Remember when the web was full of flashing banners, interactive menus and browser-based games? ActionScript was the brain behind many of those experiences. Developed by Macromedia and later stewarded by Adobe, it brought Flash to life - the platform that dominated web animation and browser games in the 2000s.

ActionScript started as a simple scripting language to control animations in Flash, but quickly evolved into a powerful object-oriented language. With the arrival of version 3.0 it became more robust, adding classes, inheritance and stronger type checking. It was used not only for animations, but also for games, rich internet applications and even mobile apps via Adobe AIR.

Although the Flash era has passed and the web moved on to HTML5 and JavaScript, ActionScript still survives in niche projects and legacy applications. For those curious about its legacy, resources and tooling remain available - a nostalgic trip for interested developers.