• General News
• Pet News
• PetPet News
• TNE News
• Gaming News
• Featured Game The Castle of Eliv Thade
• Featured Article Finding a Shield from Sloth’s Ray Protecting Other Chats from the GC’s fate
• Featured Food Orange Chicken
• Featured Site No, you were not hacked

Sometimes it's hard to keep up with the news on a day to day basis. Here are the highlight from the Neopets news page for this month...

Neopets is now available in Italian, French, Spanish, German and Korean!!! Yes, you can select your language from the yellow bar. These five languages are currently in beta-testing (so not every page will be translated, and there may be some errors). (January 2, 2004)

According to the Neopets news page, a laser beam has totally disintegrated General Chat. Most people believe it was shut down because of the rampant scamming, spamming, and general rule breaking. (January 7, 2004)

There is a rather scary Neopedia article about the Wheel of Misfortune... (January 12, 2004)

Some new Cooking Pot Recipes were released using petpets. (January 12, 2004)

If you are interested in what other people have to say about Neopets, why not read these new Testimonials? (January 13, 2004)

There is a new Neopedia article about Skies Over Meridell. (January 15, 2004)

The Grey Faerie has been added to the How To Draw pages. (January 20, 2004)

A new Neopedia about Sutek and his Tomb has just gone live. (January 20, 2004)

Neopets added a lot more items and descriptions to the Online Merchandise Catalogue. (January 20, 2004)

A new band was introduced today - The Neopian Philharmonic! At this point, it has not been added to the Bands page since there is no link available for it yet. (January 22, 2004)

All you Dr Sloth fans will be interested to learn there is a new Neopedia article about him... (January 24, 2004)

Neopets has updated the Safety Deposit Box so that you can take multiple items out at once. Also it will display the special/retired text next to each item. (January 27, 2004)

You can now draw Eliv Thade with ease using this new How To Draw guide. (January 28, 2004)

Special Days for this month were:

• Jan 3rd - Aisha Day
• Jan 11th - Festival of Buzz. (Buzz Day)
• Jan 14th – Sloth Appreciation Day (Well…not really. Apparently Dr. Frank Sloth hacked into the system to cause problems. Must have been a slow day for the site’s resident “Bad Guy” now that Lord Darigan is here, too.)  
• Jan 16th - Elephante Day
• Jan 29th - Kacheek Day

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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.

v      Give your Aisha a cool look with a Snow Paint Brush. (January 2, 2004)

v      Aishas can now be painted Starry. (January 2, 2004)

v      Flotsams can be painted with the Purple Paint Brush. (January 5, 2004)

v      Fear greatly as the Snot Grundo enters Neopia. (January 6, 2004)

v      Zafaras can be painted a Pink color. (January 7, 2004)

v      You can now paint your Buzz PURPLE or Faerie. (January 9, 2004)

v      The Scorchio now comes in a Maraquan variety. (January 12, 2004)

v      EWWWWWW! If you want one, you can now own a SNOT Aisha. (January 12, 2004)

v      With the aid of the right paint brush, you can now own a  Pirate Uni. (January 13, 2004)

v      Meuka isn't the only slimy Meerca around. Now you can own a SNOT Meerca too. (January 13, 2004)

v      The Mutant Meerca was discovered today. (January 14, 2004)

v      Lupes can now be painted Striped. (January 15, 2004)

v      Elephantes can be painted with the Purple Paint Brush. (January 16, 2004)

v      The Faerie Poogle has been given a new look... (January 19, 2004)

v      Lennies can be painted Ghost color. (January 23, 2004)

v      Now you can have your very own Alien Aisha. (January 24, 2004)

v      Say hello to the new Spotted Chombies. (January 26, 2004)

v      The Darigan Usul has arrived. (January 27, 2004)

v      You can now own a Plushie Kacheek, or perhaps you would prefer Starry. (January 29, 2004)

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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.

