Category: PHB Series

Escape from Pelican Rock Island, Pop Places IRL

Pop Places IRL: Escape From Pelican Rock

Spotted Dragon

Pop Places IRL Header

Hey Poptropicans, and welcome back to our new “Pop Places IRL” series! Here, I’ll be walking you through some of Escape From Pelican Rock Island’s most notable scenes and comparing them to those scenes in real life (IRL).

You may already know this if you’re very familiar with California (or have read our trivia on the Escape From Pelican Rock Island Guide), but Pelican Rock is based on San Francisco (or “Bay City”), and more specifically, its famous Alcatraz island prison.

Even though the prison is no longer up and running IRL today, visitors can still take a tour of the island located in San Francisco Bay (if you can withstand the strong smell of pelican feces). When it was still in operation, the facility was well known for being impossible to break out of, though I guess our Poptropicans proved that wrong!

photo: Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay (travelingwithmj.com)

Once you’re arrested, you get to visit many important places inside the prison, including the yard. If you thought it was a pretty dull way to spend your time in game, I’m sorry to tell you that the IRL prison recreation yard isn’t any more dazzling.

Impressions: You’ll want to easel onto it.
photo: Alcatraz Cell Block From Rec Yard (Andrew Brown)

Aside from your recreation time behind bars, meal time makes up a big portion of our Poptropicans’ adventures. While photos of Pelican Rock’s cafeteria aren’t in black and white, the IRL prison cafeteria may just have better food!

Mise En Place: We’ve got mouths to feed.
photo: Alcatraz 2 (bonappetit.com)

The last main location you often visit while at Pelican Rock (besides the plate making room, which shows a very common jail trope) is, of course, your cell. Poptropicans may have it a bit better space wise, but it’s cool to see that even the green walls match up with the IRL prison cells.

photo: Alcatraz Prison Cell (artstation.com)

Another big landmark on the island in game was the “Colt Tower” that you chase Booted Bandit up. IRL, this location was based on San Fran’s Coit Tower, a tourist destination aside from Alcatraz!

photo: Coit Tower (tommygirard.wordpress.com)

A spot that I’m obligated to mention is of course San Fran’s famous Golden Gate Bridge! Though not a huge destination in game, the bridge can be seen in the background multiple times along your adventure and is a staple in the city’s skyline.

From a Distance: Something new is on the horizon.
photo: Golden Gate Bridge (franks-travelbox.com)

Well, that wraps up our tour of real-life Escape From Pelican Rock! What did you think?

Have you been to San Francisco? How does it compare to Poptropica’s interpretation? I’ve actually been on an Alcatraz tour and think the resemblance is pretty cool! What other places do you want us to cover in this series?

If you liked this post, be sure to smash that like button check out our real-life tour of Crisis Caverns Island too! 🙂

~SD

Guest Posts, Popspiracy Theories

Can Poptropica Original stick around?

Slanted Fish

This is a guest post written by Zippy Paw, a Poptropica player in the community. In this post she’ll be exploring the question of how and whether Pop Original will last. Enjoy!

poporiginal stickaround

Hi! I’m Zippy Paw and I’m here to share my thoughts on this matter. As most readers probably know, Poptropica Original is probably going to fade away in 2020 with the retirement of Adobe Flash Player. Or will it?

How Poptropica Original can survive through a new platform

Poptropica is far from the only game built on Adobe Flash Player. There are many other games that run on this program too, and they need to find solutions to stick around.

Some games are creating a new program to support their digital multiverse, like making applications that can be downloaded to your computer, so that you don’t even have to go on any website at all. Poptropica has made Poptropica Worlds with a new technology called Unity. I tweeted @Poptropica and they said this:

​It definitely is possible that they just might be talking about Poptropica Worlds, but what interests me is that they said “Poptropica.com” and not “Poptropica.com/Worlds.” They also said “a lot of great technology has come out.” Could this mean that Poptropica might run on another program instead of Flash or Unity?

How Poptropica Original can survive through Poptropica Worlds

Poptropica Worlds was definitely worth the wait. Lots of new features were introduced: hands, a new house, plus you can buy costume parts instead of buying the whole outfit!

Plus, a new version of 24 Carrot Island made it into Poptropica Worlds. Why mention this? Well, 24 Carrot Island is the first (and so far only) island from Poptropica Original to be in Poptropica Worlds. Back when SUIs (sound-updated islands) were being made, 24 Carrot Island was the first island to get a larger screen and have sound incorporated. This was huge for Poptropica, as it used to have no sound and a smaller screen.

