How To Download and Play Flash Games Offline
Do you like to play flash games online? Have you ever wondered if there is a way to download those flash games to your computer and play them on your desktop without seeing distracting ads ?
Here we’ll show you how to do just that. First how to download flash games to your PC and then how to play them offline. So if you’re hooked on some addictive flash game this guide should help you get it offline and play it on your desktop.
1. Download Flash Games
Downloading flash games to your PC is a fairly easy process and there are lots of ways to do it. One way to get the game file is to look inside the page’s source code and find the direct link to the game file on the site. Another option is to wait for the game to load in your browser and later get it from the temporary files folder of your browser. Or you can just go to the site called File2HD and let it get the game file for you. We have already featured it earlier as a MP3 and video download tool for Myspace.
File2HD can help you download flash games from most of the online gaming sites. That being said, it doesn’t work with Kongregate, one of the best sites for Flash games. Althou I had no problems getting flash games from hugely popular sites like AddictiveGames.
So how does it work:
1. Go to the page with the flash game you want to download.
2. Copy the page URL and paste it into File2HD.
3. Set ‘Filter’ to ‘Objects’ option and click on ‘Get Files’ button.
4. Next, File2HD should retrieve the direct link to the game file.
5. Right click on the link an use ‘Save Link As’ option to save the game to your computer.
2. Play Flash Games Offline
Once you have the game files on your system you can use a simple freeware program called FlashOffliner (Windows only) to take those raw .swf flash files, turn them into playable games, and neatly organize them under one menu.
Here are the steps you need to do:
1. Download and Install FlashOffliner.
The FlashOffliner setup comes with 2 games by default and 3 more that can be added later. If you want to install them as well then check step 4.
2. Once you have FlashOffliner up and running, you should see a new icon in the taskbar. Right click on the icon to see the list of available games and program options.
3. It takes two steps to add a downloaded flash game to your FlashOffliner games list. The first thing you need to do is click on the ‘Create New Flash Offliner Package’ and then point it to the downloaded file. Then you will be asked to name your new game and for a couple of more optional details. At the end it should create game_name.fop file for you.
4. Again right click on the FlashOffliner icon and this time select the ‘Install FlashOffliner Option’. Point the app to the newly created game_name.fop file to “install” the game.
5. This will install the game and add it to your FlashOffliner games. See screenshot below.
That’s about it, now you can simply click on the game of your choice and play it offline right on your desktop. By default the game window size is set to 800×600 but you can easily resize it to 400×300, 640×480, 1024×768 or Full Screen mode.
Now that you know how to take flash games offline check out our short post on best online flash games.
Did you try downloading flash games to your computer before? Do you have anything to add to the above guide? Share your tips and thoughts in comments.
(By) Aibek, the guy behind MakeUseOf.com. Follow him and MakeUseOf on Twitter.
that’s pretty cute about File2HD.com. I should check whether It can download file from Youtube.com and other site. If yes, that will be a great tool for downloading and Keepvid.com should retire soon.
http://www.zamzar.com can download and convert anything on youtube (and some other sites too).
Right, I’m using zamzar.com to convert some of my files though kinda slow. For games, I download them and play at ponged.com.
(Comments wont nest below this level)Yes, it can download both from Youtube and many other sites
This article is superfluous.
I’ve downloaded Flash games by simply right-clicking the object and saving to HDD. (I recognize that this won’t work in some cases)
Secondly, all you have to do to play the games is open them with your web browser.
Right Click -> Open With -> Firefox/Opera/Chrome/whatever
I think the right click won’t work in many case, not just in some.
To Capt. O.
You comment is quite ignorant as the actual .swf file will not open or play through a web browser uless the temporary internet files associated with it are present in your temporary internet files folder, and the only way to get them there would be to go on the website where the game is, but we are trying to do this offline, so your method wont work unless you can go onto the website, which would be redundant and therefore, your comment is redundant.
Thats a cool thing to do when you want to play offline but man… some of these dudes worked hard time to build a game for you to play. At least buy them a coffee on their site. (not their distributor site) 1$ isn’t a lot considering you downloaded a game that you will play more then 1hr.
Thus said, support them small programers.
Btw their an add-on for firefox that lets you save all swf.
cheers.
Yeah definitely, the purpose of this article wasn’t to rip off the developers. But merely give users the ability to play games offline.
