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Contents
Ø Featured Article Mystic Winds and other signs of humor
Ø
Featured Game
Ø
Featured Food
Ø
Featured Site
General News
In case there was any doubt, the front page of the Neopets site was an April Fools Joke.
Neopets has now added Buddy Icons for the Gadgadsbogen game and the Wheel of Excitement. (April 3, 2003)
Krawk Island is home to a new word game, Word Poker. You have six rounds to score as many words as possible in a variety of categories (3 letter words, 4 letters words, etc.) It sounds easy, but you are racing against the clock. (April 5, 2003)
Neopets has released Toybox Escape, a game featuring the new Voice-Activated Pets from Thinkway Toys. (April 8, 2003)
Neopets has added Vira the Acara to the Gallery of Evil. (April 8, 2003)
A new Neopedia article about Niten Hiroru has just been added. His picture has been on the site forever, but this is the first information about him.. (April 8, 2003)
Illusen has managed to tidy her house up enough so that she can start giving quests again. (April 8, 2003)
They have added a new Neopedia article about Captain D(r)ead. (April 10, 2003)
There was no news released for April 15, 2003. According to the news, Adam
and Donna were 37,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean for most of it. I thought
that maybe the staff had been kidnapped by the Tax Beast… (April 16, 2003)
| Something has happened! |
|
| |
The Tax Beast arrives and locks away the staff in Darigan’s dungeon until all tax returns have been filed. |
King Skarl gets another game. Neopets has introduced their first Shockwave game, Skarl's Scramble, a frustratingly annoying animated slidy puzzle! If you don't have the latest version of Shockwave installed you will be prompted to download it. It is worth downloading, since they have said that lots more Neopets games will be made in shockwave in the future. (April 17, 2003)
Round Table Poker is working again. (April 17, 2003)
Ultimate Bullseye is now working again. (April 21, 2003)
Neopets has some new Easter Neogreetings. (April 18, 2003)
There is a new Neopedia Article about a Grey Faerie. I wonder if it has anything to do with that statue in the Maraquan ruins…(April 18, 2003)
Turdle Racing is now up and running again. (April 22, 2003)
SECURITY UPDATE - This is just a reminder that if you are using Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6.0 you should download Service Pack One. You can do this by pressing the Start button, clicking Windows Update and following the instructions. This will ensure that no malicious scripts can be used to gain access to your Neopets account. (From the News page for April 23, 2003)
If you are not sure how to do that, here is a quick guide:
First, click the start button and select "Windows Update". It should open an internet window to the Microsoft Windows Update page.
Next, click on the "Scan for updates" link. This will check for all updates that have been developed since you updated last. Note, you may have more or less than the screenshot below.
Click "remove" next to any of the updates you do not want to install. Then click on the "Install Now" button to download the updates to your computer.
Finally, restart your computer if you are asked to do so.
A new Neopian Adventure Spotlight contest has just begun. Every Thursday a new winner will be chosen. (April 24, 2003)
There is a new Neopedia Article about a young faerie called Aethia and her search for the Battle Faerie. (April 30, 2003)
The Scratch Card Kiosk has been added to the Deserted Fairground map. (April 30, 2003)
Special Days for this month were:
- April 1st - April Fool's Day - Time to play crafty tricks and generally be mischievous.
- April 2nd - Shoyru Day
- April 16th - Krawk Day
- April 20th - Easter
- April 22nd - Kougra Day
- April 27th - Cybunny Carnival (Cybunny Day)
Pet Changes
Pets are painted at the Rainbow Pool (on the
Main Shops page) with special
magic paint brushes. Click here for
a list of all pets and their available colors.
