Ruffle - Adobe Flash Player emulator

Ruffle is a free Adobe Flash Player emulator written in the Rust programming language. With this application, you can easily play Flash content as if the Flash is still installed.

The emulator is able to work in all modern operating systems (Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux) as a standalone desktop application, as well as in all popular web browsers (Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi) thanks to using WebAssembly.

Ruffle detects all existing Flash content on a website and automatically processes it in the Ruffle Player to ensure smooth updates for websites that still rely on Flash content. It should be noted that at the moment not all Flash content can be played using the emulator, but most can still be played. Early Flash animations and games will run fine. The developers of the project promise to gradually expand compatibility with flash in the future.

You can also download Ruffle Nightly:

With this tool, you will be able to play Flash content as if Flash is still installed without any problems. The emulator is able to work in all modern operating systems as a separate desktop application, as well as in all popular browsers (Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi) thanks to the use of WebAssembly.

Ruffle detects all existing Flash content on a website and automatically renders it in the Ruffle Player to ensure smooth refreshing of websites that still rely on Flash content. It should be noted that not all Flash content can be played with an emulator at this time, but most can. Early Flash animations and games will run fine. The developers of the project promise to gradually expand compatibility with Flash in the future.

Below are instructions for installing Ruffle for Chromium, Firefox and Windows browsers.

Installing Ruffle for Chrom and Chromium-based browsers:

Download the latest version of Ruffle for your browser. Unzip the downloaded zip file. Go to chrome://extensions/ in your browser. Turn on developer mode in the upper right corner. Click Download Unpacked. Select the folder where you unpacked the extension.

Installing Ruffle for Firefox:

Download Ruffle for Firefox. Select "Save Target As ..." to download the file as an .xpi file. Navigate to about: debugging. Select This Firefox. Click on "Download temporary add-on ...". Select the downloaded .xpi file to download it as a temporary Firefox extension.

Installing Ruffle for Windows:

Download Ruffle for Windows from our website. Unzip the downloaded zip file. Start the emulator.

Benefits of Ruffle:

Works great as a standalone application and compiles to WebAssembly for embedding in web pages in an isolated browser environment.

Convenient installation (inserted by a JS script). The emulator is easy to use. It is distributed free of charge. Active product development.

What is Ruffle? What is software for?

Ruffle is a free open source media player for playing Flash. In other words, it is a Flash Player emulator written in Rust. With this product, you can easily play Flash content as if Flash is still installed on your PC. The emulator works well on all known operating systems as a standalone desktop application, as well as an extension for all modern browsers with WebAssembly support.

Ruffle is currently in the proof-of-concept phase and can currently run early Flash animations and games. Basic support for ActionScript 1.0 / 2.0 exists and is constantly being improved. ActionScript 3.0 support expected.

Ruffle desktop builds are available for Windows, Mac and Linux. In addition, the developers have created separate extensions for all popular browsers (Firefox, Safari, Chromium-based browsers: Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera and Vivaldi).

Installing Ruffle in your browser adds support for Flash emulation. The browser will automatically detect Flash content and you can play it smoothly as if Flash was still installed

Adobe Flash technology will not be supported in 2021. Adobe has already released the final Flash updates in December 2020 and has officially announced the shutdown of Flash in 2021. All major browsers such as Chrome, Edge and Firefox will no longer support Flash. But what should the average user do if he needs to get access to Flash content after 2020? And what happens to the sheer amount of Flash content posted on the Internet?

One of the options available is to use Flash preservation projects. For example, the Flash Games Preservation Project contains hundreds of gigabytes of Flash games and animations, and the creators of the Internet Archive have prepared a Flash emulator that will allow Flash content to be played directly on a web resource.

The Internet Archive uses the Ruffle emulator, which is written in Rust and supports all modern operating systems and browsers with WebAssembly support. Ruffle's developers have even created separate extensions for Firefox, Safari, and Chromium-based browsers like Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, or Vivaldi.

Installing Ruffle in your browser adds support for Flash emulation. The browser will automatically detect Flash content and you can play it smoothly as if Flash was still installed.

Download Ruffle

How to install Ruffle

The Ruffle extension is currently not hosted in the Chrome Web Store or the Mozilla Add-ons Store. The extension is still in development, so it is recommended to use it on test systems and on development devices.

Firefox

To install the Ruffle extension, Firefox users need to follow these steps:

Download the latest version of Ruffle for Firefox from the official website (select Save Target As ... to download the file as an XPI file).

Open the internal about:debugging page in a browser.

Select "This Firefox" (or this Nightly) from the sidebar.

Click the Download Temporary Add-on ... button.

