Flash Curation

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Revision as of 06:17, 4 August 2022 by Nosamu (talk | contribs) (added Candystand curation guide)
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This page goes over some of the advanced techniques specific to Flash curation. Here are some sections that we're planning to add:

  • Using the debug projector, checking if a game needs browser (ExternalInterface errors)
  • Using Flash APIs such as the Miniclip Gameloader
  • Finding and adding SWZs
  • Using the plugin projector (coming in the next Core release) for games that check whether they're being played in a web browser

If you're able to help create these sections, please get started!

Using old Flash versions

Some Flash games may be broken in the latest Flash Player version and require an old Flash Player version to work properly. For example, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi: Dish It Out compares only the first digit of the Flash Player version to the version it expects. This means that only Flash Player versions 6 through 9 will work for this game. So Flash Player 9 is used, and the Application Path is FPSoftware\Flash\flashplayer9r277_win_sa.exe.

Amiyumi.png

Another common problem with Flash games is lagging when moving the mouse cursor. If this problem occurs, the game may need to be run in Flash Player 19 or earlier.

Finding the right Flash version

Sometimes, it's not so simple to find the right Flash Player version for a game. For example, when Shopping Mall Parking is played in the latest Flash version, your car will take damage constantly and refuse to move. To find the right Flash version for the game, follow these steps:

  1. Install JPEXS Free Flash Decompiler.
  2. Right-click the SWF and click "Open with FFDec".
  3. Click the "header" section in the tree view on the left.
  4. Translate the SWF version shown in JPEXS to its equivalent Flash Player version.
    • If the SWF version is below 9, the Flash Player version will be the same as the SWF version.
    • If the SWF version is 9 or above, use this chart to find the equivalent Flash Player version.
  5. In Flashpoint, open the FPSoftware\Flash folder. Find the executable for the Flash Player version that the game needs. Copy the name of the executable and use it as the Application Path for the game.
  6. Test whether the problem with the game is fixed!

JPEXSViewHeader.png

In the example above, the SWF version of Shopping Mall Parking is 13, and the equivalent Flash Player version is 11.0. Thus, you would try this Application Path: FPSoftware\Flash\flashplayer11_9r900_152_win_sa_debug.exe

Decrypting MochiCrypt

Mochi Media was a game publishing network that allowed developers to conceal their games in an encryption called MochiCrypt. Unfortunately, since Mochi Media is long defunct, some games encrypted using MochiCrypt will no longer work, often displaying nothing but a blank screen. As an example, Wizard Smash is a Ninja Kiwi game encrypted using MochiCrypt that suffers the fate of a blank screen, both on the Ninja Kiwi website and in Flashpoint Core. To get the game working in Flashpoint, we'll have to extract the decrypted, playable SWF from memory, using either JPEXS Free Flash Decompiler or MochiCryptUnpacker.

Using JPEXS

An example list of SWFs found by searching in memory using JPEXS. In this case, the largest SWF isn't actually the decrypted game, but the second-largest works in Flashpoint Core as a MochiCrypt-free version of the game.
  1. Install and open JPEXS.
  2. Open the game's SWF in Flash Player.
  3. Go to the Tools tab and click "Search SWFs in memory".
  4. Search through the list on the left for Flash Player, likely named flashplayer_32_sa.exe. Use the "Refresh list" button if you need to.
  5. Click "Select" to search through Flash Player's memory to find SWFs. You'll see lots of SWFs on the right, but the ones with game content are typically the ones with the larger file sizes.
  6. Click "Save" to save a SWF, then run it in Flashpoint Core using the original SWF's Launch Command. If it doesn't work, try another SWF found in Flash Player's memory until you find the decrypted, playable SWF.

Using MochiCryptUnpacker

  1. Find the Releases section to the right of MochiCryptUnpacker's GitHub page.
  2. Click on v1.0, then Release.zip to download the program.
  3. Extract the ZIP and open MochiCryptUnpacker.exe.
  4. Drag the game's SWF over the MochiCryptUnpacker window. The decrypted SWF will appear in the same folder as the original SWF.
  5. Run the decrypted SWF in Flashpoint Core using the original SWF's Launch Command.

