Adobe Shockwave Player
Original author(s) | Macromedia |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Adobe Inc. |
Final release | 12.3.5.205 (Win)
/ March 15, 2019[1] |
Web browsers | |
Type | Multimedia Player / MIME type: application/x-director |
License | Freeware |
Website | helpx |
Adobe Shockwave Player (formerly Macromedia Shockwave Player, and also known as Shockwave for Director) was a
Shockwave Player ran
As of July 2011, a survey found that Flash Player had 99% market penetration in desktop browsers in "mature markets" (United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand), while Shockwave Player claimed only 41% in these markets.
In February 2019, Adobe announced that Adobe Shockwave, including the Shockwave Player, would be discontinued in April 2019.[8] The final update for Adobe Shockwave Player was released on March 15, 2019. Shockwave Player is no longer available for download (as of October 8, 2019[8]), and it cannot be used anymore since web browsers have blocked the Shockwave Player plug-in upon its discontinuation.[9]
History
The Shockwave player was originally developed for the
- Shockwave 1
- The Shockwave plug-in for Netscape Navigator 2.0 was released in 1995, along with the stand-alone Afterburner utility to compress Director files for Shockwave playback. The first large-scale multimedia site to use Shockwave was Intel's 25th Anniversary of the Microprocessor.[10]
- Shockwave 5
- Afterburner is integrated into the Director 5.0 authoring tool as an Xtra.
- Shockwave 6
- Added support for Shockwave Audio (swa) which consisted of the emerging MP3 file format with some additional headers.
- Shockwave 7
- Added support for linked media including images and casts.
- Added support for Shockwave Multiuser Server.
- Shockwave 8.5
- Added support for Intel's 3D technologies including rendering.
- Shockwave 9
- Shockwave 10
- Last version to support Mac OS X 10.3 and lower, and Mac OS 9.
- Shockwave 11
- Added support for Intel-based Macs.
- Shockwave 12
- Shockwave 12.1
- It is supported by 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Vista, 7, and 8. It has content made from previous versions as well as Director MX 2004. From version 12.1.5.155 Shockwave is supported in both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.[11]
- Shockwave 12.2
- Last update for macOS before discontinuation.
- Shockwave 12.3
- Last update before overall discontinuation.
Platform support
Shockwave was available as a plug-in for the
Unlike Flash Player, Shockwave Player is not available for
In 2017, the authoring tool for Shockwave content, Adobe Director, was discontinued on February 1; and the following month, Shockwave Player for macOS was officially discontinued. In February 2019, Adobe announced that Shockwave Player would be officially discontinued and unsupported on Microsoft Windows, the last OS that supported the Shockwave Player, effective April 9, 2019.[8]
Security
Some security experts advise users to uninstall Adobe Shockwave Player because "it bundles a component of Adobe Flash that is more than 15 months behind on security updates, and which can be used to backdoor virtually any computer running it", in the words of
Branding and name confusion
In an attempt to raise its brand profile, all Macromedia players prefixed Shockwave to their names in the late 1990s. Although this campaign was successful and helped establish
Macromedia also released a web browser plug-in for viewing
Later, with the acquisition of Macromedia, Adobe Systems slowly began to rebrand all products related to Shockwave.[clarification needed]
See also
- Adobe Flash
- Adobe AIR
- Adobe Reader
References
- ^ "Adobe Shockwave Player". April 10, 2019. Retrieved April 10, 2019.
- ^
Elia, Eric (1996). "Macromedia unveils Shockwave and Director 5". Newmedia. HyperMedia Communications. ISSN 1060-7188. Retrieved September 23, 2010.
- ^ Macromedia Shockwave for Director User's Guide, Volume 1, New Riders Pub., January 1, 1996
- ^ Macromedia Shockwave for Director, Volume 1, Hayden Books, 1996
- ^ "Shockwave.com". Archived from the original on May 28, 2015. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
- ^ "Flash content reaches 99% of Internet viewers". Adobe. Archived from the original on October 2, 2011. Retrieved August 7, 2014.
- ^ "What is Adobe Flash Player | FAQ | Adobe Flash Player".
- ^ a b c "End of Life (EOL) for Adobe Shockwave". helpx.adobe.com. Retrieved December 23, 2019.
- ^ Hoffman, Chris. "End of an Era: Adobe Shockwave Dies Today". How-To Geek. Retrieved December 23, 2019.
- ^ "Intel's 25th Anniversary of the Microprocessor". Archived from the original on January 3, 1997. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ "LANDESK Patch News Bulletin: Adobe has Released Shockwave Player Version 12.1.1.151(executable install) for Windows 24-APR-2014". Landesk. Retrieved May 7, 2014.
- ^ Pauli, Darren (May 23, 2014). "Shockwave shocker: Plugin includes un-patched version of Flash". The Register. Archived from the original on May 23, 2014.
- ^ Krebs, Brian (May 21, 2014). "Why You Should Ditch Adobe Shockwave". Krebs on Security blog. Archived from the original on May 25, 2014.
- ^ Goodin, Dan (May 21, 2014). "Adobe Shockwave bundles Flash that's 15 months behind on security fixes". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on May 22, 2014.
- ISBN 0-7897-0903-1. Archived from the originalon February 9, 2008. Retrieved March 30, 2008.
External links
- Adobe Shockwave Player
- Adobe.com/Technote Adobe.com/Technote using The Wayback Machine - What's the difference between Shockwave and Flash? (dated 2004)
- How Stuff Works - The Difference Between Flash and Shockwave