Recovering Files from Browser Cache

When browsing the internet, web browsers often save files from websites you visit on your computer in a location called the "cache". This way it won't need to redownload them the next time you visit, which leads to faster loading times whenever you go back to a website a second time. Because of the nature of web games, we can use this to our advantage when looking for lost games whose files are now unavailable.

This method for finding assets belonging to lost games is very imprecise for a few reasons: it requires access to an old computer where you played the game; the game's cached files might be gone (they may have been deleted after visiting other websites or if the user cleared the cache); the game could have a lot of files, some of which are only requested at certain times (for example, the files for each level are only downloaded when you beat the previous one, which requires you to have completed the whole game).

Because of this, it should only be used after you've exhausted all other possibilities, including:

• Checking if the files are still in the original site. They might still exist even if the game is unlisted.
• Checking the Wayback Machine.
• Looking for a fan or fanmade project who saved the game while it was still available.
• Asking a developer who worked on the game if they still have any files they'd be willing to send.

This guide will list some lost games where these methods have all been tried and which are only likely to be found by searching the web cache. It will also show you how to recover these cached files by using a small script which can be easily run on a computer running Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 or 10.

List of currently lost games

This section lists some missing games where searching for their files in browser caches seems like the most promising way to find them. If you still have access to an old computer where you played any of these, be sure to contact a staff member in the #hunter-lounge of our Discord server! You could very well help us make them playable again.

• Big Fat Awesome House Party (2006-2009): a Shockwave game released on May 15th 2006, which was playable on awesomehouseparty.com. It was developed by Powerful Robot Games and published by Cartoon Network. The game was discontinued on July 13th 2009, not long after the show it was based on ended. The game had a Flash movie which was used to handle registrations/logins (it shouldn't be confused for the real game). These Flash files were hosted on i.awesomehouseparty.com. The files for the actual Shockwave game are all missing and may have been hosted here as well.

List of games found by searching the web cache

This section lists some previously lost games which were recovered by searching for their files in browser caches.

• Game X (Y-Z): TODO

Flashpoint Cache Dumper

This section will show you how to use a small script called the "Flashpoint Cache Dumper" to list and copy the files in web browser caches.

How to run it

1. Step 1
2. Step 2
3. Step 3

Using the Complete Version

TODO

Other Useful Tools and Resources

TODO