[3][4] Hundreds of free online video games were developed using Shockwave, and published on websites such as Miniclip and Shockwave.com.

[9] The Shockwave player was originally developed for the Netscape browser by Macromedia Director team members Harry Chesley, John Newlin, Sarah Allen, and Ken Day, influenced by a previous plug-in that Macromedia had created for Microsoft's Blackbird.

However, the Shockwave Player can be installed on Linux with CrossOver (or by running a Windows version of a supported browser in Wine with varying degrees of success).

[12] Additionally Krebs writes that "Shockwave has several modules that don't opt in to trivial exploit mitigation techniques built into Microsoft Windows, such as SafeSEH.

"[13][14] In an attempt to raise its brand profile, all Macromedia players prefixed Shockwave to their names in the late 1990s.

[15] Later, with the acquisition of Macromedia, Adobe Systems slowly began to rebrand all products related to Shockwave.