Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a mostly discontinued multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich internet applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players.
A Rich Internet Application (also known as a rich web application, RIA or installable Internet application) is a web application that has many of the characteristics of desktop application software. The concept is closely related to a single-page application, and may allow the user interactive features such as drag and drop, background menu, WYSIWYG editing, etc. The concept was first introduced in 2002 by Macromedia to describe Macromedia Flash MX product (which later became Adobe Flash). Throughout the 2000s, the term was generalized to describe browser-based applications developed with other competing browser plugin technologies including Java applets, and Microsoft Silverlight.
With the deprecation of browser plugin interfaces and transition to standard HTML5 technologies, Rich Internet Applications were replaced with JavaScript web applications, including single-page applications and progressive web applications.
A browser game is a video game that is played over the Internet using a web browser, typically without the need for dedicated hardware or software installation. They are sometimes referred to more specifically by their format, such as Flash games or HTML5 games. They are generally free-to-play and can be either single-player or multiplayer. It is not necessary to install a browser game; simply visiting the webpage will run the title in a browser. Some browser games were also made available as mobile apps, PC games, or console titles. However, the browser version may have fewer features or inferior graphics compared to the others, which are usually native apps.
Browser games have existed in various forms since the origins of the open internet in the 1990s. However, the 2000s were a "golden age" for the medium, and a great many were created with Adobe Flash during the period. The 2000s also saw the rise of social network games such as FarmVille, and the web ecosystem of the time was a "creative vortex" of rapid iteration and development, which had a huge influence on independent video games. Ultimately, the decline of Flash as a format and the rise of mobile gaming in the 2010s brought an end to the scene, though there have been more recent developments such as .io games.
FarmVille is a series of agriculture-simulation social network games developed and published by Zynga beginning in 2009. It is similar to Happy Farm and Farm Town. Its gameplay involves various aspects of farmland management, such as plowing land, planting, growing, and harvesting crops, harvesting trees and raising livestock. The sequels FarmVille 2 and FarmVille 3 were released in 2012 and 2021.
The game was available as an Adobe Flash application via the social networking website Facebook and Microsoft's MSN Games. It was briefly available as a mobile app for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad in 2010. The game is free to play, but to progress quickly, players are encouraged to spend Farm Cash (in FarmVille) or Farm Bucks (in FarmVille 2), which are purchasable with real-world currency. FarmVille was thus one of the first major freemium games.
HTML video is a subject of the HTML specification as the standard way of playing video via the web. Introduced in HTML5, it is designed to partially replace the object element and the previous de facto standard of using the proprietary Adobe Flash plugin, though early adoption was hampered by lack of agreement as to which video coding formats and audio coding formats should be supported in web browsers. As of 2020, HTML video is the only widely supported video playback technology in modern browsers, with the Flash plugin being phased out.
Macromedia, Inc. was an American graphics, multimedia, and web development software company headquartered in San Francisco, California, that made products such as Flash and Dreamweaver. It was purchased by its rival Adobe Systems on December 3, 2005.