I'm Andrew Wiles, although on this account I'm known as HPuterpop. I've played Poptropica since 2007, the year it started. I play on the users puterpop and puterpoptropica.
I'm a graphic designer, editor on the Poptropica Help Blog, and executive manager on the Poptropica Wiki.
Check out my links to find out what I'm doing at the moment - I like to stay active in the community and always have a couple projects in the works. Consider subscribing to my YouTube channel and following me on Google+. I would greatly appreciate it.
I'd like to stress how easy it is to contact me, so if you do need to, [email protected] is the one to contact. Thanks for reading, I'll see you soon. :)
And thanks to Muzzki for my current profile pic!
I’m bear-y excited about these details that I’ll be reveal– what, we’re not doing that anymore? Oh. Ok. Well, we’re nearing the end of the Poppies, our very own Poptropica awards event, and you guys have spoken! (Haven’t voted yet? Now’s your chance!) We’re going to celebrate the winners with a couple of fun parties, the details of which are below:
The climax of the event will happen on the Saturday of this week – the 25th of July at 8:00 pm EST (that’s 7pm CST / 6pm MST / 5pm PST)– starting with a livestream hosted by yours truly, where I’ll be announcing the winners of the awards. At the same time, you can mill about on the PHC chatting and joining Multiverse rooms with other awards show attendees! For this, we encourage you to formally dress up in your Poptropican best: ties, tuxes, dresses, and all!
We’ll also be having an after-party on the PHC on Sunday, July 26th at 10:00 am EST, so people have a better chance at making it to at least one of the two party times. Plus, Sunday is the date of the PHB’s 7th anniversary, so come in your 7th birthday balloons and join our Multiverse rooms!
To join the chat hangout, just visit xat.com/thePHC or click on the “Chat” tab in the navigation bar on the PHB. The Poptropica Help Chat, or PHC, is the official PHB chatroom, but besides hosting parties, you’re welcome year-round to come chat anytime with other Poptropicans online there (sometimes even PHB authors!).
Get ready for jokes! Awards! And maybe me drawing some people hmm… Click here for the livestream link!When it’s time (8pm EST on Saturday), I’ll be announcing the winners there, and you can watch the show live (or see the archived video later, if you’re not able to make it).
This is the third post that I’ve made concerning strange and interesting facts about Poptropica – check out the first and second ones by clicking the links. Enjoy!
1. Dr. Spyglass’ early years
On Lunar Colony Island, during the bonus quest, you have to decode some alien messages sent by Salerno. The decoder screen shown also has a hidden badge laying behind the decoding machine. On the card, you can see Dr. Spyglass from Spy Island – he used to work at PASE!
2. Daphne Dreadnaught
For some of you old timers, you may remember “Spook Central”, a mini-quest promo for Ghost Story Island. From the map, you would arrive in a laboratory. A steam punk woman is working on a machine. She tells you that she was containing ghosts in the machine, and that the machine failed. The ghosts were scattered across Poptropica.
From the folder of ghost information she gives you, you can see that her name is Daphne Dreadnaught – and, if you snoop around the laboratory, you will find a pair of ultra vision goggles; she knew Dr. Spyglass?!
3. Jess and Mary’s Bakery
On Super Power Island, inside the subway, you can find a poster. It says “Jess and Mary’s Bakery”. This is a direct reference to Jess Brallier and presumably his wife, Mary. (So many Easter eggs inside this subway!)
4. Richard the Lionheart
The king of Arturus’s name is Richard – you find it in the book, subtly hidden. Richard the Lionheart was a king in medieval times, and not only did he look very similar to the King of Arturus, but take a look at the Lionheart’s crest:
5. Pencil Warrior Cover Mistake
On the cover of the colouring book Pencil Warrior, there was an island medallion for ‘Time Twisted Island’ (the original name for Time Tangled Island). However, this was removed after a few printings (I have one of the books with it!).
6. Hot Air Balloon rides
On Cryptids Island, inside the common room (Bert’s Bed & Breakfast), you can find a paper pinned to the community board. It says “Hot air balloon for rent” – a possible Easter egg – or inspiration – for the A-1 balloon rides that Octavian runs in the Poptropica graphic novels.
7. The origins of the three mystical items of Astro-Knights
Some may know this, but only the ones who read closely – you’ll find out from the Mystical Weapons of Arturus book that you receive during Astro-Knights Island that these mystical items were wielded/created/found in three different ways by strangely specific people:
The Laser Lance was wielded by Sir Pugilist.
The Force Shield was found in a deep cavern by Bristol the Miner.
The Ice Arrow was crafted by Rime the Wizard.
8. H.G. Wells
A lot of people in the Poptropica staff must like writer H.G. Wells – his works have been referenced numerous times throughout Poptropica. On Shrink Ray Island, C.J. owns his book, The Time Machine.
On Zomberry Island, a poster on Gamer Guy’s wall – when translated to English – says ‘War of the Islands’ – a reference to H.G.’s book, War of the Worlds.
In the Cryptids Island book, Harold Mews makes note of a time when he went to an island to help out a strange doctor named H.G. – the doctor took credit for his work and tried to feed him to a puma – a reference to The Island of Doctor Moreau.
