Ten things you DIDN'T know about Poptropica!

10 things you DIDN’T know about Poptropica #3

Hi Gs,

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!

youdidntknow3

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?!

daphneTrivia

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!)

jessBakery

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:

richardSimilar

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!).

WIN_20150609_164747

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.

octavian

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.

originsMysticalItems

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!

paintpalettewatch
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’.

shrink-ray-10

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’!

TAFN.

-HPuterpop

Advertisements, Popspiracy Theories, Social Media, The Missing Link

The Missing Link: Poptropica’s Glitchy Cash Cow

(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.

poptropicaApp-head

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.

milkMan

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.

homeIsTheree

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.

TAFN.

-HPuterpop

Graphic Novels, Mystery of the Map Island, Popspiracy Theories, The Missing Link, Time Tangled Island

The Missing Link: Octavian’s secret

Hi Gs,

So, you guys have faithfully been waiting for the next Missing Link about my giant Time Tangled theory – well, it looks like I was onto something.

If you guys have read any of the Mystery of the Map novel (which involves the origin of Poptropica), you may have realized that it basically debunked my theory – it looked like that time travel and inconsistencies have nothing to do with Poptropica’s wacky timeline. In fact, it didn’t look like there was much a timeline in the first place, what with the apparent viking island being a part of Poptropica as a whole, and not a teleported time period.

But just recently, I was looking through MotM at Octavian’s appearances, searching for an Easter egg. I found multiple Easter eggs throughout, not all about Octavian, and I’ll be posting more about those in the future, but for now, we’re talking about Octavian.

Two things to mention about the excerpts: first, Octavian saying “Because it is time.” If I have learned anything from the Flash on the CW, its to look out for double meanings in phrases. Time is mentioned indirectly multiple times throughout the book, not only by Octavian. So let’s think about the phrase as a double meaning; “Because it is time”. To preface, Mya shouts “Why are you doing this?!” while she hangs off of the balloon. So his motive for crashing the balloon is time. Now how does that fit in? Read more to find out!

Continue reading “The Missing Link: Octavian’s secret”

Hellos & Goodbyes

An Ultimate Author with some Ultimate News!

Hello PHB readers, before we get to the news, lemme introduce myself.

UiPE AvatarMy name is Paul P, known on the interwebs as Ultimate iPad Expert (UiPE for short). I joined Poptropica in March of 2011 with the username Paultropica6. Anyway, after playing Poptropica for a while, I decided to join the Poptropica Wiki to help other people learn more about it. Soon after my arrival there, I became an admin and have been helping out there ever since.

Recently, you may have seen that the PHB is partnering with the Poptropica Wiki, which is why you’re seeing me here! I hope to stay here a while and help out with all sorts of new and exciting stuff on the PHB. (We may or may not have some stuff planned *wink*)

Now that you know about me, let’s get to some news! A few of you PHB veterans from back as far as 2009 may remember the Poptropica Help Forum. A fun place where users from the blog could discuss all sorts of Poptropica related topics. Sadly, it was shut down.

PHF 2.0

But, I’m here to announce the new forum! It’s a place for you guys to post fan art, share your thoughts on islands, chat with other users, and more. It’s a simple process of making a Wikia account to join in the conversations (by making a Wikia account, you’ll also be set to contribute to the Poptropica Wiki, where the PHB hopes to create a substantial database of items, characters, and more!).

If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments below. I’d be happy to see you all join us there! Be sure to tune in here for any more news regarding the wiki, forum, and more exciting stuff. 😉

• Ultimate iPad Expert •

PHB Specials

PHB Sunday Special: Villain Origin Stories

villain origin stories

Welcome to another PHB Special! “Villain Origin Stories” is a work of fiction based on certain Poptropica villains, and it was sent in by reader Persephone2117. Enjoy!

One October twentieth, in the dead of night, there was a young Poptropican girl born. The island? Art Island. You say there isn’t an Art Island? There was, and there still is, but you know it as Counterfeit. The reason? The girl.

The girl’s name was Penelope Anansi Webster, and she was, well… different. She didn’t like to play with dolls, or dance, or any of the nice things little girls usually like. Instead, she would sit and draw pictures on whatever she could reach. This habit aggravated her parents to no end, even though Penelope was quite good. Eventually, they got so fed up with her that when she was six, they just left her outside one day and didn’t let her back in. Penelope was not in the least bothered by this, since she knew exactly where she wanted to go.

The museum guard didn’t even notice the skinny little kid sneaking in through the window.

Continue reading “PHB Sunday Special: Villain Origin Stories”