File: Crayon Poke.swf-(2.24 MB, 640x480, Game)
[_] Welcome new/f/ags! - Ryan Carag and Potato-tan's Crayon Poke Anon 3523479 Looking at the posting rate right now, things have more or less quieted down and returned to normal. So, the one and half of you who still decide to stick around must be interested in the board and it's culture. And I want to take this opportunity to indoctrinate you into creating OCs and flash hacking and flash archival. Currently, I'm working on doing an overall feature enhancement of Phoenotopia, but I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to make it small enough to fit here. So this a filler post. Other anons have probably already told you about the general board culture and I advise you to lurk moar & to NOT turn out to be an obnoxious faggot like me, but I personally am taking this opportunity to pass on the craft of flash making and hacking from a technical standpoint. I won't be shitting up this board though, I will probably make a flash hacking general on /g/, but I'll post things you should be familiar with if you want to become familiar with Flash Hacking and Reverse Engineering. Tools you will need: >Something to make flashes with. The popular options are Adobe Flash CS6 Pro, Macromedia Flash 8 and MX Professional 2004. I use CS6 personally, so here's a torrent for that, which I sporadically seed when my computer is on. https://files.catbox.moe/e9hpnv.torrent >SWFTools A suite of useful SWF utilities http://www.swftools.org/download.html >JPEXS' Free Flash Decompiler A bit clunky at times but otherwise very useful tool. It's main utility lies in being able to quickly sort through tags(which are the functional units of an swf) of different types while providing a reasonable set of utilities and bringing them under the same roof. It has an experimental Action Script Editor but that is generally unreliable and you should learn the Flash P-Code. https://github.com/jindrapetrik/jpexs-de compiler >SWFpack I was until recently blissfully unaware the LZMA compressed Swfs exist but you don't have to be. https://github.com/arkq/swfpack Continued in the thread...
>> [_] Anon 3523481 >># The next most important thing is learning what a flash even is. I will go into it in more detail in whatever general on /g/ I end up creating but the down and low is that Flash is a really odd virtual computer by computer standards. Flash works in essence as a Stack based virtual computer, much like languages like FORTH and some other stack based computers, most of which are meme tech today for consumer applications. But stack based computing in general is a pretty popular paradigm and it's very easy to design conceptual computers around it with very minimal instruction sets. Interaction with the stack in the program is done through One byte opcodes(Contrast that with the fact that almost every practical architecture based around 16bit or higher fidelity data, has multibyte opcodes, and even many popular 8bit architectures like the Zilog Z80 have them), called the P-code. What sets flash apart is that while other stack based computers operate often on a set of very primitive data types. Flash is a very complex machine and it's opcodes can handle arbitrary classes most easily understood by thinking in terms of it's super language - Actionscript. and it's in turn a very high level assembly compared to other computers. The specifics of the architecture I won't go into right now, but in general it's a machine that will be extremely impractical to implement entirely in hardware(still theoretically, possible however) and you can put a large variety of data on the stack using the same set of opcodes. I encourage you to read through this list provided by the JPEXS FFDec project: https://jindrapetrik.github.io/as3_pcode _instructions.en.html And these file format specifications: Frome Adobe: https://web.archive.org/web/202106092250 53/https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/acom /en/devnet/pdf/swf-file-format-spec.pdf And older one from Macromedia: https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital /formats/fdd/fdd000130.shtml Continued...
>> [_] Anon 3523483 >># This documentation on AVM1 (Used for Actionscript 1 and 2): https://open-flash.github.io/documentati on/avm1/ And this one for AVM2 (Used for ActionScript 3): https://web.archive.org/web/202011300324 33/https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/acom /en/devnet/pdf/avm2overview.pdf To understand the workings of flash as a computer. But almost equally as important is understanding the layout of the ShockWave Flash (SWF) as a file format. To facilitate that, you have to understand the basic structure of a swf. SWFs are multimedia files that function as a container for various media types and support various formats of data within themselves. A first level understanding divides an SWF in two parts - It's header/Signature followed by the Actual Movie (SWFs are called a "movie" format, so you'll be seeing the term often). The 8-byte(8 bit bytes to be precise) Signature firstly identifies that the Flash is indeed a flash -> byte 1 and byte 2 of any swf are always W,S in ASCII/UTF-8 or 0x57,0x53 in hex. The first byte describes what compression algorithm has been used to compress the movie that follows the Signature. C (0x43) -> DEFLATE, the popular backbone behind PNG and ZIP, has been used. F (0x46) -> The Movie is Uncompressed Z (0x5A) -> I am baffled how I remained unaware of this but I did pretty much fuck around and found out so thanks that one anon for making me aware of it. This is an LZMA compressed SWF, but /f/ does not allow uploading these. So if you have an LZMA compressed flash, use SWFpack to decompress/recompress that to an uncompressed or DEFLATE compressed swf. Or you can just rip the file from 0x8 onwards and work on that directly. Next, The movie. In general the movie itself is composed of A global header, which contains a RECT field, telling the projector/plugin, what should be the dimensions of the window (It's a pretty involved bitfield thing for something so simple. The first 5 bits are the size of the four bitfields that follow Continued...
