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[SolarShado]

http://www.freeciv.net

Haven't tried playing it myself yet, but it's a port of the open-source freeciv. A port to HTML5. So it runs, entirely in your browser, without Flash.

Spoiler: about freeciv (click to show/hide)

As I understand, it's an open-source re-creation of Civilization II. Personally, it was the first Civ-like game I'd ever played. see freeciv.org for more

Spoiler: about HTML5 (click to show/hide)

Seems to be the "next big thing" in web development. From what I've read, it won't change the user experience too much, but should make developer's jobs much easier. the standard is still very much a work-in-progress though

I, for one, admire it as quite a technical achievement... Civ is by no means a simple game, and porting it from C to HTML5 was surely no easy task.

What's next? Half-Life in HTML5?

EDIT: apparently, you need an account to play...

[Blacken]

A 3D game to the tune of half-life would require a sane HTML5 3D rendering API that actually worked effectively and consistently across multiple platforms. And a decent method for playing sounds through it. (Even Google's Pac-Man game required Flash to play sound.)

Neat trick though, for a 2D game like Freeciv.

[Phmcw]

3D engine work in Html5 the demo I saw looked like the old doom though. Nothing fancy but still neat.
It looks like flash is dieing.
Good thing.

[Googolplexed]

Theres nothing to stop you from doing 3d with just canvas and a bit of javascript.

What it is lacking is 3d acceleration, which would bring half-life to slower then a crawl

[smigenboger]

Yeah I was wondering if flash is holding us back from further development, especially for the amatuer flash makers.

[atomicwinter]

I'm confused does this mean they are programming it in HTML5? Or are they just utilizing HTML5 technology with say Javascript?

[Blacken]

Yeah I was wondering if flash is holding us back from further development

It's not. Common mistake, but it's not. Flash provides something extremely powerful that HTML5 will not have: consistency. There are multiple, legal ways to actually implement large chunks of HTML5 that are utterly incompatible as per the standard. It is JavaScript hell all over again.

Flash, for all its warts--and believe me, it has many, I've developed for it enough to hate it--gives the developer, and thus the user, something of a contract. Flash says, "if you make something with our tools, it will work on all our supported platforms in essentially the same way." And for the most part, it does. HTML5, while an admirable attempt, does not. It doesn't help that the entire HTML model is a fucking joke and limits what the web can actually do; a system designed for static documents is being bent into applications it's simply not intended for and the failures of it show quite well.

3D engine work in Html5 the demo I saw looked like the old doom though. Nothing fancy but still neat.
It looks like flash is dieing.
Good thing.

Yes, I'm sure such a staunch open-source advocate would rather not have a single reference platform that actually works more or less the same in all environments.

You can draw your own conclusions as to why.

Theres nothing to stop you from doing 3d with just canvas and a bit of javascript.

What it is lacking is 3d acceleration, which would bring half-life to slower then a crawl

And all of the WebGL-type APIs out there just scream "come on, hack me." Such a security nightmare.

[Servant Corps]

The problem is that I have to download Flash's stupid upgrades all the time, and I can't even use Flash on the IPad (thanks Apple!). At least you can easily use HTML without downloading anything other than a web browser.

[kuro_suna]

Flash, for all its warts--and believe me, it has many, I've developed for it enough to hate it--gives the developer, and thus the user, something of a contract. Flash says, "if you make something with our tools, it will work on all our supported platforms in essentially the same way." And for the most part, it does. HTML5, while an admirable attempt, does not. It doesn't help that the entire HTML model is a fucking joke and limits what the web can actually do; a system designed for static documents is being bent into applications it's simply not intended for and the failures of it show quite well.

Personally I'm still pinning my hopes on silverlight.

[MrWiggles]

Flash is being outmoded. Adobe is the only big guy pushing for Flash, and that suspect. Flash isn't growing where smart phones, and computing it heading towards.

Steve Jobs letter of explanation for his middle finger to Flash are legitimate. If they weren't Adobe would be suing Apple right now. Microsoft is also siding with Apple on its use of Flash as is Google.

Flash is awesome. Or was awesome, or is becoming was awesome? Anyway. Flash could be whats needed by computing.

HTLM5 is still in its infancy, and its getting there. With Apple, and Google openingly supporting it, it will be the next top dog, probably.
Anybody else notice that FreeCiv.net is CPU intensive as all fuck?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Ah yes, HTML5. The very same HTML5 that was originaly predicted to be not viable for civilian computers untill 2025. Oh how the mighty have fallen.