Another thieving bastard couraging people to hustle flash (game) developers…
Those games don’t make them selves you know, more you hustle us, less likely we have opportunity (living ain’t free, even for us, you know) to make games and that mean you ain’t getting new games to play.
I hope some day your boss just decides to keep your pay check and tell “sorry, you haven’t worked enough lately, you don’t need money.”.
So stick to publishing on Kongregate, who’s system is resistant to this kind of thing, and is set up to support you, especially with the new ‘tip’ system.
You can sit on your front porch and shake your fist all day long, but until you put up a fence I’m still going to play in your yard.
Kongregate is not resistant to that type of stuff, i’ve seen many friends download games off of it. However, most common apps to download games do not work on Kongregate.
(Comments wont nest below this level)You can also get an extension like DownThemAll (Firefox) and navigate to a page with a built in Flash Game, while using the DownThemAll extension to download the specific extension.
Any idea if it works on Kongregate.com ?
the flashoffliner is a real waste.. i used flashget to download the swf and then simply drag dropped the swf in firefox and enjoyed my game
why download anything?? In most cases if you go to the source of the web page (for firefox under the view tab and for internet explorer under page) and search for “.swf” then you’ll find the link. Read the link to see if it’s what you want. eg http://google.com/ads.swf is probably not what you’re looking for. Then open the url in your browser and save it. For people who don’t download random things just in case
Yes the file can be always grabbed fro the source code, although it’s really a pain in the ass looking for the right flash on banner-filled gamig sites.
You can also use Firefox’s AdBlock extension (Ctrl + Shift + V to open the Blockable items on the page) to copy the URL of the component you wish to download and download it using your favorite download manager.
This works very nicely with most of the websites.
Using DownThemAll is another alternative method, but I find it a little fussy.
Yep, that works pretty well as well
This article is superfluous.
I’ve downloaded Flash games by simply right-clicking the object and saving to HDD.
Thats a cool thing to do when you want to play offline….
For the Mac I recommend iSwiff for launching offline games
http://echoone.com/iswiff/
i highly recommend the towerdefense game VectorTD and its sequels on Candystand.com
Thank You
Clever bit of software! But why not just play the flash games online?
For me, personally, I’m looking up how to play games offline because school’s out today and I don’t have a sitter so my 9 year old daughter’s coming to work with me and needs some things to do for 10 hours. Yes, we’re bringing books as well, but I know she won’t read all day long. I have a laptop, but my boyfriend’s 3 year old broke the wireless button, so that’s why I’m looking to do this.
You can download games from kongregate if you know how…
http://a.kongregate.com/games///frame/
Where is the maker or poster of the game
and
is the name of the game.
So if you wanted to download “Frantic” from Kongregate
your URL would look like
http://a.kongregate.com/games/polymerrabit/Frantic/frame/
then all that you have to do is click File > Save Page As… or Ctrl+S (in your browser) and then you have downloaded a game off of kongregate.
Enjoy.
Or use Orbit Downloader’s Grab++
The problem is that you won’t be able to run it. The flash game will load but then instantly re-direct you to an error page that displays “You can only play this game at http://a.kongregate.com…” so it’s no use. I guess there’s a check to make sure you’re running the game from the site (maybe they are against people pulling their games offline for whatever reason).
why my flash game soo laggy
Heh, if you have firefox, go get the Amazing Media Browser add-on at
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1468
it lets you download anything that’s embedded in the current webpage. neat, eh?
I used to download flash games to my computer by using a firefox extension(i dont remember its name right now), then i used the adobe flash player(not the plugin, but the stand alone app thats with the adope flash program itself) so i just associated .swf with it, then all i had to do is double click flash files
Here’s something I don’t see here…how can I download the games for my son from http://www.sesamestreet.org/games … file2hd.com doesn’t find any objects. When i browse through the files in firefox, i only come across a loader.swf…I’ve got some other great flash games on my Archos 605 that he likes playing – but these Sesame Street ones are his favourite and we can only play them on the web (for now)…take for example: http://www.sesamestreet.org/game_player?p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_id=gamePlayer_WAR_sesameportlets4369&p_p_uid=dd838f23-486b-11dd-bf7b-df62be721a24&t=1230617774375&
Try checking suggestions in the comments above. There are some alternative ways to download the games.
i cant afford internet at home and there are a lot of games i enjoyed to pass the time, but im stuck playing them at the local library. is there some way (any at all) to get the save information, as sadly the computers here wipe all temporary information when they get rebooted or shut down. so although i have flashoffliner on and it stays strangely, it doesent keep my progress and it sucks when im trying to play some rpg like conartist’s game “Sonny”. please let me know if you have anything. thanks LG
When i downloaded flashoffliner and tried to unzip it, it said it was corrupt. downloaded again and still would not work. is their any way other than flash offliner? and also, i would like it if it were playable with internet dissconected. any ideas?
that flash offliner link is blocked by my firewall do u recon u can send me a link simalar to it plz??
