Post-Flash Site Update
From Homestar Runner Wiki
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'''Page Title:''' Ow! My entire website!! | '''Page Title:''' Ow! My entire website!! | ||
| - | {| | + | {{newspage|post-flash update! |
| - | + | |image=[[File:news ruffleupdate.jpg|300px|Ruffulate!]] | |
| - | + | |caption=The boys with their new lord and master Sunset PlayButt. Stop trying to click it! | |
| - | + | |text= | |
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What happened our website? Flash is finally dead-dead-dead so something drastic had to be done so people could still watch their favorite cartoons and sbemails with super-compressed mp3 audio and hidden clicky-clicky easter eggs! | What happened our website? Flash is finally dead-dead-dead so something drastic had to be done so people could still watch their favorite cartoons and sbemails with super-compressed mp3 audio and hidden clicky-clicky easter eggs! | ||
| - | The first thing you'll notice is that the landing page when you go to homestarrunner.com is very different. There are now useful things on here! Not just "watch intro!" (but you can <span class="plainlinks">[[{{HR||Old New Intro}}| | + | The first thing you'll notice is that the landing page when you go to homestarrunner.com is very different. There are now useful things on here! Not just "watch intro!" (but you can <span class="plainlinks">[[{{HR||Old New Intro}}|{{f|white|t=<u>still do that here</u>}}]] if you want). But once you click "come on in," you'll find yourself in familiar territory thanks to the [https://ruffle.rs/ {{f|white|t=<u>Ruffle Project</u>}}]</span>. It emulates Flash in such a way that all browsers and devices can finally play our cartoons and even some games. |
Next up are the Toons and Sbemail menus! They look mostly the same, but act like modern webpages! Your favorite easter eggs are still hidden and now you can even choose to watch a YouTube version if there is one. | Next up are the Toons and Sbemail menus! They look mostly the same, but act like modern webpages! Your favorite easter eggs are still hidden and now you can even choose to watch a YouTube version if there is one. | ||
| - | Keep in mind, Ruffle is still in development so not everything works perfectly. Games made after, say 2007, will probably be pretty janky but Ruffle plans on ulitmately supporting those too one day. And any cartoons with video elements in them (Puppet Jams, death metal) will just show you an | + | Keep in mind, Ruffle is still in development so not everything works perfectly. Games made after, say 2007, will probably be pretty janky but Ruffle plans on ulitmately<!--sic--> supporting those too one day. And any cartoons with video elements in them (Puppet Jams, death metal) will just show you an emp<!--sic-->y box where the video should be. But hang in there and one day everything will be just like it was that summer when we got free cable somehow and Grandma still lived in the spare bedroom. |
| - | + | }} | |
== Changes == | == Changes == | ||
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*Pages have been reorganized. Toons are now under the directory <code>/toons/</code> and have more intuitive addresses (e.g. [[Lookin at a Thing in a Bag]] is now at <code>{{HR||Lookin at a Thing in a Bag|}}</code> instead of <code>whatsinthebag.html</code>). Some content, including many [[secret pages]], cannot be found on the new site. | *Pages have been reorganized. Toons are now under the directory <code>/toons/</code> and have more intuitive addresses (e.g. [[Lookin at a Thing in a Bag]] is now at <code>{{HR||Lookin at a Thing in a Bag|}}</code> instead of <code>whatsinthebag.html</code>). Some content, including many [[secret pages]], cannot be found on the new site. | ||
*The [[Neon 404'd|404 page]] now offers a link to the same address on the old website. | *The [[Neon 404'd|404 page]] now offers a link to the same address on the old website. | ||
| - | + | Some changes were made shortly after the initial update on December 31, 2020: | |
| - | + | *A new category, [[Video Stuff]], was added to the toons menu, containing [[social media]] and/or non-[[Puppet Stuff]] [[live action]] material such as [[Peasant's Quest Movie Trailer]] and the [[sloshy - No-stalgia|music video]] for [[No-Stalgia]]. | |
