Extended FAQ

Be sure to check our normal FAQ in the Discord if you don't see your question here, then ask in #help-me-please if you are still not satisfied.

Q: What version of Flashpoint should I get? What's the difference between Infinity and Ultimate?

A: If you have a lot of free disk space, bandwidth, and time, you should get Flashpoint Ultimate. But if you don't have a lot of free space, want to get Flashpoint up and running quickly, or only want to play a few games, you should get Flashpoint Infinity. See below for a detailed description of each edition of Flashpoint.

• Flashpoint Ultimate: The full package. All games are fully playable offline. Also includes a logo and screenshot for each game. Comes in a 150GB+ 7Z, so you'll need about 400GB of free disk space to comfortably download and extract it.
• Flashpoint Infinity: A minimalist build - games download as you choose to play them. Once games are fully downloaded, they will work offline. Only Flash games are available in the base package, but it's only 200MB, meaning you can get up and running quickly. Additional downloadable upgrades add the game logos, screenshots, and non-Flash games like Shockwave and HTML5.
• Flashpoint Core: A lightweight copy of Flashpoint with one game per platform to aid curation. For developers and curators only!

Q: How do I update Flashpoint when a new version is released?

A: If you have Flashpoint Ultimate, you can use FlashpointUpdater. There is no updater available for Flashpoint Infinity or Core yet; you'll need to download and extract the new version. You can transfer any playlists you'd like to keep to a new version of Flashpoint by copying the JSON files out of the Data\Playlists folder from your old Flashpoint folder. Next, paste the JSON files into the Data\Playlists folder in your new Flashpoint folder.

Q: How do I create a shortcut to Flashpoint on my desktop/taskbar/start menu?

A: Go into the Launcher folder that's inside your Flashpoint directory and look for Flashpoint.exe. Right-click it and click Send to > Desktop (create shortcut), or drag it to your taskbar or start menu. CAUTION: Do NOT drag Flashpoint.exe directly to your desktop as that will move the file, which will make the launcher not work.

Q: Why do I need Flashpoint to play the games offline? Can't I just use a standalone player like the Flash Player projector to play them?

A: Many web games have what is known as a sitelock, which means that they will not work unless they are being played on the original site they were hosted on. Since the projector is not connected to the Internet and cannot identify those sites, those games will refuse to load on it. Flashpoint gets around this by running the games through a local server proxy which, simply put, tricks them into thinking they are being played on the original sites they were meant to be played on. Moreover, web games are commonly spread across multiple files rather than just one; those are known as multi-asset games. Those games cannot run properly on just the projector on its own, but Flashpoint also deals with that. For more details, see How Flashpoint Works.

Q: Can I have a zip or ROM of a specific game? Can I download just the games I want?

A: Flashpoint simulates the internet in order to make games think they are playing on their original websites (see the previous answer for a more detailed explanation of that). Since the files are laid out the same way as they would be on the internet, games are not separated cleanly into ZIPs or "ROMs." Flashpoint Infinity downloads games on demand, so you can keep only the games you like by using Flashpoint Infinity.

Q: Can I use Flashpoint to play my own SWF or DCR files?

A: Follow our Curation Tutorial to add games to Flashpoint! Flashpoint comes with standalone projectors for Flash and Shockwave, and in some cases it will work to simply open an SWF with a Flash projector or open a DCR with a Director projector. But to ensure that games are preserved and work properly, you'll need to curate them.

Q: I accidentally deleted a game/animation from Flashpoint! How can I reset it?

A: Follow the steps below:

1. Open your Flashpoint folder and navigate to Data\Platforms.
2. If you're looking for a game, open the arcade folder. Or if you're looking for an animation, open the theatre folder.
3. Find the XML filename that corresponds to the Platform of the game/animation that you deleted. For example, if you deleted a Flash game, the XML filename is Flash.xml.
4. Depending on whether you're looking for a game or animation, add the XML filename to the end of one of the following base URLs:
   • Games: https://unstable.life/Flashpoint/Data/Platforms/arcade/
   • Animations: https://unstable.life/Flashpoint/Data/Platforms/theatre/
5. Download the XML file from the URL you got. Replace the original XML file with the file that you downloaded.

