Extracting Flash Games

This page is intended as reference for anyone who wants to extract Flash games on their own. Things to know:

• SWF: The compiled Flash application. Can only run on browsers or Macromedia's Flash Player. Browser support is set to end soon.
• EXE: Projector executables that have the Flash application working without needing a browser.
• FLA: The project file of the Flash application. The source file the author used to generate the SWF, can be freely edited with Flash.
• ActionScript: Programming scripting language for Flash applications.

Extracting

• Use a dedicated browser extension. Some recommendations: (TODO)
• Use the Developer Tools in either Firefox or Chrome to find the swfs. Sometimes it's as simple as copy pasting a direct link to a file with the swf extension from the page's source. But sometimes the search will be more involved and require combing through the browser cache for files with content type /x.shockwave.
• JPEXS-Decompiler can download swf files already loaded into browser memory.

Some websites require specific methods:

• ArmorGamesSwfFinder.py - Python script for ArmorGames

SWF Modding

Many SWF files will run once extracted, however some have DRM to run always online, from specific sites, and/or making use of external files. Those won't work directly or will only extract partially. Those will need modding to extract in full and to be made to work offline.

JPEXS-Decompiler can:

• Convert SWF to FLA
• Decompile ActionScript
• Extract sound/image/misc assets from the SWF

This isn't always straightforward because of some obfusciation methods used.

SWF Playback

Use the official Adobe Flash Player Projector, available here: https://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/debug_downloads.html

Some fixes for browsers (TBA):

• Firefox: Type about:config and change plugins.http_https_only to false

Convert SWF to EXE

Flash swf files can be converted to autonomous executables that will always work.

• Macromedia's Flash Player 8 can do that from File/Create Projector.
• BlueMaxima can confirm that this tool works as expected, although you'll want to replace the included projector with the newest version: http://swftools.sourceforge.net/swf-to-exe.html