We’ve always had browser based games and they were typically done with Flash from Adobe; and also for the most part pretty simple type games but with the advent of Facebook, social media and companies such as Zynga browser based games have taken on a whole new look.

To further complicate matters there has been a growing move on the web to do away with Flash that was trumpeted loud and clear by the late Steve Jobs. In its place web developers of all disciplines have been increasingly gravitating to using the still very young HTML5 web development language.

So there is a growing battle between HTML5 developers and Flash developers over what will be the next major player and the one area where this is happening is in the gaming arena. The folks at OneMoreLevel.com decided to take a look at the two sides in the battle and came up with this infographic that makes the information around this a little easier to understand.

via VentureBeat

The state of browser gaming – HTML5 vs. Flash [Infographic] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Judging by all of the news as of late, things over at Adobe headquarters must be pretty tense at the moment. First there was news that upwards of 750 workers are about to be laid off, and then there was news that the Adobe Flash Player on mobile devices is now dead and gone.

So what caused Adobe’s Flash Player to get the axe on mobile devices? According to lead Adobe lead project manager Mike Chambers, Apple is at least partly to blame. One of the main problems was that Adobe realized that Flash Player on mobile devices would never reach the same ubiquity on mobile devices as it did on computers, and Apple’s exclusion of Flash Player result on iOS devices wasn’t helping the cause.

“This one should be pretty apparent, but given the fragmentation of the mobile market, and the fact that one of the leading mobile platforms (Apple’s iOS) was not going to allow the Flash Player in the browser, the Flash Player was not on track to reach anywhere near the ubiquity of the Flash Player on desktops,” Chambers wrote on his personal blog.

“Just to be very clear on this. No matter what we did, the Flash Player was not going to be available on Apple’s iOS anytime in the foreseeable future.”

Chambers goes on to provide much more details on Adobe’s decision in his blog post, so head over to this link if you’d like to know more.

[Image and story via Engadget]

Adobe product manager says Apple to blame for death of Flash Player for mobile is a post from: The Inquisitr

At Adobe’s annual Adobe Max conference today, Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney took to the stage to announce that Unreal Engine 3 is supported in Adobe’s latest iteration of Flash, Flash 11.

Why is this important, you ask? Well, this could be a huge step forward for browser-based social games like what’s on offer over on Facebook and Google+. Not only could our social games start looking much better, but we could see whole new genres emerge in the social gaming space. Who knows, we might even be able to eventually play ports of existing Unreal Engine 3 games straight through our browser.

In the two videos embedded below, we get to see what Unreal Engine 3 looks like running in a web browser. It may not be quite as good looking as it would be running on a PC with the settings cranked to max, but it’s still quite impressive when you consider it’s running in a browser.

Source: Epic

Unreal Engine 3 support announced for Flash 11 is a post from: The Inquisitr

It’s bad enough that I already have to install a bloated piece of crap like Flash in order to be able to use all of the Web but to hang yet another piece of crap like McAfee’s around my neck as well .. I don’t think so. Sure I can uncheck it but how many people these days are just used to clicking through without looking when it comes time to install an update for Flash?

Not many.

But the horror didn’t end there because all of a sudden I had to download and install some sort of Adobe Download Manager in order to download and install 10 megs of Flash files (10 megs? for a plugin … geezz c’mon Adobe this is plain stupid).

I don’t know about anyone else but this kind of crap is enough to make one refuse to use Flash or update it anymore. It’s a freaking plugin for crying out loud. This is just over the top Adobe and tie that in with the sneak install of McAfee  …  well that is just way too much.

Hey Adobe, what’s with this freaking crap? is a post from: The Inquisitr

Tuper Tario Tros. brings together two stone cold Nintendo classics to create … a game with a terrible name!

Fortunately, TTT also manages to be inventive and extremely fun. Like all the best games, its concept is simple but absorbing: move Mario left to right as the stage scrolls sideways, then press the space bar and switch to Tetris mode to drop some blocks whenever he finds himself impeded, or facing a yawning chasm.

It’s Mario crossed with Tetris, but it also feels a bit like Lemmings, no bad thing in my book. Oh, and the end of this is excellent, so don’t go giving up early! Heck, it’s not like tonight is a some special day of the year when you’ll be otherwise occupied. Play it HERE.

[Tuper Tario Bros., via IndieGames]

Tuper Tario Tros. melds Mario and Tetris, creates something beautiful is a post from: The Inquisitr

A new, free-to-play online game is causing ripples of outrage across the internets, thanks to its depiction of the homeless.

The French-developed Clodogame (literal translation: Trampgame) tasks players with becoming “king of the streets,” with the eventual goal being to move in to the Palace of Versailles. Players start as a penniless tramp, and must attack other homeless people, pickpocket, and steal from sweet machines, public toilets and laundrettes to reach their goal. Users can choose a pet or learn to play an instrument to maximize their success at begging, all while keeping an eye on their alcohol intake. Yeah, it’s pretty tasteful.

