Pop Protips

Pop Protip: Play the old islands with Flashpoint 🏝🔦 (Windows and Mac)

Last updated: March 2024

Are you wondering why the Poptropica map doesn’t have more islands than it does? If you’re an older player, you may recall a time when Poptropica had wayyy more islands on the map—more than 40, even! Where did they all go, and how can you play them again?

Quick background: Poptropica used to run on Flash, an old technology that was finally laid to rest in 2020. To keep Poptropica alive, the game moved a new platform called Haxe, which is how Poptropica currently exists today. However, in this Flash-to-Haxe transition, Poptropica has had to re-code what they had for a post-Flash era.

With the official game’s migration to Coolmath Games in early 2024, it’s been made clear that there is no official plan to restore the old islands, reneging on Poptropica’s previous expressions of interest to do so. But there are other ways to play!

How to play the old Poptropica islands with Flashpoint

The tutorial for using Flashpoint starts around the 2:15 mark in this video and uses idk’s Old Island Directory, though the guide links below are more updated. As of 2024, deviating from the video, you’ll want to download Flashpoint Infinity instead.

The hottest solution for accessing the classic islands is with Flashpoint, the Flash game preservation project. You can find instructions for Windows computers 🪟 in this guide by Light and Prof Robin.

For Mac 🍎 users, follow this guide to download Flashpoint, then this guide to download the files for old Poptropica. Keep in mind that Flashpoint for Mac may take a while to download and require more troubleshooting, particularly if running on a newer MacOS or device.

The Flashpoint curation of Poptropica includes a couple of downloads and clicking around a bit to set things up. Once you have it ready, you can play through all the classic islands, and even some mini-quests!

It’s safe and free, so you can use it without worry. Plus, there’s a Save Data Converter that lets you import your Pop account’s data (such as island progress) as a file into Flashpoint.

You may encounter the following terms that refer to different island eras by the name of the Flash-based programming language they were built with: AS2 refers to islands from 2007–2013, from Early Poptropica to Back Lot Island, while AS3 islands were released in 2013–2019, from Virus Hunter to Reality TV: Wild Safari.

AS3 islands are also those found in Poptropica’s paid, Windows and Mac-supported Steam bundle, which also includes the sandbox game Realms.

The PHB’s capacity to offer tech support is limited, so if you’re having trouble, try watching the video above for a clear visual of what to do. Be sure to download Flashpoint Infinity rather than Ultimate.

You may also seek help in the Poptropica Club Discord server, which is not affiliated with the PHB and is only for ages 13+.


Whether you’re playing on Haxe, Steam, or Flashpoint, there are tons of Poptropica islands to explore! And the PHB’s got Island Guides for all of them, so you can keep those handy as you play along—or simply revisit the guides for nostalgia. Enjoy! 🏝✨

~🐠

87 thoughts on “Pop Protip: Play the old islands with Flashpoint 🏝🔦 (Windows and Mac)”

    1. Hi! So I am a huge poptropica fan and I watched the tutorial on downloading flashpoint so I am able to play my favorite game once again and everything worked but a screen pops up in the game whenever I try to play for a couple minutes and it says “the adobe flash plugin has crashed”. So basically my adobe keeps crashing. Can anyone please help me with this issue?

  1. OMG thank you so much PHB! The only thing I miss more than the really really old islands are the islands that were on when I played in 2018, which consisted of Mystery of the Map, Mocktropica (only island I never won), and Arabian nights 1,2 and 3, and more! I miss those islands so much and I can’t wait to download the mobile app!
    Only thing is, Poptropica probably won’t be as fun if I have to play it on a tiny device… Still, anything for those islands!
    Thank you so much, IDK, for the Flashpoint curation thing!!!

  2. Wow! I didn’t expect to see some of my pictures to show up on this post! Awesome! So glad I took pics along the way in 2020!

      1. Flashpoint is for the computer only, not mobile devices. However, you can play the latest version of Poptropica (no old islands) on mobile with their official app or by going to Coolmath Games on your device’s web browser (no download needed).

