NGPlayerNET

An unofficial replacement for the "Newgrounds Player" desktop program to watch and play Flash movies and games from Newgrounds in a desktop app. Written in .NET Framework 2.0 to be compatible with Windows 98 through Windows 11.

This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Newgrounds.

Movie: Pacific by Psycosis91 running in NGPlayerNET on Windows 98.

Why?

Fun project. I was fascinated by the Newgrounds Player but felt like it was missing a few nice to haves, as well as a huge missed opportunity not working on anything lower than Windows 7 with latest updates installed.

The biggest difference between this and a typical Flash projector is that it can automatically fetch a SWF when given a Newgrounds link, as well as having functional Newgrounds medals and leaderboards support when launched via Newgrounds.com. Achievement Unlocked 2 by jmtb02 (also on Steam) is a good game.

It also has Flash Player embedded and doesn't need it installed system-wide - and will automatically patch the timebomb out of any up-to-date system wide Flash Players while in use (using NoFlashTimebomb).

For anything reliable on Windows 7 and up, check out and use the official Newgrounds Player.

Privacy

If you're on a version of Windows older than Windows 10 1709, and your system can't reach Newgrounds.com over HTTPS, requests will be made over HTTP to a relay hosted by me to fetch information about Newgrounds links, and any support for medals and leaderboards will be disabled (since I don't want your Newgrounds tokens.)

If you're, say, running a secure local TLS proxy yourself, you can disable this in the NGPlayerNET Settings.

Usage

System Requirements

• Windows 98 Second Edition, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8.1, 10 or 11 - with the latest updates installed.
• At least 128MB RAM
• .NET Framework 2.0
• If on Windows 98, you'll need a ZIP file extractor such as 7-Zip.

Install Instructions

1. Download the release package ZIP for your Windows version from the releases page.
   • A HTTP-supporting mirror is hosted at http://ipg.pw/ngplayernet/
2. Extract it somewhere safe on your computer.
3. (Windows 7 and older only) If needed, install .NET Framework 2.0 from the "Redistributables" folder.
4. Launch NGPlayerNET.exe.

Using the Program

Playing Newgrounds movies from the browser

This is the only way leaderboards and trophies will function.

You only need to do this once:

1. Open NGPlayerNET.
2. Go to "About" -> "NGPlayerNET Settings"
3. Click "Install newgroundsplayer: URL handler..."

Then from any Newgrounds.com video or game's Flash page, click the link to open in Newgrounds Player to open it in NGPlayerNET.

You might have to disable Ruffle and video replacements in your account settings.

Playing Newgrounds movies from a URL

1. Open NGPlayerNET.
2. Go to "Player" -> "Load Newgrounds Flash..."
3. Type or paste a Newgrounds Flash portal link or ID and click Load.

Playing locally stored SWF files

1. Open NGPlayerNET.
2. Go to "Player" -> "Load local SWF..."
3. Find the SWF file and open it.

You should probably just use the standalone Flash Player projector instead.

Building

32-bit: Use Visual Studio 2010 or later on a system with Flash Player's 32-bit ActiveX component installed.

64-bit: Use Visual Studio 2022 or later on a system with Flash Player's 64-bit ActiveX component installed. You might get lucky with older versions of VS.

If you're on Windows 8.1, 10 or 11, you need to use regsvr32 to register Flash Player before Visual Studio will let you build it.

Shoutouts

• Newgrounds for being around for my entire life (+ change) hosting this community and all the animations and games within.
• Legacy Update for restoring Windows Update on Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7.
• Windows Update Restored for restoring Windows Update on Windows 98.
• Internet Archive for having safe archives of every Flash Version.