>> [_] Anon 3523484 >># Aaaand you drove them away.
>> [_] Anon 3523485 >># Xmin, Xmax, Ymin and Ymax, or Xoffset, Width, Yoffset, Height as I like to call them, each exactly as many bits long as the RECT's first field says, padded with 0s to round it up to a byte. Since RECTs are used pretty often in all tags, this actually saves considerable space. What doesn't make sense is that this bitfields are signed, lmao.) Following this RECT in the header are a couple additional fields, for frame rate and frame count, following which is a stream of position independent tags, which the players parses and loads into neat little objects that the P-code references and executes. A comprehensive list of these tags can be found here: http://www.m2osw.com/swf_tags and https://open-flash.github.io/documentati on/swf/tags/ I hope this material is enough to spark technical interest in the field, outside of the SOVL flash generally provides. I hope to see you new/f/ags, and some of you old/f/ags, in the general I will make on some other day. Meanwhile, I'll finish up with my Phoenotopia project, upload it to swfchan and get back to you so that you can play it with the minor enhancements I have made. >># I hope not. Flash hacking is a strictly optional discipline.
>> [_] Anon 3523487 >># hey btw, are you the anon that ripped the images from the DropCannon girl? If that was you thanks. And thanks to swfchan, thread died before I could check it again, but I got the files there.
>> [_] Anon 3523488 >># >># >># What is this crazy shit? Don't take it bad OP, but to welcome "newfags" with this esoteric mumbo-jumbo won't do any good thing to make them to appreciate flash. Flash is an incredible simple and powerful to create interactive media. The right approach should be to guide them to create a simple swf. Basic Script for sSound, back and forth buttons, simple transition animations, etc.
>> [_] Anon 3523489 >># Yeah and no worries mate. Ripping SVGs is pretty simple as far as flash goes, you just look for the /DefineShape(2|3|4)?/ tags. FFDec has a nifty interface to isolate and export them with a few clicks. >># I know, that's why I said in general the tip for them is to Lurk Moar and not be a faggot like me, but I am a computer enthusiast so it's just as much fun for it to understand flash as a computer and as a file format. Besides, The flash scene is a pretty good allegory for a post zombie apocalypse world and I think we can all benefit from indoctrinating some new/f/a/g/gots to help us maintain the infrastructure. You can always just play the game and move on though. I am not going to shit the board up with this shit though. I'll try to keep this going on /g/ instead, otherwise I'm no better than an attentionwhoring tripfag/namefag.
>> [_] Anon 3523490 >># That was a lot of technical info to dump but I don't think it'd be bad to have technical discussions on flash stuff here every so often, I just make simple loops but I'm usually looking for new ideas to try. There are so many tools in CS6 that I dont use simply because I don't know how, going more into HOW TO FLASH would help even those of us that have been here a while get more into actually making OC.
>> [_] Anon 3523491 >># Yeah, I made a piano shit game with gachi sounds by changing sound files and some image files with JPEXS' tool. I think some are missing but I don't even know if I will try to make a naked version of it.
>> [_] Anon 3523493 >That feel when /f/ will never get that much of an activity spike for as long as we'll all live. Y A A A M E E E E R O O O O O O
>> [_] Anon 3523494 >># It was nice as a one day thing, but I don't think I want it to be that active again. Hopefully we got some people to stay, but it moved a bit too fast.
>> [_] Anon 3523495 >># Noted and I could try to disseminate general tips and have generic discussions when I post something but in general /g/ is the better place to do this, especially when more technical topics are involved. This infodump was just the introduction to the actual juice.
>> [_] Anon 3523496 >># The last time /f/ was this active was on day Chrome dropped support on 31st Dec 2020, and a little on Jan 12, 2021 when the kill switch was activated. Scary to think Hiroshimoot could generate that big of a flood of refugees just with an April fools joke. Honestly if 4stats wasn't tracking each board to give an indication of what boards are alive, barely anybody would have come to /f/ at all.
