Galem has been added to the Gallery of Evil, although maybe he is just misunderstood... (December 2, 2004)

For his daring deeds that helped save Meridell and the Darigan Citadel, Master Vex has earned his place in the Gallery of Heroes. (December 14, 2004)

Galgarroth has been added to the Gallery of Heroes. (December 20, 2004)

In honor of his birthday (also known as Borovan Day), Adam changed all pets to Asparagus Chias for the day. (December 20, 2004)

Everyone loves ice cream right? In that case the new Ice Cream Machine in Happy Valley is sure to be a hit :) There is a rather odd looking character that seems to be running it though... (December 21, 2004)

Special Days for these months were: Note that the Advent Calendar is open from Dec 1st through Dec 31st

• Dec 5th - Bruce Day
• Dec 12th - Wocky Day
• Dec 20th - Borovan Day - Everybody likes to drink a hot cup of borovan on this day!
• Dec 25th - Day of Giving - Gifts abound as all Neopia gets full of festive spirit
• Dec 31st / Jan 1st - Neopia enters the new year!

v      Bori are the latest Neopets to be painted Snow. (December 2, 2004)

v      You can now own an Ice Bruce. (December 6, 2004)

v      The Royal Bruce is now available. (December 6, 2004)

v      Flotsams can be painted Snow at the Rainbow Pool. (December 9, 2004)

v      Wockies can now be painted Cloud and Faerie. (December 13, 2004)

v      You can now paint your Ixi with a Christmas Paint Brush. (December 14, 2004)

v      You can now give your Kiko or JubJub a stinky new Garlic look. (December 15, 2004)

v      You can now learn how to draw a Bori with the new How To Draw guide. (December 16, 2004)

v      Jetsams can now be given a Starry new look. (December 16, 2004)

v      Yurbles can now be given a tiki touch with the aid of an Island Paint Brush. (December 28, 2004)

v      Tonus can now be painted a rather fetching Gold color. (December 29, 2004)

q        Wreathies can be painted Red, Brown, Pink and Blue at the Petpet Puddle. (December 1, 2004)

q        Kadoaties, Hasees, Noils and Meepits can be painted Snow with the right paint brushes. (December 3, 2004)

q        Faellies, Cobralls, Ghostkerchiefs and Angelpi can now be painted Snow at the Petpet Puddle. (December 7, 2004)

q        Snowickles can now be painted Red, Robot and Purple. (December 8, 2004)

q        There are some new Wintery Petpets for your Neopet to look after. (December 9, 2004)

q        Nurannas, Pawkeets, Babaas and Angelpi can be given a seasonal new look with the aid of a Christmas Paint Brush. (December 10, 2004)

q        Everyone will be rushing to Little Nippers to get their own Swabby! (December 14, 2004)

q        Khonsus, Kookiths, Ghostkerchiefs and Trunkards can now be painted Christmas at the Petpet Puddle. (December 16, 2004)

q        Tired of the new festive looks? You can now own a Snot Koi…yay? (December 17, 2004)

q        You can now paint your Bori in a colorful Rainbow design. (December 17, 2004)

q        Some of the Wintery Petpets have caught a touch of Pirate fever it seems... (December 20, 2004)

q        Wadjets can now be painted Cloud, Ghost, Rainbow and Snow at the Petpet Puddle. (December 29, 2004)

The avatars section of the Chat FAQs has been updated.

The Game Reviews page has been updated to include all those new product placement games.

Work continues on the upcoming museum. This project is rather large, but at least you can get a quick look at it here. Note that these pages are still very much under construction. If you have anything you’d like to contribute, please send it to: Naomi_Tran@baylor.edu

Here are the new games that were added this month:

a    King Hagan has opened his castle doors and is seeking the wisest Neopets in the land. If you think your Neopet has what it takes to impress King Hagan, why not give Wise Old King a try? (December 3, 2004)

a    They have another new sponsor game featuring Chocolate Lucky Charms. Click here to give it a try. (December 10, 2004)

a    Yet another product placement game: Angler Action The objective of the game is to catch the required amount of Goldfish Sandwich Snackers™ before time runs out (December 13, 2004)

a    They have another new product placement game based on Cinnamon Toast Crunch (featuring a Yurble no less). Click here to give it a go. (December 22, 2004)

a    There is a new game based on the film Racing Stripes for you to play. Click here to give it a go. (December 28, 2004)

a    Just when you thought it was safe...for a limited time they have bought back an old product placement game - Toontown - Are You Game Enough? (December 28, 2004)

These games were taken off the site this month:

Ø       A Trip to Remember

Ø       Aladdin's Treasure

Ø       Are You Toon Enough? (returned on December 28 for a limited time)

Ø       Are You Wicked?

