Flashpoint Archive – Over 200k web games and animations preserved

Your childhood clicks are back—200k web classics rescued as comment wars erupt

TLDR: Flashpoint Archive has preserved over 200,000 classic web games and animations, powered by an open-source launcher and tools. Commenters are split between nostalgia-fueled applause and gripes about needing a download, with shoutouts to Homestar Runner and jokes about “legal torrenting” size—proof internet culture is worth saving.

Flashpoint Archive just dropped the internet’s ultimate nostalgia bomb: over 200,000 web games and animations preserved since 2017, complete with an open-source launcher and a clever “pretend the old web is still alive” trick. Started by BlueMaxima and now a non-profit, it’s basically a time machine for browser fun. The community? Absolutely vibing. One fan declared “Flash was innovative, the internet today can’t compare”, while others cheered that beloved oddball cartoons like Homestar Runner might be safe at last.

But the afterparty turned spicy. Some grumbled that you need a special download instead of playing in-browser, with one commenter waving the banner for WebAssembly (a browser tech that runs speedy code) and asking why there isn’t a web-based Flash player yet. Meanwhile, a comedian in the crowd joked this is “legal torrenting” for people bored of tiny Linux ISO files. There’s even a breadcrumb trail to a previous discussion for those who want more drama. The mood swings between nostalgia-fueled love and practical skeptics demanding one-click web playback. Either way, the message is clear: preserving the weird, wild, plug‑in-powered web matters—and people will happily download a time capsule to relive it.

Key Points

  • Flashpoint Archive is a non-profit, community-driven project preserving web games and animations.
  • Over 200,000 items have been preserved since December 2017 across more than 100 web plugins and technologies.
  • Flashpoint provides open-source software for navigation and playback, including a launcher, proxy, and sandbox.
  • The project was started by BlueMaxima to address the disappearance of web games ahead of Adobe Flash’s end of life.
  • The initiative involves hundreds of contributors worldwide and accepts donations, including via Open Collective.

Hottest takes

"Everyone on HN hates on things like Flash, but they were genuinely innovative technologies" — SilverElfin
"Seems like WASM should be able to do anything" — tornato7
"If you’re interested in legal torrenting but GNU/Linux images are too small for you, this is for you" — trvz
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