Q: I accidentally marked a game as Broken (in Infinity), and it disappeared! How do I find it again?

A: Follow these steps:

1. In your Flashpoint folder, open the Launcher folder.
2. Open the config.json file in a text editor such as Notepad.
3. Find the line that says "showBrokenGames": false, and change false to true.
4. Save the file and restart Flashpoint.

Q: Can I use Flashpoint on Linux?

A: Yes! See Linux Support.

Q: Can I use Flashpoint on Mac?

A: A heavily experimental Flashpoint package is available for MacOS. See Mac Support.

Q: My antivirus flagged Flashpoint! Does Flashpoint have any viruses?

A: Flashpoint does not have any viruses. However, a number of antivirus programs falsely detect certain files in Flashpoint as viruses. Avast, AVG, and BitDefender are even known to render Flashpoint inoperable; you'll need to follow the instructions for Troubleshooting Antivirus Interference.

Q: Where can I see what websites have been archived?

A: We are working on consolidating and listing all of our scrapes, but for now, there are several places to look.

• Our latest scrapes are available here.

• The Flashfreeze Google Drive folder contains all of our early site scrapes, up to August 1, 2018.

• A few more site scrapes are available from this Archive.org item and BlueMaxima's Archive.org account.

• We track the sites we're saving on this spreadsheet. If you'd like a site saved, just add it to the appropriate column of the sheet.

• The #flashfreeze channel on our Discord server also has some leftover rips people have gotten.

Q: What is the difference between requesting and curating a game? Can I "submit" a game?

A: Requesting - This option adds your game to an ever-growing list of ones people want added. You will need to fill out the request form which takes 1-5 minutes. Chances of game being saved by any of the curators is small because there are thousands of games waiting on the list, some of which have been waiting for over a year. If you want to increase the chances of it being saved, we suggest that you try to write an engaging description of the game and/or the reason you want it saved.

Curating - This is the process of actually adding the game to Flashpoint. It requires testing the game using procedures detailed in our curation guides. It takes about 30 minutes to do the first time, but as you learn the process you can get it under 5 minutes. To get started, follow our Curation Tutorial. Once you curate a game, it will be saved and added to the next version of Flashpoint.

Q: What tools should I use to archive whole websites?

A: See Helpful Tools.

Q: How do I tell what platform a game is?

A: The easiest way to check these kinds of things is to right-click the game window and look at the context menu that appears. If it says something about Flash, it's a Flash game. If it says nothing out of the ordinary or no context menu appeared, it's probably HTML5. If the game is 3D, it's either Shockwave, or Unity Web Player (or rarely Flash). You can also use inspect element to look at the embed of the game for the following file extensions:

.swf - Flash

.dcr/.dir/.dxr - Shockwave

.unity3d - Unity Web Player

.jar/.class - Java

.stk - ShiVa3D

.xap - Silverlight

.vmo - 3DVIA

If a game runs only in Internet Explorer, references a .cab file, and is not one of the above types of games, it is probably an ActiveX game.

If a game does not require any plugins or ActiveX controls to run, then it is probably an HTML5 (or HTML/JavaScript) game.

If it's something else it may be under one of our other platforms, but these are the most common types.

Q: Where can I submit my collection of SWFs?

A: This is our public upload location.

It is highly encouraged that you first check the Game Master List and the Animation Master List for any game/animation that are already in Flashpoint and only upload ones that are not.

Q: Will Flash games disappear from the Internet when December 2020 hits?

A: They won't disappear by themselves. However, once Flash support is removed from browsers, most people won't be able to use flash content unless they downgrade their browser version. In that situation, the sites that are hosting the games might decide to remove the Flash games because the vast majority of people won't be able to play them anymore. As we cannot rely on the assumption that sites might stay up, we're working hard to grab as many games as possible while they're still here. For more information on the various browsers' road map for Flash's End of Life, see Flash EOL.

Q: Why can I not see the games' logos/screenshots?