Select the downloaded XPI file to download it as a temporary Firefox extension

The extension will be loaded only on a temporary basis, after restarting the browser, it will be removed.

Chrome and Chromium browsers

Download the latest version of Ruffle for Chromium based browsers from the official website.

Unpack the archive after downloading.

Open the inner chrome://extensions/ page in a browser.

Turn on developer mode on the page that opens.

Select the Load unpacked extension option and specify the folder where you unpacked the extension.

How efficient is Ruffle at handling Flash emulation?

The current version of Ruffle does not support emulation of all Flash content. This means that you may encounter flash elements that cannot be reproduced with the current versions of the emulator. The developers promise to expand Flash compatibility in future versions of Ruffle.

Ruffle is a handy solution to restore Flash support in browsers. While emulation is not perfect at this stage, there are many flash applications and games that already work great in Ruffle.

Do you still need access to Flash content?

Download Ruffle

How to unblock the Adobe Flash Player plugin in Google Chrome

Adobe Flash used to be one of the most widely used technologies for displaying multimedia content on the Internet. However, as web content creators moved away from it and moved to faster, more secure open web technologies, even Adobe ditched this, announcing that they would end support for Flash at the end of 2020 and demanding from the big tech companies, such as Google, do the same. The phase-out of Flash in Chrome and any other web browser has reached a stage where it is blocked by default. As of January 12, 2021, the Adobe Flash Player has been discontinued: You cannot download it from the Adobe website, and you can no longer use it if you need to access websites that rely on it. However, in this guide, we'll show you how to unblock Adobe Flash Player in Chrome using a browser extension called Ruffle.

Unofficial way to unblock Flash Player in Chrome:

Ruffle (Google Chrome)

Download the Ruffle web browser extension.
Turn on developer mode in Google Chrome.
Download and install Ruffle on Google Chrome.
Visit sites with Flash content.

Adobe ended support for Flash Player on December 31, 2020, and on January 12, 2021, the company also began blocking the launch of Flash content. According to the general information page of Adobe Flash Player EOL, the company also strongly recommends that you uninstall Flash Player from your computers and devices in order to resolve security issues associated with installing this software.

How to unblock Adobe Flash Player

The best way right now to unblock Adobe Flash Player and run Flash content on Google Chrome is to install and use a browser extension called Ruffle. Unfortunately, it is not yet available in the Chrome Web Store, so there are a few manual steps to get it.

Use Chrome to go to the Ruffle releases page and download the latest Chrome / Edge / Safari browser extension.

Save the Ruffle browser extension on your computer, and then unpack its contents somewhere on your computer. Any location will do, including your desktop or your downloads folder.

Ruffle: An emulator that returns Adobe Flash Player

Starting in 2021, Adobe Flash Player will cease to function worldwide. After 25 years on the market, many gaming sites are having problems because they can no longer use this tool. Luckily, there is a way to enjoy it again with an open source emulator called Ruffle.

Ruffle will allow you to play those games that depend on Adobe Flash Player again. This emulator is written in Rust and is presented as a good option for those who are caught off guard by the end of Flash. Ruffle works both as a standalone application and built into the browser using WebAssembly.

Ruffle Brings Back Adobe Flash Player

Ruffle is an emulator written in the Rust programming language that allows you to run any type of game. In addition, thanks to the memory protection built into the programming language, it is significantly more secure than Adobe Flash Player. This helps eliminate memory errors such as buffer overflows.

This use also avoids Flash's known security issues over time, especially now that support has officially ended. Therefore, the security features will ensure that Rust can be used without problems at all times. While many web pages have been upgraded to stop using Adobe Flash Player, many of them have not, especially online game pages. This emulator is provided as a temporary solution while these pages are updated.

After installing this emulator, all Flash content on the website will automatically run in Ruffle. This will allow you to access and use those pages that are still dependent on Flash content as before December 31, 2020.

The Ruffle emulator is an open source project maintained and run by volunteers. It can be used on any operating system such as Windows, Linux or macOS. It can also be used on Android devices, but there is currently no app for Android smartphones. However, it can be added via an extension in browsers that support this feature. Thus, you can also access sites with Flash content from your mobile phone.

A group of enthusiasts is working on the Ruffle project, which is designed to extend the life of Internet resources that continue to use outdated Flash technology.

The Ruffle project is developing a cross-platform Adobe Flash Player emulator. The emulator is written in the Rust programming language and can be used as a stand-alone client-side application or embedded into web pages using the Webassembly technology. The emulator code is published on Github project hosting under Apache 2.0 and MIT licenses. The project is financially supported, in particular, by The New York Times and the Newgrounds entertainment venue.

