PHB Specials, YouTubers

PHB Sunday Special: Revisiting the Islands

Brave Tomato

Hey guys, my name is Brave Tomato, and I’m here with this little post to self-advertise tell you guys, in a quick little post, about my YouTube series, Revisiting the Islands.

Revisiting the Islands is about me, guided only by my memory of the island, revisiting past islands for nostalgia’s sake. Add in some occasional voice acting, some instances of snark, a few raging moments, and a few idiot moments, and there you go- Revisiting the Islands in a nutshell.

So far, I have uploaded videos for the first nine islands in the game: Early Poptropica – Astro-Knights, and I have Counterfeit Island and Reality TV Island finished recording and I’m planning to upload soon.

Below is my YouTube playlist of all my RtI series:

Besides RtI, I’ve also recorded my first impressions with new islands as I play through them for the first time. These are usually uploaded the same day that new island is released. So far, I’ve done first impressions of Spoiler Alert, and then Reign of Omegon – Careful What You Wish For.*

*Please note that with Spoiler Alert, I recorded it with my iPad, I forgot to record Galactic Hot Dogs and Lair of Thieves, and up until after Mystery of the Map, I had a really bad microphone from my laptop.

So, here is a link to my Youtube channel, and if you have a YouTube account, subscribe to me if you want! 🙂

This had been a self-advertisement report on a YouTube series I’ve been working on.

BT out!

Our Discovery Island

Oh boy… ORANGE POPTROPICA?!

HPuterpop

Hi Gs,

I made a discovery yesterday – something that may change everything. Actually, so much stuff has been going on lately that I’m sorta worried – school is starting soon!

I was searching through Amazon for ‘poptropica books’, as I do every once and a while. I’m super hopeful for the Mystery of the Map graphic novel! But instead, I found more of the ‘Poptropica English’ books – if you’re not aware of the first, it was called ‘Future Island‘ – I discovered it back in 2014.

odi1

Digging further, I zoomed in on one of the backs of the books, and went to the site it directed to – pearsonelt.com/ourdiscoveryisland. This redirects to an intro to ‘Our Discovery Island: Powered by Poptropica’. Once in the site, I was shocked – this was what Pearson was up to? Apparently, ‘Poptropica English’ was a part of an educational class made by Pearson!

odi2

But there’s more. Going to ourdiscoveryisland.com, I was shocked – orange Poptropica! Trying to create a new player, it seemed you need an access code to get in.

odi4

So, I went to Chris Barney, a dev of Poptropica who I am in contact with. He told me that Poptropica contributed (not sold) its engine to Pearson, and that more of these “Poptropica clones” may be showing up soon.

The wording on the site made it seem like that they had created actual islands based on the books. Watching a few videos (FROM 2011?!), it showed these islands (they look like real islands, too!). Here’s the thing, though: these characters had actual audio voice acting!

In addition to that gameplay video, there are also animations for Our Discovery Island on YouTube – likely related to the “Poptropica animations” we’ve heard about before.

I wasn’t completely convinced, until my friend Pixel got into an account! They do have voice acting – and it isn’t half bad! And let me remind you that this is pre-SUI (still unsure about my cash-cow theory?).

odi

There are a number of these islands, based on the books (so yes, one for Future Island too), each following the simplistic plot of the books.

Again, Chris said that there are more of these to come! I wonder what troubles this could cause…

Our Discovery Island is not easily accessible, and I’m probably going to have to buy the books to get in. However, it has the Poptropica name plastered all over it, and so it technically is official content. The Poptropica Wiki has got some work to do.

Also, it’s run by Pearson – could this be why Poptropica left?

TAFN.

-HPuterpop

Home Island, PHB Quickie, Reviews

Thoughts on Hub Island, new features & more vents!

Slippery Raptor

Yellow! Slip here!

We’ll have a short review of the recent release of Tutorial / Hub / Home Island. 🙂

thoughtsontutorial

First of all, I’m really surprised with the update. The Creators never had any sneak peek or tweet about it and out of the blue, *poof* Hub/Tutorial/Home Island is now released online! 😛

Second, this island is really great for beginners. The last time I remember logging in to Poptropica for the first time, I was lost; not knowing what to do. But if you’re a new player, you get to learn the basic steps of Poptropica through the Tutorial Island. The pilot even asks you if you’re a first-timer or an old pro! More to that, you’ll get to learn more about Poptropica— Poptropica Realms, multiverses and more. As what old people would say, “The kids today are so lucky! Not like us back in the days.” And there starts a long, boring flashback story.

Also, I’m really sorry for the people who just bought the Colorizer item card, which is now useless thanks to the new update (although people have reported that the new Colorizer’s effects wear off, so perhaps not). On the bright side, you can collect your 150 credits by completing Tutorial, Hub, Home, or whatever the island’s name is! (The official name is Hub Island, according to a Creator, Chris Barney, when asked by HPuterpop. But it says Tutorial on the medallion and Home on the map!)