The Pirate Petpet Paintbrush was introduced this month. (January 15, 2004)

q        Firs, Warfs, Onas and Slorgs can be painted Brown. (January 7, 2004)

q        The Flizzardo has been added to the How To Draw section. (January 7, 2004)

q        Now you can own a Mutant Hasee, Slorg, or Peo. (January 14, 2004)

q        If it takes your fancy, you can now paint your Puppyblew, Snorkle and Doglefox Pirate. (January 15, 2004)

q        Turmacs, Drackonacks, Kookiths and GX-4 Oscillabots can now be painted Plushie at the Petpet Puddle. (January 20, 2004)

q        Neopets decided that the Turtum was a bit too rare (and there aren't many of them in Neopia), so they have lowered the rarity a little. (January 21, 2004)

q        Turtums have been added to the How To Draw page. (January 21, 2004)

q        Turtums can be painted White, Purple and Rainbow at the Petpet Puddle. (January 21, 2004)

q        Turn your Kadoatie, Gallion or Faellie into a swashbuckler with the aid of a Pirate Paint Brush. (January 22, 2004)

q        Hasees, Kookiths, Nurannas and Puppyblews can be painted FIRE at the Petpet Puddle. (January 26, 2004)

q        Duas can now be painted Blue, Cloud and Grey at the Petpet Puddle. (January 30, 2004)

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As with all good help sites, the pages on the Neopian Educator are always under construction. Suggestions and constructive criticism are always welcome. Simply fill out the automatic comment form.

It’s been a busy month here at TNE.

The Game Reviews and avatars area of the Chat FAQ’s has been updated.

Some more recipes have been submitted for the Magic Cooking Pot page. They haven't been tried yet, so use them at your own risk. It also seems that Neopets has changed some of the old recipes, so some of them may no longer be working.

There was some confusion about the "only resident" phrase for Maraqua. That was the phrase used in the news before the arrival of the Maraquan Paint Brush. That phrase has been changed on any page dealing with Maraqua.

 Some of you have suggested that the TNE Rerport Card should accept user submissions and possibly have more spotlights rather than just the Featured Site. Share your thoughts about this here. If you have anything you’d like to submit for consideration, please send it to: Naomi_Tran@baylor.edu This includes comics, artwork, short stories, word games, or anything else creative…as long as it follows Neopets.com Terms and Conditions.

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

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Games on Neopets are in a constant state of change and these changes are often not listed in the news. Here are the changes for this month:

Here are the new games that were added this month:

a    NEW GAME - The latest Neopian game features an aerial duel over Meridell. Have you got what it takes to defeat the sky bandits and win the day? Click here to play Skies Over Meridell. (January 5, 2004)

a    Neopets added a new sponsor game called Honey-O-Throw. (January 5, 2004)

a    To celebrate the Trix Rabbit's 50th Birthday Neopets has put a new sponsor game up on the site - Trix Birthday Surprise. (January 9, 2004)

a    Faerie Bubbles, the non-sponsor version of the Bubble Yum Snood-style game, was released today. (January 14, 2004)

a    NeoQuest II is now live!!! Yes, after months and months of work, the huge role-playing game known as NeoQuest now has a sequel. You play Rohane, a young Blumaroo who has left his home in search of adventure. The kingdom is in peril. King Skarl has been imprisoned, and you must save the day! (January 29, 2004)

These games were taken off the site this month:

Ø       Cocoa Catch

Ø       Corner Bumpers

Ø       Elf: The Movie Snowball Fight

Ø       Finding Nemo

Ø       Flashin’ Lix

Ø       FurReal Friends

Ø       Looney Tunes: Back in Action

Ø       Looney Tunes: Reality Check

Ø       Lucky Charms

Ø       Mucha Lucha

Ø       NeoWardrobe

Ø       Poogle Solitaire

Ø       SuperDudes

Ø       Techo Says

Ø       The Lion King

Ø       Thinkway Matching Madness

Ø       Tower of Turnips

Ø       Video Now

Ø       ydouthink

Changes to existing games:

Neopets made some changes to the Adventure Generator, including neoHTML and colour schemes. (January 2, 2004)

Neopets has taken the old Turmac Roll (which was a sponsor game) off the site and put a new version in Meridell. (January 6, 2004)

Neopets has doubled the Neopoints you can earn from playing Mutant Graveyard of DOOM. (January 8, 2004)

Sutek's Tomb now has a “Zen mode” where the timer has been disabled. You can play as long as you wish but not earn as many Neopoints. (January 9, 2004)

Neopets has increased the Neopoints you can earn from Faerie Bubbles by 50%. (January 15, 2004)

Sutek's Tomb  now has a pause button, and if you run out of moves the game will automatically shuffle the board for you. This means that if you are playing it on “Zen Mode”, make sure you always have one more move if you ever plan to send your score. (January 15, 2004)

NEW PRELOADERS - Yes, many of the games around the site now feature new preloaders (the graphics that load when the game is being loaded.) No more spinning Blumaroo head! To try out the new ones why not play Eliv Thade or Sutek's Tomb. (January 15, 2004)

