Hey Poptropicans, steamy sounds of more clues incoming!
Since the announcement of some old islands to return on Steam, Poptropica’s been sharing daily clues as to what those islands may be. The third hint is but a lone image: a pink wiener dog. 🌸🐕
While a few islands of the past had their share of dogs, the specificity of the clue being a wiener dog seems to point strongly to one in particular: Galactic Hot Dogs. In this island based on the eponymous graphic novel series by Max Brallier (son of former Pop publisher Jess Brallier), we hop aboard a spaceship called the Neon Wiener, which has a hot dog inside.
If we want to look to other possibilities for the clue, we might also consider the B.A.D. guard dogs you have to dodge in Spy Island, or Spitsy, a slender dog who helps you dig up the time capsule in Big Nate Island.
With the three hints we’ve seen so far, rumors have been circulating about the choice of the 13 islands to return on Steam: they may all be newer old islands, as opposed to super longtime classics. These newer old islands are sometimes known in the fandom as SUI (Sound-Updated Islands) or AS3 (ActionScript 3, the Flash-based programming language) and include islands released from around 2013 to 2015, which had bigger screens and sound, and may be easier to port as the technology isn’t as old as AS2 (encompassing all pre-2013 islands).
As Tough Spinner points out, these AS3 islands had been playable on the Poptropica app before they were removed in early 2022 to match with the desktop experience. Those now-missing islands are the complete sets of episodes for Survival, Mission Atlantis, PoptropiCon, and Arabian Nights, as well as standalone islands Reality TV: Wild Safari, Mystery of the Map, Shrink Ray, Galactic Hot Dogs, and the original Mythology Island. Maybe these are the islands returning via Steam…
…but that’s nine islands (counting episodes as part of a full island), leaving four more, since we were promised 13 islands on Steam. It just so happens that there are at least four more AS3 islands that were never ported to the mobile app: Virus Hunter, Monster Carnival, Mocktropica, and Monkey Wrench (whose return was promised last year). Poptropolis Games was also re-released as an SUI/AS3, though it was originally an AS2 island.
Yet another possibility for some of the Steam islands could be those AS3-turned-Haxe islands that already exist on desktop: 24 Carrot, Time Tangled, Timmy Failure, and Escape From Pelican Rock — a perfect four. (The former two are OGs from 2008, but later remade into SUI/AS3 format.) Hopefully not, since we can already access them, and it wouldn’t really be in the spirit of “old islands” as promised…
The fact that Galactic Hot Dogs was never really a popular island among the fandom also makes it an odd choice, but it lines up with the AS3 islands theory, as do the rest of our best guesses for the other hints so far (Shrink Ray and Mythology). But who knows? Maybe we can still have hope for a few truly older AS2 islands… time will tell.
For a bit of nostalgia about islands old and new, check out our updated Poptropica Music collection under the Pop Plus tab here on the PHB! 🎵
Formerly known as “Behind the Scenes,” we’ve recently updated this page to remove outdated links as well as share previously uncovered Poptropica music files as embedded audio so you can listen directly on the page. For a taste, enjoy this track from Monster Carnival at daytime:
There’s more! Pop into the PHB’s Poptropica Music page to hear tunes from Mocktropica, Time Tangled, and many more. Enjoy!
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🏝 Poptropica Help Blog 🗺 
The theory that they’re all going to be AS3 islands seems pretty likely, but I really hope that’s not the case. That would be horrible for people who have trouble accessing Flashpoint. Personally, I liked the classic islands better. I really liked Monster Carnival, and Survival Island wasn’t bad, but I didn’t really like the other newer islands.
Also, it’s really hard to see SUIs as classic islands. They are old islands in that they were made years ago and are no longer available, but they still seem newer if you look at the total of all of the islands Poptropica has made. SUIs are significantly different from classic islands (the music, the format, the menus, the store, etc) so I can’t really see them as classic islands.
I really hope they bring back some of the classic, more popular islands like Astro Knights or the original Mythology, for the sake of people who can’t use flashpoint.
Yup – even though some SUIs could technically be considered “old islands” for how long they’ve been around, there’s a lot of hope and nostalgia for the oldest of old islands, like Astro-Knights. Personally, I’d be excited to see even the simpler ones, like Shark Tooth.
Yeah. Shark Tooth is a simple island, but it’s nostalgic. I was actually hoping they would bring Shark Tooth back to the actual Poptropica website, since it would be relatively easier to convert compared to longer, more complicated AS2 islands. But if Shark Tooth makes it into the steam version, that’s better than nothing.
If the creators are only bringing back the newer islands, does this mean…
GASP!
…The old classic islands are gone forever?!?!!
We’ll have to see what the other hints hold, but if the AS3 islands theory is true, then it does look less and less likely that we’d ever see the oldest (AS2) islands again (outside of Flashpoint, that is)… 😔
Not for lack of desire on the Creators’ part — surely they feel how much fans love the classics after all the buzz — but likely a limitation of technology.
I understand technology limitations can be difficult, but Henry Stickmin and other purely-flash games managed to have very good Steam ports :< welp, time to try flashpoint again
Poptropica’s structure might be more complicated, and/or their resources more limited… sad, but at least there’s Flashpoint.
Knowing the Poptropica creators, it’s likely going to be Galactic Hotdogs but for me personally, I want it to be Spy Island. That island was incredible.
Spy Island is a true classic! 🕵️
Also…
I read in the comments of the Pop Creators’ Blog that the Steam bundle costs money! Really?!
Yup, their confirmation just came in recently, but price to be announced. Unsurprising, as a lot of Steam games do cost money, but disappointing since these islands used to be free.
😭
But I see how that’s reasonable. Porting islands like the AS3 games costs a lot of money. I just wished the creators could add more membership benefits to the ported islands, like early access, cool costumes when you complete the quest, or member-only side quests, so the island itself could be accessible to everyone
How does c = cost? Your not 100 sure or is there another reason
@whl – “C = Cost?” is just wordplay with the contents of a different post: the hint that came after this one with the big “C” and the confirmation that the Steam bundle has a price tag. We’re guessing on the former (but it’s an educated guess) and about 100% sure on the latter (since it was stated by Poptropica themselves).