Regardless of which method you use, once you find the decrypted version of the SWF and ensure that it works properly, you should do two more things: change the game's Status to Hacked with an explanation in the curation's Notes field that the SWF was decrypted, and make sure to include the original, encrypted SWF as part of your curation. Afterwards, continue with your curation as usual.

crossdomain.xml

Some Flash games may request a file called crossdomain.xml. This file permits access to domains other than the site the SWF is being hosted on. It will often look like the universal crossdomain.xml found in the Legacy/htdocs directory of Flashpoint: 

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<cross-domain-policy>
  <site-control permitted-cross-domain-policies="master-only"/>
  <allow-access-from domain="*"/>
  <allow-http-request-headers-from domain="*" headers="*"/>
</cross-domain-policy>

The universal crossdomain.xml allows an SWF to access any and all domains, but others found on specific websites may only permit access from certain websites, such as Sploder's crossdomain.xml: 

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE cross-domain-policy SYSTEM "http://www.macromedia.com/xml/dtds/cross-domain-policy.dtd">
<cross-domain-policy>
	<allow-access-from domain="sploder.com" />
	<allow-access-from domain="*.sploder.com" />
	<allow-access-from domain="127.0.0.11" />
	<allow-access-from domain="*" />
</cross-domain-policy>

If a game requests a crossdomain.xml, but it's missing from the web, you can use the universal crossdomain.xml in its place.

Flashvars

Flashvars are additional variables added to an SWF's Launch Command in order to load the game properly. Flashvars are added to the Launch Command by putting a "?" after the filename of the .swf, followed by any variables in the style name=value, separated with &.

For example, the game Spyhounds: Crack This Code! has a Launch Command of http://www-tc.pbskids.org/fetch/spyhounds/poodlediamond/swf/code_breaker_3KB.swf?spyday=2. Note the ? after the .swf file extension, which means the SWF here calls for the flashvars of spyday, set to 2. Changing this to another number such as spyday=4 or spyday=9 is necessary to make the SWF play the other versions of the game.

In addition, flashvars can be part of a game's embed code (see below for more info on embeds). For example, viewing the HTML source code of this Newgrounds game page reveals the following JavaScript code, which many Newgrounds games have a similar version of: 

{ swfobject.embedSWF("https://uploads.ungrounded.net/650000/650656_gridgame.swf?1419422088", "swfobject_embed", "720", "540", "9.0.0", null, {"NewgroundsAPI_PublisherID":1,"NewgroundsAPI_SandboxID":"5e057c3239505","NewgroundsAPI_SessionID":"","NewgroundsAPI_UserName":"<deleted>","NewgroundsAPI_UserID":0,"ng_username":"<deleted>"}

This code will generate the following Flash embed: 

<object id="swfobject_embed" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="https://uploads.ungrounded.net/650000/650656_gridgame.swf?1419422088" style="visibility: visible;" width="720" height="540"><param name="wmode" value="direct"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="never"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowfullscreeninteractive" value="true"><param name="flashvars" value="NewgroundsAPI_PublisherID=1&NewgroundsAPI_SandboxID=5e057ff9668f3&NewgroundsAPI_SessionID=&NewgroundsAPI_UserName=&lt;deleted&gt;&NewgroundsAPI_UserID=0&ng_username=&lt;deleted&gt;"></object>

Note this section in particular: 

<param name="flashvars" value="NewgroundsAPI_PublisherID=1&NewgroundsAPI_SandboxID=5e057ff9668f3&NewgroundsAPI_SessionID=&NewgroundsAPI_UserName=&lt;deleted&gt;&NewgroundsAPI_UserID=0&ng_username=&lt;deleted&gt;">

Even the Flashpoint Proxy can't get past this game's sitelock with the SWF alone, meaning these additional flashvars are required. Adding the flashvars in the format as explained above gives us the following Launch Command, which indeed makes the game work: 

http://uploads.ungrounded.net/650000/650656_gridgame.swf?NewgroundsAPI_PublisherID=1&NewgroundsAPI_SandboxID=5de02ce828e08&NewgroundsAPI_SessionID=&NewgroundsAPI_UserName=<deleted>&NewgroundsAPI_UserID=0&ng_username=<deleted>

Using HTML Embed Codes

Some Flash games are locked to only work in an internet browser. For these games, you'll need to use Basilisk instead of one of the Flash projectors. You'll need to embed the game in an HTML. Follow the steps below:

  1. Navigate to the webpage containing the game.
  2. Right-click the page and click "Inspect Element." (Don't right-click on the game, right-click somewhere else on the page.)
  3. Click the arrow button on the top-left of the Developer Tools window. Then click the Flash game. This should highlight the game's embed code.
    • If you're using Basilisk, it may not allow you to select the Flash game. Instead, you'll need to click a nearby element, then move your selection slightly to highlight the actual embed code.
  4. Press Ctrl-C to copy the highlighted embed code.
  5. Open a text editor such as Notepad and paste the embed code into it.
  6. Save the file as an HTML ("all files" on the Notepad dropdown menu).
  7. Place the HTML and the SWF it references at their original URLs in the content folder.
  8. Change the game's Application Path to FPSoftware\Basilisk-Portable\Basilisk-Portable.exe.
  9. Change the game's Launch Command to a URL matching the path to the HTML inside the content folder. Continue with the curation as normal.

