Ruffle
TitleRuffle
ScreenshotFile:Ruffle.rs Demo.png
DeveloperMike Welsh
kmeisthax
Nathan Adams
Callum Thomson
relrelb
Kamil Jarosz
Aaron Hill
Programming languageRust,[1] ActionScript, TypeScript, JavaScript
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows, macOS, Linux
GenreMultimedia, video game emulator
LicenseMIT license, Apache License 2.0

Ruffle is an emulator for Adobe Flash (SWF) animation files.

Ruffle is multi-licensed under the MIT License and the Apache License 2.0.

Following the deprecation and discontinuation of Adobe Flash Player in January 2021, some websites adopted Ruffle to allow users to continue viewing and interacting with legacy Flash Player content.

Features

Ruffle is written in the Rust programming language, featuring a desktop client and a web client. Website authors can load Ruffle using JavaScript, or users can install a browser extension that works on any website.[2]

The web client relies on Rust being compiled to WebAssembly, which allows it to run inside a sandbox, a significant improvement compared to Flash Player, which garnered notoriety for having various security issues.[3][4] The Rust language itself protects against common memory safety issues that plagued Flash Player, such as use after free or buffer overflows.[5]

The desktop client currently uses a graphical user interface to open SWF files.[6] Downloads are available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. In addition, there are browser extensions for Mozilla Firefox, as well as Chromium-based browsers. A website administrator can even install Ruffle on their websites using a script tag for their webpages.[7]

As of May 2026, Ruffle supports most older Flash content, which uses ActionScript 1.0 and 2.0, with 99% of the language and 81% of the API having been implemented.[8] Support for ActionScript 3.0 has improved significantly since August 2022, with about 90% of the language and 77% of the API having been implemented, and an additional 9% of the API partially implemented. In an article, Bleeping Computer reported that all the Flash games they tried in February 2021 "worked flawlessly".[5]

History

Background

Adobe announced in 2017 that it would stop supporting Flash Player on January 1, 2021, encouraging the use of HTML5 instead.[9] That same year The New York Times began working on archiving old web content, so that readers could view webpages as they were originally published,[10] and now uses Ruffle for old Flash content.[11]

Adobe started blocking the use of Flash Player versions newer than 32.0.0.371[12] on January 12, 2021, using a kill switch.[13] Various websites, including governmental and educational ones, were not prepared for the shut-off and abruptly stopped working.[14][2]

Ruffle

Mike Welsh, who worked at Newgrounds until 2012, previously worked on an open source project named Swivel to archive Flash content into videos.[15]

In 2016, Welsh began a project called Fluster. Later renamed Ruffle, this project would morph into a Flash Player emulator, with a desktop and web client.[4][16][17][18]

Release history for desktop operating systems

Release history for desktop operating systems
Operating systemFirst versionLatest versionSupport status
Windows11 or later2020-10-01Current2021-present
102025-10-142020–2025 (Current)
7, 8 and 8.12024-03-132020–2024[19]
macOS12 or later2020-10-01Current2021–present
112025-07-312020–2025
10.152024-08-312020–2024[20]
10.13-10.142023-08-312020-2023[21]

Adoption

Since 2019, some websites have announced that they would be using Ruffle.

Newgrounds founder Tom Fulp said they realized "the end of Flash was coming" in 2010, but did not know when.[22] In 2019, Newgrounds announced it was sponsoring the development of Ruffle,[23] and would use it for all Flash content, starting with animations and later interactive games.[24] The switch allowed Newgrounds to offer some touch-friendly games on mobile for the first time. Fulp told The Washington Post: "We've been integrating Ruffle with the site and so far, the majority of content on Newgrounds from before 2007 is running with Ruffle".[15]

In 2020, Coolmath Games announced that they would be using technologies such as Ruffle to make Flash content playable.[25]

In November 2020, Internet Archive announced they will be using Ruffle to preserve Flash games and animations.[26] Jason Scott, an archivist at the Internet Archive, said: "I looked into adding it to the Internet Archive system, and it took less than a day and a half because it was so well made".[27]

In December 2020, Armor Games announced that Ruffle had been chosen as their player for Flash content.[28]

Homestar Runner has also announced the implementation of Ruffle for their cartoons and games.[29] In addition to the official website, this change was soft announced via Strong Bad's Twitter account.[30]

In July 2023, Neopets announced that the usage of Ruffle was being explored to speed up the process of bringing back broken Flash games and other content to the website.[31]

