Category: Guest Posts

Guest posts are blog posts that are written by Poptropicans who are not staff writers on the PHB team at the time of writing. Interested in contributing? Check out our “Write for the PHB” guide under the Contact tab up top.

Guest Posts, Pop Protips, Web Development

Announcing Poptropica Legacy 🏝️💙 (Download for Windows, Mac, Linux)

Slanted Fish

This guest post from HPuterpop/Andrew Wiles offers an alternative way to experience Poptropica. Introducing: Poptropica Legacy!

Hey fellow Poptropicans! In response to the slow fade of Poptropica, I’m super excited to announce the next step in Poptropica’s history: Poptropica Legacy, a fan-made desktop version of our favorite game.

⚠️ Note: Poptropica Legacy is in active beta development, and there are still many bugs. If you find any, you can report them in-game via the menu. 🪲 Not all islands are finishable yet, with progress noted on the website.

Like the Flashpoint curation of Poptropica, Legacy is a download where you can enjoy the old islands of the game, including both AS2 (earlier) and AS3 (later) islands, plus the sandbox game Realms — but with some major changes and improvements. This includes:

  • 🎵 Sound & music for AS2 — The earliest Poptropica islands (AS2, pre-2013) were not made with sound, but Legacy has retroactively implemented sound (including some previously unused music from Poptropica’s files) for an enhanced experience. Have a listen:
Yes, that’s Amelia in Early Poptropica! Just an example of a unique twist found in Legacy.

  • 🖼️ Visual improvements — AS2 originally had a smaller screen size (viewport) and was built for 31 FPS (frames per second), but Legacy has expanded the viewport for a cinematic experience that allows you to see much more in a frame at a time, and has bumped it up to 60 FPS to match the AS3 version. Plus, the resolution from the original game has been upscaled to full HD (high definition) for crisp visuals that match modern gaming standards.
  • ➡️ Account import — You can login to (import) your original Poptropica account directly into Legacy using your original username and password! Your island progress, inventory, and costume are preserved. Flashpoint curation save files are also compatible.
  • 🌀 Ad Preservation — Thanks to Pop veteran Evtema3 (aka 64mcy, the original creator of the Poptropica Ad Transporter), Legacy houses over 140 ad campaigns from Poptropica’s almost two decades of history. Sadly, many are incomplete, but you can still play through many of them, and get the original rewards.
  • 🛍️ Original Store — Access all the original costumes and item cards from the OG Poptropica Store for free, without membership limits.

…and there are plenty of exciting extras, including a fully preserved Creators’ Blog archive, functioning Avatar Studio, Daily Pop (with games, comics, sneak peeks, and celebrity clips), an interactive explorer of Dr. Hare’s Travels, and a costumizable Look Book. ✨

More extra content is planned for the future, including archives of the Island Tours, Mews Foundation website, and Funbrain (Mom & Kids Playground & the Funbrain Arcade). Staying tuned is easy — Legacy will auto-update to the latest version on startup (you can opt out in settings, but it means missing future updates!).

Ready to play? 🥳 Download the game now at PoptropicaLegacy.com — available for Windows, Mac, and Linux computers! (For Mac users: If blocked, go to System Settings > Privacy & Security, and click Open Anyway.)

You can also join the Poptropica Legacy Discord server (for ages 13+) to receive the latest news and be part of the discussion. 💙

P.S. Pop Legends is still in development, but it’s on hold for now so we can get Legacy up and running. Excited to share more with you all soon!

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by HPuterpop/Andrew Wiles. If you did, you might also enjoy the Poptropica curation on Flashpoint, an alternative Poptropica preservation with features closer to the original game.

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. Interested in writing for the PHB? We’d love to hear from you!

Guest Posts, My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: Lucky Fish

Slanted Fish

This is a guest post from Lucky Fish sharing their My Place in Poptropica story, which is all about one’s Poptropica journey. Enjoy!

2014-2016 | From Mobile App to Computer

Hey Poptropicans! My name is Lucky Fish. I’ve been a Poptropica fan for about as long as I can remember. I started playing around 2014-2015 during my years of preschool and a little before. Why did I start playing when I was literally 4? Well, my dad had downloaded it to his phone so I could play it when I was bored. He figured it was just another app about getting kids to learn. I soon realized it was more than that. 

I have absolutely no idea what that account was, but I do remember my favorite part of playing is making characters (I had a lot). Around 2016, I began actually learning to play the islands! Of course, I could not do it without the help of Thinknoodles’ walkthroughs. 

Friendly Folk: All so nice and polite, for a while at least.