Fixing the Embed Code

Embedding a Flash game in an HTML can occasionally cause problems with the game that did not previously exist. If a 3D game you are curating suddenly stops working when embedded in an HTML, or strange visual glitches appear in the game, you likely need to fix your embed code. Fortunately, the fix is very simple.

When you are embedding a Flash game in an HTML file, you should nearly always use the direct wmode parameter. For example, let's say you noticed visual glitches in a game with the following embed code. Changing transparent to direct would fix the problem. 

<embed src="someGame.swf" width="900" height="450" wmode="transparent"></embed>

Finally, if you are curating a 3D Flash game using an HTML embed, you should always use the direct wmode, because Stage3D (Flash's 3D engine) only works reliably in this mode. For example, if you had a 3D Flash game with this embed code: 

<embed src="someGame.swf" width="800" height="600"></embed>

You would change it to something like this: 

<embed src="someGame.swf" width="800" height="600" wmode="direct"></embed>

Creating New Embed Codes

Sometimes, only an SWF is available, and there is no webpage to copy an embed code from. If the SWF does not run correctly in the Flash projector, you will need to create an embed code from scratch. Start with the template embed code below: 

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="example.swf" width="640" height="480"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowfullscreeninteractive" value="true"><param name="allownetworkingmode" value="all"><param name="wmode" value="direct"></object>

Open the SWF in JPEXS Free Flash Decompiler. Click the "header" section in the tree view on the left. Next to "Display rect", you will see the width and height of the SWF indicated in twips and pixels. Ignore twips; pixels are what you are looking for. In the example below, the width of the SWF is 640 pixels and the height is 480 pixels.

JPEXSViewHeader.png

Next, replace the width and height in the template embed code with the SWF width and height that you just found. Finally, replace example.swf with the filename of your SWF.

You can also add or change additional properties of the embed as desired. See this page for a reference of those properties.

Once you have your embed code, complete the curation by following steps 5-9 above.

Site-specific Guides

Some Flash game sites pose a particular challenge to curate. This section provides tips on how to curate from those sites.

Candystand

Candystand.com no longer exists, having been absorbed into Publishers Clearing House in 2016. Additionally, many Candystand Flash games use a special preloader animation called a "stinger" and will refuse to load without it. If you are trying to curate a Candystand game, but it requests a stinger.swf file and gets stuck on a blank screen, you will need to find the game's original webpage on Candystand via the Wayback Machine. The easiest way to do that is to visit the old Candystand blog, which includes the original release announcements for many of the Candystand Flash games. Use the Search bar on the right of the page to search for the game's title. We'll use Fashion Star as an example - here is the original release announcement from 2008. The release announcement will include a link to the game - copy that link and paste it into the Wayback Machine to find the archived game page. Choose a capture from around 2010 - later captures tend not to work correctly.

Once you've found a capture of the game's original webpage, you'll need to find the main SWF file's URL (if you don't have it already), as well as the stinger file's URL. The easiest way is to load the page in a Flash-enabled browser such as Basilisk Portable With Flash Player and use the Network tab of the browser's Developer Tools. Open the Developer Tools, type swf into the "filter URLs" box, and look for the main game SWF and one with "stinger" in the name. Download these SWFs and place them in your curation as normal. Continuing the Fashion Star example, if you visit this capture in a Flash-enabled browser, you'll see it load these URLs: 

https://web.archive.org/web/20100125191002/http://www.candystand.com/games/fashion_star/fashion_star.swf
https://web.archive.org/web/20100125183943/http://www.candystand.com/games/stingers_as3/stinger_mouse.swf

If you have trouble loading a Candystand page in a Flash-enabled browser, another option is to right-click the page and click "View Page Source". Then you can search for ".swf" to find the SWF URLs manually. Note that the page source uses relative URLs, so you will need to add http://www.candystand.com to the beginning of each URL in order to download it.

Now that you have the SWFs downloaded, you'll need to add a bit of code to your launch command to tell the game to load the stinger file. Add ?swlist= to the end of the launch command, followed by the URL of the stinger, minus the http://www.candystand.com part. For example, you would add ?swlist=/games/stingers_as3/stinger_mouse.swf to the end of the launch command for Fashion Star. The final launch command would be: 

<nowiki>http://www.candystand.com/games/fashion_star/fashion_star.swf?swlist=/games/stingers_as3/stinger_mouse.swf

That's it! Your Candystand game curation should load fine now!

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