See also

References

  1. ^ Michael, Larabel. "Still Have A Use For Adobe Flash? Ruffle Is Working To Safely Emulate It In Rust". Phoronix. Archived September 2, 2023 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  2. ^ Salter, Jim (2021-02-02). "Flash is dead—but South Africa didn't get the memo". Ars Technica. Archived December 25, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-12-25.
  3. ^ "Flash videos and games are resurrected by Ruffles emulator". SlashGear. 2019-08-26. Archived December 25, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-12-25.
  4. ^ Krill, Paul (2019-08-22). "Ruffle project hopes to resurrect Flash Player". InfoWorld. Archived December 25, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-12-25.
  5. ^ Abrams, Lawrence (2021-02-06). "This Flash Player emulator lets you securely play your old games". BleepingComputer. Archived December 25, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-12-25.
  6. ^ "Downloads § Desktop Application". Ruffle. Archived April 13, 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-12-26.
  7. ^ "Downloads § Website Package". Ruffle. Archived April 13, 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  8. ^ "Compatibility § ActionScript Compatibility". Ruffle. Retrieved 2026-02-11.
  9. ^ Warren, Tom (2017-07-25). "Adobe will finally kill Flash in 2020". The Verge. Archived July 25, 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-12-25.
  10. ^ Wang, Shan (2018-04-12). "Here's how The New York Times is trying to preserve millions of old pages the way they were originally published". Nieman Lab. Archived January 22, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-12-25.
  11. ^ "Some of the most iconic 9/11 news coverage is lost. Blame Adobe Flash". WCVB. 2021-09-11. Retrieved 2021-12-25.
  12. ^ Brookes, Tim (2021-01-15). "How to Use Adobe Flash (Even Though It's Dead)". How-To Geek. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
  13. ^ Tung, Liam. "Adobe Flash is finally gone: The end arrives as Adobe starts blocking Flash content". ZDNet. Archived December 31, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  14. ^ DeBré, Elena (2021-02-05). "These Places Were Not Ready for Flash to Die". Slate. Archived December 31, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  15. ^ Favis, Elise & Liao, Shannon (2021-04-08). "Flash is dead. These games from the early 2000s hope to live on.". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived April 15, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-12-26.
  16. ^ "Update README · ruffle-rs/ruffle@0d9d5fe". GitHub. Archived November 10, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2020-07-24.
  17. ^ "Initial commit · ruffle-rs/ruffle@b979ac2". GitHub. Archived November 10, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2020-07-24.
  18. ^ "Rename project · ruffle-rs/ruffle@62ae3b0". GitHub
  19. ^ "Release Nightly 2024-03-13 · ruffle-rs/ruffle · GitHub". GitHub. Archived 2024-03-14 at the Wayback Machine.
  20. ^ "Release Nightly 2024-08-31 · ruffle-rs/ruffle · GitHub". GitHub. Archived 2024-09-10 at the Wayback Machine.
  21. ^ "Release Nightly 2023-08-31 · ruffle-rs/ruffle · GitHub". GitHub. Archived 2023-09-11 at the Wayback Machine.
  22. ^ "Newgrounds founder Tom Fulp on Flash and the challenges of preserving two decades of content". www.washingtonpost.com. 2021-04-08. Archived June 29, 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-12-26.
  23. ^ "Flash videos and games are resurrected by Ruffles emulator". SlashGear. 2019-08-26. Archived December 25, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-12-25.
  24. ^ Macgregor, Jody (2019-08-25). "Flash emulation project aims to preserve gaming history". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2021-12-25.
  25. ^ "Coolmath Games and Flash". www.coolmathgames.com. Archived 23 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-02-07.
  26. ^ Jason Scott (November 19, 2020). "Flash Animations Live Forever at the Internet Archive". Retrieved January 16, 2021.
  27. ^ Chan, Khee Hoon (2021-03-18). "Tracing the Sprawling Roots of Flash Preservation". Vice.com. Archived August 7, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-12-25.
  28. ^ "The Future of Flash on Armor Games". Armor Games. 8 December 2020. Archived January 4, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
  29. ^ "Ow! My entire website!! - Post-Flash Update". Homestar Runner. Retrieved 2022-04-09.
  30. ^ "Did it food?". Strong Bad on Twitter. Archived April 13, 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2022-04-13.
  31. ^ Neopets (2023-07-16). "A New Era for Neopets!". Medium. Archived February 8, 2025 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2023-07-26.