Speaking of Thinknoodles’ walkthroughs, knowing how to watch them meant I was able to learn that there were more islands than just the mobile ones. I realized it was also a computer game, so I asked my parents if they could lend me their computer to let me use Poptropica there. I was then able to discover loads more islands that were just waiting to be clicked on.

2019–2020 | White Cheetah and the end of Flash

Around 2019, on a family vacation, I was feeling very sick. I was about 7 or 8 at the time. It is here that I made my first actual Poptropica account that I could stick with. Introducing: White Cheetah. I used to think that this account gave me good luck, and it’s the account I first beat multiple islands on (like Mythology for example). 

White Cheetah

In 2020, the pandemic hit, and I wasn’t playing Poptropica as much. But when I came back to it, I noticed that lots of the islands were missing. I went searching and found out about the whole end of Flash situation. That day involved tears… a lot of them. Soon, I stumbled upon the Old Island Directory, and it was useful until it stopped working.

2024–2025 | Flashpoint at the Library and Lucky Fish

In the summer of 2024, I started playing Poptropica lots more. It was just so fun again! When I found out about Flashpoint, a way to access old islands, I asked my parents if I could get it on their computers. They said no because one was for work, and one had no storage left. So after school, I began going to the library, and downloading Flashpoint every single day just to play the islands (everyday because the computers were wiped of all history each morning). I would stay there for hours, until one day they started blocking sites at the library, so I couldn’t play there.

I had been asking for a computer for a while, and finally on my birthday, I got one. The first thing I did was download Flashpoint and play Poptropica. I played there for about a month when I wanted to let my sister try it out. But when I hit “new player”, that account was wiped. So I started with a new character, Lucky Bean, where I completed lots of islands.

Power Load: Just watch me explode!

In the summer of 2025, on Flashpoint Poptropica, I wanted to try out the AS2 version to see if it was different. In doing this, my main AS3 data was wiped, and I had to start over. After shuffling names for a good while, trying to get Lucky Bean again, I came across Lucky Fish. I chose this one because it still had Lucky in the name, but “Fish” made it sound more water related. So, I stuck with it, and Lucky Fish is now my main Poptropica account. This summer, I also started my own site, The Poptropica Fan Blog.

Poptropica has been a huge part of my life, and taught me many things (including my rights!). I hope you enjoyed reading about my life on a digital web game. Thank you for reading! 

– Lucky Fish

Lucky Fish

Hope you enjoyed this “My Place in Poptropica” story! If you did, you’ll probably enjoy our other MPIP stories here on the PHB.

If you haven’t already shared your story, we invite you to send in your own. Interested in writing for the PHB under a different Pop-topic? Take a look at our Write for the PHB page for ideas, guidelines, and more!

Blast from the Past, Guest Posts

Logging Back In: The Islands That Raised Us 🖥️🏝️💫

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Cobalt/Koi. Enjoy!

Sketch by Chris Goodwin – Legendary Swords

Hoi, I’m Koi… Woah, it’s been a while since I’ve typed that. Let’s just get to it. What made Poptropica different?

Why did it carve out a place in our hearts more deeply than Club Penguin, Webkinz, or Wizard101? Why, in the early 2010s, did so many of us choose it over Roblox and Minecraft, even as those juggernauts were just beginning their climb? 

At its peak, Poptropica wasn’t just a game — it was a movement, especially in the classroom. There were toys on the shelves, a bestselling graphic novel series, even a syndicated comic strip. But the magic wasn’t in the physical media. The magic was in the stories.

Unlike other online games of the era, Poptropica launched with no chatrooms, no multiplayer features (aside from pre-scripted interactions in common areas), and no sound. It was quiet and safe, a feature, not a flaw — something parents appreciated in an era of stranger danger and screeching flash games. But beneath that calm surface was a vibrant, endlessly inventive world.

Each island in Poptropica was its own self-contained story, like a season of Doctor Who. Time travel. Space travel. Pirates. Pilgrims. Superheroes. Mythology. Art heists. One minute you were flying a rocket; the next, you were inside a noir detective story. And somehow, amidst the genre-hopping chaos, a larger narrative shimmered quietly in the background, one that finally paid off (sort of) with the eerie, ambitious Super Villain Island. 

The gameplay was clever. The art direction? Smooth and charming. It ran like butter on any computer build, which was a minor miracle at the time. And when sound finally arrived, it brought with it some genuinely great scores– moody, cinematic, whimsical, and moving.

But like most good things, the momentum didn’t last. The updates slowed. The stories lost their edge. The toys disappeared. The site faded into a half-functioning relic of itself, one that doesn’t even run properly on most modern browsers. 

And then, something unexpected happened: nostalgia. 

In 2023, a rumor spread that Poptropica was shutting down. It wasn’t true, but for a moment, it felt like a punch to the gut. Online communities resurfaced, memories poured out across social media, and a whole generation quietly mourned the pixelated playgrounds of their childhood.