You can try accessing the site using one of the tools online proxy sites
http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/proxy/
I have downloaded sonny and got really far but for some reason when i save it every time i try and open the game I saved i see that the game hasn’t saved so I’m stuck playing sonny without closing it which is really aggravating if my computer reboots etc. any ideas?
It saves using cookies. Since you are offline, it wouldn’t save any cookies. So, you cant save anything offline.
At least, that is my guess.
ive gotten it installed and put a game on it i go to play it but it asks me to download a shw file what do i do?
It means you downloaded only a part of the game, not the full version.
Nice idea! I never knew about File2HD, which is a cool utility I can think of for many other uses in getting pieces of various websites. Thanks for sharing!
it is great software, and the best thing it is that’ a freeware version of software for playing games offline.
Wonderful post!
Thanks a lot!
Itz really a very interesting blog dude….
I got a gud help out of this thnx….
thnx again…
just too good…
for everyone who is unable to download either of the programme…just use some download tool to download them….\
thanks a ton….
some of our friends here are saying.. “why play it online?” lol the purpose of this is when you’re stupid ISP crashed and you have nothing to do.. you can play it offline.. if you’re ISP works 24/7 it might be GOD himself who operate on it..
that’s gr8 trick dude well done……….
Pandemic 2 – I can’t download this game!!
HELP!!
http://www.addictinggames.com/pandemic2.html – Yeah, even in this url…
Here ya go:
http://www.addictinggames.com//D78AQSAKQLQWI9/4994.swf
just download the page, and you’ve got it!
Theres a problem when i download some things. For example: I downloaded and installed World Wars (http://www.addictinggames.com/worldwars.html) to the FlashOffliner, but when i clicked on the game All that popped up was a blank black or white Screen and then nothing ever loaded. Does anyone have any information/advise or just plain help for me.
Did you wait for the game to actually start? Often games are composed from different flash files i.e. game intro file, actual game file etc.
Alternative, you may try method described in the following post
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/download-and-play-kongregatecom-games-offline/
I downloaded Motherload from http://www.miniclip.com with this method and opened it with Flashoffliner but all it comes up with is a white screen
http://games.sticky.tv/cyrkam_airtos/
could you help me dl this game? i couldn’t find the exact link in the source page. thanks.
This is an oldish article, but I never stop learning something new. Thanks for the information about FlashOffliner.
so how to download game from mofuya.com and fasco-csc.com? the room escape game was really great but i can’t get it offline
Fire Fox users can also download flash games from there browser’s page info option.
yes this is working
i had downloaded some games now
i tried the file2hd and sometimes the game’s link doesnt show in file2hd. it says no files found. so how can i get the game i want? and another thing is it comes up with two links, which one should i use? sometimes though i installed the package, the game doesnt load, it just appears as a white screen. please help me. tq.
it depends on the website, on some sites file2hd seem not to work as expected. As for multiple links go for the one with bigger size, that usually points to the game.
will it work on newgrounds games and flashes? can you try interactive madness? what system are you using? cuz im using a dell inspiron 1720!
to all who say this rips off the dev. you still have to go to the site at one point or another to get the .swf so the game still gets traffic so quit QQing
it’s pretty easy to use zamzar. anyway thanks for sharing the tips
nice tut bro
Thanks.
Kral OYUN
What do you do when it’s a computer game that’s not by a specific developer? I want to download a game from a band I listen to. They made a computer game that’s accessible on their website using a flash player. I just want to download it so I could play it offline. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
You can also open the swf files in Internet Explorer and it will play them
There is a problem with the swf files in firefox.
how can i download ULTRA BALLOON….i cant find its url….
pls help me ..i love this game…
very good site
Really good article
Thank you so much for this article! My gramps can’t get out of the house, still lives in the dark ages, and only has solitaire on his computer- no internet or dvd drive. This will let me give him other games to play. My family thanks you!