While I’m usually against censorship, I’ve got to say this seems pretty damn crass. I’m all for parody and satire if there’s a genuine, well-considered message behind the mocking, but this seems like controversy for controversy’s sake.

That said, I’ll admit that I’ve yet to try Clodogame out myself, so I’ll reserve my final verdict for now. Maybe I’ve finally become a humorless old grump. Jim “I hate political correctness” Sterling at Destructoid would probably suggest so – he sticks up for the game in this post, remarking:

“The game sounds pretty damn brilliant, and I wish there was an English version. Of course, some people take the Internet too seriously [...]“

Hm. Meanwhile, Red Cross spokesman Jean-François Riffaud has commented:

It’s a disgrace, it’s degrading, it’s humiliating to make the homeless the butt of derision. The image portrayed is exactly the one against which we’ve been trying to fight.

I’m with Jean-François on this one, at least for the time being. If I play Clodogame and find it to be a cutting, multi-faceted piece of social satire, I may change my mind on that. Right now, the game’s exploitation of highly vulnerable people for entertainment’s sake just reminds me of Bumfights. Okay, stepping down from my soapbox now …

[Clodogame, via GamePolitics]

New online ‘tramp game’ sparks outrage is a post from: The Inquisitr

Back at CES 2009 Sony was bragging that they were working on a 2TB size flash drive but at that point they still hadn’t got all their ducks in row  – hence they have nothing concrete to show off. That could all change soon as the company said today that they have finalized all the specifications surround the 2TB flash drive.

A new page on Sony’s boss-formats.org website has listed all of the details for the Memory Stick XC, which is really exciting especially considering that the form factor for these new flash cards are (on paper) the same as pre-existing memory sticks, which means that these high capacity juggernauts are most likely backwards compatible. The entire cast and crew are back, including Duo, Micro, and the HG variants. Additionally, the XC series also uses the much more efficient exFAT file system, while the PRO series uses FAT12/16/32. The 2TB Memory Stick Duo picture used in this story is a photoshop by yours truly, but this won’t be much different than the real thing. License agreements for the Memory Stick XC are now available to interested hardware manufacturers.

Source: Sony Insider :: Sony Finalizes Backwards Compatible Memory Stick XC With 2TB Maximum Capacity

hat tip to FreshBump

Sony finalizes specs for a 2TB flash memory stick is a post from: The Inquisitr

MySpace and Silverlight

In unveiling its new deal, MySpace showed off a handful of new Silverlight-powered applications already available, including an animated friend list utility that can be added onto any profile.

“Silverlight empowers MySpace developers with more freedom and flexibility to design OpenSocial applications that provide streaming video, graphics and audio to a variety of platforms and devices,” the announcement says.

“Silverlight and the MySpace Open Platform will enable developers to rapidly create and deliver sophisticated MySpace applications with a custom look and feel through the flexible skinning of controls and data.”

Facebook and Flash

Facebook, on the other hand, is working with Adobe to broaden its support for Flash-based applications. While Flash was already available for Facebook developers, the site is now adding “official support” for the full ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for Facebook Platform.

“With this client library, developers building rich Flash experiences will be able to easily access the social features of Facebook Platform from external websites using Facebook Connect, from applications on Facebook, or from desktop applications,” the announcement says.

“New ideas may include the next generation of social games, seeing friends sharing and commenting on video or music streamed through Flash, or manipulating photos of yourself and your friends.”

Weighing the Two

Despite some people’s strong feelings for Silverlight, the fact remains that the majority of Web users have no idea what it is — and, when prompted to download it to run any MySpace Silverlight application, may or may not even understand the request. Flash, on the other hand, is close to a standard as there is (even without the iPhone on-board). Most computer users already have it installed — about 99 percent, according to some recent stats published in The New York Times.

Despite Microsoft’s attempt to use last year’s Olympics as a launching ground for Silverlight, the platform is still dwarfed by the ubiquity of Flash. Combine that with the ongoing trend of Facebook gaining ground and MySpace losing market share, and it seems the Facebook-Flash pairing is the clear winner all around.

MySpace Gets Silverlight, Facebook Gets Flash. Winner: Facebook. is a post from: The Inquisitr

The company’s new Flash indexing algorithm will let the engine find any kind of SWF content and grab textual content out of it. The system, Google’s software engineers explain, actually “sees” the files the same way a user would — by automatically clicking through the buttons and entering input. It uses a new Searchable SWF library provided by Adobe.

Interestingly, the library was also given to Yahoo — which, fittingly enough, has yet to finish and launch its own version of the Flash index function. Hey, give ‘em a few weeks. It’s not like Yahoo has anything to prove right now.

Google Learns to Index Flash is a post from: The Inquisitr

The site has just revealed a new API for Flash, as discovered by ZDNet’s Garett Rogers. It’s something the community’s been requesting for years, but until now, only JavaScript support has been offered.

Google says the new tool will let you “manipulate and add content to maps through a variety of services, enabling you to embed robust, interactive maps applications on your website.”

Full documentation and a tutorial are now available on the Google Code site.

Google Maps Now Offering API For Flash is a post from: The Inquisitr