Could other Poptropica islands from the Original be back in Worlds? After all, soon after Beta Carrotene (the SUI 24 Carrot), other islands followed in its footsteps: Time Tangled Island, Mythology Island, Shrink Ray Island—getting the bigger screen and sound. Will there be more? Who knows?

Why Poptropica Original should and should not stay

Poptropica Original has its pros and cons. First, let’s take a look at the pros of keeping Poptropica Original:

  • Lots of hard work and effort were already put into the islands in the Original Poptropica. No reason to throw it all away.
  • There’s much more content in Poptropica Original than Poptropica Worlds.
  • Poptropica Original is still enjoyed by many players.
  • It looks like there will be a future update added to Poptropica Original, so why still bother if the game will be gone in two years?

And the cons of keeping Poptropica Original:

  • Managing two games could be tricky; if one is on its way down, then maybe it’s best to let it go.
  • Poptropica Worlds has a lot of potential and should become the dominant game.
  • 24 Carrot Island is in Poptropica Worlds. This could mean we might get more islands from Poptropica Original, so if we do get more, why keep Poptropica Original in the end if both games turn out to have the same amount of content?

That’s all for now! Have a nice day and stay poppin’!

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Zippy Paw! Leave a comment with your thoughts.

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. You can find some tips and guidelines on our page on how to Write for the PHB. We also encourage sharing blog posts on the PHC.

If you have an idea for a PHB post, send it in!

Pop Fan Artist Spotlights

Pop Fan Artist Spotlight: BeanSkelly/DanaKellyArt

LJ

How’s it going, Poptropicans? It’s Lucky Joker here with another Pop Fan Artist Spotlight! The spotlighted artist this week is the great BeanSkelly/DanaKellyArt!

Why the two usernames? Because Bean, the artist, has two accounts: one professional (DanaKellyArt), and one personal (BeanSkelly — where you will find more Poptropica art). Here, I’ll be highlighting his Poptropica art from both. 🙂

Currently, Bean works as a freelance illustrator (and may be coming out with a new book soon!) and hopes to one day work in a studio as a layout artist. He dreams to then direct animated movies and bring back 2D animation afterwards. This guy’s going places, folks!

As for his Poptropica art, Bean draws traditionally and digitally, and does an amazing job too! Check out this collection of his stunning work (click to enlarge the images):

“Welcome to Poptropica” (DanaKellyArt)
“Raven” (BeanSkelly)
“Sleep” (BeanSkelly)
“Miranda Rover” (both)
“The Iliad” (DanaKellyArt)
“Marcus” (BeanSkelly)
“The Raptors” (BeanSkelly)
“Atlantis__BenJonas au” (BeanSkelly)
“The Raven King and the Red Death Queen” (BeanSkelly)
“Balloon Ride” (DanaKellyArt)

As you can see, Bean’s a pretty versatile artist. Some pieces are very realistic while others are comical—it’s quite impressive! I greatly recommend that you check out his links above and also check out his Ko-fi account. I’m sure he would appreciate the support very much.

Well that concludes this spotlight! I hope you enjoyed this look into a Poptropica fan’s artwork. If you’ve made some of your own Poptropica fan art, we’d love for you to share it on our DeviantArt group gallery, We-Love-Poptropica. Also, don’t forget to check out the other artists I’ve featured as they’re all amazing in their own way!

Thanks for reading as always and I’ll talk to you all soon… pop on!

– Lucky Joker 🍀

Poppies

You’re invited to the 2018 Poppies Awards Party!

LJ

Hope you had fun at the Poppies! Catch the recap to see the winners.

poppies 2018 party

Hello, Poptropicans! The time has almost come…

As I’m sure you know, this month is a big month for the PHB as we approach the 10th anniversary of the blog’s launch! To celebrate, we’ve been hosting our annual Poptropica community awards event, the Poppies, throughout the entire month.