>> [_] Anon 3523503 >># I enjoy slow /f/. I prefer fewer people that care about something rather than a bunch that just make noise. Only a kid wants noise.
>> [_] Anon 3523507 >># Yeah the last hours were kinda sad, there wasn't any motivation to engage with the posts, while the board kept moving relentlessly. It was just mindless masturbation at the end. A last stage of animal behavior. Chimping out just for the sake of it, "look at me! look at me!", "no! look at me!". At the end, no one cared anymore about it.
>> [_] Anon 3523509 >># If anything, it gives me hope. After flash died, we thought that /f/ would never get big activity again. But this event proved that /f/ can still have activity
>> [_] Anon 3523510 >># Except that activity wasn't organic and almost none of them actually cared. Most of those posts were literally just "Huh? Wtf is this board?" and then disappearing to /bant/ or /b/
>> [_] Anon 3523511 >># Hell you could make a flash out of it. That Slowpokes Guide to How to Flash or whatever it was called was a really great intro to how the tools work
>> [_] Anon 3523512 >># >># This board was never meant to be organic, that's the problem. If /f/ could have threads like the other boards, where you could build your own flash projects and anons could follow those developments and engage in dedicated threads contributing with images and resources, then that would be a revolution for /f/, flash could have a real renaissance. Of course that would mean a fuck ton of file storage and moderation work. I guess we will never have that.
>> [_] Anon 3523513 i am not a newfag to this board and know the culture. I just take prolonged (sometimes year long) breaks. its truly magical how this places feels frozen in time. surprised and glad you guys havent killed yourselves. I do have some OC id like to make however I work a full time job. this might not mean much but maybe soon ill make it. for you guys.
>> [_] Anon 3523514 >># Don't worry. We'll still be here
>> [_] Anon 3523515 >># We'll always be around, take your time but don't forget to stop by.
>> [_] Anon 3523516 anon how do i save my game? i had >># a 4chans tale opened since yesterday, how can i ensure to save the game properly i have firefox and ruffle installed i will also try to find old flash games in an old computer, cannot promise that i will find them, or that you dont already have them
>> [_] Anon 3523517 >># Do you mean saving the game to your pc/device, or saving the "game-play"? To save the game file just click on the file link and it will be download it to your device as a swf file. You will need a flash/swf player/projector to play it, you can find it easily as "flash-standalone" on the webs. About saving your game-play, If the game doesn't give you the options to save your game then you have to start again. You have the swfchan site with a huge archive of flash games.
>> [_] Anon 3523518 >># Do you mean save your save file or save the swf? If it's the save file then you can look up where ruffle puts save files
>> [_] Anon 3523519 i can't draw with the crayon i am softlocked in a room with the pig and the two button
>> [_] Anon 3523521 >># nevermind
>> [_] Anon 3523522 >># >saving the "game-play"? this so basically when i turn off the pc to continue latter there is an option of like open save manager if i right click (well its in spanish "abrir gestor de guardado") i get a s_br archive and a crashdata archive (its fucking weird not being able to post a pic) >># will try to look i hope this retardation for being a newfag only happens once
>> [_] Anon 3523523 >># >havent killed yourselves. only because the people who hate me would become happy
>> [_] Anon 3523526 >># spite is truly the greatest motivator
>> [_] Anon 3523528 >># >i hope this retardation for being a newfag only happens once It doesn't, lol. I'm still learning stuff after 17 years on this board. Keep us informed on the progress. Also, you can also go to swfchan and look up the swf, then go to the wiki for that swf and it should have previous threads about it. Sometimes they have good information on it.
>> [_] Anon 3523529 >># they live off of spite. They think I am the source of all of their problems because I am different from them.
>> [_] Anon 3523530 >># Those fuckers. They hate you because you don't need no one to spend your valuable time with. You need only yourself. They can't have that. They need other people to bounce off and to corroborate that they are alive themselves, they have no soul, they are npc's insect like non-entities. They feel your sovl and they naturally attack you, like rabid dogs. You know when packs of wolves attack the one they hate trying to bite off his balls? These fuckers are the same. You have power over them, you will learn to control them like the obedient dogs they are. They need to be taught, to hear the right whistle frequency sound. You'll see.
>> [_] Anon 3523532 >># >They hate you because The other stuff you said is probably true, but I can confirm that they look down on me, instead of something sane and humane like pity me, because i am an alcoholic, despite them being 'people' that blow cigarette smoke in a toddlers face, feed a toddler junk food and drink, legally abduct their granddaughter away from her father. They think I do what they do, despite the fact that I would never let her near alcohol or sweat tea. It has caused my family so much pain and I don't want to share that pain. They are being taught a lesson, now that the law is involved, but the journey/battle is not mine, but my brother's so that is why it is hard to deal with it.
