Alora Fane

Getting old Flash games to run as a Windows app is challenging! Just like it was when I ported MARDEK a while back!!

I've struggled to get anything much done this week; I split my rambling about the personal life reasons for that into ∞ another post ∞ you can ignore if you don't care about that stuff (and do you know any other creators who do overshare about personal stuff like that? I probably shouldn't).

I hoped to make some significant progress on Mentales, but I've barely touched it; all I did was half add the mechanics for moving between rooms. I did at least start on trying to port my old Flash games, but I've run into some snags.

Tracking down the original dev files on my PC was the first hurdle, which thankfully I was able to overcome, with some difficulty since they were all in stupidly-named folders and often even the names of the files don't match those of the games (for example, the path to Deliverance is "Old Computer Files/Documents/Flash/Projects/yalort/Games/AllHailYalort/Marauder", obviously!). I now have more neatly-arranged copies of the original files for the following games:

Fig Hunter
Deliverance
Beast Signer
FHO
Raider (Original)
Raider (Pixel chapters)

Clarence's Big Chance
Miasmon
Alora Fane: Creation
Chamaeleon
Yden

Taming Dreams

The first cluster were made in AS2, the second in AS3, and Taming Dreams was made for mobiles. Each of those presents different challenges for porting, with the AS3 ones presumably being the easiest.

So that's one step I was able to complete. The next, I thought, would be to download an old version of Flash from ∞ this archive ∞ - which I was only able to track down by looking through my old blog posts from around the time of the MARDEK port - and try to open the original .fla development files, then export them as .exe projectors. Annoyingly, though, the files can't be opened in the incorrect version of Flash; I downloaded versions CS3 and CS4, but was only able to open Beast Signer, FHO and the two Raiders in CS4 and nothing in CS3. Strange; I would have expected the older ones (Fig Hunter, Deliverance) to open in presumably a later version than what they were developed in, but maybe I opened and edited them in some later version in the past and saved them in the new format or something, I don't know.

I've been having deja vu, though; I went through all this figuring-out back during the MARDEK port. I just wish I could remember all the things I learned, but I can't! I do still have the files for the solution I came to then, at least, which was to use the original .swf file embedded in a simple WindowsForm app that I quickly cobbled together in C sharp (the correct name of which breaks the formatting on this site!). So I thought I could maybe just borrow from the work I did back then to make an edited version of that program that can switch between several .swf files.

I tried that... but got issues. ∞ This guide explains the process ∞, including this step:

But 'Shockwave Flash Object' isn't in that list for me, even when opening up the old MARDEK port WindowsForms files, meaning the compile fails due to missing classes.

I have very little experience with WindowsForms - or WinForms, as I've seen it called - development, though; I literally learned it existed and had to figure out the basics when porting MARDEK. So I've tried googling the issues, but feel completely out of my realm of expertise. I'm getting the impression that the formal discontinuation of Flash by Adobe - and as such the shutting down of links to debug versions of Flash Player - is a particular roadblock here, as I think I'm supposed to download and install one of those debug versions to get the 'Shockwave Flash COM Component' to appear in the list... but I don't know.

I know other Flash devs have created compilations of their old Flash games, but I don't know how they went about it; maybe in a much more sensible way than I have been doing that I'm just not aware of.

I should check, but... honestly I've just been so drained and flustered this week due to the Life Stuff I wrote about in the other post - way more than most weeks - so I haven't really had the time or motivation to sit down and try to work through it. Ugggghhhh.

At least my parents are getting back on Sunday so they'll take the dog and hall duties off my hands... but I want to get back to Atonal Dreams next week. I could try focusing on the Flash ports alongside that, but I don't know. We'll see.

1 COMMENTS

penguintoastfishfrog10~2Y

Hi! I'm not great at keeping up to date with this blog, nor am I very good at leaving comments when I do read a post, but I just wanted to pop in and say I'd love to see a collection of your older games available on Steam! Please please keep at it if you're able, I would for sure buy it and I'm sure many others would too.

In particular, I'd look forward to Deliverance, which is probably my favourite of your non-MARDEK games, probably because it's so similar to MARDEK.

I'd also be very excited about Fig Hunter, as that's one of the few of your games I've never been able to play.

I know you always say these are your very early games and are embarrassing or whatever, but from my point of view they're still really interesting to play through and see how far you've come, and Deliverance in particular I found very enjoyable in its own right and was disappointed when it ended.

Finally I'd really love a Taming Dreams port. I admit I was one of the many who was skeptical on first playthrough, and I think I was mostly distracted by the fact that it wasn't MARDEK 4. I really grew to appreciate it on a second playthrough though, and really enjoyed it as its own thing, whilst still really appreciating the much more fleshed-out characters and dialogue. There was also something incredibly satisfying about recognising characters and places that had evolved from their MARDEK counterparts. It was a real shame when Taming Dreams disappeared from the Google Play Store, and even though I continued to play it briefly afterwards as it was still downloaded on my phone, that phone has since died and I now have no way to access it.

I do hope that when Atonal Dreams comes out, as well as any future linked projects, I'll be able to really appreciate the 'familiar yet different' feel of the characters etc. Although I admit that I haven't been very good at keeping up to date with your game dev blog posts so I'm not entirely sure how much things have evolved, but I do remember reading some of the earlier posts about Atonal (or Divine?) Dreams and being excited about seeing new versions of the characters I know and love.

In particular, I'd look forward to Deliverance, which is probably my favourite of your non-MARDEK games, probably because it's so similar to MARDEK.

I'd also be very excited about Fig Hunter, as that's one of the few of your games I've never been able to play.

I know you always say these are your very early games and are embarrassing or whatever, but from my point of view they're still really interesting to play through and see how far you've come, and Deliverance in particular I found very enjoyable in its own right and was disappointed when it ended.

Finally I'd really love a Taming Dreams port. I admit I was one of the many who was skeptical on first playthrough, and I think I was mostly distracted by the fact that it wasn't MARDEK 4. I really grew to appreciate it on a second playthrough though, and really enjoyed it as its own thing, whilst still really appreciating the much more fleshed-out characters and dialogue. There was also something incredibly satisfying about recognising characters and places that had evolved from their MARDEK counterparts. It was a real shame when Taming Dreams disappeared from the Google Play Store, and even though I continued to play it briefly afterwards as it was still downloaded on my phone, that phone has since died and I now have no way to access it.

I do hope that when Atonal Dreams comes out, as well as any future linked projects, I'll be able to really appreciate the 'familiar yet different' feel of the characters etc. Although I admit that I haven't been very good at keeping up to date with your game dev blog posts so I'm not entirely sure how much things have evolved, but I do remember reading some of the earlier posts about Atonal (or Divine?) Dreams and being excited about seeing new versions of the characters I know and love.