In 1992, MacroMind (now MacroMind-Paracomp) merged with Authorware Inc. and became Macromedia. As the Internet became more popular, Macromedia realized the potential for a web-based multimedia platform, and designed Shockwave Player for the leading web browser of the time, Netscape Navigator. Shockwave Player was released with Director 4.0 around 1995, and branded Shockwave Player 1.0. Its versioning has since been tied to Director's versioning, skipping versions 2 to 4. Shockwave was now a two-part system, a graphics and animation editor known as Macromedia Director, and a player known as Macromedia Shockwave Player.
Macromedia Director quickly became the de facto production tool for the multimedia industry. By 1993 it was used to develop most Macintosh CD-ROM games,[9] such as point-and-click graphic adventures.[10] Throughout the 1990s Director was credited with the creation of the majority of educational CD-ROMs.[7] It was preferred over competing applications due to its range of features, relative ease of use and Director's ability to publish executables for both Apple and Microsoft operating systems.[7]
A less-sophisticated alternative to Director was Apple's HyperCard.[9] From 1995 to 1997 a competing multimedia authoring program appeared called mTropolis (from mFactory). In 1997, mTropolis was purchased and discontinued by Quark, Inc., who had its own plans into multimedia authoring with Quark Immedia.
In December 1996,[11] Macromedia acquired FutureWave Software and its FutureSplash products. Macromedia Flash 1.0 was released shortly thereafter. Macromedia now controlled two of the three leading multimedia platforms for the web, with Java being the third.
Macromedia Director 8.5 was released in 2001 and was the first version to specifically target the video game industry.[10] It introduced 3D capabilities, 3D text, toon shading, Havok physics, Real Video, Real Audio, integration with Macromedia Flash 5, behaviors, and other enhancements.[10] 3D modelling programs such as LightWave, Cinema 4D, and 3D Studio Max were upgraded to export 3D models for Shockwave.[7][10]
As of 2001, over 200 million people had the Macromedia Shockwave Player installed, making Shockwave a common format for online video games.[10] Websites such as Miniclip and Shockwave.com were dedicated to Shockwave and Flash-based video games.[12][13]
Adobe
Macromedia was acquired by Adobe Systems in 2005, and the entire Macromedia product line including Flash, Dreamweaver, Director/Shockwave, and Authorware was now handled by Adobe. Director is currently developed and distributed by Adobe Systems.
The early 2000s saw a decline in the usage of Director/Shockwave as most multimedia professionals preferred Macromedia Flash and other competing platforms. After the Adobe acquisition, no new versions were released for four years.[7]
In 2007, Adobe released Adobe Director 11, the first new release in four years.[7] It introduced DirectX 9 native 3D rendering and the AGEIA PhysX physics engine, panel docking, QuickTime 7 support, Windows Media, RealPlayer support, Adobe Flash CS3 integration, and Unicode support.[7] It was considered an "incremental release" by reviewers and the scripting editor was still considered "primitive".[7]
As of 2008, the market position of Director/Shockwave overlapped with Flash to a high degree, the only advantage of Director being its native 3D capabilities.[7] However, with the release of Flash Player 11, GPU-based 3D rendering was now supported using Stage3D (the underlying API), Away3D or Flare3D (3D game engines). And after Adobe AIR was released, Flash programs could now be published as native applications, further reducing the need for Director.[7]
In February 2019, Adobe announced that Adobe Shockwave, including the Shockwave Player, would be discontinued in April 2019.[8]