Ø       Brandy

Ø       Postcards from Buster

Ø       Strong Women who Sparkle

Ø       Tutenstein Deciper

Changes to existing games:

You can now create your own levels for Faerie Caves II and enter them in the Faerie Caves Spotlight contest. (December 1, 2004)

They have also increased the amount of Neopoints you can earn from Faerie Caves II. (December 1, 2004)

The Coconut Shy has been translated into all languages. (December 6, 2004)

Snow Wars now asks you to confirm if you REALLY want to restart the level. (December 8, 2004)

They have added some new clues to the Faerieland Crossword Puzzle. (December 9, 2004)

Two new challengers have entered the Battledome on either side. Thief Brutes and Overseers are causing trouble for Hannah, Kanrik and Armin, while Skeletal Warriors and Warlords are plaguing Galem and co. (December 14, 2004)

As the Bori slowly start to thaw, they seize whatever weapons they can and rush to join the battle and you can find them in the Battledome. (December 16, 2004)

Kanrik and The Bringer can now be challenged in the Battledome. (December 17, 2004)

The Battle is over! After a valiant fight the Bori have awoken and have destroyed the Bringer of Night, with a lot of help from Hannah, Kanrik, Armin and lots of supporters. These single player opponents have been retired and the normal ones have returned. (December 21, 2004)

Now that Taelia has been unfrozen, her Quests are back to normal. (December 22, 2004)

Destruct-O-Match II is the new version of the old favorite, Destruct-O-Match. There are now 6 new types of boulders for you to destroy in addition to the simple colored versions.

To play this game, you will need to double-click on two or more boulders that are the same color and share one side next to each other. Diagonal connection do not work. I prefer working from top to bottom, but it has been suggested that many prefer working from bottom to top in case the connections between large groups change.

Regular Boulders: With these boulders, simply play the game normally. Double click on a group of two or more boulders that are the same color and directly above or next to each other. The screen shot above shows blue, green, gray and orange regular boulders.

Morph Boulder: This is the first boulder that you should work your way to. Keep in mind that it needs to be near a boulder of similar color. You need to be quick when you destroy the boulders above it, since you only have 10 seconds to do so. If you fail to destroy it in time, the boulder will 'morph' into an Indestructable Boulder.

Indestructable Boulder: Once the countdown on a Morph Boulder runs out, it will 'morph' into an Indestructable Boulder. As the name implies, regardless of it's original background color (like the orange background on the one shown above)once it changes to this form, you will no longer be able to clear it by regular means. This type of boulder can only be destroyed by a Fire Boulder.

Fill Boulder: Used with at least one other boulder with a matching background, this will cause a row of boulders to drop down from the top of the screen. There are two approaches to this type. If you want to destroy it right away, you will have less boulders to destroy, so you could end up with less points. If you destroy it later on in the game, there will be more boulders to destroy, which may either allow more matches or leave more on the board. I tend to use them near the beginning of the round.

Multiplier Boulder: When used with at least one other boulder with a matching background, it will multiply the points you get by destroying all of those boulders by 3. The more boulders in the group, the more points you get. Obviously, you want to try and get as many in that group as possible before you use it. I've found that sometimes one well played multiplier boulder will make the difference between advancing to the next round and "Game Over".

Overkill Boulder: This boulder destroys all other boulders with its matching backgound color. Don't get too excited about using it right away, though. You will only earn points for this boulder and the boulders that are destroyed in the group along with it. In the screen shot above, if you used it right away, all the gray boulders would vanish, but you would only get points for the three in that group. The Overkill Boulder should be destroyed when you know that other boulders in the game with the same background color have been destroyed, are connected with the overkill group, or you have ran out of moves for any boulder with that background color.

Fire Boulder: The very last irregular boulder you should destroy is this one! It will get rid of some of the remnants. Whenever possible, I try and save this one as my last move.

Hooray for the Advent Calendar Prize list for Year 6

The Advent Calendar is a special "daily freebie" that is only open during December. Everyone who stops by gets the same prize...with one or two exceptions.

This year’s Advent Calendar gave out 10,216 neopoints and tons of items...most were new, some rare, and some not-so-rare. The Pant Devil put in his annual appearance on December 13, but stole only the Bitten Green Apples instead of Rods of Supernova.

Below is a chart of the daily rewards from this year’s Advent Calendar. If you missed a day, you may want to pick up some of the items in case they are retired like they were last year. If you missed that day and want to see the animation, click on the date to link to the Neopets image file.

Note that if you are viewing the archived copy, those image files may no longer be on the Neopets server.