Category: Ten things you DIDN’T know about Poptropica!

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!

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!

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’!

TAFN.

-HPuterpop

Hi Gs,

One of the first posts that I ever made here on the PHB was titled “10 things you DIDN’T know about Poptropica!“, and from the looks of the title, you probably have gathered that this is the sequel. Hope you enjoy it. 😀

1. Lunar Colony: Flag of Poptropica

This was mentioned by deviantArt user “Child-Of-Hades“, so you can check out the original post here. In Lunar Colony you can see the first instance of Poptropica’s official flag, somewhat like one of the United States’ numerous flags from over the years — after counting the stars, you will find that there are 28 stars in total — and Lunar Colony was the 29th island! Well played, Creators. 😛

2. Meeting the CYOA Book’s Author

You can meet R. A. Montgomery, author & founder of the Choose Your Own Adventure books, in the CYOA hut on Main Street of Nabooti Island.

3. Customizing Secret

On Time Tangled Island in Timbuktu, you can customize the silhouettes from inside the buildings!

4. Wimpy Wonderland inspiration

The scene in Wimpy Wonderland island where you climb the Leisure Towers building is inspired by a Simpsons game called “Bart’s Nightmare”, in which he is “Bartzilla” and climbs a tower while people throw random items down on him from windows.

5. S.O.S. Common Room

While this may be known by some, it may surprise others — S.O.S. Island does in fact have a common room on the far left corner of the Main Street entitled “Daggoo’s Fish Market”.

6. Vlad the Viking

The old Creator, Vlad the Viking, had a Poptropican account with an unknown username. It is the only known account to have three prefixes (Vlad the Viking) instead of the regular two. Here’s a picture of him (on the right) from one of his old Creators’ Blog posts, when he ran a series called Snapshot Sagas:

7. Job Requirements: Poptropica flash developer

According to this Google Forum post by Poptropica Creator Jordan Leary (Dr. Hare) from 2010 (one of Poptropica’s most active years), you must meet the following requirements met in order to be a flash game developer at Poptropica —

• Submit a strong portfolio demonstrating solid game development experience.
• At least 3 years experience in AS2 or AS3 with expert level skills.
• The ability to work well both on a team and independently.
• Experience using object-oriented design methods.
• Good code organization and knowledge of ActionScript best practices.

AS is the acronym for ActionScript, the code that Poptropica used to run on (I don’t know for sure if it still does). Read the full job posting here, it’s pretty interesting!

8. The Origin of Poptropica

According to an interview with Jeff Kinney by Words on a Limb, he got the idea for Poptropica one day while mowing his lawn! Here’s his exact quote:

I was mowing my lawn one day when the idea for Poptropica sprang up. It’s changed a lot from its initial conception, but the basic idea is still there. We publish every story we come up with that feels like it has merit.

9. Strange Poptropica cityscape

This photo, released by Poptropica Creator Nate Tufts back in 2009, shows an apartment building with an insane-looking Poptropican in front and a leaf monster on the top. The image document is entitled “CityScape”. What could this have been made for? Monster Carnival? Or another unreleased island?

10. Ad Creator

Coralee Lazebnikova is a 2D animator, and if you read all of her profile, you’ll find that she’s previously done work for Poptropica and Family Education doing advertisement design. Like Nate Greenwall (senior graphic artist at Poptropica), she may have had a hand in designing ad games for Poptropica!

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That’s all the cool facts I have for you today! 😀 Tell me in the comments your thoughts on these – did you know them? If so, how many? The person who knew the most facts gets a cookie!

TAFN.

-HPuterpop

Hi Gs,

I’ve been poking around a bit, connecting some dots, and here’s what I’ve come up with:

1. Gamer Guy’s real name is Abe.

Don’t believe me?  Check inside the bakery on Ghost Story island.  It’s a nice trivia, I thought.

2. Joe Puddy has visited Super Power Island.

This one is only logical.  Zomberry Island has a lot of subways, right?  In the subway on Super Power Island, under the stairs you will find “Joe was here” written on the walls.

3. You have never been here, but have tried to get here before, maybe when you were younger:

I’m not going to tell you where I am, but when you figure it out, you’re going to flip.  Guess in the comments!

4. Betty Jetty is Ned Noodlehead’s sister.

This may be known by some, but not to others.  It came from the Poptropica Nintendo game, which I will be posting a review about soon.

5. Dr. Hare was created by Shark Boy as an arch enemy to a carrot super hero.

Pretty kewl stuff.

6. Balloon Boy is actually based off of a real incident.

It’s true!  Craziness is the world we live in. xD

7. There is a site for the Mews Foundation (from Cryptids Island).

This may not be a surprise to everyone, but there is a site made by Poptropica, pretty silly stuff.

8. Poptropica Toys are not listed on the Poptropica Shop!

I’m serious! None on the main homepage, even when you click View All. Start buying these babies off of Ebay, peoples, before they disappear forever! They can, however, be found on the Poptropica Toys page.

9. Islands used to have a rating next to it on the map; it would say “hard”, “medium”, or “easy”.

It was a nice feature; I actually thought it was helpful… nothing else to say about it. 😛

10. Islands can be selected via the Tab and Enter key.

One instance of keyboard input that effects the game.  I wonder what else can be done with the keys… ❓

That’s my Poptropica trivia!  I hope you guys enjoyed it. If you’re interested in more, check out the PHB’s Trivia pages for every island under the Island Help page!

-HP