Adobe Shockwave (formerly known as Macromedia Shockwave) was Macromedia's first and most successful multimedia player, prior to the introduction of Macromedia Flash (now Adobe Flash). Shockwave allows Adobe Director apps to be published on the Internet, and viewed in a web browser on computers with the Shockwave plug-in installed. Version 11.0.3.470 adds native Intel Mac support, as well as support for Director 11.

 

“Over 480 million Internet-enabled desktops have installed Adobe Shockwave Player in mature markets around the world,” Adobe says. “These people now have access to some of the best the Web has to offer - including dazzling 3D games and entertainment, interactive product demonstrations, and online learning applications.”

 

Shockwave Player displays Web content that has been created by Adobe (Macromedia) Director. Macromedia Flash and Director are both powerful rich-media content solutions. When used together, they enable developers to create the most compelling and effective rich content, both on- and offline.

 

Usually authored in the Adobe Director environment, Shockwave boasts support for Flash movies inside Shockwave files, but authors often choose the Shockwave Director combo over Flash because it offers more features and more powerful tools. A much faster rendering engine, including hardware-accelerated 3D, and support for various network protocols, including Internet Relay Chat, are some of the features not replicated by Flash. Also noteworthy is that the so-called “Xtras” can significantly extend Shockwave's functionality.

 

For the most part of its existence, Shockwave has been available as a plug-in for both Mac OS and Windows. However, when Apple made the transition to Intel Core Duo processors, there was a notable break in support for the Mac. It was again enabled with Shockwave 11, the first version to run natively on Intel Macs.

 

Unlike Flash, the Shockwave browser plugin is not available for Linux or Solaris despite vocal lobbying efforts in this respect. Still, the Shockwave Player can be installed on Linux with CrossOver, or by running a Windows version of a supported browser in Wine.