Crazy Jay was the guy who made stick page, he's actually still active with a fairly large community. He's currently is working on a mobile version of Stick War that you can play against other people. It's pretty good, captures some of the nostalgia but now you can play vs a friend.
damn dude we had the same childhood, PS2, race car bed, unmonitored access to my dads laptop HOLY SHIT IVE BEEN LOOKING FOR "HAPLAND" FOR YEARS, I NEVER THOUGHT I'D SEE IT AGAIN
Checking in as one of the flash games dev, maaan, what a great time that was. Forget mobiles, or steam, with flash, as a dev, you had access to millions of people. So, unlike the modern "stores", anyone, and I mean anyone, could get at least some valuable exposure, like 10k plays or something, and that's a huge number that either kills you for sure (so you understand your game actually sucks), either lifts you up beyond your expectations. To put it in perspective, with Android, you'd probably hit 50-500 plays before making a desicion to just stop trying. What a shame. And that's why Flash was such a gem technology back in the days. Talking numbers, great flash games had millions upon millions of views, millions. Some of that from the returning players sure, but still, just think about that. I'd argue that some of those games outnumbered the so called AAA games from those corporate studios with strict rules and shit all creativity. Flash is a thing from the internet of old, it let people connect directly, heart to heart, dev to player, no authentication or credit card required. It is missed, and it just gets more and more boring as the corporations slowly absorb the player base around the world.
I was trying to describe this to a friend who missed this aspect of internet life by the time they were on computers, and this is, very much what I was trying to get across. I do miss it, man. I knew that we were losing something special, yea.
Well, you can play any basically any flash game for free, so it would obviously have more players than anything you have to pay for. I don’t think there’s an inherent difference in quality between flash games and most modern games, but flash games were clearly easier to access. Whether or not you think that makes them better than modern games is up to you, but I personally wouldn’t.
@@Aplesedjri don’t think they meant flash games > AAA games in quality. flash games being free is what made it so popular AND feel more human than a lot of what we have today. there was over-saturation with flash games back then just as there are AAA games today but i think the difference is that flash games are almost inherently a labor of love, made by people not companies. it’s a testament to the old internets guerrilla-ness. which can’t exist in the same way it use to. this isn’t to diss modern gaming, more so lament over what felt like a simpler time (i think, or at least that’s what i’m doing)
Okay, sir. I have watched your entire catalogue several times, now. I understand that putting these together is an enormous task, but I still respectfully request that you release another video soon. I literally cannot get enough of your dulcet tones and editing/writing style. Don't rush, though. I don't want you wasting an ounce of that stimulating quality you make your videos with. I especially enjoy your Dead Games videos. I find it pleasantly eerie to go back in time and look at things that players created. It feels a lot like stumbling upon a dilapidated building in the woods to me.
This era of the internet was so inspiring. It felt like the ultimate hub for aspiring artists. I guess the internet still is today, but I don’t know, places like newgrounds just don’t seem as popular as they used to be nowadays. Not to sound cliche, but the internet really is dominated by more “corporate” websites these days so it just feels different than it used to. I’m sure aspiring artists can still find ways to shine in this new landscape though. It just feels a lot less centralized now so it’s harder
The internet absolutely has become a corporate hellscape. I miss the old internet, it was unique and varied instead of just being broken websites wrapped around ads.
There are soo many amazing 20k-100k range youtubers who'vd be million sub channels if they were around in a less saturated time, or if they had reputation. The internet just can't support all of us.
People do stuff for the clicks not the love nowadays. Rare to see a new artist come out who isn't riding trends. Or to see people who arent rich kids who's parents buy their way into the industry.
Over the past decade the vast majority of Internet traffic went from being divided between about a thousand top website to like 10, which are owned by just a few corporations. It's a tragedy and I fear the implications of centralized information/communication.
yep. Growing up on newgrounds was incredibly inspiring. A lot of the animations look crappy by today's standards, but as a 12 year old, you could look at those crappy animations and say to yourself "I can do that". Adobe flash was one easy download away, and the sky was the limit. Without flash I never would have learned how to code. I think you're right, there's a lot less room for "crappy" artists to shine through today, since corporate (even small 3 or 4 man LLCs i.e., successful youtube channels) media dominates the landscape. Newgrounds slogan was everything by everyone. RU-vid seems to be a few things by a few people.
