Flash Childhood
hamzberg | 19 June 2023 | 4 minute read
I spent a lot of my childhood playing flash games.
Not a remarkable statement in the slightest. Everyone of my generation did and likely still remembers their favorite one. Mine was Super Mario 63.
Press Start
During elementary school we had "computer time" as part of our schedule. I fondly remember using those old translucent blueberry iMacs with the weird circular mice. They took forever to boot. But when that boot chime rung, kids raced onto Miniclip or Y8. Some were tribal about which was better, but both basically shared the same catalog.
I did not play on Miniclip or Y8. I played on Andkon.
Stuck on this weirder flash game site, I played to my heart's content of all the stuff they had there. Even at home I didn't visit any other website. Although, I did spend some time on Newgrounds. Not as much since I was worried my parents would see me playing something they didn't like. My father was always trigger-happy to take away my computer privilages.
Andkon and Me
Why did I stick to Andkon? Because it had every game I liked.
Oddly enough, it was my mother who introduced me to Andkon. I think she was just trying to find a safe way for me to entertain myself and thought Andkon was safe enough. I never did find any adult content on it when I was little.
I played on this dinky, little iMac Mini that was on the PowerPC CPU architecture. It was pretty old. I think even when I was using it Apple had already moved onto x86 architecture. Regardless, PowerPC plus MacOS equals child-proof because I was a monster when I was little and often went to shady websites for the coveted free iPad. Fairly recently I booted the little computer up again and found a whole lot of suspicious executables that couldn't run on it. Oh, the memories.
What I liked the most about Andkon is that you can get lost. The website presents all the games in a grid with tiny thumbnails with just the name below it. I loved this structure just because it was simple. A lot of other flash game websites included descriptions, reviews, or other additions, but Andkon just puts the whole selection in front of you.
Although, getting lost makes it hard to find something in particular. There's this game I remember playing as kid but have never found since. The gameplay is just like knytt but instead the characters look like they're iterations of Bomberman. I've spent countless hours parsing through the library, but have come up empty-handed each time.
Other games I remember playing a lot were the Hanger series. Those were really fun. Essentially, it's a 2D grapple hook game where you dodge obstacles to get the goal on the far right. Good game, simple concepts, fun references. There was also the Grow series. Those were amazing. Each game was a puzzle and the objective was to find the correct order of events to solve the puzzle. There was Grow Island, Grow Cube, and Grow Planet. I love the artstyle and how each puzzle reacts to the different orders selected. At the time of writing this, the creator Eyezmaze is having heart trouble. They're seeking donations for their health. If you're interested, see their post here.
Come to think of it...
I guess flash games are the reason why I don't have much interest in the more mainstream games. I really like how different they are. Creators have the freedom to explore ideas that a larger studio wouldn't. There's a bit more connection to the world when I can tell the game is an exploration of a person's philosophy, style, or thought. Even though Flash is gone, I'm just glad people are still making indie games.
Also...
Does anyone remember that one game that had a description that linked to a website talking about how the Romans didn't need women and led a life transcended homosexuality? That may not have been what it was talking about. I only remember being very confused and not understanding the argument very well.
Doodles