  3. I’m watching the video for the old islands. When I download the 64-bit, i don’t get that black thing at the bottom of my screen. Does anyone know what’s going on?

    1. 64-bit is just referring to his device’s system type specifications and his black screen was showing how you could check yours. It might look different on your device. Don’t worry too much about it and feel free to continue on to the next steps.

  4. I actually have a snapshot of flashpoint from yesterday! (quick tip: if a costume part doesn’t appear on flashpoint (i.e my horn or dragon wings and tail) you can port it yourself, which i did!)

  5. btw if ya’ll are having trouble with flashpoint you can get help from idk in the poptropica club discord server (13+, and if you’re under 13 you can just use the video slanted fish linked) at discord.me/pop

  6. I tried right away but it didn’t work… When I tried to open the ‘start flash point’, the computer told me that ‘this file can’t be found, please make sure that you typed the right name..’
    I AM SOO SAD.

    1. Try watching the video in the post to see how it’s done. That’s all the tech support I’m able to offer, but if that doesn’t work, maybe someone else in the comments can help.

  7. It’s interesting how the Poptropica mobile app has more Islands than the desktop version. Even though the app (on iOS) hasn’t been updated in a month, I wish the mobile app was consistent with that of the desktop client since the Home Island is completely different on mobile. Bummer!

  8. Can I use this method in other countries? I’m playing overseas, and I’m having some troubles on downloading this

    1. Yes, your location shouldn’t affect your access to the resources mentioned above. We can’t offer much tech support here, but try watching the video in the post for some guidance on the Old Island Directory.

  9. I recovered my account and everything but none of my costumes transferred over and I cant seem to get any costumes. Is there anyway to fix this!?

    1. Sorry, since Flashpoint is not part of the official game, and the current Poptropica runs on a different engine (Haxe), there may be issues connecting the two, and unfortunately we’re not able to offer tech support. However, if you’re just logging in from an old Flash account to Haxe Poptropica, the game should have already automatically transferred what they could. If you find discrepancies, you can contact Poptropica at poptropica.com/help for support with the official game (not Flashpoint). Hope that helps!

      1. Ah I see. No worries then, I was just wondering! I’ve just started fresh and have been playing the games normally. Thank you for the help!

    1. Flashpoint doesn’t work with Macs unless they are running Windows (which is possible but complicated; there are tutorials online if you want to try it). It may be easier to get access to a Windows computer and play it on there.

  10. There is some VERY important things I noticed!!! The app version of Poptropica updated! The app is now the HAXE version, so all the episodes, Mystery of the Map, Shrink Ray, Reality T.V: Wild Safari, Galactic Hot Dogs, and the original Mythology Islands are all gone! Even the original Home Island is gone! The customizer, the Snagglemast tutorial, and the crate is gone too. Everything is the same as the Haxe version… 😔😔😔 I can’t believe Poptropica will destroy all the islands on the app version too… As of now, the only way to play old islands is through Flashpoint. But I might be wrong, who knows? Maybe this is a sign that Poptropica is giving us, that very soon they will be bringing back the long-lost islands…

    1. I don’t know about that. It seems a little off that the creators would delete old islands as a sign that they’re bringing older ones back, but I suppose it’s possible. The creators’ logic has been pretty strange lately.

      1. Yeah, you’re right… but do they even care about the app? They haven’t mentioned it in like… years. I don’t think they will just delete it for no reason. Many people have responded to this update (downgrade), and yet the creator STILL haven’t said anything yet. So maybe the creators didn’t do this… But if they didn’t do this, then who did? Anyway, they will probably give us a explanation, sooner or later. They DID respond to me when my 12 member gifts didn’t show up, and fixed it. So they probably will tell us.

    2. Mystery of the Map, Shrink Ray, Reality T.V: Wild Safari, Galactic Hot Dogs, and the original Mythology Islands are all available on Steam

      1. Yes. But the Steam bundle isn’t free, and those islands used to be free when they were on the app. Also, there was a period of a few months between when the islands disappeared from the app and when they were re-released on Steam where they weren’t available (except via Flashpoint).