Because that’s what Poptropica was. Not just a game. A memory machine. A place where we became Greek heroes, secret agents, reality TV contestants, and museum guards (okay, not every island was a winner). It was weird yet earnest and bursting with imagination. And it helped shape the way we told stories, solved problems, and saw the world. 

This is a love letter. 

I’m grateful I got to live through that strange, beautiful, colorful corner of the internet. It’s all a bit of a blur now, the way childhood always is, but I carry those memories with me. And I hope, as adults, we can find ways to create new stories that are just as brave, just as weird, and just as full of wonder. 

Because Poptropica deserves to last forever — if not on our screens, then in our hearts.

Artwork by Andrew Wiles

I wrote on here a long time ago, and since then, I’ve become a published journalist—an adult one, at least. I’ll never forget those memories with the PHB. They put me on the career path I’m still walking today. 

You’ll be hearing (well, reading) from me again– I don’t know when, but you will. If you’re still active in the community, you know what that means. It’s a-coming! 

It’s good to take a trip down memory lane every once in a while, yeah? 

With love, 
Cobalt 

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Cobalt/Koi. If you did, you might also enjoy more posts from his time as a former PHB staff writer, such as Pop 5: Features That Make Poptropica Unique.

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. Interested in writing for the PHB? We’d love to hear from you!

Fanfiction, Guest Posts, YouTubers

Fan Comic: PoptropiCon Saga, Part 5/5 💥

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Invisible Ring. Enjoy!

Attention, Poptropicans!

The moment you’ve all been waiting for: After four long years of artistic struggle and self-discovery, my PoptropiCon Saga is finally complete!

Yes, it’s been forever since my Dream Island comics and the rest of my PoptropiCon comics, but it goes to show that you can’t rush art! (Catch up on the PoptropiCon Saga with Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 here.)

Like other comics, the last two books are extra thick — which means more gut-busting comics to enjoy, and a mind-blowing grand finale that brings the whole series to a complete circle! And with the final saga chapter comes one final exciting blurb to get you going:

The ultimate warlord, E. Vile, has finally reared his ugly head and is ready to destroy the last heroes that still stand in his way. The final battle has arrived, and with it, the last chance to stand up and prove oneself as a true hero… But at what cost? Through blood, sweat, and tears, a power is rising beyond control. Will that power be the difference between victory and defeat, or will it serve to destroy everything; good and evil alike? And what will become of PoptropiCon, the place where it all began?

Power up for a Mighty Action Grand Finale you’ll never forget… RIGHT here in book 13, and the MEGA-books 14 and 15.

Issue #13: The Rise of Chaos

Issue #14: Fight to the Finish!

Issue #15 — FINALE: Last Day of the Con

…And that concludes my PoptropiCon comic book saga. But if you’re sad that it’s over and you want more comics, then don’t fret! For like many comic sagas, an epilogue follows, like a glass of milk to go with your complete set of cookies. So stay tuned! This PoptropiCon epilogue is sure to come a lot faster than my other comics… hopefully.  Until then!

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Invisible Ring. If you did, you might also enjoy other posts of hers, including her PHB interview about her Poptropica fan movie, Battle Morale!

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. Interested in writing for the PHB? We’d love to hear from you!

Guest Posts

Bringing Back the Magic of Poptropica 🔮 Fansite Spotlight: Pop Fan Kids

LJ

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Invisible Ring. Enjoy!

Enchanted caverns (Twisted Thicket Island)

These things and more still live on through fans like you and I who are determined to build a new Poptropica and to live a new adventure. However, many of these things are hard to find, and they’re even harder to gather. I’ve always dreamt of a magical refuge to put all of these enchanted fragments together, just like putting together all the pieces of the Twisted Thicket orb together in the heart of the magical forest.

So, I made like an adventurer and island-hopped to many websites (including this one), searching for Poptropica’s legacy and its pretty wallpaper gifts. I gathered up all the fun Poptropica stuff I could find to bring it all together into a new magical orb for all Poptropicans, young and old, to explore and discover.

By planting that orb into my dormant Pop Fan Kids website, it’s bloomed like never before, and it’s now flourishing into an enchanted forest of its very own! 

A forest never stops growing, though, so if you know any games, activities, or other fun stuff that I missed in Pop Fan Kids, don’t be afraid to let me know!  Simply write your ideas down in the comments section below so I can work my Elf Queen magic. Good luck, noble adventurers!

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Invisible Ring. If you did, you might also enjoy another post of hers: a Popspiracy on the Mystery of the Mini Blimps!

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. Interested in writing for the PHB? We’d love to hear from you!