| - | *A new category, [[Video Stuff]], was added to the toons menu, containing [[social media]] and/or non-[[Puppet Stuff]] [[live action]] material such as [[Peasant's Quest Movie Trailer]] and [[sloshy - No-stalgia]]. | + | |
*Toons previously not on the toons menu, such as [[Skills of an Artist]] and [[Hremails]], were sporadically added. | *Toons previously not on the toons menu, such as [[Skills of an Artist]] and [[Hremails]], were sporadically added. | ||
== Missing Content == | == Missing Content == | ||
| - | Some content on the old site is seemingly unavailable on the new site. | + | Some content on the old site is seemingly unavailable on the new site, and it's unknown if and when these pages will be made available again. |
{| width="100%" | {| width="100%" | ||
|valign=top width="20%"| | |valign=top width="20%"| | ||
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*[[Email Processing Room]] | *[[Email Processing Room]] | ||
*[[Crazy Cartoon]] | *[[Crazy Cartoon]] | ||
| - | |||
| - | |||
*[[Workin' on the Game]] | *[[Workin' on the Game]] | ||
*[[Sbemailiarized!]] | *[[Sbemailiarized!]] | ||
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*Old [[Astro-Lite 2600]] | *Old [[Astro-Lite 2600]] | ||
*[[Telebision Toons Menu]] | *[[Telebision Toons Menu]] | ||
| - | *[[ | + | *[[Lucky Toons Menu]] |
*[[Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 1.0]] alt version | *[[Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 1.0]] alt version | ||
*[[Homestarloween Party]] alt version | *[[Homestarloween Party]] alt version | ||
| Line 132: | Line 122: | ||
*[[404'd]] | *[[404'd]] | ||
*[[Field Day Intro]] | *[[Field Day Intro]] | ||
| - | |||
*[[Kick The Cheat (game)|Kick The Cheat]] | *[[Kick The Cheat (game)|Kick The Cheat]] | ||
*[[Handheld Games Menu]] alt version | *[[Handheld Games Menu]] alt version | ||
*[[strongbad_email.exe DVD Promo]] | *[[strongbad_email.exe DVD Promo]] | ||
*[[Lappynapped!]] | *[[Lappynapped!]] | ||
| - | *All [[Halloween Teasers]] with the exception of [[Halloween Safety]] | + | *All pre-2021 [[Halloween Teasers]] with the exception of [[Halloween Safety]] |
*[[Hremail 49]] | *[[Hremail 49]] | ||
*[[Hremail 24]] | *[[Hremail 24]] | ||
*[[Baddest of the Bands Promo]] | *[[Baddest of the Bands Promo]] | ||
*[[Limozeen Live! - 8 Nov 2008]] advertisement | *[[Limozeen Live! - 8 Nov 2008]] advertisement | ||
| - | *[[ | + | *[[Homestar Runner 20th Anniversary Show]] advertisement |
*[[Screenland - 24 Apr 2017|slash/slash]] | *[[Screenland - 24 Apr 2017|slash/slash]] | ||
*[[Secret Pages#Games|Strong Badia the Free Head Exploding Game]] | *[[Secret Pages#Games|Strong Badia the Free Head Exploding Game]] | ||
| Line 149: | Line 138: | ||
|valign=top width="20%"| | |valign=top width="20%"| | ||
| + | |||
===Miscellaneous=== | ===Miscellaneous=== | ||
*[[Fan Stuff]] | *[[Fan Stuff]] | ||
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*[[Sketchbook]] | *[[Sketchbook]] | ||
*[[Random Toon]] | *[[Random Toon]] | ||
| + | *[[The King of Town DVD Storyboards]] | ||
| + | *[[In Search of the Yello Dello Storyboards]] | ||
*[[Teen Girl Squad]] menu | *[[Teen Girl Squad]] menu | ||
*[[virus]] pop-up | *[[virus]] pop-up | ||
| Line 161: | Line 153: | ||
*[[Limozeen Live! - 27 Mar 2008]] advertisement | *[[Limozeen Live! - 27 Mar 2008]] advertisement | ||
*[[Hooked on Decemberween]] download page | *[[Hooked on Decemberween]] download page | ||
| - | *Limozeen Live! download page | + | *[[Limozeen Live! - 27 Mar 2008|Limozeen Live!]] download page |
| + | **On old.homestarrunner.com, the song links lead to the new site, resulting in a 404. | ||
*[[Trogdor!! The Board Game Rulebook EP]] download | *[[Trogdor!! The Board Game Rulebook EP]] download | ||
|} | |} | ||
Revision as of 23:04, 14 February 2023
On December 31, 2020, homestarrunner.com underwent a massive overhaul to make it accessible following the death of Flash. The redesigned site uses a combination of HTML5, JavaScript, and embedded Ruffle players to imitate the look and feel of the old site while retaining most of its functionality and making it usable on mobile devices. The update also came with some reorganization and other quality-of-life improvements. The contents of the old Flash site have been moved to old.homestarrunner.com.
