It may be possible to TAS Flash games using Hourglass.
There's a website (www.swf-to-exe.com) that converts an SWF file into an EXE file. You upload an SWF you ripped from a Flash games website, and then it creates a standalone executable file that doesn't require Flash Player to be installed.
Here's an example I did with Alien Hominid: http://www.mediafire.com/?od5joax7gty0ypb
Do you think such executables are compatible with Hourglass?
Hourglass might be able to support such executables in the future, but they don't appear to work at all in it for now. I suspect that Flash uses multiple threads in a problematic way. I was able to get VVVVVV to run in Hourglass after disabling many features, which would be no good for TASing but at least it establishes that the exe doesn't seem to be actively defending against what Hourglass does.
Though the game is great, it wouldn't be good to TAS for a couple reasons:
1. There's literally no end to the game. You can make a TAS of the first wish for a couple hours and sure, it'd be an insane score and run, but there's no reason to ever die. Unless the game ever gets too fast and it becomes literally impossible to continue without dying at some point (and there's some quite long runs if you just search YouTube....), there's no reason to TAS it.
2. The game is too simple and the only thing a TAS could possibly do is remove the reflex requirements. It'd be too boring.
Though the game is great, it wouldn't be good to TAS for a couple reasons:
1. There's literally no end to the game. You can make a TAS of the first wish for a couple hours and sure, it'd be an insane score and run, but there's no reason to ever die. Unless the game ever gets too fast and it becomes literally impossible to continue without dying at some point (and there's some quite long runs if you just search YouTube....), there's no reason to TAS it.
2. The game is too simple and the only thing a TAS could possibly do is remove the reflex requirements. It'd be too boring.
I only experimented it with real-time: you can manipulate "next cliffs", abuse "dash", abuse collision detection, abuse ejection, also there's some debug stuffs and interesting code parts in the source.
edit: if you are interested: http://swfchan.com/17/82261/info.shtml?Robot-Unicorn-Attack.swf
PhD in TASing 🎓 speedrun enthusiast ❤🚷🔥 white hat hacker ▓ black box tester ░ censorships and rules...
I once have seen some point-and-click flashgames been TASed on a strange japanese site.. Bad thing is i can't find these videos anymore...
But it was about a year or so ago, so i always thought that there were some flash emulators out there. Even though i wasnt able to find one.
Maybe these videos were made with a klick bot or something? I remeber that the gameolay was inhumanly fast.
How should I know what I think before I read what I post?
For the record, there is not need to use some 3rd party software to make a standalone executable out of a flash movie. Just use the official standalone flash player. Not only does it allow you to just play the movie. It allows you to create a projector file, essentially the standalone player merged with the flash movie.
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Hourglass cannot load swf files. Flash games compiled into an exe should work, but a bug prevents the exe-file flash games from running (they seg fault usually, when not, they crash in other exciting ways).
It will be solved some day, but I have other more urgent things to fix, and currently no time to do it.
Well even if we would be able to lunch Flash games, Hourglass doesn't (yet) support mouses and, unless I'm mistaking, you need the mouse to play this game.
