How a Teenager in Brazil Single-Handedly Preserved 2,000 Forgotten Mobile Games

Before the iPhone changed everything in 2007, there was an entire ecosystem of mobile gaming that most people have completely forgotten. Thousands of games were built for Java-enabled “feature phones” — the Nokias, Motorolas, and Sony Ericssons that preceded the smartphone era. These J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition) games were sold through carrier portals and […]

Inside the Vault: How Archivists Rescued 10,000 Flash Games From Oblivion

When Adobe officially killed Flash Player on December 31, 2020, an estimated 300,000 Flash-based games and animations faced extinction. Decades of creative work — from Newgrounds classics to corporate advergames to one-off art experiments — would simply stop working. The Flashpoint project was racing against the clock. A Preservation Army Flashpoint, run by BlueMaxima, is […]