Macromedia Shockwave - Definition and Overview

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.

External Links

• Site to download Shockwave and Flash (http://www.macromedia.com/downloads/)
• What's the difference between Shockwave and Flash? (http://www.macromedia.com/support/general/ts/documents/sw_flash_differences.htm)
• The Difference Between Flash and Shockwave (http://www.howstuffworks.com/web-animation6.htm)
• Definition of Shockwave (http://webopedia.internet.com/TERM/S/Shockwave.html)
• Flash and Shockwave Games Directory (http://www.fogdir.com)