IT'S A GIANT HUNGRY CHOMBY - Uh oh. Looks like the Defenders of Neopia need your help! (January 15, 2004)

Both of the Slots Games now have sound on/off buttons. (January 16, 2004)

You now get 50% more Neopoints every time you play Deckswabber. (January 21, 2004)

Neopets updated the Games Room so that it has a couple more links at the bottom. (January 26, 2004)

Neopets has released a new version of Gadgadsgame. It's faster and there are a couple of extras that can drop down to help you. (January 27, 2004)

Now Frumball has a Zen mode. Play for as long as you like (but earn much less points). (January 27, 2004)

Now when you click on My Portfolio your stocks will be listed in alphabetical order. (January 27, 2004)

Now when you play Bilge Dice there is now a 10 NP ante (for those of you on a budget). (January 27, 2004)

Neopets has made lots of changes to Whack-A-Staff-Member. They have added two more staff members, you can now use the left mouse button to hit us, and lastly there is now a crosshair on the first level. (January 27, 2004)

The Castle of Eliv Thade now gives 33% more NP. (January 28, 2004)

Spell-Or-Starve now has a nifty Zen mode too. (January 28, 2004)

Are you sick and tired of Turmaculus sleeping all day and then when you do eventually manage to wake the beast, he gobbles up your beloved Petpet? Well here is your chance to get some revenge as Turmaculus steps into the Battledome... (January 30, 2004)

If you know of anything that was overlooked, or have suggestions or even constructive criticisms, use this form.

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Featured Game:

The Castle of Eliv Thade

Have a guide you'd like to see here? Send it to: Naomi_Tran@baylor.edu

This month, Neopets released an Eliv Thade avatar. To get this avatar, you must score at least 1000 points on The Castle of Eliv Thade.

This game was originally featured in the February 2003 edition of the TNE report card. With the release of the avatar, however, it is time to revisit this guide. Note that the screen shots on this game are the original ones for the February guide. You must score 1000 or more to get the avatar. To beat this game without fear or stress, you need Andy. Who is Andy? He’s your new best friend for this game.

Andy is an anagram solver. More precisely, Andy is the programmer who created the anagram solver I found while searching on AskJeeves.com. You can find this page at: http://www.ssynth.co.uk/~gay/anagram.html and I find it really helpful in making my way through this game. Once you have this page (or any other anagram solver you prefer) up, the rest of the game is a snap.

For those of you who haven’t come across a fancy word like “anagram” before, an anagram is just a jumble of letters that you use to spell out a word. In other words, all you have to do for this game is take the mixed up letters and make them into a real word. If you saw the anagram: agme, you could make the words game or mage from it.

Beginning

Go ahead and pick the Super Brave level…after all, we’ve got a friend to help us. You’ll get more points this way, too.

You start off with three lives. That means you have three chances to goof. “Goofing” includes taking a chance on the cracks and falling through. If you try to stand on a square with cracks on it, you have a 50% chance of falling through to the basement, which will cost you one life. Entering the wrong word will also cost you one life. If you enter a real word that doesn’t match the one he wants, it still counts as a “wrong” word.

In the beginning of the game, the rooms are “hazy”. Once you visit a room, you will be able to see it clearly on the board.

The Dining Room

The first room to visit will be the dining room. It only takes two turns to get there.

Type the letters gcryuen into the anagram solver. Limit the search to just one word (and Massive English if it’s not already defaulted to that). The solver reveals the word is URGENCY. Repeat with 2 spaces to get into the dining room. If the solver lists more than one possibility, use the “Letter Hint” option to point out which one is the one he wants. Remember, even real words that match the letters are wrong if it’s not the one he wants.

Now that you have visited this room, it is clearly shown on the game board:

The Kitchen

I suggest visiting the Kitchen next. It can also be reached in two turns. Solving this room will give you:

The Library

The library is our next stop…how brave are you? If you still have three lives left, you can always risk one on the cracked squares. Remember, if you solve it (to move to that square) you can still lose a life if you fall through. The less adventuresome may want to avoid the cracked tiles all together. The choice is yours, and risking can reward you with more points. Solving the Library will give you:

The Bedroom

This is our last stop as far as collecting items. Once we have solved this one, we can return to the beginning and make our escape through the only other room we haven’t been in: The Crypt. How are your lives holding up? Hopefully you still have at least two. That will give us a bit of a “fudge factor” or “safety net” when it’s time to solve that last word. Solving the bedroom will give you:

The Crypt

The game has pretty much been solved by this point. Your game board should look something like this:

