable to download. They're cutting off a lot of legacy content with cultural significance. Yes, using unmaintained software is bad for security. However, the alternative of forcing people to use third party sources—which will all be somewhat shady, since Flash is technically under copyright—is even worse for security! Now, you might be downloading a fake, malicious copy of Adobe Flash! God knows there are enough of those already in circulation... Put it up on a public company archive server somewhere. I really like what Panic does, all software vendors should have something similar: https://download.panic.com https://download.panic.com

timw4mail 8y ago
Shockwave !== Flash. Confusing, yes, as Flash was sometimes labeled as Shockwave Flash.
- Wowfunhappy 8y ago
  The article says they're also discontinuing normal Adobe Flash. In addition, everything I said applies to Shockwave as well, albeit to a lesser extent. (Also, what the heck is with that confusing name? It made troubleshooting a Shockwave issue quite annoying a couple years back, because all my searches for "Shockwave" turned up results related to "Shockwave Flash".)
  - basch 8y ago
    The article literally says that Flash will not be discontinued. >Adobe continues to offer a rich set of content creation tools through Creative Cloud, including Adobe Animate CC for authoring interactive content for multiple platforms, such HTML5 Canvas, WebGL, Flash/Adobe AIR and others.
    - Wowfunhappy 8y ago
      I'm not sure why they mentioned Flash in that press release. I suppose Adobe technically "continues to offer it" as of right now. Scroll down a little further. There's a subhead titled "Adobe Flash marked for retirement as well"

mortenjorck 8y ago

> Released in 1995 by Macromind, Shockwave brought interactive content and games to the web in a way that was never seen before. In 2005, Adobe purchased Macromind and all of their interactive web products such as Flash and Shockwave continued under the Adobe name. Not Macromedia – “MacroMind"?! I had never even heard the name MacroMind until I looked it up just now, to learn it existed until its 1992 merger with Authorware, when it became the vastly better-known Macromedia. How on earth did the writer of this article accidentally use the name of Macromedia's obscure predecessor?

godzillabrennus 8y ago
I’m surprised they didn’t just state “Macromind, co-founded in part by Marc Canter”.
tomysshadow 8y ago
Probably because Director was originally created under a different name, VideoWorks, which WAS released by MacroMind before they eventually became Macromedia.

Theodores 8y ago

A decade ago people were able to put together very impressive things in Flash. I was never wanting to take that route however that content still deserves to be viewable by future generations. Sure the Flash viewer might open your computer to hackers but if I wanted to see what my music mad workmate was trying to impress me with a decade ago then it would be nice to be able to risk my computer viewing it. With browsers now 'evergreen' and auto-updating I am not sure about this complete disconnect with allegedly bad web pages of the past. Having to dig out a ten year old PC running 'Vista' to view a Flash based website of yesteryear is far from accessible. I wonder how people in the archive business view this. HTML is essentially backwards compatible although I think the blink tag has finally gone from Firefox. Flash deserves a legacy final edition that grownups can use to show stuff to their grandchildren in decades to come.

Wowfunhappy 8y ago
Adobe has a standalone program called Flash Projector that can load swf files. That's what I'd generally recommend for viewing Flash content, though you do need to isolate and save any swf files beforehand.
- Theodores 8y ago
  They even have a linux 64 bit version! That is great news. That downloads page takes me back a bit. I remember that time when I would boot into Windows and there would always be a pop up saying there was an update to Flash for me. It was one of the more reliable surprises in the universe, even if ignored by everyone you could at least rely on the Flash installer to be wanting your attention with that familiar download page there for you, just waiting to keep you safe on your adventures online.

jonplackett 8y ago

Can't believe they're still updating it. I do still miss the ease of use fo flash though. Wish someone would make something this simple outputting web standards. Flash let a whole bunch of creative people make interactive experiments and websites that they just don't have the technical skills to do now you need to use a more formal setup. Flash sucked for many reasons, but for this it was excellent and hasn't been replaced.

Wowfunhappy 8y ago
Adobe Animate is basically a rebranded version of Flash, and it can export html5. I don't know how complete/compatible the export option is, but I know we've used it at my company for a small project.
basch 8y ago
Flash and Shockwave are two different things. Flash is still around as Animate.

DEADBEEFC0FFEE 8y ago

I wonder if Unity and Electron will be the Shockwave of tomorrow.

nosamu 8y ago

Note that this announcement is about Shockwave, not Flash. Here is an article about the difference between the two: https://medium.com/@nosamu/the-difference-between-flash-and-shockwave-b27609808a02 https://medium.com/@nosamu/the-difference-between-flash-and-... While Shockwave Player will be discontinued on April 9, Flash Player will be discontinued at the end of 2020: https://theblog.adobe.com/adobe-flash-update/ https://theblog.adobe.com/adobe-flash-update/

tomysshadow 8y ago

Note that Shockwave installers will also stop working after that point, as even the "full" installer downloads components from the web during the install.