Last but not the least, my only concern is the Arcade and the Shop in which I understand since Poptropica would take some time to make it like the one in the Poptropica app. The Arcade would look like a real arcade if it doesn’t redirect to the Pathfinders’ tribe room and the Shop would be better like the one in the app instead of redirecting to the Poptropica Store.

Overall, it’s a really great update I never expected. Kudos to the Poptropica Creators!

  ——

Next update, you may have noticed some new features on SUIs while going from scene to scene. Poptropica has been changing the text on some of the pointers when you’re entering places, moving from scenes and riding the blimp. For example, instead of “go left” or “go right”, it says “exit”; instead of “travel”, it says “map”, and so on. (Thanks to R, The Black Bird for the tip and the picture!)

newfeat

  ——

Last but not the least, there has been a couple of Daily Pop Sneak Peeks with a common denominator and it’s a Poptropica cliche — vents. They seem to be for the Pelican Rock / Prison Island but we never know, maybe these sneak peeks are for Timmy Failure Island.

Venting: Just gotta get something off our shoulders.
Small Potatoes: The winds of change are coming.

By the way, we recently added two brand new pages here on the PHB — the Hub Island Guide and the Fortune Cookie Quotes page!

And that’s all of the updates! Have you received your Total Costume already?

Make sure to leave your thoughts in the comments down below!

-Slip :mrgreen:

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New Islands

Brand New Tutorial Island!

Ultimate iPad Expert

Update: For our official walkthrough page for this island, see our Hub Island Guide!

Heyyo Poptropicans, it’s Ultimate iPad Expert here with the details of a new island!

If you checked out today’s Timmy Failure code post, you may have read about a mysterious blank medallion entitled “Hub Island” spotted by our very own Slanted Fish. A little while after the post released, I decided to go check the medallion list again and saw an updated medallion!

HubIslandTutorialI immediately went to the map and spotted this new island…

HomeIsland

As it turns out, it’s almost exactly like the Tutorial Island on the Poptropica mobile app, and now it’s here on the online version! I dropped into the island to find myself with this explorer:

BridgeTutorial

I soon went exploring around the island to find multiple different buildings. The first building shown here is the Shop. If you decided to enter in, it brings you to the Poptropica Store.

The second building shown here is the Arcade. Entering it brings you to the Pathfinders tribe common room, no matter which tribe you’re in.

The final building shown is the New You building. Inside, you can alter your appearance!

You can pull the lever (shown in the picture on the right) and the curtain on the top will drop down to allow you to customize with endless costumes. If you click the curtain (shown in the picture on the left) you can use a Colorizer, which allows you to change your skin and hair colors.

If you exit the New You building and go to the left, you visit the tutorial portion of the island. You will first see the platform below:

TutorialIsland1

With a little exploring you will come upon this woman missing her lucky wrench.

TutorialIsland2

Simply look up on a nearby tree to find the Wrench and give it to her.

TutorialIsland3

She then offers to show you how to customize (because it is a tutorial island). If you continue left into a new room, and then all the way to the left of that room, you’ll see the explorer once again. He’ll mention that he wants to give you something but he can’t seem to find it.

This, of course, is the medallion. You can then go around the two areas in search for each of the parts. There are eight in total and they’re pretty easy to spot – they’re the glowing yellow chunks lying around.

Tree branch containing shard
Shard in Hub Island

Once you find all of these pieces, return back to the original location of the explorer, and he’ll award you with the Tutorial Island Medallion (and 150 credits!).

So, that’s an overview of the new Tutorial Island! Since you get 150 credits for completing this island, be sure to complete the island for a little more change to spend in the Poptropica Store. Plus, I feel like if I was a new player, this island would be quite helpful. 😀

So, what do you think about this tutorial island? Comment below!

• Ultimate iPad Expert •

Timmy Failure Island

Total-ly New Timmy Failure Prize & Hub Island?

Ultimate iPad Expert

Heyyo Poptropicans, it’s Ultimate iPad Expert here with this week’s Timmy Failure promo prize. Simply go onto Timmy Failure Island, walk to the left and talk with Timmy and he’ll give you a Total Costume! (Total is the name of Timmy’s polar bear sidekick in the series 😉 ) Check it out:

Glad Poptropica is releasing a costume themed for the island instead of the credits! Pretty cool costume, as well. Plus, like how they’re slowly coloring in the island (it was pretty black-and-white last week!).

And of course, be sure to tune in next Thursday for the next Timmy Failure Island prize!

—

Now for some really interesting news. If you go onto Poptropica Friends and look in your Medallion list, you will see this below:

Hub-Island

Props to Slanted Fish for noticing this first. 😉 I’m very curious as to what this mysterious island is. Slip suggested to me that it could be something like the Tutorial Island on the Poptropica App, which could be the case considering the name. The medallion is oddly placed between Survival Island (Episode 1) and Mythology Island in the list and I’m not completely sure why.

Being as curious as I am I tweeted out to the Creators. Haven’t had any reply yet, but I’ll be sure to update the post if they do.

UPDATE: Hub (Tutorial) Island has been released! Read all about it in my other post.

So, do you like this new Total costume? What do you think “Hub Island” is? Comment below.

• Ultimate iPad Expert •