A: Flashpoint Infinity does not come with the game logos by default due to size reasons. However, they can be downloaded as an upgrade from the Flashpoint Downloads page. Once it's finished downloading, unzip the file into your Flashpoint folder, then restart Flashpoint Launcher if it's open. The logos are only visible in Grid viewing mode; You can change the view mode using the drop-down menu that is situated at the bottom-right corner of the launcher window.

Q: Why can I not find X game/animation in the launcher? Why do some games/animations not appear?

A: There are a few possibilities:

• Flashpoint Infinity comes with only Flash support from the start to reduce size, but the other platforms can be downloaded as an add-on. If you are using Flashpoint Infinity and looking for a game or animation that is on a platform other than Flash, you will need to download the Other Technologies pack from the Home tab of the launcher.
• Make sure you spelled the name of the game/animation correctly when searching. If a search fails, try searching for partial names rather than full names. Varying punctuation is also a common culprit. We are planning on overhauling the Search feature to allow for more customizable and dynamic browsing in the future, so stay tuned!
• Make sure you don't have a playlist selected by accident; Searching in a playlist will look for the game in that playlist specifically. So make sure you have All Games selected in the left-hand column before making your search.
• It's also possible that we don't have the game yet. If you wish to request a game or an animation to be added to Flashpoint, you can do so via the respective request forms that you can find in Game Master List and Animation Master List. Alternatively, if you want to ensure that the game/animation is added, you can learn how to curate it yourself by following our Curation Tutorial. In either case, please thoroughly search the master lists above to make sure that we don't have the game or animation already.

Q: What is a good tool to decompile/hack SWF files (Flash games)?

A: The recommended program for this purpose is JPEXS Free Flash Decompiler.

Q: What is the legality of this?

A: "The only real answer is nobody knows and really, nobody should care. Games that more or less have a ticking clock until they die need to be saved now, as fast as possible."

- BlueMaxima

Q: Won't the games just be converted to HTML5?

A: No. HTML5 is an entirely different technology, so it's impossible for them to be converted automatically. Developers could port them over to the platform, but most will not have the time or resources to do it. Besides, the capabilities of HTML5 are different from those of Flash, so a game ported to HTML5 will never be identical to the original.

Q: Can't I use the Wayback Machine to play them?

A: The game has to be archived there in the first place, which may or may not happen. Wayback is specifically poor at grabbing multi-asset games (games that use more than one file), so chances are that it will not work there. Games with sitelocks won't work there even if they are archived.

Q: Where are the games stored?

A: The games and all of their assets are stored in the Server\htdocs folder within Flashpoint's directory (wherever you extracted it to).

Q: Where is the games' save data kept? How can I delete it/transfer it to another computer/drive?

A: You can find the location where each platform keeps their save data in Save Data Locations. For your convenience, there are two batch scripts included with Flashpoint which can be used to backup and restore save data to another computer or drive; Namely Saves Manager - Backup.bat and Saves Manager - Restore.bat. If you want to delete save data you are going to have to find and delete it manually at the locations listed on the aforementioned page.

Q: Why won't my Ultimate torrent open?

A: You will need a torrent client such as qBittorrent to open the .torrent file. The .torrent file tells your torrent client how to download Flashpoint Ultimate.

Q: The torrent won't download, even though I'm using a torrent client! What's the problem?

A: Do not use the torrent from Archive.org! Because of the size of Flashpoint Ultimate, Archive.org will not seed its torrent. Instead, use the torrent link on Bluemaxima.org.

Q: Why is Flashpoint not working after my download?

A: Make sure you unzip the program, as it will not work while still zipped. Please use 7-Zip when doing this, as WinRAR is known to fail. If Flashpoint is still not working, follow the Troubleshooting steps in the Readme.

Q: When I try to open the Flashpoint Ultimate 7Z file with 7-Zip, it says "Cannot open as archive." What's the problem?

A: The download was probably corrupted. Browsers are not designed to download gigantic files like Flashpoint Ultimate, so you'll need to use a download manager such as Free Download Manager to download the file.

Q: How can I check whether Flashpoint Ultimate downloaded successfully?

