Seven releases wrote this format, from FutureSplash Animator in 1996 to Macromedia Flash MX in 2002. Each one kept the layout of the one before and raised the revisions of the records it extended, so one reader reads them all by testing each record’s revision. The next release, Flash MX 2004, changed every string to UTF-16 and starts the Flash MX 2004 to CS4 format.
Releases
| Release | Released | Contents revision | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
| FutureSplash Animator | May 1996 | 0x10 | Commands |
| Macromedia Flash 1 | December 1996 | 0x10 | Commands |
| Macromedia Flash 2 | 1997 | 0x11 | Commands |
| Macromedia Flash 3 | 1998 | 0x14 | Commands |
| Macromedia Flash 4 | 1999 | 0x1B | Commands |
| Macromedia Flash 5 | 2000 | 0x20 | ActionScript 1.0 text, or normal-mode lists |
| Macromedia Flash MX | March 2002 | 0x29 | ActionScript 1.0 text, or normal-mode lists |
Flash 1 was FutureSplash Animator renamed, and the JPEXS converter treats their files
as one, with Contents revision 0x10. FutureSplash Animator’s own file
extension, and whether its files were the same as Flash 1’s, are not confirmed. No file
from Flash 1 or 2 has been examined for this site, and the release days of Flash 2 to 5
are not certain. Which older formats each release could save is not known.
Record revisions
The revision byte of each record, as each release writes it. The values come from the JPEXS FLA converter’s table; those marked “seen” were confirmed in real files.
| Release | Contents | Scene record | Object part | Layer | Frame | Frame block | Instance block |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FutureSplash, Flash 1 | 0x10 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | – (commands) | – |
| Flash 2 | 0x11 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 8 | – | – |
| Flash 3 | 0x14 seen | 4 seen | 1 | 3 | 0x10 | – | – |
| Flash 4 | 0x1B seen | 8 seen | 1 | 8 | 0x12 | – | – |
| Flash 5 | 0x20 seen | 0x0C seen | 1 seen | 8 | 0x15 | 0 | 0 |
| Flash MX | 0x29 seen | 0x11 seen | 1 seen | 0x0A seen | 0x16 seen | 1 seen | 1 seen |
- Contents – the first byte of the
Contentsstream, the document revision - Scene record –
CDocumentPage, inContents - Object part – the
CPicObjrevision, the byte afterCPicPageat the start of a timeline stream - Layer and Frame –
CPicLayerandCPicFrame - Frame block and instance block – the revision of the ActionScript block on keyframes and on movie clip and button instances
The explorer reads the document revision to name the release in its Document section, and reads each stream by the revisions found in that stream.