Rivalled in popularity only by RealPlayer, Shockwave (also known as Shockwave & Flash) brings real multimedia content to the Web. While Shockwave & Flash gives your browser some capabilities also offered by other plugins, including streaming audio and video, its real power is in live 2D and 3D animation. Shockwave & Flash goes beyond the sound and motion we're accustomed to on the Web. Buttons light up as you run your cursor over them, mouse clicks trigger animation and sound, music plays in the background.

Just about anything you can do to jazz up a CD-ROM can be reproduced for the Web with Shockwave & Flash. Shockwave & Flash can play files made with the Macromedia tools Flash and Director. Director has already been used to create movement and sound on thousands of multimedia CD-ROMS, and now these effects can be incorporated into Web sites as well.

In the past, Shockwave consisted of one plug-in, called Shockwave for Director, that played content made with Director. If you have installed Shockwave in the past, then you might have this (how to see what plug-ins you have installed). A plug-in called Shockwave Flash that played content made with Flash could be downloaded separately. Now, both plug-ins are included in one download, called Shockwave & Flash. These two plug-ins still show up separately when you check what plug-ins you have installed. If you already have the Shockwave plug-in or the Flash plug-in, you can download Shockwave & Flash to get the benefit of both.

After you download and install Shockwave & Flash, check out these samples on the Macromedia site.

Shockwave & Flash is being used for everything from animated logos to games. Web site designers break up long blocks of text by shocking their pages with sound, motion video, and interactive buttons.

PC Windows 3.1 and Windows 3.11, Windows 95/98, Windows NT 4.0 Final Release Your PC must have a built-in Floating Point Unit (FPU) chip.

Macintosh Mac 68K - Need to run System 7.1.2 or higher. 7.5.3 is recommended. PowerMac System 7.5.1 or higher. 7.5.3 is recommended. Your Macintosh must have a built-in Floating Point Unit (FPU) chip (all Power Macs have this).

NOTE: See if you already have these plug-ins.

Download Shockwave & Flash