Amazing video! I have been following your stuff for a while, so it was strange to suddenly hear my name and music in the first 3 minutes! :D This was super nostalgic to watch - I grew up on all of these games too. Thanks for keeping flash alive a bit longer! 😍 And keep up the awesome work in general, love your videos.
Typical rookie mistake. Jerma wasnt born, he was simply produced in TestPd_985 as the latest in a long series of biomechanical automated sleeper weapons designed to artificially hypnotize the general populace into pushing radical ideologies
I think I’m a bit older than Redlyne, but I was a young kid during the early 2000s boom of Flash games, and I was lucky enough to go to elementary and middle schools with computer labs and savvy computer teachers. I remember I had one computer teacher who was super tech savvy, and he made and maintained the school website himself, even adding a page full of Flash games links that he had collected himself for us. He would add new links for every new season like Halloween and Christmas, and he made sure all the sites were kid-safe and didn’t have any rated-R content using a firewall program he made. (But being the kids we were we always found sites that somehow go through the blocking haha). After the obligatory lessons about using MS Word and PowerPoint, then some Mavis Beacon typing practice, he would let us loose on the flash games page. Just the look and feel of these small window games with blocky hand drawn 2D sprites and super compressed sound effects bring back so many great memories. Rest in Peace Mr. Mabli.
The few awesome teachers made life so much easier. We had a guitar class in my senior year, that teacher was awesome (Mr. Beasley) he'd hold occasional LAN parties and we'd play the original Halo game. Haloween was the theme for one of them 😂
Territory War dev checking in. Much love for the mention! The AI did not scale with difficulty, I'm just a bad programmer 😅 (I still make games btw! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mSBcxlrPHKo.html)
Man I loved playing this. I remember playing the two player mode with my brother taking turns on the computer. And even playing solo was really fun. Thanks for the memories bro
Thanks for making that banger of a game, i remember me and my dad playing it, one of the few good memories i have with him bc he was away working most of the time.❤
Great video overall. Only thing that hurt is omission of NotDoppler and Kongregate, especially Kongregate. Kongregate had forums, chatrooms, and was a site where the whole Idle game craze originated from thanks to Tukkun and many others. Nowadays its a shell of its former self, but back in the late era of flash games it was just as significant as the other giants mentioned.
I knew I felt like he was missing out on a really big name, but couldn't think of what it was, but it was Kongregate. Indeed still an amazing video though, and with just how much there was out there it's understandable that he didn't think of everything, and as he said at the end, by the time he finished putting all this together he had remembered a whole bunch of other stuff aswell but the video is already 2 hours, so it'd be pretty crazy to add in more.
I had to scroll way to far to see kongregate mentioned. Its crazy, I probably played for over 1000 hours to collect as many achievements as possible.. To get congpanions as one of the first 100 made me talk about nothing else for a whole week
This was a great video essay and you did a great job of showcasing a lot of influential flash games over the years. It's crazy how many of these I played back in the day and how many I didn't even know existed. I love the style you present everything in.....that said; The grab bag part absolutely killed my brain i love it lmao. good job.
You forgot to mention the old flash games that Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network & Disney has made back then.. I remember being such a cartoons kid that I play those non stop on my old family computer.
You're right about the nostalgia bit. The thing I feel most nostalgic for are experiences you can never go back to, things I haven't done in years, or things you can only experience once, such as me being a 15 year old kid customizing the hell out of the painterly pack sneakily at night when I wasn't allowed on the PC. Regarding you FNAF example - I'm on the same boat, I'm not feeling nostalgic for the game itself however I am feeling nostalgic for watching markiplier play the game as I come back home from school. As some old saying goes: "you don't miss X, you miss how you used to feel about X"
Correct. I don't feel nostalgic for electric man the fighting game. I play it once every couple years. Still good. I feel nostalgic about those old racing games I played in the late 2000s that are junk now
Back then the internet felt like a more centralized hub for aspiring artists. Nowadays it just isn’t the same because it’s more so dominates by a few major “corporate” websites
Man Nitrome was my entire childhood. I remember my sister and I getting hyped whenever a new one would get made and rush to go play it, not to mention the many multiplayer games we played together. Good times.
