Ruffle
Hacker ApprovedFlash emulator
Open source emulator that plays old Flash games, animations and SWF files in browsers. Critics say compatibility is incomplete.
Open source emulator that plays old Flash games, animations and SWF files in browsers. Critics say compatibility is incomplete.
37 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 30
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 81%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 30 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Preserves and revives old Flash content
“Very glad to see that Ruffle + WASM has allowed the site to be resurrected nearly identical to how it used to look”
Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “Flashpoint Archive – Over 200k web games and animations preserved” “Ruffle is getting good enough where I think we might be properly archive all the Flash stuff.”
Comment from 29 Sep 2026 in “Pirating the Pirates” “many study materials that were made in Flash that came back alive with the help of Ruffle”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Building a New Flash” - Comment from 8 Dec 2025 in “Applets are officially gone, but Java in the browser is better”
- Comment from 3 Oct 2026 in “Newgrounds.com – A community of games, music, and art”
- Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “Neopets.com changed my life (2019)”
- Comment from 16 Aug 2026 in “Falstad Math and Physics Simulations”
Good compatibility for most content
“Ruffle is quite good now. I haven't found many applets that don't work with it.”
Comment from 16 Jun 2026 in “Your ePub Is Fine. Kobo Disagrees. Blame Adobe” “Ruffle[0] is a decent Flash replacement and compatibility is pretty good[1]”
Comment from 4 Nov 2025 in “When stick figures fought” “Ruffle has gotten quite good, and importantly the features are locked”
Comment from 22 Sep 2026 in “First Shader from Zero in Godot 4” - Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Felix Rieseberg Homepage”
- Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Building a New Flash”
- Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “Flashpoint Archive – Over 200k web games and animations preserved”
- Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “Flashpoint Archive – Over 200k web games and animations preserved”
Runs Flash files without Flash plugin
“Thanks to Ruffle, you can build flash games and they will even work on your iPhone”
Comment from 18 Oct 2026 in “Chrome and Edge are removing XSLT: what breaks and what does not” “Well technically you can still use Flash via Ruffle, a WebAssembly-based emulator”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “You can make up HTML tags” “They work in all browsers without flashplayer now thanks to Ruffle.”
Comment from 3 Feb 2026 in “Adobe Animate will be discontinued effective March 1, 2026” - Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Building a New Flash”
- Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Your ePub Is Fine. Kobo Disagrees. Blame Adobe”
- Comment from 19 May 2026 in “Badger Badger Badger Video Officially Preserved by British Film Institute”
Free, open source Flash emulator
“an open source Flash implementation. It's great!”
Comment from 4 Nov 2025 in “When stick figures fought” “Open source flash player emulator”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “Flashpoint Archive – Over 200k web games and animations preserved”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Incomplete compatibility with some files
“Ruffle is not complete or comprehensive. In my test of a dozen swf ruffle could successfully display about half.”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Your ePub Is Fine. Kobo Disagrees. Blame Adobe” “Ruffle failed to load the first game I tried”
Comment from 9 May 2026 in “Cartoon Network Flash Games” “Ruffle has not turned out as successful as I had hoped for, even after several years and many sponsors”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Todd C. Miller – sudo Maintainer for over 30 years” Bugs in specific features
“seems to have a bug that causes the intro scene to skip ahead if you wait a while”
Comment from 3 Oct 2026 in “Newgrounds.com – A community of games, music, and art” “AMF serialization/deserialization in Ruffle has some definite issues”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “Flashpoint Archive – Over 200k web games and animations preserved”
What people said
40 of the 43 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Thanks to Ruffle, you can build flash games and they will even work on your iPhone”
“Ruffle has been doing great for most games and animations, though.”
“Maybe install that and be happy”
“Flash games have been 'saved' already, if you've still got the .swf”
“I've been using the ps vita homebrew port of Ruffle for the past few days and really enjoying it”
“seems to have a bug that causes the intro scene to skip ahead if you wait a while”
“it made Twitch claim that my browser is too old to use their website”
“The newer Ruffle player is a 10MB download in addition to the actual flash file.”
“It's cool to see how far Ruffle has come in making flash games playable without flash.”
“Ruffle is getting good enough where I think we might be properly archive all the Flash stuff.”
“Ruffle has gotten quite good, and importantly the features are locked”
“thankfully bought back to life by Ruffle”
“Ruffle is quite good now. I haven't found many applets that don't work with it.”
“Ruffle is not complete or comprehensive. In my test of a dozen swf ruffle could successfully display about half.”
“You know you can use Ruffle if you really want Flash right?”
“The original SWF file can be played by Ruffle”
“Ruffle failed to load the first game I tried”
“Ruffle is pretty close to full AVM2 support.”
“many study materials that were made in Flash that came back alive with the help of Ruffle”
“Ruffle looks pretty amazing.”
“which will restore Flash functionality to very old websites”
“a Rust + WASM reimplementation of Flash that can play swf files”
“Very glad to see that Ruffle + WASM has allowed the site to be resurrected nearly identical to how it used to look”
“Ruffle never even makes the call out to the server... so at this point I don't think it's a serialization issue”
“AMF serialization/deserialization in Ruffle has some definite issues”
“You have done amazing work, and I'm ever grateful to your team for keeping AS3 alive!”
“it has high % compatibility but it is ok”
“they've covered almost everything in AS3 except the NetConnection class”
“Open source flash player emulator”
“support is generally good”
“adding ruffle in the middle when it really doesn't need to be there, does indeed feel a bit tacky”
“you can still program in Flash if you really want to, and distribute your programs on the web”
“And, of course, Ruffle[1][2] to play them.”
“They work in all browsers without flashplayer now thanks to Ruffle.”
“Ruffle has not turned out as successful as I had hoped for, even after several years and many sponsors”
“Well technically you can still use Flash via Ruffle, a WebAssembly-based emulator”
“Many of the old games and movies still play back well with Ruffle installed”
“this idea of old internet things coming back to life”
“Ruffle[0] is a decent Flash replacement and compatibility is pretty good[1]”
“an open source Flash implementation. It's great!”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.