A: You'll need to check whether the hash of the file you downloaded matches the expected hash. First, install 7-Zip if you don't have it already. Next, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the 7Z file that you downloaded.
2. Choose "CRC SHA...", then choose SHA1 or CRC32.
3. Go to the Flashpoint downloads page and click the big Download button underneath the Flashpoint Ultimate heading. This should take you to Flashpoint Ultimate's Archive.org entry.
4. Scroll down and find the "Download Options" sidebar on the right. Click the "Show All" link.
5. Click the file ending in _files.xml. For example, on Flashpoint 6.3's page, the file is called Flashpoint6.3_files.xml.
6. You should see a list of files in XML format. Check the hash listed for the file, and make sure it matches the hash you found in Step 2. For example, if you chose CRC32 in Step 2, make sure the CRC32 hashes are the same.

Q: Why can't I install the upgrades for Flashpoint Infinity?

A: There is a known issue with Flashpoint Launcher that sometimes prevents it from installing the upgrades. Try downloading the upgrades manually by following the steps below:

1. In your Flashpoint folder, open the Data folder
2. Open the upgrade.json file in a text editor like Notepad.
3. Find and copy the URL for the upgrade ZIP file that you want to install.
4. Paste the URL into a download manager like Free Download Manager. Wait for the file to finish downloading.
5. Extract the file directly into your Flashpoint folder using 7-Zip.

Q: The Troubleshooting steps in the Readme told me to run Reset.bat, but I don't see any Reset.bat file! Where is it?

A: Reset.bat was omitted from Flashpoint 7.0 by mistake. Follow these steps to download and run it:

1. Download Reset.bat.
2. Move Reset.bat to the Launcher folder in your Flashpoint folder.
3. Make sure Flashpoint is closed. Then double-click Reset.bat to run it.

Q: Most games are working, but when I try to open a specific game, I get an error like one of these:

• "The file __ is not a Director file."
• "Error launching Unity Player: bad file length"
• "Failed to initialize player's 3D settings"
• Partially loaded images, missing elements on a page or in a game, or other problems indicating file corruption

A: If you are using Flashpoint Infinity, it's very likely that Flashpoint Router failed to download a complete file. To solve this problem, right-click the game that you are trying to play, then click "Open File Location." This will open a folder; delete all of the files there and relaunch the game. If the problem persists, try updating Flashpoint Router (see the next answer for how to do this). If that doesn't help, follow the Troubleshooting steps in the Readme.

Q: How do I update Flashpoint Router?

A: Follow these steps:

1. Download this file: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FlashpointProject/Flashpoint-Router/master/router.php
2. Place the downloaded file in the Server folder of your Flashpoint folder, overwriting the original router.php file.

Q: Can I play the games in fullscreen? Can I make them bigger?

A: The answer depends on the type of game you're playing. See below:

• For Flash games that open in the Flash projector, you can drag the corner of the window to resize it. Do your best to maintain the window's original aspect ratio, otherwise some games might behave in unexpected ways.
• For Flash, Shockwave, and Java games, you can play them in fullscreen using IntegerScaler. However, this program doesn't play well with multi-monitor setups.
• For most games that open in a browser, you can press Ctrl + and Ctrl - (Ctrl-plus and Ctrl-minus) to zoom in and out. In most cases, fullscreen is not possible for these games.

Q: How do I check whether a game is in Flashpoint? I tried using the search bar on the Master List but nothing came up!

A: Open the Game Master List and wait for it to finish loading. (If you're looking for an animation, use the Animation Master List instead.) Then, press Ctrl-F to search the list. Since this will search exact matches, be sure to try partial titles and account for alternative punctuation. If you're searching the Master List on iOS or Android, you can follow the instructions here.

Q: Are you able to add/support this game? It's based on Facebook/is online multi-player.

A: Probably not. To support always online games, the emulation of a server is required. To be able to do that is almost as much work as all of Flashpoint itself, so it really wouldn't be practical to put time into.

Q: I want to play Happy Wheels! What should I download?

