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Macromedia Shockwave is frequently confused with Macromedia Flash. This is largely due to
an aggressive marketing campaign in late 1990s. Shockwave is Macromedia's first and most
successful multimedia player. In an attempt to leverage its market presence and help promote other
multimedia formats all Macromedia players started prepending 'Shockwave' to their names - as in 'Shockwave Flash',
which led to a blurring of product lines. As of 2004 there are several distinct browser player plugins
available from Macromedia. Although Flash is now the most widely recognized, promoted and
developed player, Shockwave continues to be a strong presence.
Flash files can be played on a Shockwave player, but not vice versa. Some features available in
Shockwave that are not available in Flash include 3D, XML parsing, internet chat, and image scaling.
In the past, Macromedia has considered Shockwave to be their more 'professional' format, but in
recent years they have significantly expanded the capabilities and reach (e.g. Macromedia Flex) of
Flash, so the future of Shockwave remains to be seen.
- Macromedia Shockwave: Installed on 60% of browsers, uses ".DCR" files, created using Macromedia Director
- Macromedia Flash: Installed on 90% of browsers, uses ".SWF" files, created using Flash, FreeHand, Generator, and other tools.
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