Neopets Revives Its Popular Flash Games To Restore ‘Glory Days’

Image via Neopets

Neopets has a special place in the hearts of many who grew up in the internet age. However, as Adobe Flash saw its end of days, so fell Neopia, much of which was illuminated by animated mini-games.

A huge wave of nostalgia is sweeping in as World of Neopia, the new owner of Neopets, is bringing back more than 50 classic Flash games to the website. It’s a flash from the past, if you will.

The formerly much-beloved virtual pet website had attempted to rescue some of its games using HTML-5, but this still meant some favorites were being sacrificed, Polygon reports.

“Neopets has been running at a loss, financially, for over a decade,” admits the Neopets team. “This lack of resources led to challenges like aging site features and limited funding for growth and development, resulting in bugs, broken games, and a lack of new content.” Thanks to new investors and funding from the new openers, it is now taking the first steps to heal from the damage.

The site is now hoping to rekindle its “glory days” with the help of Ruffle, an open-source Flash emulator that allows players to run content of the retired format in modern browsers. This means titles like Meerca Chase, Ice Cream Machine, Destruct-O-Match, Hasee Bounce, Snowmuncher, Turmac Roll  and much more have risen from the dead… or Sutek’s Tomb.

Video screenshot via Neopets

All told, the simulator isn’t without its faults. On its website, Neopets outlines some bugs that may come with individual games, such as broken restart buttons and translation errors.

You can also play these games on your smartphone’s browser, but Neopets cautions that the experience may vary per mobile device.

[via Polygon and Game Developer, images via Neopets]