A: We have a few options:

• The Happy Wheels Demo is available in Flashpoint Infinity. The demo is missing the user levels and other extra content from the full version.
• The full version of Happy Wheels is included with Flashpoint Ultimate. It includes all user levels up to 2019-03-24.
• We also offer a standalone download called Happy Wheels Offline. It only includes user levels up to 2018-11-26, but it's only 8GB.

Q: Why do I get a prompt asking me to allow Registry Editor to make changes to my computer when I try to play a game? Is it safe to allow this?

A: In order for Flashpoint's browsers to load Unity Web Player or ActiveX games, a small and harmless change needs to be made to the registry. This tells Flashpoint's browsers how to load the plugin or ActiveX control for the game you want to play. Just accept the prompt and you'll be able to play the game!

Q: How does Flashpoint's ActiveX support work? What happens when an ActiveX control is registered?

A: Flashpoint uses TheWorld Browser for its ActiveX support. It is a very lightweight wrapper around Internet Explorer's engine, so it can load ActiveX controls just like Internet Explorer can. It has a significant advantage over Internet Explorer though: it allows us to use Internet Explorer's engine with Flashpoint but not change your Internet Explorer settings. It can load files through Flashpoint's proxy and load Flashpoint's ActiveX controls that do not work with Internet Explorer's default settings.

All of the ActiveX controls supported by Flashpoint are included in the FPSoftware\ActiveX folder; no ActiveX controls are downloaded from the internet. When you launch an ActiveX game, its control is registered using the standard Windows component, regsvr.exe. First, Flashpoint Launcher runs startActiveX.bat, which runs regsvr.exe, which calls a function in the DLL of the ActiveX control, which finally registers the ActiveX control so Internet Explorer can use it. No two ActiveX DLLs do exactly the same thing when registering themselves, though.

Q: My curation works fine in Flashpoint Core, but when I import it into Infinity, it doesn't work anymore! Is there a problem with my curation?

A: Probably not. For Infinity, files need to be placed in the cgi-bin folder, following the same structure as they would in the htdocs folder, if they meet one of these criteria:

• The file has a PHP, PHP5 or PHTML extension. These files are always loaded from cgi-bin.
• The file doesn't have one of these extensions, but does have a PHP script in it that you intend to run.

This restriction exists because it would be unsafe for Infinity to download and execute PHP on demand.

If your curation does not include any PHP scripts and it still isn't working, switch to the Redirector window and click Tools -> Clear WinINet Cache, then try to launch the game again.

Q: When does the Nightly Infinity build get updated?

A: 12 AM and 2 PM GMT each day.

Q: I am playing a 3DVIA Player webgame and the audio is loud and distorted, how do I fix it?

A: Your computer has a codec issue with MP3 playback. To resolve this:

1. Install K-Lite Codec Pack.
2. Open Codec Tweak Tool from the Start Menu.
3. In Codec Tweak Tool, open Win7DSFilterTweaker.
4. Under Preferred decoders, change the setting for MP3 to ffdshow.

Q: When I open Flashpoint I see the following error:

Error with proxy: Error reading original system proxy settings. Make sure you have registry read permission. Error code: 12178
Games may not work until the error is fixed. Close Flashpoint and open it again once the error is fixed.

A: This error means that the WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service is disabled. Follow these steps to re-enable the service:

1. Open a Command Prompt as Administrator
2. Run this command: reg add "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WinHttpAutoProxySvc" /v "Start" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f
3. Restart your computer.

If Flashpoint still does not work after following those steps, the service may have somehow been removed from your system. Follow these steps to add the service back:

1. Open this list of default Windows services.
2. Press Ctrl-F to search the page. Search for WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service and download the linked .reg file.
3. Double-click the downloaded .reg file to add it to the registry. Click "Yes" on any UAC prompts that appear.
4. Restart your computer.

Q: Why do I see an error like this in the Redirector?

Error: Error occured in whilst handling the client: Could not establish connection to gateway.discord.gg

A: This is normal behavior. All of your HTTP traffic passes through the Redirector while Flashpoint is running; see How Flashpoint Works for more details. Because of this, if there are errors in your HTTP traffic, those errors may appear in the Redirector window.