Contents |
History
In 2015, The Brothers Chaps made the toon Flash is Dead! to acknowledge the news that Adobe Flash Player was becoming obsolete. Though vague mention was made of learning HTML5, there were at that point no concrete plans for what to do with homestarrunner.com, which consisted almost entirely of Flash content. As mobile devices could not run Flash and major browsers were already beginning to drop Flash Player support, there became more of a focus on YouTube content. In a 2017 episode of Lost in the Stacks, Mike and Matt discussed Flash's 2020 end-of-life date and what they might do to update their website.
In 2018, subscribers to The Deleteheads Download were given a sneak peek at a redesigned home page at new.homestarrunner.com, featuring a mobile-friendly layout and an embedded YouTube player. However, it was given little attention and few to no updates after its unveiling. When a Twitter user asked in 2020 if the prototype had been abandoned, Strong Bad replied, "I didn't think anyone ever bandoned it in the first place!"
In 2019, Strong Bad started Tweeting about Ruffle, an in-development Flash Player emulator that promised to preserve Flash content after 2020. When asked toward the end of 2020 about the future of homestarrunner.com, Strong Bad responded that it was being worked on. Stinkoman 20X6 became the first page to use the HTML5 navbar upon the level 10 update. On December 31, the index page was replaced with a message stating that the website was under construction. Soon after, the entire site was updated. An informative page about the post-Flash update was linked to from the index page.
Post-Flash Update Notice
Date: Thursday, December 31, 2020
Page Title: Ow! My entire website!!
|
post-flash update!  The boys with their new lord and master Sunset PlayButt. Stop trying to click it! What happened our website? Flash is finally dead-dead-dead so something drastic had to be done so people could still watch their favorite cartoons and sbemails with super-compressed mp3 audio and hidden clicky-clicky easter eggs! The first thing you'll notice is that the landing page when you go to homestarrunner.com is very different. There are now useful things on here! Not just "watch intro!" (but you can still do that here if you want). But once you click "come on in," you'll find yourself in familiar territory thanks to the Ruffle Project. It emulates Flash in such a way that all browsers and devices can finally play our cartoons and even some games. Next up are the Toons and Sbemail menus! They look mostly the same, but act like modern webpages! Your favorite easter eggs are still hidden and now you can even choose to watch a YouTube version if there is one. Keep in mind, Ruffle is still in development so not everything works perfectly. Games made after, say 2007, will probably be pretty janky but Ruffle plans on ulitmately supporting those too one day. And any cartoons with video elements in them (Puppet Jams, death metal) will just show you an empy box where the video should be. But hang in there and one day everything will be just like it was that summer when we got free cable somehow and Grandma still lived in the spare bedroom. |
Changes
- The index page, toons menu, Strong Bad Email menu, and navbar were given HTML5 makeovers. The cartoon menus now have expandable descriptions and links to watch on the official site or (if available) on YouTube.
- The New Stuff menu is now called "Latest Stuff", accessible through a button on the remote rather than a video cassette.
- Powered by The Cheat was retired as its own separate category and merged with Shorts.
- The Strong Bad Email menu was updated to feature the Lappier, with other computers accessed through an Easter egg. Another Easter egg plays a Scroll Button Song appropriate to the selected computer, rather than the song playing upon opening the page.
- The post-Flash update page was added to the index page's new "the latest styles" section.
- As the intro is no longer accessible through the index page, it was added to the toons menu under Old New Intro.
- Flash content is playable in embedded Ruffle players. Ruffle does not yet support all features of ActionScript, so some toons and games do not work properly. Some such pages include warnings at the bottom of the screen.
- Toons now have previous/next buttons above the navbar, indexed by toon category.
- The games menu now includes games that were previously exclusive to Videlectrix's website.
- Pages have been reorganized. Toons are now under the directory
/toons/and have more intuitive addresses (e.g. Lookin at a Thing in a Bag is now attoons/lookin-at-a-thing-in-a-baginstead ofwhatsinthebag.html). Some content, including many secret pages, cannot be found on the new site. - The 404 page now offers a link to the same address on the old website.
Some changes were made shortly after the initial update on December 31, 2020:
- A new category, Video Stuff, was added to the toons menu, containing social media and/or non-Puppet Stuff live action material such as Peasant's Quest Movie Trailer and the music video for No-Stalgia.
- Toons previously not on the toons menu, such as Skills of an Artist and Hremails, were sporadically added.
Missing Content
Some content on the old site is seemingly unavailable on the new site, and it's unknown if and when these pages will be made available again.
