Adobe Shockwave Player

This article is about the player. For an overview of the platform, see Adobe Shockwave. For "Shockwave Flash" (player), see Adobe Flash Player.

Adobe Shockwave Player
Original author(s)Macromedia
Developer(s)Adobe Inc.
Final release
12.3.5.205 (Win) / March 15, 2019; 5 years ago (2019-03-15)[1]
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows, macOS
PlatformWeb browsers
TypeMultimedia Player / MIME type: application/x-director
LicenseFreeware
Websitehelpx.adobe.com/shockwave/shockwave-end-of-life-faq.html

Adobe Shockwave Player (formerly Macromedia Shockwave Player, and also known as Shockwave for Director) was a freeware software plug-in for viewing multimedia and video games created on the Adobe Shockwave platform in web pages. Content was developed with Adobe Director and published on the Internet. Such content could be viewed in a web browser on any computer with the Shockwave Player plug-in installed. It was first developed by Macromedia and released in 1995; it was later acquired by Adobe Systems in 2005.[2]

Shockwave Player ran DCR files published by the Adobe Director environment. Shockwave Player supported raster graphics, basic vector graphics, 3D graphics, audio, and an embedded scripting language called Lingo.[3][4] Hundreds of free online video games were developed using Shockwave, and published on websites such as Miniclip and Shockwave.com.[5]

As of July 2011, a survey found that Flash Player had 99% market penetration in desktop browsers in "mature markets" (United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand), while Shockwave Player claimed only 41% in these markets.[6] Flash Player was used as an alternative to Shockwave Player, with its more advanced 3D rendering capabilities and object-oriented programming language. Flash Player cannot display Shockwave content, and Shockwave Player cannot display Flash content.[7]

In February 2019, Adobe announced that Adobe Shockwave, including the Shockwave Player, would be discontinued in April 2019.[8] The final update for Adobe Shockwave Player was released on March 15, 2019. Shockwave Player is no longer available for download (as of October 8, 2019[8]), and most major web web browsers blocked the Shockwave Player plug-in from being used upon its discontinuation.[9]

  1. ^ "Adobe Shockwave Player". April 10, 2019. Retrieved April 10, 2019.
  2. ^ Elia, Eric (1996). "Macromedia unveils Shockwave and Director 5". Newmedia. HyperMedia Communications. ISSN 1060-7188. Retrieved September 23, 2010.
  3. ^ Macromedia Shockwave for Director User's Guide, Volume 1, New Riders Pub., January 1, 1996
  4. ^ Macromedia Shockwave for Director, Volume 1, Hayden Books, 1996
  5. ^ "Shockwave.com". Archived from the original on May 28, 2015. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
  6. ^ "Flash content reaches 99% of Internet viewers". Adobe. Archived from the original on October 2, 2011. Retrieved August 7, 2014.
  7. ^ "What is Adobe Flash Player | FAQ | Adobe Flash Player".
  8. ^ a b "End of Life (EOL) for Adobe Shockwave". helpx.adobe.com. Retrieved December 23, 2019.
  9. ^ Hoffman, Chris. "End of an Era: Adobe Shockwave Dies Today". How-To Geek. Retrieved December 23, 2019.