Contests, PHB Specials

Favorite Poptropica Island Tournament (Preliminary Round) ๐Ÿ๏ธ๐Ÿ†

Happy New Year, Poptropicans!โ€‚๐ŸŽ‡๐ŸŽŠ

You might remember the “Favorite Poptropica Character Tournament” that I hosted on Twitter X last year. Now, I’m hosting a new Pop-based tournament exclusively on the Poptropica Help Blog: the “Favorite Poptropica Island Tournament”! ๐Ÿ๏ธ๐Ÿ†

Poptropica has over 50 islands to choose from, and I need your help to limit the scope. I have compiled a list of every Poptropica island from long-lost classics to fresh newcomers. All you need to do is select up to 10 islands in the preliminary round poll linked in this post. You have until Monday, January 8 @ 11:59 pm EST to nominate your favorites. The 32 islands with the most nominations will move on to the official tournament.

๐Ÿ๏ธ Choose your favorite islands here!โ€‚โ˜‘๏ธ

Thank you for reading, and have a good day!

โ€”Gentle Dolphin ๐Ÿฌ

PHB Specials

The Poptropica Island Eras Tour ๐Ÿ๏ธ๐Ÿ—บ๏ธโœจ

Poptropica has given us a lot of adventures to go on over the years, since the game first began in 2007. To celebrate the gameโ€™s legacy, in this post weโ€™re going to go on a tour of its island eras! ๐Ÿ๏ธ

Compilation of islands on map by idk

This Poptropica Island Eras Tour, as some of you may have swiftly guessed, is inspired by another iconic Eras Tour โ€” the 2023 concert tour of pop queen Taylor Swift, whose music career has also spanned a similar timeframe as Poptropica over the years. An enchanting connection! โœจ

Speaking of Taylor, letโ€™s kick this off with one of her hits! The PHB came out with โ€œBackspaceโ€, a parody on โ€œBlank Spaceโ€, back in 2021 to petition for the return of old islands that have disappeared from the game since the end of Flash in 2020. Enjoy:


And now, let’s meet the Poptropica Island Eras…

The Classics (2007โ€“2013)

Welcome to the beginning! The Classics are the earliest islands to have popped onto the map. These OG islands from 2007โ€“2013 came with small screens and almost no sound. They were built with AS2, a Flash-based programming language, and are now only playable via Flashpoint.

Bonus Tracks โ€” these mini-quests from the Classics era were not quite islands, and a couple were released on consoles besides the computer.


Episodic (2014โ€“2015)

After years of solid standalone stories, Poptropica decided to shake things up by introducing episodic islands, breaking up an islandโ€™s story into a series of episodes. This Episodic era only lasted a couple years from 2014-2015, bringing shorter but more frequent releases.


Flashier (2013โ€“2016)

Starting from 2013 and encompassing the Episodic era, Poptropica used a newer (but now still outdated) Flash technology, AS3. These Flashier islands came with more sound and bigger screens. These adventures can be found in AS3 Flashpoint as well as Poptropica’s paid Steam bundle.


Worlds (2017โ€“2018)

With the looming demise of Flash, Poptropica Worlds was introduced as a new platform for the game’s future development. From 2017โ€“2018, Worlds brought a handful of 3D adventures. Sadly, it remained inactive until it was quietly discontinued in 2022, and is no longer playable.


Haxe (2019โ€“2023)

While Worlds went dormant, Poptropica continued updating its original platform. In 2020, Poptropica rolled out Haxe to replace the Flash build. This current era is characterized by islands that are shorter and simpler than in years past, along with a curious trend towards Roblox.


Like Taylor reclaiming her music by re-recording her previous songs, Poptropica has also since re-released some of their old islands after they were lost to Flash. The Flashier era and a few of the Classics are recovered on Steam, but we can only hope that more adventures join them someday. Until then, we also have the unofficial Flashpoint.


Anyway, that’s a wrap for the Poptropica Island Eras Tour! We hope you enjoyed this journey through Pop’s many storytelling eras of 16 years and counting. Share your favorite era with us in the comments! โœ๏ธ

Poptropica, it was enchanting to meet you.

~ ๐Ÿฉต the PHB

Fanfiction, Guest Posts

Fanfic: Zombies, Zombies, ALWAYS ZOMBIES! ๐ŸงŸ Ep. 15: I Spy

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Magic Kid. Enjoy!