According to the developers, site owners will not have to make significant changes to their code to provide further support for Flash: just install the Ruffle application on the server and add a single line of HTML code (loads a special Javascript library) to each page that includes Flash content . As a result, Ruffle will automatically detect Flash videos and ensure their playback in Chrome, Firefox and Safari browsers, including mobile platforms.

In the event that the author of a site developed using Flash technologies does not bother to install Ruffle, visitors will still be able to run Flash games and videos on PCs and gadgets. A standalone application (no GUI yet) is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems. For users of Firefox and Chrome browsers, a special add-on has been developed to replace the proprietary Adobe Flash plugin.

Ruffle developers emphasize the emulator's high level of security compared to existing Flash players. According to them, "taking advantage of browser sandboxing and Rust's memory handling capabilities avoids all the pitfalls that Flash is famous for."

To date, the Ruffle project is at the initial stage of development, however, the emulator already allows you to correctly play Flash content created at an early stage of the technology life cycle - up to 2006. According to information published on the official website of the project, support for Action Script 1 and 2 languages provided at the level of 70%, and API - 35%. Support for the Action Script 3 language, which appeared in 2009 with the release of Flash Player 9 (June 2006), is still at the "rudimentary" level: only 5% of its capabilities have been implemented.

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Flash is Adobe Systems' multimedia platform for creating web applications or multimedia presentations. Previously, it was widely used to create advertising banners, animations, games, as well as playing video and audio recordings on web pages.

On the client side, a special player, Flash Player, was used to play Flash content. It could be installed both as a standalone application and as a browser plug-in.

Flash was originally developed by Futurewave and was known as the Futuresplash Animator. But in 1996, the developer was bought out by Macromedia, which renamed the product to Flash. In April 2005, it became known that Adobe was buying Macromedia for $3.4 billion.

As a reminder, after December 31, 2020, Flash content will no longer play with already installed instances of the player. In addition, Adobe will not only stop releasing updates for the player, but will also remove all links to download its installer from its website.

In December 2016, Google began to disable Flash support in its Chrome browser and replace it with HTML5. Before that, in the spring of 2016, it became known that in Q4 2016, Google Chrome would play Flash without additional user actions, only on websites. The list of these resources includes: Youtube.com, Facebook.com, Yahoo.com, Live.com, Twitch.tv, Amazon.com. Thus, 40% of the list of exceptions was formed from Russian resources. Google explained that all of these sites use Flash technology most frequently compared to other sites on the Internet, based on statistics that the company receives from the Chrome browser.

A few days after Google, Microsoft announced that it was phasing out Flash. In Edge browsers (on the old EdgeHTML engine) and Internet Explorer, it was supposed to completely stop working at the end of 2019. With the new Chromium-based Edge, Microsoft is following the same timeline for phasing out support for Flash as Google in its Google Chrome. Flash will be disabled in several stages, with full support ending in December 2020.

Mozilla is implementing a similar plan - its Firefox browser will completely stop supporting Flash in December 2020.

Download Ruffle

The reason for saying goodbye to outdated technology was its vulnerability. For example, in February 2014, Adobe released an update for Flash Player on Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. It fixed a vulnerability that allowed hackers to take control of the victim's computer.

In April 2014, a critical vulnerability was fixed in Flash Player that affected users on Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. Experts believed it was used by anti-government Syrian dissidents for espionage purposes.

In April 2016, Adobe released an emergency update for the Flash player, which was targeted by hackers. The attackers used it to spread a ransomware virus that blocked users' computers and encrypted data on them.

In March 2020, Eset discovered a Turla hacking campaign targeting several prominent Armenian websites. Cybercriminals used social engineering methods and distributed previously unknown malware under the guise of fake Adobe Flash updates (Netflash and Pyflash).

Despite the actual "death" of Flash, according to w3techs, about 2.3% of sites in the world still use this technology. This indicator has been continuously decreasing since 2011. Between 2011 and 2018, the share of web resources using Flash decreased by an average of three percentage points per year. Since 2019, the rate of decline in the popularity of technology has slowed down somewhat.

In November 2020, the NGO Internet Archive pledged to preserve popular Flash content, which it considers the cultural heritage of mankind, in its own collection.

At the moment, this collection has about 1.5 thousand videos and games. The playback of Flash content on the archive site is provided by the Ruffle emulator.

Recall that the Internet Archive is an American non-profit association and a web portal of the same name, which is the largest electronic library on the Internet. It is a global resource and is officially a member of the International Internet Preservation Consortium.

The Internet Archive was founded by Brewster Kahle in San Francisco in 1996 and until 1999 only copies of web pages were stored there, but graphics, video and audio materials, and software have since been added.