Who needs Flash any way?: Google boffins get Quake 2 running in-browser with HTML5

Just in time for iPad

| Apr 2, 2010

If you thought iPad’s lack of Flash meant no more browser games and crippled websites, think again.

A group of Google engineers have managed to successfully port classic PC shooter Quake 2 from Java to HTML5, running the unoptimised code at around 30 frames per second within the Safari browser.

It’s not a completely smooth experience, as can be seen in the video below, but the very fact it exists at all should be enough to worry Adobe.

Flash in the pan

It’s a sign that the latest programming standard for HTML could be capable of at least matching Flash’s abilities as a gaming language - and doesn’t require any thirdparty plug-ins installed to get everything running either.

Still, it’s unlikely that HTML5 will be replacing Flash in the near future as neither Firefox and Internet Explorer, the two most popular browsers, yet fully support the language.

But some companies are now creating both Flash and HTML5 websites - the latter for iPad - so the tipping point might happen sooner rather than later.

[source: GamesBeat]

Will Wilson

Will's obsession with gaming started off with sketching Laser Squad levels on pads of paper, but recently grew into violently shouting "Tango Down!" at random strangers on the street. He now directs that positive energy into his writing (due in no small part to a binding court order).

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