@@UncleKunkle stick arena shutting down hit me extra hard for some reason. i still remember going to LAN centers and playing that with a bunch of buddies in person and it was a blast every time. even the LAN centers are gone now, truly the end of an era :(
Thank you for reminding me of about two dozen games I was convinced nobody else had ever played yet which I absolutely loved. Largely as games I could play in IT classes at school.
I was always super embarrassed about the fact that I played so many trashy flash games. But they were so cool back then man. Great video and thanks for bringing back the nostalgia.
One of my fond memories of Newgrounds animation (although I found it on RU-vid because I was way too young to be on Newgrounds in it’s peak era) was “There She Is!!” by a group of 3 Korean creators called SamBakZa in which a bunny girl falls in love with a boy cat in a world where that was not socially acceptable, symbolizing how interracial relationships (most likely Japanese and Korean relationships) were looked down upon in society and the series targets how love should be acceptable no matter one’s race or gender identity. In contrast to some other popular Newgrounds media, it was definitely a breath of fresh air with depth and a positive message to me. :D
The generational differences in games here are nuts. I graduated high school in 2006, so I mostly remember the earlier set of games that were often much more simplistic than the later ones you brought out. I didn't know a lot of these, but it's cool to see how Flash evolved after I was playing the games on a daily basis.
Not sure if its because my parents wanted me to play "educational" games but the PBS kids flash games were a massive part of my childhood. Stuff like the cyberchase games or the one where you had to protect the environment were some of the earliest games I remember playing on a desktop. The old LEGO website games were a ton of fun as well.
Referring to the ultimate showdown, there was a 15th year anniversary version that came out 2 years ago. In addition, this year in fact, the Duck song got a sequel.
Damn...im old Most of this video i just kept saying to myself "Oh yea i remember this one" even the smallest details like the AI in territory war made me chuckle, wow miss those times
Anyone remember those particle physics flash games? With the plants that grew with water, explosive gasses and real air physics with the “fans”. (All just diff colour particles/solid blobs) I remember playing those for hours just making crazy things happen with the airflow physics you could do Edit : found it. It’s called powder game
I remember spending my time in primary school drawing little stickman battlefields inspired by the xiao xiao videos. Those were the times man. Love the video
sift heads was and still is criminally underrated, it had so many games and they jump in quality just kept getting better and better. they were genuinely some of the most fun flash games i have ever played. my first gamertag was actually inspired by one of the characters in it
A shame that I didnt get to see other games like Toss The Turtle or Super Smash Flash, but then it made me realize that a dedicated 2 hour long video on the subject is still not long enough to cover just how big flash games were, and in some ways, still are today. Nice to see many of those big names 15-20 years ago kept at their craft and are mainstays til this day. I will say, I cannot forgive you for not including Spank The Monkey.
Man, this was one hell of a nostalgia trip. One of my favorites back in the day, and i know a lot of other people will agree with me, was Dino Run. Man that shit was awesome as a kid. Back when the multiplayer servers were still alive it was the most fun 8 year-old me could have with a computer. Eventually bought it on Steam as an adult and got all the achievements. And when you showed Miami Shark my fuckin brain exploded, it's been over a decade and a half since I remembered that game! The wild west era of the internet and Flash in general was such a unique time that you just had to be there for, before everything got corporatized and ad-ridden. Thanks for helping me remember such a huge focus of my childhood!
dude dino run! i loved that shit and definitely played the multiplayer back in 08. loved the amount of hats and colors you could dress up your dino in. really hoping that kickstarter dino run game comes out one day, id definitely play it
@@lucy4666 iirc, Pixeljam is still working on Dino Run 2. They give update posts about it every once in a while, super excited for it to come out eventually
Hapland is a game that has lived rent free in my mind for YEARS now, and I could never remember the name. I must've been searching for this game for an actual decade, and because of you, I have finally found it. My hero has come!
The fact that Strike Force: Heros wasn't mentioned is a CRIME! I remember playing Strike Force back when I was in middle school, particularly Strike Force 2, really fun game series and my personal favorite flash game of all time.
I think you might seriously be my favorite person on this site right now. Your content makes me feel very happy, and when I get a notification from your channel it’s always a treat. Thank you for your awesome videos!
idk how i knew you were gonna mention blue rabbits climate chaos but im so glad u did because i'd been trying to find this game for YEARS and im so glad we were in the same boat
Jelly battle. That's a big one for me. My cousin showed me that when i visited him somewhere around the year 2008. him and i really loved playing it. it really makes me sad to see that it's gone, as it brings back a lot of good memories of the times we spent together. he passed away about a year ago now at the age of 25. rest easy bud, we loved you a lot.
