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Let me tell you a story about a webcomic called Homestuck. The fourth in a series of “MS Paint Adventures” authored by Andrew Hussie from 2006 to 2016, it became wildly successful, in part because of its eclectic use of web technology like Adobe Flash and GIF animations.
However, with Flash finally being phased out at the end of 2020, Homestuck is in a precarious state. While there have been official attempts to preserve aspects of the original experience by VIZ Media (who have published Homestuck since 2018), the results have been mixed. With extra content scattered around the web in various states of decay, a solution was needed to preserve Homestuck's one-of-a-kind presentation and flair, for both returning readers and those new to the story.
Not broken
The Unofficial Homestuck Collection is a heavily customised browser, built from the ground up to support Homestuck and its related works. Flashes? We got 'em. The collection runs Flash content natively, providing the most authentic Homestuck experience possible.
Don't get it twisted though, because "browser" in this context doesn't mean "online". The Unofficial Homestuck Collection is completely self contained, and never has to connect to the internet once you have it downloaded.
Don't think we'd be content stopping at just Homestuck. The collection supports the other MS Paint Adventures, official Homestuck side-stories, and a garguantuan array of goodies for the enquiring reader. Seriously, there is SO MUCH CONTENT in this thing. It's totally ridiculous.
Always wanted to try Homestuck? Overwhelmed by all the side-stories and sequels, and frustrated by the late-arrival spoilers plastered all over the internet? We've got your back. From the very beginning, The Unofficial Homestuck Collection has been designed to work as a safe way for new readers to get their teeth into the Homestuck universe. If you so choose, all future content will be carefully gated off until your progress in Homestuck makes it safe to view.
The Unofficial Homestuck Collection contains a complete database of the Homestuck Bandcamp, up to the most recent album. Want to know more about the crazy song you just heard in that Flash animation? Follow the link and see what's up! If you so choose, you can even enable an inline media player that legally streams the music directly from the source. You can try not to get lost exploring the twisted web of Homestuck's discography, but it's inevitable.
We've got complete control over the browser, so you'd better believe we're taking advantage of it. Mid 2000's quality bitcrushed Flash audio? Nah, man. Almost every single flash in Homestuck has been painstakingly reworked with the highest quality music available. You have to hear it to believe it. Want to use themes on every page? Go nuts, I'm not the boss of you. Arrow key navigation? Automatically opening pesterlogs? You got it. Want absolutely none of the above? That's also an option! It's Homestuck, the way you want it.
The Unofficial Homestuck Collection contains a drastic modding system. Make whatever changes you can imagine, and share them with the community. Do whatever you want, I don't care. Become ungovernable.
Setting up the Unofficial Homestuck Collection is a little bit weird, because there are two pieces: the reader application, and the asset pack.
The Application is the reader we wrote; it has all our enhancements and reading features, and you'll use it to read the comic. The Asset Pack is the archived comic data; it's bigger, but you shouldn't have to update it.
Download both, save them to your computer, then run the app. It'll ask you to tell it where you saved the asset pack, and then you'll be good to go!
The application is a roughly 150 MB download, and requires the Asset Pack V2 to function. Future updates to the application may require an updated Asset Pack, but they usually won't. We'll tell you if they do!
For Windows, Mac, and Linux:
GitHub ReleaseFor Linux:
FlathubThe Asset Pack V2 is a 4.3 GB download, and it's necessary in order to run the application. It contains all the text, images, animations, and everything else!
Don't worry, you don't have to update the asset pack to update the reader application.
Once you download it from one of the following links, you'll need to extract it to somewhere on your PC. Click here for a guide on how to do this.
Download links for "The Unofficial Homestuck Collection Asset Pack V2" are currently unavailable from this page, but may be found elsewhere online.
