Help Wanted List

1. Flashpoint Curation Creator developers: Flashpoint Curation Creator is our solution to make curating for Flashpoint simple and easy. It will allow users to fill out a few boxes, drag in a Content folder, and be on their way to submitting a curation. We even hope to integrate scripts that will automate grabbing game files from select sites. We need another developer to pick up the pace on this project.
   • See the GitHub repository: https://github.com/XXLuigiMario/FlashpointCC
   • Developers must be familiar with our Curation Format.
   • We hope to also add support for our overhauled Curation Format, planned to be introduced soon: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_Lyxkfw7Zwlmd1V-E1hq3etn-z_oR5fQ4V_jeonmj44/edit
   • Skills needed: proficiency with C#
2. Flashpoint Launcher developers: We use a custom Electron app called Flashpoint Launcher for displaying an launching games in Flashpoint. We need some more help with its development.
   • See the GitHub repository for more info: https://github.com/FlashpointProject/launcher
   • See the Trello board for some features we'd like implemented: https://trello.com/b/Tu9E5GLk/launcher
   • Skills needed: proficiency with Electron and TypeScript
3. Differential updates: currently Flashpoint has no updating mechanism, so users are required to re-download Flashpoint each release. Flashpoint is now hosted on a Mercurial repository, but a bit more work is needed to create an updating mechanism that takes advantage of this repository. If you would like to help us with this item, please join the Flashpoint Discord server to learn about our progress so far.
   • Skills needed: familiarity with Mercurial
4. Help with XML-RPC games: some Adobe Flash games use XML remote procedure calls for some of their functionality. We need help coding this functionality for each game that requires it, using Flashpoint’s PHP library. Here’s an example of how XML-RPC is used: https://help.adobe.com/en_US/as3/dev/WSb2ba3b1aad8a27b061afd5d7127074bbf44-7fff.html
5. Portable Shockwave Player plugin:
   • The Shockwave Player was discontinued on April 9, 2019: https://helpx.adobe.com/shockwave/shockwave-end-of-life-faq.html
   • The consumer version of the Shockwave Player no longer functions properly. This is because it attempts to download various legacy components from Adobe/Macromedia servers in order to play Shockwave content. However, those components were removed from the Adobe/Macromedia servers on April 9. As far as we know, we were able to save all of those legacy components.
   • The licensed version of the Shockwave Player is equivalent to the consumer version, but it includes all legacy components. It continues to function properly. It is available for download here: https://www.adobe.com/products/shockwaveplayer/shwv_distribution3.html
   • The Shockwave Player installs to the following folders: "C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Adobe\Shockwave 12", "C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\LocalLow\Adobe\Shockwave Player 12" "C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\LocalLow\Macromedia\Shockwave Player", "C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Shockwave 10". The first two are for modern components and the next two are for legacy components.
   • It also uses a number of keys and CLSIDs in the Registry. We are not sure how to allow the Shockwave Player to run without installation.
   • A possible solution is to use Enigma Virtual Box: https://www.enigmaprotector.com/en/aboutvb.html. We need someone to look into its feasibility for creating a portable Shockwave Player. It would likely need to be packaged with a portable browser such as K-Meleon Portable.
6. HTTPS support: Some games have obfuscation or exact URL sitelocks that make them only work on HTTPS URLs. We would like to support HTTPS in Flashpoint without installing a root certificate on the user's system. We need someone to set up the Apache server to use HTTPS, generate an SSL root certificate (self-signed should be fine), and direct one of our portable browsers to trust this certificate on all sites. The Apache server should act as a proxy for HTTPS traffic and serve files from its htdocs folder, just as it does for HTTP traffic.
   • Skills needed: familiarity with SSL certificates, Apache server, and the certificate manager of Mozilla-based browsers

Former Projects:

1. Action Message Format support: We finished adding an AMF implementation to our PHP server, so now we are working to save user content databases for games that require AMF.
2. Help curating Geocities.jp games: Geocities.jp closed on March 31, 2019, and some of the games hosted there were lost forever. At Flashpoint, we worked to curate some of the games, and save the assets for as many as possible so they can be added to Flashpoint later.

See Also: Help Wanted Games