>> [_] Anon 3523540 >># How 2 Loop(A guide for slowpokes) and maybe I will but in general the topic is information dense enough to fill a book. >># I just checked and 4Chan's Tale does not make a save, or use SharedObject at all. Maybe I will mod it in the future to include saves but for now, I'm sorry anon, you have to finish it in one go.
>> [_] Anon 3523547 >># haha, and the people who love you would become sad, right?
>> [_] Anon 3523548 >># >the people who love you would become sad of course, but in my current journey the people that see me as an enemy are the challenge at hand.
>> [_] Anon 3523549 I remember reading about lzma compression and flash some time ago and had the impression it did it automatically or at the very least as a compression setting. If this is not the case and instead has to be done externally, though the functionality is internal; then can it be done retroactively? Or do I need the source and thus must attempt decompiling to do it on my collection?
>> [_] Anon 3523550 >># It's possible to recompress any swf. You just have to redo th 8byte signature with Z as byte 0, and then recompress the rest of the file(the movie). Swfpack linked in the OP has an option to do it.
>> [_] Anon 3523551 >># wait nevermind (i think), the commands shown on github apply to swf files. I'm still curious whether I require swfpack to decode.
>> [_] vipper 3523552 i missed it, what was the april fools this year
>> [_] Anon 3523553 >># i'm not reading all that right now. but i'll look it up on the swfchan archive later maybe.
>> [_] Anon 3523556 >># Any utility to decompress lzma + minor modifications in the signature (byte 0 and the size field) are all you need. It's pretty simple to make one if you know how lzma and deflate work, infact. Swfpack is a convinience thing. FFDec can open them all anyhow. >># They shut down every board one by one in the name of "Department of 4chan Efficiency", until only /b/, /bant/, /trash/, [s4s], /vip/ and /f/ remained. And then they turned on 13375p34k. >># Sure anon, whatever floats your boat. If it interests you, do participate in the resultant general though.
>> [_] Anon 3523558 FFDec can not only open them all, but also save them in all three formats. You can change that in the header of the opened (in FFDec) flash, then save changes, then save file. I'd rather not convert flashes to LZMA though, saving some 10 or 100 KB is not worth the decreased compatibility.
>> [_] Anon 3523569 If any of you want to make some serious OC, this book is pretty good, the guy behind Epic Battle Fantasy recommended it. https://theswissbay.ch/pdf/Gentoomen%20L ibrary/Programming/ActionScript/OReilly%2 0Books%20Series%20-%20Essential%20ActionS cript%203.0.pdf
>> [_] Anon 3523570 >># ActionScript isn't that important for making OCs if it's just animation and it's possible to make games using buttons with minimal ActionScript. But thanks, It is somewhat a good intermediate for flash hacking and I've been looking for a good source to include for ActionScript itself in the general and I'll consider this for it.
>> [_] Anon 3523571 >># >ActionScript isn't that important for making OCs You're right, which is why I included "serious", lol. Honestly, I just wanted to share the book and this thread seemed like a perfect place for it.
>> [_] Anon 3523572 >># Thanks anon.
>> [_] Anon 3523573 thats cool now do it for shockwave
>> [_] Anon 3523577 >># >sweat tea I have never heard that term prior to this post
>> [_] Anon 3523585 >># NTA, but sweat tea is just regular ice tea but with the sugar content of soda. That said, most sweat tea is still healthier than soda because it's (usually) made with actual sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup or any other bad ingredients.
>> [_] Anon 3523586 total newbie here, is there no way to browse previous posts, or am i missing something ?
>> [_] Anon 3523587 >># 4plebs has the archive for /f/, 4chan doesn't have one; when browsing you can view 100 pages back from the searched date. swfchan.com scrapes all flashes posted to /f/ and swfchan.net and stores it according to hash (I think), so multiple filenames of the same flash will link to the same one (the most used one displays by default, alternatives will show if they match your search).
>> [_] Anon 3523588 >># what happened to this board on the merge boards april 1st
>> [_] Anon 3523589 >># yeah it is super sweet and needs to be cold otherwise it tastes like tar on toast. It's an Southern thing
>> [_] Anon 3523591 >># nothing, so lots of people ended up here where they'd usually not even know it exists
>> [_] Anon 3523603 >># cry
>> [_] Anon 3523608 >># I cannot, for the life of me, find the spec for DCR files.