Game Reports

[Ike Savage]

Originally Posted by GSGregg

Isn't that what you did three posts back?

I wrapped it in [code] tags, which prevented it from being treated as a URL and media object.

Okay, now I'll try it without. What do you see just below?

http://www.pinballnirvana.com/forums/arcade/seadogs.swf

EDIT: no longer needed

I pasted that into my address bar, and it took me to jibn.net (Access Denied) & GamerWindow.com, which required a login (unsecured).

Whoa. I have no idea about that stuff. Let me think on that...

Btw, if you still have the saved SWF object, you should be able to double-click it and run it from FF. (You might have to first associate the file type with FF, of course)

[GSGregg]

Originally Posted by Ike Savage

Okay, now I'll try it without. What do you see just below?

http://www.pinballnirvana.com/forums/arcade/seadogs.swf

Same string, but without the tags, right? However, I no longer get directed to the two sites I mentioned in #509. I'll let the screenshot explain...

Originally Posted by Ike Savage

Whoa. I have no idea about that stuff. Let me think on that...

Btw, if you still have the saved SWF object, you should be able to double-click it and run it from FF. (You might have to first associate the file type with FF, of course)

[Ike Savage]

> Same string, but without the tags, right?

Yup. Oh well; at least that's consistent with what you saw here on the arcade, I guess.


re: the snapshot,
It looks like you are pasting the line in to Google's search field rather than the browser's address line. First one is physically lower on screen, second one is higher.

If not, then it looks like your browser is configured to send SWF objects to Google search. I've never heard of that kind of thing before, but maybe it's a thing.

Also, what happened when you tried to run the game object from your hard drive?

[JonPurpleHaze]

The Seadogs game runs fine for me as well, I'm using Firefox Quantum 59.0.2, I know that extensions or addons to browsers can sometimes cause the games to not work. On a previous installation, I had to disable Ad Blockers NoScript and stuff to get games to run properly.

A lot of previous problems were solved by making sure you had Flash properly installed, visit this link with whatever browser you are trying to run the games with:
https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player.html

[Ike Savage]

Also IIRC, weren't you logging in from a library these days, Gregg?

It wouldn't surprise me a bit if those PC's were configured with some custom security one wouldn't ordinarily see or expect. That might have been causing the various redirects you were seeing.

[GSGregg]

Originally Posted by Ike Savage

re: the snapshot,
It looks like you are pasting the line in to Google's search field rather than the browser's address line

Yeah...somewhere I got the idea that the address bar could also accept things other than addresses

Originally Posted by Ike Savage

If not, then it looks like your browser is configured to send SWF objects to Google search. I've never heard of that kind of thing before, but maybe it's a thing.

Don't wrinkle your brow over it (you'll see why, shortly...)

Originally Posted by Ike Savage

Also, what happened when you tried to run the game object from your hard drive?

I don't think I ever got that far - at least, never got the GUI

Originally Posted by JonPurpleHaze

A lot of previous problems were solved by making sure you had Flash properly installed, visit this link with whatever browser you are trying to run the games with:
https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player.html

Yeah - odd, isn't it, that they call these 'Flash' games?

I've had this small-form-factor desktop for three weeks, but hadn't given a thought to the Flash Player until now; my two recent harddrives are in USB enclosures serving as potential backups, and I know that flashplayer 22-something was on both of them (but no longer; where the hell did they go?). Plus, I guess I took for granted that a freshly installed Win7 would come with flash (wrong, apparently)

Originally Posted by Ike Savage

Also IIRC, weren't you logging in from a library these days, Gregg?

Affirmative. Remember my thread about lagging/irregular plunger and flippers last November 1st? The last time the asphyxiating computer booted to Windows (and an internet connection) was Jan 19; that sent me to the Library until March 12th, when I threw my hands in the air and ordered this Hewlitt-Packard Elite 8000, which I received Mar 20th - at which time I found that my internet service had gone out Jan 20th, and wasn't restored until Mar 28th.

Hopefully, no more library for a few years unless I need to use a printer!

Originally Posted by Ike Savage

It wouldn't surprise me a bit if those PC's were configured with some custom security one wouldn't ordinarily see or expect. That might have been causing the various redirects you were seeing.

All I know so far is that the 8200 and up have UEFI (not BIOS), with which one can install a late GFX card like a 1050Ti - while the 8000 I bought does not, and can accept only a GT 730 or Radeon HD 6x50 or thereabouts.

So, anyway, SeaDogs are barking away and I need to shake off some rust before I can find out whether score submission works. Thanks, gang!

Gregg

[Ike Savage]

So......... you simply needed to install flash?

[GSGregg]

Yup. Sickening, ain't it? Along with other weird crap my XP machine was doing, it could no longer catch missed TV episodes, or even play some YouTube videos; telling me to install Flash even when I had just done so for the umpteenth time...

Let's see how long FlashPlayer 29.0.0.140 sticks around.

[Ike Savage]

Hmm. I thought YouTube had totally phased out flash by now, but looking at some page source, there's still some tags / code in there:

"player_swfcfg_cleanup":true
lightweight_watch_video_swf=true
player: blankSwfConfig

I don't really understand html / php (or whatnot), but I guess there's some legacy function going on. *shrug*

But flash is famously no longer going to be directly supported by Adobe, cum 2020. HTML5 is mostly seen as the direct replacement. And Chrome no longer allows you to run SWF objects directly (like FF still does), and so all these little SWF games and animations I've been collecting for many years have a nebulous future.

Now I suppose there'll *always* be some kind of player maintained by someone... it's just that part of the reason flash is being abandoned is because of security holes, so at the same time, playing with SWF objects could also get kind of risky. For example, they're not hard to decompile and modify, so theoretically a classic game you find on the net could also contain malicious code. And if the official supported is no longer concerned with security, then... potential problem.

It's just a bummer... at least for me.

[GSGregg]

Do security suites, etc, scan those high-risk amusements, or are we 'on our own'...?

[Ike Savage]

Originally Posted by GSGregg

Do security suites, etc, scan those high-risk amusements, or are we 'on our own'...?

That's another very good question.

I imagine the scanners are protecting us for the time-being, but... past 2020? When even Adobe is of little use / help? When everyone is supposed to know that "Flash is an infectious corpse?" (so to speak)

I'd love to hear what an expert might have to say about this stuff...