Love your videos. I'm 23 and this video showed me how different our flash game journies were. I played so much of The Game and N+. It just goes to show it is impossible to encapsulate this entire era and was sad you didn't mention Monkey Go Happy, Dust Game on NotDoppler, or the Shock series on Stickpage. But I think just like you, I'm biased towards the games I loved and that there are flash games for literally everyone. Keep it up Redlyne.
DeviantArt had (still has technically, even though the files don't display anymore) an entire flash category that primarily hosted flash animations (the site didn't really have a video player until the later 00's, so flash was the only way to have sound with your animations). It wasn't uncommon to see Newgrounds artists cross-post their stuff on there too. Most of my memories of DA flash games were those drag-and-drop paper doll dress up games, though. There were tons of them.
If i recall correctly, someone created a website that allows you to play any flash file as long as you still had the file itself on your computer. I was able to rewatch a lot of old classics with it. I think its still in development, but for the most part it still works. I think its called Ruffle or smth
I had a prototype of a game I never finished hosted on DeviantArt, I'm sad I didn't back it up before Flash died. would love to have the fla files back
QWOP was made by a dev called Bennett Foddy, who later made it big with Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy, a philosophical rage game which has commentary on game design and life itself that's way deeper than it gets credit for. Most people ignore his narration because they're too angry.
I played every game up here except those in the last bit lightning round... also, there was an excellent fighting game on stickpage I was really hoping you'd mention. I think they could have made it big with that game specifically. Last, that madden music I hadn't heard since I was a kid. It was my favorite song and hearing it I almost cried. Thank you for this wonderful nostalgia trip!
lovely good old days , the flash games i played the most were : Plazma Burst 1 & 2 , Strike Force Heroes 1 ;2 and 3 and of course Madness Project Nexus , they had such a unique vibe about them.
dude i havent heard of plazma burst in so long just looking it up i now know theyre making a third one very fun game, though i could never beat the campaign without having my data removed (i never had a home computer, always played in school)
So happy to see you talking about Super Mario 63 and the community! Runouw's forums and the level designing community was my first batch of internet friends ever. Runouw did an amazing thing creating not only a beautiful flash game, but also a supportive community who wanted to reprogram and experiment with the level design, or talk shop, or just chill out with each other. Mauro and Avo and Master1.0 were friends :) Still talk to a few from that bunch nowadays and call a couple some of my closest friends
I will tell you right now that the “tricking” of teachers with cool math games 1000% worked. My librarian let us go on the website during indoor recess and it took him like 2 years to figure out what was going on.
Duude! Animator vs. Animation was played by my college Math teacher at the start of his class (where he talked about interesting things before Math). So I really relate there. Great video by the way!
Thank you for mentioning Divine Intervention. I have been obsessed with the game since I played it in the mid 00's. It reflected my taste in movies and music at the time, and I thought the aesthetic of the game was a perfect genre combination of splatter, comedy and action. I've been waiting for a sequel ever since, and by the looks of things I'll be waiting some more.
XGen, the creator of StickRPG, unfortunately passed away a few years back. XGen Studios will continue, but we lost an icon. I've not watched far enough to see if you've included the Shark series, but Wiesi also passed last month. The creator of The Skullkid also passed. While we're being all nostalgic, we should spare a thought for the Flash icons who aren't with us anymore.
Dude I remember playing the shit outta the XGen catalogue and even buying a printed CD of their flash games to play!! That's such a big burst of nostalgia
Deviantart was very big on flash, but most of the things posted there were animations, dress-up games and indie visual novels/dating sims. Very visuals-based rather than gameplay-based. I think those flash animations with extremely elaborate stickmen action scenes originated there.
I would’ve never EVER thought “this dude is 21”! I’m always half expecting a Joey Diaz “back in 82’” type stories to break out while listening. Fella has the aura of an older soul for sure!
My favourite flash games as a kid were Kitten Cannon, Gemcraft and Burrito Bison. I’m surprised none were mentioned here. Another game I played a lot was “Starbound”. You are literally a star, and you jump on platforms until you eventually reach space. The music was definitely early 2000’s.