With nominations over and voting now underway, the fun is just beginning because all of that has been leading to the best part of this whole operation—the party! All of your votes will help determine which of the aspirant award-seekers will be bringing gold home, and it’s about time to announce the winners! Here are the details:

  • 😎 WHO: Every Poptropican is invited! PHB staff will be there too!
  • 🎉 WHAT: Hanging out in Multiverse rooms on Poptropica, chatting and cheering on your picks for the awards on the PHC, and tuning in to a livestream on Brave Tomato’s YouTube channel co-hosted by some PHB staff, where we’ll be revealing the winners of this year’s Poppies!
  • ⏰ WHEN: July 26, 2018 (Thursday) @ 7 p.m. Eastern / 6 p.m. Central / 5 p.m. Mountain / 4 p.m. Pacific. If you live in a different timezone, you can use a time zone converter to see what the time will be where you live.
  • 🎈 WHERE: The Poptropica Help Chat (PHC), our moderated chat server on Discord. If you’ll be on the go at this time, make use of Discord’s mobile apps!
  • 🔟 WHY: To announce the winners of the 2018 Poppies, have fun, and celebrate the 10-year milestone of the PHB!

Multiverse room codes will be posted on the PHC during the party, and we’ll also announce the link to the livestream there when it starts. Until then, mark your calendar, prepare your most extravagant outfit, and get ready to cheer for the winners!

✨ We’ll see you on the blue carpet! ✨

– the Poppies Help Blog team –

Guest Posts, Pop Petitions

Pop Petition: Bring Original Features Back

Slanted Fish

This is a guest post written by Tallmeloniscool, a Poptropica player in the community. In this post he’ll be talking about what features he wants to see returned to Pop Original. Enjoy!

Pop Petition Header

For all the talk of focusing on Poptropica Worlds as the future of Poptropica, the Creators are still updating the original Poptropica. This strikes me as a bad move—once Flash goes away, won’t all these updates not matter anymore?

I’m not sure why they’re still updating Poptropica Original—maybe they don’t have enough Unity coders working on Worlds?—but since they haven’t let it go just yet,  here are the features I’d really like to see return to the original Pop.

#1: Bring back Realms

zrealms-background

Lots of people want Poptropica Realms to return. I see people in YouTube comments, the Poptropica Help Chat, and many other places wishing that Realms was brought back. Comments like this: “I have never been to Poptropica Realms, it looks really fun” or “I really wanted to finish my house.”

What I find even worse is that the Poptropica Creators never told us why Realms is down or when it is going to be fixed. So if fixing Realms is going to take longer than it already has, then the Creators should at least make a blog post on the Creators’ Blog saying what’s wrong with Realms.

#2: Bring back the old visual map

596a4-ghoststorymap

If you’ve been playing Poptropica for a few years, you might remember on the non-SUIs, you had this map where you can see where you were on the island. But when the Poptropica Creators made it so that the SUI (sound-updated island) menu shows on the non-SUI islands, it ended up removing the classic maps and replacing them with the home map where you choose islands.

What I recommend to the Poptropica Creators is to change it so when you click on the map it would show the old visual map. Then add a new button that teleports you to the home map. That way we Poptropicans can have the old map, and a way to instantly go to the home map.

#3: Fix the way the islands are organized on the home map

newmap2

The way the islands are currently organized on the home map needs some fixing. For example, Mission Atlantis (a medium-hard island) is in the easy category, while Early Poptropica and Shark Tooth (two of the easiest islands!) are listed among the challenging islands. Also, the adventure category could definitely list more than four islands.

This “Map Mishaps” PHB post from a year ago covers more of the issues present that are still crying out to be re-done.

#4: Add a way to answer pop quizzes

quiz

When the home screen changed so that it took you straight to Home Island as opposed to the old home screen, Poptropicans could not access the home screen and answer the pop quizzes anymore. What will a new Poptropican do to get these quizzes?

My solution would be to bring the quizzes to the Home Island billboard, so we’d have another reason to log in again!

#5: Bring back old store items & costumes

store4

In my opinion, the Poptropica Creators took a real step backward by removing so many old store items, even though they’re rotating the stock every month. Why? Considering that Poptropica Original won’t be playable after the year 2020, what they should do is add back as many store items as possible—all the limited time items and costumes, and even ones that were forgotten.

This would allow old players to feel nostalgic about these old items in the game, and for the newer players to experience the old and limited time items. Though this may degrade the rarity value of some items/costumes, since Poptropica Original is not going to last forever, I really think this does not matter. What matters more is that we get to enjoy this version of Poptropica while it lasts!

So that’s the end of my guest post on the PHB. I hope that you enjoyed and agreed, and I hope you have a great day. BYE!

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Tallmeloniscool! If you did, be sure to check out another guest post of his: Pop 5: Ideas for Multiplayer Features.

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. You can find some tips and guidelines on our Write for the PHB page. We also encourage sharing blog posts on the PHC.

If you have an idea for a PHB post, send it in!