Converting wedding_invite.swf - none of the standard tools work
September 25, 2020 7:57 AM Subscribe
About two decades ago, a wedding invite was made using Macromedia Flash creator something. It contains shapes, tweens, and sprites. And a soundtrack.
Now, I cannot play or convert it. None of the obvious solutions work - the best I get is an audio file with the soundtrack.
Things I have tried:
- VLC: Plays the soundtrack, no video
- All (well many) online video converters: Audio only
From this Stackoverflow question:
- ffmpeg indeed only produces audio
- The linked gnash script generates gigabytes of dumped SWF, and never completes. Well, I run out of disk space after 80G or so.
Some extra information:
I do remember that the SWF was parameterised with a "Dear X" kind of function. And if you did not sent it in, you got a null-ish error on the screen but the SWF did play.
Things I have tried:
- VLC: Plays the soundtrack, no video
- All (well many) online video converters: Audio only
From this Stackoverflow question:
- ffmpeg indeed only produces audio
- The linked gnash script generates gigabytes of dumped SWF, and never completes. Well, I run out of disk space after 80G or so.
Some extra information:
I do remember that the SWF was parameterised with a "Dear X" kind of function. And if you did not sent it in, you got a null-ish error on the screen but the SWF did play.
If it is made with a version of Flash 11.2 (2012-ish) or older, then you can play it with the standalone player, no browser or installation required. The last standalone player before they discontinued it can be downloaded in this archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20200718192527/https://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/installers/archive/fp_11.2.202.235_archive.zip
You'll want to use the one with SA in the filename (flashplayer11_2r202_235_win_sa_32bit.exe for Windows, not sure for Mac) - this will also let you export the SWF as a "projector" EXE with the player and the content in one file.
posted by CyberSlug Labs at 9:55 AM on September 25, 2020 [4 favorites]
You'll want to use the one with SA in the filename (flashplayer11_2r202_235_win_sa_32bit.exe for Windows, not sure for Mac) - this will also let you export the SWF as a "projector" EXE with the player and the content in one file.
posted by CyberSlug Labs at 9:55 AM on September 25, 2020 [4 favorites]
Response by poster: Ruffle works!
CyberSlug Labs, thank you for the links. I am downloading it too and storing next to the .swf (with the newly minted .exe).
posted by weft at 11:20 AM on September 25, 2020 [1 favorite]
CyberSlug Labs, thank you for the links. I am downloading it too and storing next to the .swf (with the newly minted .exe).
posted by weft at 11:20 AM on September 25, 2020 [1 favorite]
I know you've got your solution already, but I'll add one more: At my work, we've been using Newgrounds Swivel to convert tens of thousands of SWFs to movies over the past couple of years.
posted by clawsoon at 3:51 PM on September 26, 2020
posted by clawsoon at 3:51 PM on September 26, 2020
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by jozxyqk at 8:19 AM on September 25, 2020 [4 favorites]