And weโ€™re back (probably sooner than you thought)! Back with the fifteenth episode of Zombies, Zombies, ALWAYS ZOMBIES!

If you missed it, you can catch the previous episode here, or if you would like to start from the beginning, click here. Please enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed writing it. ๐Ÿ˜ˆ

Character doodles by Magic Kid

ZOMBIES, ZOMBIES, ALWAYS ZOMBIES!

A Zomberry Series

Episode Fifteen: I Spy

The three friends were in that hot air balloon and had been scanning the ocean for hours. As there wasnโ€™t much to do other than occasionally steering the ship, they had settled for a game of I Spy, which was still very boring.

Icy Stone

I spy with my little eye somethingโ€ฆ blue.

Jazzy Hawk (semi-gloomily)

Water.

Icy Stone (sarcastically)

Wow? How could you have guessed?

Truth be told, all they could see WAS water. The ocean stretched to all the corners of the horizon, leaving almost nothing but a blue expanse, speckled with a handful of islands. None of the islands they passed looked like it had anything similar to the helicopter they had seen on it. Every island was full of zombies, little purple dots from the view on the hot air balloon, and they served as a reminder on how much damage the apocalypse had done. On how much they had to save.

Clumsy Bird was looking through binoculars through the horizon, keeping an eye out for any upcoming islands.

Clumsy Bird

I spyโ€ฆ OH! An island!

Continue reading “Fanfic: Zombies, Zombies, ALWAYS ZOMBIES! ๐ŸงŸ Ep. 15: I Spy”
Advertisements, Home Island

Pop’s Littlest Return to Normalcy ๐Ÿ–ฅ๏ธ

Good day, PHB readers! After the shutdown hoax raised concerns about Poptropica’s future, the Creators gave the site some minor updates.

The first update can be found just by going to Poptropica’s homepage. You can once again access Pop’s different web pages. It’s nice that the website is working properly again.

How’s the game itself? Log in to find the second update: Home Island has skipped winter and gone back to its original summery state. While Home Island is in a new era, Adventure Outfitters is still stuck with its nautical November catalog.

Walk to the right to find the third and final update: a new ad for Littlest Pet Shop on Roblox! While it’s a simple video ad with no prizes, it’s a small sign that Pop is still kicking โ€” or at least, its spin-off studio is.

The new Littlest Pet Shop game on Roblox is another creation from Suit Up Games, the Roblox studio formed from diverting resources formerly allocated to Pop. Looks like it’s full steam ahead for Sandbox’s Roblox projects, while Poptropica sticks around as its advertising platform…

Thank you for reading, and have a good day!

โ€”Gentle Dolphin ๐Ÿฌ

Guest Posts, YouTubers

Fan Spotlight ๐ŸŒž Poptropica: The Movie

Hey Poptropicans, this is aย guest postย by Invisible Ring.ย Enjoy!

Monochrome: These colors don’t run.

Hey there, Poptropica fans! Hope things are going well for you all. (Youโ€™ll probably tell me they arenโ€™t though, with the complicated alarms of Poptropicaโ€™s end and everything, but I had to say it anyway.)

Iโ€™m Invisible Ring, and Iโ€™m here to share with you something that should’ve shown up as a guest post on the Poptropica Creators’ Blog many months ago. Itโ€™s not my (still upcoming) pirate movie, but a retro movie I found long ago while I made my first movie. Introducing one of my all-time favorite fan productions: Poptropica: the Movie!

In this by-fan, for-fan production, from the vault of “Production Poptropica”: A normal kid (Spotted Bubbles, aka Graham Burrell), whose favorite thing in the world is Poptropica, is called on a special quest in the Great Beyond, where his Poptropican adventuring skills are put to the test. Loaded with action and laughs, this movie is not just about the world of Poptropica, but also the real world from which it came.

โ€ฆYou see, it was just around this time of year when I found this movie (from 2011!) and watched it. And although it wasnโ€™t a holiday program, it gave me great cheer for the cold dark winter, and I hope itโ€™ll give all of you great cheer, too. I bet we all could use it right about now.

Hope you enjoy the movie, and stay tuned for more Invisible Ring guest posts like this one that never got to go on the Poptropica Creatorsโ€™ Blog!


Hope you enjoyed thisย guest postย by Invisible Ring. If you did, you might also enjoy her interview for her first fan movie production, 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? Weโ€™d love to hear from you!