I hope this video eventually gets millions of views. You covered everything nostalgic about Flash and it's impact on the internet, I have so many great memories with Flash and I'll always miss the wild west of the internet when anything by anyone could get seen thanks to Flash.
I’m so happy you mentioned andkon arcade, that site occupied so much of my childhood but you never hear anything about it now. The game game, the Superman type game, raze, and cycle maniacs are some of my favorites. Earned a sub!
On launcher games: I believe the first launcher game was Kitten Cannon from around 2005, although that one didn't seem to have upgrades like later instances of the genre did. Hedgehog Launch (jmtb02, from June 2008) seems to be the first example that really hits the formula. Toss the Turtle was another big one from 2009-ish.
I know you mentioned Binding of Isaac after bringing up Meatboy near the end, but Isaac was also a flash game originally. And some even still prefer the flash version for it's snappy animations combined with classic Newgrounds bold artstyle. It definitely ran into generic Flash performance issues though, so Binding of Isaac: Rebirth went with a more pixelated retro look, which differentiated it a lot from flash Isaac.
This video reminded me of the castle series of animations on stickpage. That and madness combat were my shit as a kid man. Every opportunity I got Id be watching the animations and playing the games. What a time it was.
Amazing video, easily the best you've ever made. What a wave of nostalgia. I was born in the late 90s and have very fond memories of playing these flash games on my old laptop in the 2000s. They were some of the only games my laptop would run. Love your videos RedLyne, they have such a unique and interesting style to them. Keep doing what you're doing, brother.
I don’t normally watch videos this long but damn man, this is a masterpiece. Even got me and my kid playing Super Mario 63 together. Thanks for the heavy trip down nostalgia lane friend
I used to play a flash game named puppet wars where you span around with blades and fought against other dudes, definitely the goat of flash games in my opinion
I feel like I learned so much from this video. The amount of history that is here within a whole TWO HOUR VIDEO is emaculate. Thank you for making this you have earned a new sub!
There was this one flash game that I played constantly as a child that I've been trying to find for a few years but just can't. It was the same gameplay style as Age of War and had these little stick guys that you'd spawn and would go to the enemy base and fight through anyone in your way, and I remember had a small amount of blood so I'd always close the game when my parents came by. It was a medieval fantasy setting and I remember I would always get to the same stage where the enemy bum-rushes witches before losing and giving up.
@@Conqueringrule I found few games: Epic war 4, Bow master prelude, Battle for darknes, Myth wars maybe? warlords call to arms. If you can name more of the game mechanics I would maybe have higher chance of finding it.
Thank you for yet another trip down memory lane. Newgrounds was the one that we weren't allowed to play at school because it had adult games. But Albino Black Sheep was my go-to place for Flash animation. Demented Cartoon Movie, Colin Mochrie vs Jesus H Christ series, Fingertips project, and countless other music videos.
The Demented Cartoon Movie was a flash epic, endlessly quoted among my school friends back in the day. People would be watching it on the library PCs that had all sound functionality disabled, and just doing the voices from memory lol
"I only remember the games, and sadly, i forgot a lot of names... Still, it's like I was there, playing, not caring... I was just having fun... But my childhood remained, even if my life were completely done..." A short poem of how it felt playing flash games without any care in the world...
There was an entire section just about stick figures and how violent some of the games and animations were, but had 0 mention of the StickDeath website animations. That's impressive. I think some of them still exist on youtube, I know the Whiskey in the Jar music video was on here for a while and I think one of the lethal car alarm animations was as well.
The fact that you didnt mention the Raze series at all hurts. I dont want that little series to be forgotten because me and my brother used to play them, the ragdoll physics and neat fast pace sidescrolling scifi shooter action was a treat when we didnt own an xbox to play real Halo with. They still exist on armor games, but ive not seen anyone else talking about them despite their quality.
Man I was obsessed with Raze back when I was in elementary school. I think the first one came out when I was in 4th or 5th grade maybe? My friends and I followed the lore and everything going into the 2nd game.
Man, this whole video was a trip and now you remind me of Raze too?! So, English is not my first language and I remember scrolling a bunch of random sites with flash game up to 2012 having no idea what most of them meant thru dialogue. In the end I ended up not remembering names of a lot of them, gonna try them out yet again these holidays :)
Eyezmaze was my entire childhood! Nobody around me as a kid got it, but I was so in love with all the games and animations. Still check out the few recent releases too