The big news for this month was the release of the new Darigan Paint Brush on April 10, 2003. Looks like Darigan and his crew will be joining the ranks of permanent "Bad Guys” on the site. Wonder what Dr. Sloth thinks about that…
v The Plushie Zafara has been released. (April 1, 2003)
v Shoyrus can now be painted Pink and Checkered at the Rainbow Pool. (April 2, 2003)
v Kougras can now be painted with the Orange Paint Brush. (April 3, 2003)
v Lennies can be painted Pink at the Rainbow Pool. (April 3, 2003)
v Your Pteri can now be painted with the Checkered Paint Brush. (April 4, 2003)
v Chombies and Myncis can now be painted with the Ghost Paint Brush. (April 7, 2003)
v Quiggles now come in a Glowing color. (April 8, 2003)
v Neopets has increased the number of characters you can use for your Neopet's description to 1,000 instead of 600. (April 8, 2003)
v Jetsams can now have a new Silver look. (April 9, 2003)
v Neopets has released the new Darigan Paint Brush. (April 10, 2003)
v The Eyrie and Moehog are the first Neopets that can be painted with the Darigan Paint Brush. (April 10, 2003)
v Skeiths can now be turned into a ferocious Darigan version. (April 11, 2003)
v Grundos can be painted Glowing (April 14, 2003)
v Moehogs can be painted Shadow at the Rainbow Pool. (April 14, 2003)
v Krawks can be painted with Island Paint Brushes and Checkered Paint Brushes at the Rainbow Pool. (April 16, 2003)
v Kois and Nimmos can now be painted with the Brown Paint Brush. (April 17, 2003)
v Myncis can now be turned ELECTRIC. (April 18, 2003)
v Kacheeks can now be painted with a Fire, Fire, Your Pants On Fire Paint Brush. (April 18, 2003)
v For Easter, Neopets increased the maximum number of Cybunnies that can be adopted by 20,000. (April 20, 2003)
v You can now have your own Ghost Kougra. (April 22, 2003)
v You can now paint your Kougra Plushie and Checkered at the Rainbow Pool. (April 22, 2003)
v Pteris now can be painted Pink. (April 23, 2003)
v New Uni design released. (April 23, 2003)
v Flotsams now come in a Rainbow version. (April 24, 2003)
v Wockies can now be painted Ghost. (April 24, 2003)
v You can now paint your Cybunny Plushie, Brown and Fire. (April 25, 2003)
v Acaras can now be painted with the Silver Paint Brush at the Rainbow Pool. (April 28, 2003)
v Krawks can now be given a new ELECTRIC look. (April 30, 2003)
v
Most of the Uni colours have now been uploaded
and we have a new animation
featuring the revised Uni. (April 30, 2003)
PetPet Changes
For
those of you looking for the Petpet Puddle, it
is part of the Rainbow
Pool. When you are on the Main
Shops page, click on the Rainbow Pool. At the top of the next page is
the link to the Petpet Puddle. Click here for a list
of all petpets and their available colors.
q Greebles, Babaas, Unioctos and Snorkles can be painted Rainbow at the Petpet Puddle. (April 3, 2003)
q The All Petpets page now displays some of the rarer petpets. They also added the Wintery Petpets which were not getting displayed. (April 4, 2003)
q If you own a Doglefox, Warf, Snowbunny or Kadoatie you can now paint it Plushie at the Petpet Puddle. (April 8, 2003)
q Two of the Petpet Paintbrushes have just been retired: Pink and Purple. (April 8, 2003)
q The Kadoatie has been added to the How To Draw Petpets pages. (April 21, 2003)
q Neopets has made the Petpet Puddle better so it doesn't show ALL the petpets on one page. (April 22, 2003)
q A new petpet paint brush has just been released - the Fire Petpet Paint Brush. (April 23, 2003)
q The first petpets that can be painted with the new Fire Petpet Paint Brush are the Drackonack, Gulper, Babaa and Snorkle. (April 23, 2003)
q Turdles can now be painted Blue, Purple, Yellow and White at the Petpet Puddle. (April 30, 2003)
TNE News
TNE is working on a new project: a comprehensive FAQ section. It is still very much under construction, but you can take a peek at it here.
The Game Reviews page has been updated to show which Meridell games are working again as well as listing some of the "hidden" product placement games.
Featured Article
Featured Article:
A Mystic Wind and other Neopets humor What you see may not be what you get…
Another April means another April Fools Day. Neopians love a good prank, after all. This year, the joke was a little flat, in my opinion. It didn’t even cause a ripple on most of the message boards.
This year, Neopets replaced the front page with a joke front page.
If you missed it, click here. From the news: Don't worry we would never, ever, ever make the site like that (and Neopoints are here to stay). Nick Neopia will promptly be deleted from all our servers... *phew* Just between us, though, I thought last year’s April Fools prank was funnier…don’t remember it?
Last year, the Pant Devil struck and everyone’s items disappeared for a while. You should have seen the chaos and panic on the message boards. Even the ones in their shops, safety deposit box, trades, and auctions. To make it slightly believable when you first logged on, they said that it only happened to “a select few”. This was listed on the news page: The Pant Devil has struck again - doh! He has chosen a select few people on the site and totally stolen all their items.... if it's happened to you, why not get some revenge in the Battledome!!!
In 2001, the staff proclaimed they were updating all the pets and offered these as samples of what would be coming: http://www.neopets.com/makeover2.phtml
Considering the unpopularity of some of the other pet changes, there was lots of concern on the message boards for a while.
Neopets doesn’t limit their pranks to just April Fools Day, however. Take these for example:
- Uni Makeover:
As a joke, this was put up firstand then they released the real ones - Christmas Rod of Nova on the Advent Calendar...everybody's was stolen by the Pant Devil.
