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Want to download some Flash games to play on an airplane? Work or school blocked your favourite game sites? No sweat. I’ve noticed a few sites popping up trying to sell software to download Flash content. You don’t need it, in fact you don’t need anything except the browser you already have. It’s free and easy.

You have a few options for downloading Flash games to your computer to play offline. First, you’ll need to know that all Flash games have the file-name extension .SWF

Note: Most webpages contain more than one .SWF file, there could be advertisements, logos or other media using a .SWF extension. Usually the game is called game.swf(replace with game name :), not ad.swf or rabbits.swf.. pretty interesting huh?

View Source Method (all browsers)

1. The old fashioned and still most reliable way is to View Source(under the View menu) on a given page and do a search for the string “.swf”  The address you’re looking for is usually something like http://www.site.com/games/title.swf. 
2. Copy that address into your browser and select “Save As” from the FIle menu. Boom! you’ve downloaded the Flash game. Sometimes you will find the .swf file but without a full URL, for example “title.swf” In this case you will need to attach the site URL and any folders before the filename to download it.

View Page Info Method (firefox). 

1. Right-clicking anywhere on a page in IE and Firefox brings up a “View Page Info” option. 
2. Choose this and then select the Media tab. 
3. Locate the game’s .swf file and “Save As”

View Temporary Internet Files (internet explorer)

1. Click Tools and then Internet Options. 
2. Under the General Tab go to Settings under the Temporary Internet FIles group.
3. Look out! There could be thousands of files in here. Another reason to use Firefox :) But anyway if you don’t mind browsing through what your little brother was up to last night… continue on.
4. Click View - Details, Now arrange the files by address and find the game site you were looking for and then the .swf game file and choose Copy. Paste the file into any other folder.

If you are frequently downloading games there’s add-ons and extensions out there that can speed up the process.

Firefox Addons. If you use Firefox there are a variety of extensions to help you download Flash Games(as well as Youtube videos and other media. I recommend UnPlug

IE Addons
Sothink SWF Catcher: This handy little tool adds one-click Flash Game grabbing to Internet Explorer. 

Note: 90% of games will work but some require an internet connection or to be embedded on a page to function correctly! 

Once you’ve downloaded the files playing them is as simple as having Flash Installed(which you probably already do). Double-click the files and they should load fine. If for some reason that doesn’t work, try opening them in your web browser.

I am completely hooked on today’s game, Clockwords. Who could guess that typing in as many random words as possible was so addicting? It’s also a very clever piece of viral marketing for Dictionary.com

Play Clockwords: Prelude.

Obechi

• Obechi is a brand new game from the creators of Boomshine.

Miami Shark

• “Warning: this game may break your monitor” Play Miami Shark

Tetrisd

• Tetrisd is what happens when you play too much tetris.

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I’ll be in San Francisco and LA at the end of September. If you’re in the area shoot me an e-mail.

I get a lot of e-mails asking me how to disable the sound in Flash games. It can be annoying when in-game music or sound effects interfere with an MP3 you are listening to. Currently there is no perfect solution, but there are a few options:

• First check if the game has a built-in option to turn off sounds. Sometimes it’s hidden in the options menu, a small music note icon in the corner of the screen or occasionally simply pressing “M” might do the trick. Unfortunately it’s up to the game developer whether or not they include this option, and many games do not.
• If you are a Windows user there’s a freeware application called FlashMute. It works with IE and Firefox and allows you to quickly toggle Flash sounds on and off with a hotkey. This is probably the best solution currently available. Download FlashMute.
  
  
• A Firefox extension called Mute Flash. However it only works under XP and requires a restart of your browser every time you run it. The reason for the browser restart is the extension removes a Windows DLL file to disable Flash audio. You can also do this manually.

Hopefully Adobe will include an easy way to toggle audio in future versions of their Flash player. Until then we have to rely on developers embedding this functionality into their games… so send them a polite e-mail if they forget. :) Happy gaming!

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