How to save shockwave files to play without an Internet connection?

Factual Questions
1

In other words, I’d like to save a shockwave file (it has an .swf extension) so that it can play totally offline. (A “stand-alone file” if you will).
Specifically, this is the file in question:
http://svt.se/hogafflahage/hogafflaHage_site/Kor/hestekor.swf

I’ve tried saving this by using the browser command of “Save Webpage As” and then I choose “webpage complete”. This seems to work okay but it appears that it needs an Internet connection to get some extra piece of data or another instruction.
So, how can I save this so that it can run totally independent from an Internet connection?

2

Right click on the link in your post and select “Save Target As” from the popup menu. Presto!

Once it is saved to your system, you can play it in a browser or with the Shockwave Player if you have it. You can download a free Shockwave Player from Macromedia.com if you want one.

3

Some files are no good when you do “Save target as …”. All you get is some kind of header information, and when you play it, it will still connect to the internet.
All I have ever managed to do in that regard was recording the sound to a wav-file while playing it. I started the recording, played the sound, stopped the recording, then used a wave editor to cut off the silence at the start and the end.
Whether you can actually record the sound that is currently playing depends on your sound card and your driver. Mine has a special checkbox for exactly that functionality (“Record current output”).

4

DaffyDuck
That seems similar to what I was doing with the browser command “Save Webpage As…”. Do you know if the “Save Target As” option works differently from the method I tried?
And yes I do have a shockwave media player.

5

MartinL
Does that save the animation as well as the sound?

6

Sorry, this method will only save the sound. I did not think of any animation.
If you need that as well, all I can suggest is that you connect your PC to a DVD recorder (be sure to play it full screen) … Seems like a bit of an overkill, I must admit.

7

MartinL
I would like the file to operate as it does when I have an Internet connection - the horses would “sing” (or stop singing) whenever they are clicked.
Therefore, a DVD recording would not do this because it would be the exact same “performance” each time.

8

Sorry, I was a bit confused (and blinded by the obvious). “Save Target As …” works fine in this case. I assumed you had tried and it had not worked.

I know that it does not work for some file types (e.g. *.rm sound files), which made me think it does not work for this file type either.

9

I’ve had some success with finding the .swf file in the “temporary internet files” folder and copying it somewhere else. You can open the saved file from your browser, or presumably with the Flash Player if you have it.

10

I never played the file before trying the Right Click->Save Link As (using firefox) and then saving it to my desktop. (since I never played it, I knew I wasn’t gonna be hitting the cache)

Then with both browsers set to work offline* I opened the SWF file directly in IE and FireFox (because I don’t have the standalone Shockwave app, and didn’t want to install it.) And it worked fine in both browsers.

YMMV

*Of course, I should point out, even if the browser is set to work offline, the plugin that plays the animation still can connect to the web (though it’s own sockets) if it so desires, so this wasn’t a 100% conclusive test.

Save Webpage As and Save Target As Are indeed different. With the WebPage one, you’re telling your browser, “Save the HTML File, which incindentallly, contains this SWF animation.” With the Save Target, you’re telling your browser “Save the SWF file. Period.”

The “Save entire page” thing in IE (which I assume you were using.) often will get the images, and other “standard” HTML elements. But the non-standard plugin type ones might confuse it.

When I want to save a .swf file, I usually create a simple HTML doc that has a link to the file I want, then open my HTML file and right Click->Save Target As. Anything more complicated than that and I use wget.

The *.rm files don’t work because often, .rm files are “meta files” that tells Real Player where to go to get the actual media it wants. Sometimes that Media File might be on an HTTP server, meaning you can use a wget or Right Click->save Target As trick. If you open and read the meta file in a text editor, sometimes this location is clear text in the file.

Other times the meta file might be pointing to something on a Streaming Server, in which case “Save As” is impossible, leaving the “record audio” method to be your best bet.

HTH,

Steve

11

I remember using a program called shockmachine that was like program that had a jukebox type interface intended for playing shockwave files.

The shockwave site is blocked from me at work, so I can’t check to see if they have a new version.

You might want to search for it yourself.

It sounds like what you’re looking for.

12

Okay, it seems that getting a “player” for that shockwave file is the thing to do.

Thanks to everyone for your answers.