- Gelert Makeover was done much the same as the Uni.
- The "Which Petpet are You?" quizzes where everyone is some form of Slorg.
Even some of the things happening around the site are nothing more than examples of staff humor:
- Mystic winds Ever wonder what it means when you see the phrase "but you're not sure..."? It's neopets fancy way of saying that nothing happened.
- Random events like the robot (looking mysteriously like Number 5...) engulfed in flames running past shouting that Dr. Sloth is after him.
- Items made of dung
- About Us page
- Customized humous 404 pages
Having gone over these, it makes you wonder if the “conclusion” for the Meridell/Darigan plot is another example of their sense of humor…after all, it didn’t answer any of the questions and only created new ones. I'm betting this is just another page in the Neopets joke book.
Featured Game: Raiders of Maraqua
by esterfreak
Have a guide you'd like to see here? Send it to: Naomi_Tran@baylor.edu
There is a new game that doesn't seem to be finished yet, but why not take a peek at: Raiders of Maraqua You Can't get any neopoints for it yet, but start practicing now :D (Note: Instructions do not match game) esterfreak was nice enough to provide the following guide:
You are playing as a Koi who, for some unknown reason, is trying to merge all the gems on the ocean floor into one huge gem. To move a gem, simply stand next to it and press the spacebar while you are facing it. It will move forward until it hits a rock, bubble, "hard bubble," coral piece, or another gem. If it hits another gem, the two will combine into a super gem that cannot be moved; once a super gem is created, that is where it must stay. If another gem hits a super gem, it will combine to form an uber-gem. Only when the gems are together will you move to the next level.
Objects
Gems - The two-tone blue stars that sparkle. Their movement and all that
has already been explained.
Rocks - the brown... things! ^^; You move them in the same way as you
do gems. They will only stop moving if they reach a wall, coral piece,
gem, or another rock; they will destroy all bubbles, hard bubbles, and
enemies in their path. Anything that hits them will stop moving.
Bubbles - the light blue spheres. You move them in the same way as you do gems. They will destroy all enemies they hit but will stop moving if they hit gems, coral, other bubbles, or hard bubbles. They will destroy any enemies in their paths. Also, if you try to move one (press spacebar next to it) but it has no place to move, it will disappear.
Hard bubbles - dark blue spheres. They are the same as normal bubbles but cannot be destroyed.
Coral - the purple and yellow chunks. They cannot be moved or destroyed; they just stay where they are forever.
Enemies
You can destroy an enemy by sending any object through it. Right now,
the enemies don't hurt you. In fact, I didn't even think they were enemies
until Setzer pointed out that the Koi is invincible! Anyway, these are
the types:
Jetsam
Slorg
Red-and-yellow Ghoti
There are probably more that I don't know about!
Gaining Points
If you destroy an enemy, you will get 5 points.
Occasionally, bubbles will float up from the bottom of the screen that have numbers in them.
If you let a bubble hit you, you will get the points in it.
Name: Meat
Lasagna
Available: From the Main
Food Shop
Neopet’s Description: A slice of rich delicious lasagne, fresh from
the oven - mmmm delicious!
TNE’s Description: Cheesy goodness with tomatoey bliss…yummmmmmmmmmmmmm
Ingredients:
• 1/2 pound lean ground beef (or turkey sausage -- casing removed)
• 1 jar (30 oz.) spaghetti sauce (any flavor)
• 2 cups sliced mushrooms -- Optional
• 1 cup water
• 1 container ricotta cheese (15 oz.)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 8 oz. lasagna noodles (9-10 noodles) -- uncooked
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese -- shredded
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese -- divided
Directions:
In large skillet over medium-high heat, cook meat, stirring, until lightly browned. Add spaghetti sauce, mushrooms and water. Bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. In a small bowl, combine ricotta, egg, salt and pepper. Spoon 1 1/2 cups of sauce into 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking dish; top with half the uncooked noodles, all of the ricotta mixture, 1 cup mozzarella, 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, 1 1/2 cups sauce and remaining noodles. Top with remaining sauce, mozzarella and Parmesan. Cover.
Bake in 350°F oven 45 minutes. Remove cover; bake 15 minutes longer. Let stand minutes before serving. (This is the perfect time to throw in some garlic bread.)
Featured Site
TNE Teacher’s Pet
Award
I stumbled on this site purely by chance. I think it's a new site, but I'm not sure. It has a lot of stuff listed in the "future" site.
It has adoptables and AIM icons, as well as a very well designed Faerie Sprite Maker. One of my favorite features: NO popups :)
I have to say that I love their banner header.
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