  11. I don’t consider myself tech-savvy at all, but following the directions from the Old Island Directory and the youtube video made it really easy. Installed and began playing in about 20 minutes. The beginning player menu is a little buggy, but once you get passed that, everything else is fine. I really appreciate this! I was so bummed that all my favorite islands were gone so I’m glad to see that I can still play them 🙂

  12. this is very important to me because when I was younger I could never finish skulldugery island, I was so committed to it and vowed that one day I’d finish the island. Alas the flash shutdown had other plans but this gives me hope of eventually completing my goal one day! I say one day as though they wouldnt add the island back because their still making new ones rather than focusing on porting and I just think it will never happen, especially with skulldugery being an island no one seems to talk about. Despite my inability to beat it skulldugery was one of my favorite islands back then so thanks so much for this, really :).

  13. Hey this is one of my comments for the raffle. I wanted to say thank you for putting this here because I really loved some old islands and now I will be able to do them!

    1. Thanks for creating such an accessible video! 🙂 Incredibly, idk built most or all of the Poptropica Flashpoint curation on his own rather than with a team, though of course Flashpoint itself is a collaborative effort.

  14. Is there any way to save my game progress? It can’t connect to the server, so I’m assuming I’ll just have to create a new account every time…? If someone has a solution that would be awesome. I don’t really want to leave it running for the rest of the time I want to play lol

  15. my flashpoint keeps showing an error message that adobe flashpoint crashed every time I change rooms and try to move, does anyone know how to fix this issue?

  16. The AS3 curation keeps telling me on loading screens to not worry about saving game. It automatically saves. I completed the mandatory Monkey Wrench Island tutorial and exited out to test it and tried re-running from the Flash Point and I just get a blank black box where the gameplay would be located. The rest of the blue and Poptropica logo do appear. Unfortunately the AS2 curation doesn’t give me these issues.

  17. I followed SaltyTreecko’s tutorial, and I think I did everything right, but when I hit “Run” to launch the game, it pulls up the Basilik browser, but it just says “The requested URL was not found on this server.”
    I’d really appreciate any help at all!

      1. For anyone else still having trouble, I actually found a solution for this. The tutorial says to download the curated version of flashpoint. This won’t work. You’ll want to download the Infinity Version. It works so much better, and has practically no issues.

        Hope this helps!

  18. Hey guys! I have a Mac and I’m currently stuck on Part 3: Curate. I’m stuck on the second step. I did everything right from compressing the file and pressing ‘Load Archive’ in Flashpoint’s Curate Tab. However, it keeps saying it fails to take in the zip file. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Can someone please help me?

  19. Hi! I did everything correctly but when I press the green play buttonin flashpoint nothings happens. Not sure what to do now lol

  20. Is it slow for anyone else? I loved playing Poptropica and when I found flashpoint I was super excited but when I play it, it’s just so slow and buggy for me, the loading screen takes at least 5 minutes to load, I don’t know if I did anything wrong.

  21. Is anyone else having trouble with Skullduggery? Any time I try to play it, the game screen turns darker and I am completely unable to click anything on it. It makes me permanently stuck unless I reload my last data export. Really hoping to find an answer bc Skullduggery is one of my faves 😦

  22. I just downloaded Flashpoint on Mac, and got to access some old islands! However, AS3 doesn’t work for me, and AS2 was extremely laggy at times. I couldn’t complete Superhero Island because it didn’t let me go into the bank. Cryptids Island also didn’t work, because I couldn’t ride the Lil’ Ness. Legendary Swords also didn’t work because I couldn’t wack the crystals with my spacebar.
    Overall, had a really fun time playing some of my favorites, like Astroknights, Mystery Train, and SOS. But quite disappointing seeing as I spent several hours and many tries to download. Not really worth it as Cryptids was one of my favorite, and the program as a whole was really buggy. Lastly, I couldn’t seem to save my data, as the import/export button never finished loading.
    Also as I mentioned earlier, all AS3 islands didn’t work as the zip failed, so RIP mocktropica, Virus Hunter, Shrink Ray, and Monster Carnival.

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