Web Browser Games
Browser based games are also known as BBG. They emerged at the end of the 1990s and are games that can be played on an Internet browser. At first these web browser games were based on DHTML, also used for simple image rollovers and drop down menus. Because they can be played directly on the browser, they do not require any particular software installation. Instead, some browser games do require Plugin, such as Java script or Adobe Flash, which are quite easy to download and install. Usually, web browser games don’t imply any costs, only sometimes for extra options if preferred.
In 1996 Mehul Patel developed the first browser game called Earth: 2025. It was a strategy game. Three years later Utopia appeared a game that became the most popular at that time. Like its predecessor, this game was also a strategy based game on turn system. In the same year, 1999, two other games were introduced, which still remain very popular even today. One of them is a strategy real time soccer game called Hattrick and developed by Runescape and extraLives. The other one is also a real time game played in a fantasy world. JAGeX designed this game for multiple online players with role assuming.
Nowadays’ popular web browser game is Evony and millions of people play it. It resembles very much to Civilization and is a multiplayer game. Just like all the strategy games played in real time, the first tasks are to develop resources from iron mines, farms, quarries and sawmills. Following this, the player starts to build up a town with its own army.
The number of web browser games available now is very large, most of them being developed on Flash. Zillions of websites offer so many simple games based on Flash and dedicated both to kids and adults.