As you can see, all four rooms are clear and all four items have been collected (lower right hand of the screen). All we need to do now is head to the crypt. There is a special “hidden” hallway directly south of the bedroom. Taking this route bypasses the kitchen on the way to the crypt. Those wanting more points can doubtless retrace their entire route back to the library and kitchen first, which is important if you want that avatar. However you choose, make your way back to the crypt to see this screen:

8 letters? No fear here…thanks to Andy. What’s this? Andy doesn’t know!? Yes…there are times when even Andy doesn’t have the answer…because Andy doesn’t play Neopets. With a little work, you can see that the last anagram: kasarvua is none other than our beloved potions expert: KAUVARAS

Having finished the game, you should be able to collect your points and escape:

Once you send your score of 1000 or more, you will see another popup screen that informs you that you are now eligible to use the avatar. It’s a piece of cake thanks to Andy.

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Featured Article:

Finding a Shield from Sloth’s Ray Protecting Other Chats from the GC’s fate

On January 7, 2004, the Neopets news page, reported that Dr. Sloth’s laser beam totally disintegrated General Chat. Most people believe it was shut down because of the rampant scamming, spamming, and general rule breaking. The editorial in Issue 126 of the Neopian Times had the following:

The question then becomes: What can we do to keep this from happening to other chats? If the GC truly was shut down by rule breaking, is there anything we can do to protect our own favorite chatting playgrounds?

First, let’s examine the Neo Rules for Chat Boards.

If you’ll notice, only 6 rules deal with scams (3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9); this means that more than half of the rules deal with common courtesy. In other words, 7 of the 13 chat rules are simply about “playing nicely with others”. 

Use the boards to make friends, answer questions, and have fun, but think before you post. If this is something that may offend or hurt someone, take it somewhere else. Neopia is not the place for it.

This also applies to the new crop of “reporters” who are popping up. If someone is breaking one or more of the chat rules, by all means, report them…but only if you witnessed it yourself. Do not report anyone just because you see someone else post that a user scammed them. If you are wrong, you have just accused an innocent player…and may be frozen for false reporting.

Do not report the same user over and over for the same offense. It slows down everything and probably annoys the staff. As it is, they will already get multiple reports about an offender from many different players. They don’t need multiple reports from the same person.

Once you report someone, drop it. If someone posts a scam then you don’t need 20 people to post that it’s a scam. One (or a maximum of three) user posts that it is a scam is sufficient. All multiple posts do is bump it back to the top. If someone is not scamming, there is no reason to post at all. Let the board drop from the chat room. These users are mainly attention seekers.

Regardless of your choice to report or not, do not get into fights or arguments over it. Report them and forget them. The last thing you want is to be reported for harassment or get drawn into an argument. Nobody can win a “discussion” about opinions. By definition, they are matters of the heart, not the head.

Think before you post. Let’s keep Neopia a fun and safe place for all players or Dr. Sloth might redirect his laser to other areas, too. The only shield we can offer is courtesy. It doesn’t hurt to be nice, and it might just keep Sloth at bay for a little longer.

As always, play safe and have fun!

~StaggPub~

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Name: Orange Chicken
Available: From the Main Food Shop
Neopet’s Description: Tangy Orange Flavoured chicken is a wonderful way to pep up your pet.
TNE’s Description: Because of their golden color, oranges are often associated with wealth and very popular for Asian New Year celebrations. Why not whip up this tasty tangy treat for the Chinese New Year and enjoy its rich taste.

 Ingredients:

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 medium sized orange, peeled and sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 tsp grated ginger root
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon arrowroot
• 2 tablespoon chicken stock

 Directions:

Cut chicken into 3 or 4 inch pieces. No pieces should be larger than two bites.

Combine orange juice, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic in large glass bowl. Add chicken, marinate in refrigerator 1 hour. Drain chicken; reserve marinade. Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add chicken; stir-fry 3 minutes or until chicken is light brown.  Combine chicken stock and arrowroot with the reserved marinade; add to skillet and stir until thickened. Serve over hot rice.

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TNE Teacher’s Pet Award
To see previously featured sites, click here.
Have a site you'd like to nominate? Send it to: Naomi_Tran@baylor.edu

While I was weeding out sites on my neocircle, I came across this little page. It’s blunt and perhaps a bit harsh, but absolutely accurate. It’s a quick loading and easy to navigate page. Also, because it is set up on a Neopets pet page, you can post and link directly to it on message boards, shops, and guilds.

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