How to download and save Flash games to play offline
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)
- 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.
- 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).
- Right-clicking anywhere on a page in IE and Firefox brings up a “View Page Info” option.
- Choose this and then select the Media tab.
- Locate the game’s .swf file and “Save As”
View Temporary Internet Files (internet explorer)
- Click Tools and then Internet Options.
- Under the General Tab go to Settings under the Temporary Internet FIles group.
- 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.
- 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.
May 22nd, 2010 at 4:33 pm
I mean to say, can a game be burned onto a CD / flash drive with a newer computer and then transferred to the aforementioned OOOLD computer?
May 22nd, 2010 at 4:31 pm
What if you want to put a Flash game on an OOOOLD computer without Internet capability? What are the minimum system requirements?
May 16th, 2010 at 8:38 pm
go to file2hd.com
and copy and paste url in the box
tick the terms and conditions
turn filter to objects
and under the filter it will have “Right click on the URL to save the file”
right click one of them and ckick “save as”
choose the location and you will have the game or movie or audio or image.
April 20th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Luke: the methods listed above work fine for macintosh
March 31st, 2010 at 9:05 am
I LIKED THE METHOD, BUT MOST OF MY COMPUTERS ARE MACS :(. SU CKS 4 ME BECAUSE IM 99.9999999999% Sure that it dose nit work for macs. I rally go tot get my Dell fixed LOL
March 30th, 2010 at 1:24 am
Top games
Sonny 1 & 2
Arcuz
Boxhead - 2PLay Rooms
Heli Attack 3 (Better than Commando 2)
Red Storm
Warzone Tower Defense
Raiden X
Stick RPG
Space Bounty
March 30th, 2010 at 1:19 am
But when saveing the Web Page, complete to get the swf wait until it finishes loading meaning if you can start the game then save the page
March 30th, 2010 at 1:16 am
Is there a program that acts like internet cause some games you can’t go to the next level without being at the site and if you close the program it runs on like, Firefox -that is what I use to play swf games - all my progress is gone.
If it were possible can someone create a SWF Game Player that
- Able to fake accounts allowing you to give yourself a name, points, premium [offline] for games like Arcuz and Red Storm
- Able to keep in save games
- A built-in cheat engine and calculator
- And can play any game offline
And another thing the easiest way to get a swf is to save the Web Page, complete.
February 20th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
is there a way to play it on your desktop so that you don’t have to type it in your browser all the time? ?? -Wes V.D.
January 24th, 2010 at 11:31 pm
Hi, fellow (gaming) web shark here,
What I find is best is to save the game (C:>Users>Laurie>Flash), then to save the whole four or five lines of coding that has the game in it
(usually:
param
param
embed src
param)
Then pasting it in to notepad, put it in the body, add the head tags (Not needed, but a title always look pro), and saving as html; Then put the address of the saved game (Eg C:>Users>Laurie>Flash>FreeRider2.swf) where it used to be in the html (embed src=”http://static.onemorelevel.com/games3/freerider2.swf”)
This helps as then it has the right size, the right options (parameters, which you can change anyway), and you might be able to choose where to save (if you know html well enough…)
January 9th, 2010 at 4:26 am
Only for those games, which not loading data from server
January 1st, 2010 at 7:48 pm
i love the cat. how did you guys get that cat.it is soooooooooooooooo cooooooool.ilove the games to.thay are cooooooler than a play staiton 3.i play other games on other websites but thay are nothing compared to youer guys games.have agood new year. youer friend chance p.s. the cat and games together would be insanely coooooooooooooool!!!!!!!!!!
December 23rd, 2009 at 8:32 pm
this is extremely useful! i am currently in school and now i can pass those pesky blocks!!!
December 23rd, 2009 at 7:34 am
The Idea Is great Thanks
But I download Arcuz But It Wont Save
Is there A way i can save the downloaded game
December 17th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Thanks for the hint :) are you a division of AddictingGames?
December 5th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
i hope they can make more girl games with typinag instead of killing because that is disruting people’s minds.
December 5th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
I love all of the flash games on this website. My favorite is Line Rider and Line Rider2.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:45 am
hi umm does this work on macs? coz its bein weird on mine
November 29th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Thanks for posting, i am heading over to check out your entire site now. What you wrote is great advice any way that you look at it.
November 19th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
@TehMedia and Graham
it is very rare for games to save their data server side. The data is stored in a seperate folder for each web page (and possibly in a different place for each browser). The easyest way to get around this is to make a dummy website like I have said before. it should go something like this
game
end html script
just copy and paste that into notepad, replace some of the values, and save it as a .html file in notepad and open with the .swf in the same folder.
November 11th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Ok i see what you are saying but once ive downloaded and saved the games to my comp how do i make savegame files for that game(ex. ill start a game get so far attempt to save close it and next time i open the game the savegame profile is gone.)
November 5th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Flash Offliner is a tool I use - either link will download the program - very easy to use but won’t work on all games
http://www.brothersoft.com/games/flashoffliner.html
http://flashoffliner.en.softonic.com/
November 2nd, 2009 at 2:52 pm
he there i wan’t to download bubble struggle2 but its hard to download.
October 29th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
The saved games are usually not stored server side, but are stored in cookies, which are attached to the web browser(I think) and then are in different folders for different sites. one way around this would be to make a very basic web page with only the flash game on it which might get the saves to work.
October 27th, 2009 at 8:24 am
Seriously, I love your cat-pictures
just an addition, if you want to download from OML, the games are to be found as “http://static.onemorelevel.com/games3/(gamename).swf” in the sourcecode
Anyway, is there any possibility to play games that require to be embedded in offline mode? I tried to download “Agony: The Portal” the other day and it wouldn’t let me play
October 26th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
ive tried 2 different games from onemorelevel.com and i find the address http://static.onemorelevel.com………swf and i put it in my address bar and the game pops up so i go file and save as is greyed out. what can i do to fix this?
October 24th, 2009 at 6:33 am
In response to Graham’s question, when playing the game on the website the save game data is stored server sided. When you play offline it will be saved client sided.
October 23rd, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Thanks! This is great. But the only thing that ive found is that the saved games do not save. Is there anyway to make them save on my machine?
Thanks
G