If you’re bored at school, what better way to kill some time than play some games? Sadly, many flash games are too large or uncontrollable to play on your phone, and your school will likely block you from playing them on any school computer.
This trick, however, will let you play flash games while at school!
1. Open the game at home.
(You have to start at home or another computer that doesn’t block games.) Go on your own home computer and open up the game(s) you want to play at school.
2. View the page source.
Right-click on the page the game is on and select “view source.” A bunch of code will appear on your screen in a notepad file, but don’t worry about all that! What you see is the ‘HTML’ code for the page, a set of codes a web browser like Firefox or Google Chrome reads in order to construct a web page onto your screen.
3. Find the game’s source file.
Press CTRL+F and type .swf into the text box. Notepad will find the .swf files loaded on the web page. The .swf file will be highlighted, and you should see it as part of a URL. For example, if the game you want is called ‘pong’ you might see an address like http://www.yourgamessite.com/pong.swf.
4. Double-check the game.
Note that other flash files may be loaded on the site for purposes other than games, such as for menus or animated adverts. You will need to use the CTRL+F utility to go through the .swf files on the page until you find the game file. Sometimes the .swf file will be embedded in codes that cause it to be unidentifiable. If this appears to be the case, just move onto another games website.
5. Load just the game in your browser.
Once you have the right .swf file, copy its URL and paste it into the address bar. Hit enter to load it.
6. Save the .swf file.
Now go to File > Save As, or Save Page As. Save the .swf file onto your computer.
7. Copy the game to a thumb drive.
Next, you need to put the .swf file on a portable device such as your phone or a USB thumb drive. Ideally, you should just be able to plug it into a computer and access your files directly. Because of this, a USB drive is your best option.
Alternatively, you can email yourself the .swf file and open it at school, though there’s no guarantee your school’s computers will let you download the file onto their network.
8. Plug in at school!
At school, plug in your portable device or open your email. If you are using email, download the .swf file onto the school network. If you are using a portable device, open My Computer and find your device, then navigate to the .swf file.
9. Open the game in your browser.
Right-click on the .swf file, select “Open With”, and then chose to open it with Internet Explorer (or whatever web browser your school uses). Alternatively, you can go onto the internet browser and click File > Open and locate your .swf file from there. Hopefully your game will be open in the browser ready to play!
10. Hopefully it works.
Sometimes, even if you correctly load the .swf file at school, the game may not work. So before you head off to school, it’s best to try opening the .swf file on your own computer to confirm it works.
