Contests, Poppies

Reflecting on 10 Years of PHB, and a Recap of Poppies 2018 🎉

Slanted Fish

recap poppies2018

A message from Slanted Fish, creator of the PHB

Wow. Ten years. A whole decade of the PHB.

Ten years since a little girl of 11 (me from the past) discovered the untaken WordPress URL that started this blog — poptropica.wordpress.com. Ten years since the release of Super Power Island, the fifth Poptropica island, and the first island to get a guide on the PHB. Ten years since she started blogging about a then-small game and clicking publish, many times over—the words traveling from an apartment in Hong Kong to reach millions of kids all over the world. The rest, as they say, is history.

We’ve shared a lot of fun memories over the years—this blog has celebrated in Poptropica parties like the one we just had, hosted contests (like the Poppies), and gotten to talk with some cool Pop Creators. We’ve brought you exciting news of island releases over 50 times and grieved with you when Poptropica wasn’t shaping up. And we’ve had the delight of sharing your amazing creations, making meme faces out of your Poptropicans, publishing your guest posts, hanging out on the chat… and more.

Perhaps it sounds clichéd, but it’s much more than I dreamed of when I first started blogging. I simply started out of a desire to write—to help others with the power of words, which I put into guides that, back then, didn’t even have pictures; to share a joy for a simple game that I watched become a pretty big and beautiful enterprise. I couldn’t imagine where it would go, and I still don’t know where it will go. And that’s okay.

Ten years ago a kid who’d just finished elementary school started a website for fellow kids to share in a common joy. Today I’m just a couple of semesters shy of an English degree, in part because this community gave me a platform to nurture a little creativity and love for the written word. And I hope it’s been a place of joy for you, too.

Thank you to every Poptropican out there who’s been a part of the PHB journey. It’s been pretty great, and 32 million views later, we’re still making history. There is good in the world, and we can all be a part of it. Here’s to a poppin’ decade. ❤️

Slanted Fish
Editor-in-chief, Poptropica Help Blog

During the party, the PHB staff hosted a livestream to announce the winners of this year’s Poppies. You can revisit it in the video above, or look down for the results:

And the Poppies Awards for 2018 go to…

That’s 10 for 10 years, folks! Thanks for all your nominations, votes, joining us at the party—and, even if you didn’t do those things, thanks, at least, for being a part of the Poptropica community and our PHB adventures. We’re glad you’re here. 💙

Best Fan Art nominee gallery

One visual representation of the wonder of the Pop community is the fan art it produces. To celebrate that, we’re including this gallery of this year’s “Best Fan Art” nominees:

“Alice and Fierce Fox” by POP-whitewolf
“Train to Zomberry Island” by ANNE14TCO
“i bet y’all weren’t expecting THIS” by napstachill
“Pisces” by ArtisticAsianBunny
“The Flight” by happyclonetrooper
“The day he lost everything” by epiphxny
“Black Widow” by Happy Lobster
“POP: .:S A V E T H E W O R L D:.” by criaha

Thanks for popping by on the Poptropica Help Blog!

Here’s to ten years. Cheers. 🍻

— the PHB —

 

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

Big Nate Island

Big news: Big Nate Island is available to all!

LJ

What’s up, Poptropicans? It’s Lucky Joker here, and I’ve got some big news. Today, Poptropica just announced that…

big_nate.png

There it is loud and clear, folks—Big Nate Island is available to all players this week only! Up until this Friday (July 27), members won’t be the only ones able to play this classic island. 😉 Sadly, it’s not really a full week, but rather a full standard school/work week which is only five days. :/ But hey—it’s better than nothing at all.

UPDATE: We’ve been getting reports that the membership lock continues to activate up until the end of the demo point. To combat this, PHB reader Massive Monster suggests closing the “get membership to continue” window and refreshing the page to continue without membership.

So what are you waiting for? Log on to Poptropica, check out our Big Nate Island Guide for some extra help, and earn those credits (since store items are super pricey now)!

Well, that’s the little amount of news for now. Thanks for reading as always! Talk to you all soon… pop on!

– Lucky Joker 🍀

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!

Store

Pop Shop update: plushes, pigs, and more

LJ

Hello, Poptropicans, it’s Lucky Joker!

It’s that time again—the Pop Shop stock has changed with all new costumes and gold cards for the upcoming month of August. Well, not entirely new… some of the items haven’t changed, which could be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. The current stock consists of the following:

Gold Cards

  • Follower: Mini Astroknight (members only)
  • Game Show Robot Costume (members only)
  • Crayons, Shrink Ray Island (members only)
  • Propeller Hat
  • Poptropica Exclusive: Cool Boy Plush
  • Island Wildlife: Pig Costume, Mystery of the Map Island
  • Poptropica Exclusive: Rockstar Costume
  • Bottle Cap Costume, Shrink Ray Island
  • Fireworks (members only)
  • Ringmaster Costume, Monster Carnival Island (members only)
  • Multiverse
  • Hypno-Powder, Monster Carnival Island
  • Lumberjerk Costume
  • Poptropica — The Official Guide: Glasses
  • Soda Bottle, Shrink Ray Island (members only)
  • Dr. Hare Plush (members only)
  • Shark Plush (members only)
  • Milk Box Costume, Shrink Ray Island (members only)
  • Steamworks Mech Pilot (members only)
  • Game Show Costume (members only)
  • Cinnamon Fire Flavor Popgum
  • Raven Swarm, Monster Carnival Island (members only)

Costumes

Poptropica costumes July 2018

  • Sweet As Pie: Mud Pie
  • Tofu Dog
  • Magician (members only)
  • Big Burger
  • International Waffle Day: Waffle (members only)
  • Furry Monster 4 (members only)
  • Hot Dog
  • Clown
  • Fierce Lion (members only)

Yup, you’re seeing it right—an overwhelming 16 out of the 31 current stock items are for members only. That’s half! Hopefully next month there’ll at least be a few more things available to all players… 😕

That’s it for now. What are your thoughts on Poptropica’s current store system that was implemented a few months ago? What items would you like to see added next month? Sound off in the comments section!

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

– Lucky Joker 🍀