9. Paint Palette Watch
If you’ve read my post on the forgotten items that Poptropica has hidden in it’s files, you’ll know about an item called a ‘Paint Palette Watch’. This was intended to be in Counterfeit Island. The watch makes an appearance in the Poptropica Friends book – strange cameo!
Thanks to Sleimok for the image.
10. Mr. Silva’s Hero
On Shrink Ray Island, when you meet up with C.J. in Mr. Silva’s office, you can read some of the titles of the books he owns. There is The Science of Art, The Art of Science, The BIG Book of Villainy, and Who was Albert Einstein?. The latter is an actual book that is advertised in the Store with the Einstein costume (update: and it was written by Jess Brallier!). A small trophy of Albert Einstein is setting on Mr. Silva’s desk with the caption ‘My Hero’.
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How many facts did you know? How many did you not? To the person(s) that knew 5 or more – you get mentioned in the next ‘10 Things You DIDN’T Know About Poptropica’!
Something I noticed about the recent Future Island book (and no, I haven’t received or ever ordered it yet, just received a ton of new Poptropica books) is that the story takes place on Verdana Island, according to the description. This said, I started to wonder – what if island names – like ‘Monster Carnival Island’ or ‘Time Tangled Island’ – are merely quest names. They always refer to islands as ‘Island Quests’.
And the evidence sorta matches up – why would one of these islands be named ‘Night Watch Island’? There is a mall, but otherwise, there’s no reason for anyone in their right mind to name it Night Watch.
So these ‘islands’ are quests, and this explains a lot – for example, sponsored islands. In their respective universes, they don’t all live on islands. Plus, what about Skullduggery Island? That quest is made up of several islands. Fort Ridley is the island you land on, not the island that the quest is named after.
Anyway, this was just a short post to mention that thought. It clears up some things, but raises some big questions, like what are the real island names? Tell me in the comments what you think!
(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post represent those of the author, not the entire Poptropica Help Blog or its community. Further discussion can be found in the comments.)
Hi Gs,
In 2013, Jeff Kinney was interviewed on Skype. One of his points was that in order to keep up with the times, they would have to update to mobile soon. Now, I for one object. Poptropica is not a mobile game. There are 40+ islands online to play, each taking 1-2 hours, some exceeding, with amazing art, dialogue, story, and overall gameplay. Poptropica is just simply not a flippant game that you play whenever you’re bored. You have to set down and devote yourself to an island.
So the absurd idea that kids aren’t playing Poptropica online any more is, well, absurd. Poptropica is a game for your computer, it’s a desktop game. I’m excited for the day whenever they actually release a desktop version. With that said, Poptropica didn’t really seem to care about the obvious facts. They went ahead and started to pursue mobile.
And in this process, they became extremely greedy, and lost a lot of their quality. Here’s why:
I’ve extracted the Android Poptropica app, and found some key files that have traces of a company called ‘Milkman Games’. Looking that up, I found that this company specializes in converting flash games into apps – Android and iOS. With this said, you have to realize that Poptropica isn’t solely a flash game. It uses PHP & a number of other codes, which contributes to the majority of the major game play elements.
So in an attempt to fix the game and be able to quickly and cheaply convert it into an app, they rebuilt the engine – in a matter of months, and with different developers than from the original game. This lead to what we know as SUIs. Anyone who has played SUIs know – they’re not as good as classic Poptropica islands. They aren’t as fluid, they’re glitchy, and likely to crash.
This is the one bad thing that’s happening to Poptropica.
Now we know the reason, and Poptropica can’t keep it under wraps any more. To prove it, you can just take a peek in the files. They have ‘Home’ Island, which is Tutorial Island on the app – verbatim, and updated to match the app. In fact, that’s where I got the Arcade sneak peaks.
So with this said, Poptropica’s little cheap scheme has been unveiled, and sadly, it’s growing every day as something irreversible. Unless the team gets their heads screwed on straight, Poptropica is going to become something not even considered a game, even less-so than what the gaming community once considered it.
Rawfish just announced that a new program is going to be available for the next few weeks: you can get your Poptropica character on a Poptropica island Main Street! The more island medallions, the more of a chance you get – so collect as many island completions as you can! There will be six avatars added to six different islands. Whether these will be old islands or new is unspecified.
Have you ever wanted your Poptropican to be featured on a Poptropica Island? Now’s your chance: introducing the Poptropica Hall of Fame!
We’re giving players the opportunity to have their avatar appear on Main Street on one of six Poptropica Islands. Simply play through any Island and earn that Island’s Medallion, and you’ll be entered to have your avatar chosen.
It’ll still count if you’ve completed the Island before, and there’s no limit to how many times you can replay. So the more Islands you complete, the more chances you have to be a star!
Each week, we’ll pick players at random from those who have earned Medallions. Those players will have their Poptropicans placed in one of six different quests. We’ll announce which players, and which Islands, after the first drawing.
This looks really exciting, and I’m looking forward to seeing who the first avatar will be!
Also, I see what he did with the “hot dog costume” comment – trying to draw attention away from his tasty crawfishyness. You’re not fooling anyone!
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