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mcgrafx
Participating Frequently
August 28, 2016
Question

How do I convert my 100's of flash (actionscript 2.0) games to HTML5 now that swiffy is dead?

  • August 28, 2016
  • 3 replies
  • 7141 views

I am glad HTML5 is replacing flash for games etc,...   All of these new applications look great, and I'm excited to learn how to create games all over again in these new applications like animate cc etc,.... but that will take years because I am not good at understanding code. Right now, I have an emergency project of exporting my games to HTML5 as fast as possible before the time comes when adobe won't allow me to open or edit my actionscript 2.0 games at all anymore.  Learning a whole new language (actionscript 3.0) will take me a few years.  After years of studying actionscript 2.0, I still don't understand it on an expert level.  Luckily, flash was versatile enough to support basic level programmers who wanted to create complex games.

Unfortunately I didn't know that swiffy was going to be killed until August.  I have loads of educational games I built using flash with actionscript 2.0, and I have no idea now how to export them to HTML5 without swiffy.  I am a teacher and can't afford to pay someone to convert my 100's of games for me.  Swiffy was perfect!  Has anyone found a solution?  Does Adobe have a solution for us?  The singular adobe video showing how to convert a very basic flash ad into HTML5 is no help to people who made beautiful, complex games using flash with actionscript 2.0.

I haven't seen adobe address this problem many folks are having, but I did find an app called flaexporter which only works on flash cc.  I don't have flash cc, and it doesn't seem available to download as a 'past/old version' from my adobe creative download app.  Is there a way to download this older flash cc app so I can export all my games to HTML5?  I don't want to waste years of game development just because swiffy disappeared.

I have the full adobe cs with all the updated software apps including animate cc.  Unfortunately, animate cc seems useless, because when I try to open up one of the games I put years of work into, it destroys that game completely.  When I publish the game, it doesn't work at all.

I create games for education and had used swiffy and flash because they were easy for a designer like me to use.  I am not a top level programmer, but I have always been able to create and modify flash.

1. Animate cc tells me that only a3.0 files can be imported and still work.  So, how do I export actionscript 2.0 to actionscript 3.0 using the flash c6s that is still working on my laptop?  I don't see the option to export to actionscript 3.0 in flash c6s, and I do not see the option to 'successfully' import actionscript 2.0 into animate cc.  Is there something I'm missing here?   Has anyone found a solution to this problem?

2. Instead of trying to figure out how to export a2.0 to a3.0, just so I can open it in animate cc and then export to HTML5, is there an easier way  - similar to swiffy, which skipped all those time consuming steps?

If anyone has an answer, thank you!

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

allanhytowitz1
allanhytowitz1
Participant
August 30, 2016

Why has no one at Adobe created their own version of the SWIFFY program?

I chose Flash to AVOID having to learn code.  SWIFFY solved the HTML conversion process

    kglad
    Community Expert
    kgladCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 30, 2016

    it must be very difficult.  otherwise, adobe would have done it.

    clearly, adding as3 to html5 conversion would move flash/animate into a league of its own.

      C
      ClayUUID
      Legend
      August 30, 2016

      It likely is NOT a difficulty problem but a copyright or patent problem as to the code used by the Google programmer to create the SWIFFY file.

      My SWIFFY files still work on an iPad and a PC, but cannot be updated or modified.

      I am having to generate a PC version of the files to have the updates implemented.

      If it was software alone, surely someone at Adobe would have figured out a work-around as simple as SWIFFY.

      I now have Animator CC, but have not figured out how to create iPad compatible files.


      No, Allen, it's a VERY difficult problem, because:

      1) There are many things the Flash player can do that the HTML5 canvas element cannot.

      2) AS2/AS3 and Canvas mode use completely different APIs.

      Swiffy was a limited tool that only supported as much of Flash as necessary to translate banner ads.

        C
        ClayUUID
        Legend
        August 28, 2016

        mcgrafx wrote:

        Right now, I have an emergency project of exporting my games to HTML5 as fast as possible before the time comes when adobe won't allow me to open or edit my actionscript 2.0 games at all anymore.

        That time is coming never. While it's true that Adobe has already dropped AS2 support from Animate CC, there is absolutely nothing stopping you from continuing with Flash CS6, which is still available from Adobe. They are almost certainly never going to drop AS2 support from the Flash player, so really, the only reason to worry about converting everything to HTML is if you want to make your content available on phones/tablets.

        M
        mcgrafxAuthor
        Participating Frequently
        August 31, 2016

        Thanks Clay, I hope you're right, but we never know because when our software updates they change or previous versions get deleted.  Right now, Adobe is saying "Flash is now being renamed as Animate" - so Flash c62 could disappear without much warning - just like swiffy.  I am also debating installing flash cc because flaexporter says it only works with flash cc.  I have no idea really, but I hope it works similarly to swiffy. I haven't figured out how to get it to work yet.

        kglad
        Community Expert
        kgladCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        August 28, 2016

        learning as3 won't help you much because the code's not converted in flash/animate when converting from as3 to html5.  in addition, there's no good as2 to as3 converter.

        you need to learn javascript and especially easeljs, CreateJS | A suite of JavaScript libraries and tools designed for working with HTML5 to code your html5 games.

          M
          mcgrafxAuthor
          Participating Frequently
          August 31, 2016

          Thanks for the advice, I will look into learning those programming languages, but in the meantime I have to figure out how to convert my games. 

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