History of Club Penguin and its predecessors

Club Penguin has had a longer history than you think. Before Club Penguin was made, there were many predecessors. The two that started it all was Penguin Chat and Experimental Penguins. Penguin Chat was made a long time ago by Rocketsnail and is still online, at http://www.penguinchat.com/ and gameplay was/is very simple, limited to just choosing a name, walking around, and chatting. Today it has lost its popluarity completely, and when I go on occasionally (not that I’m saying I like Penguin Chat) there is like 3 to 6 penguins on each room.

    Experimental Penguins was made in 2000 and was extremely popular, but it only stayed up for a few months before being replaced by Penguin Chat 1. Like I said, it was very popular and won several awards. When it closed down, Penguin Chat 1 took over. Little is known about Experimental Penguins because it was on for just a short time.

   Penguin Chat 1 was like a mini-version of Club Penguin, but all it had was the Dance Club, the Boiler Room, the Coffee Shop, the town, and the gift shop, which took you to another website where you could buy online merchandise. The Dance Club had the band, but there were only 3 members, and all of them were blue. The boiler room was very secret those days, and could only be accessed by the bottom left speaker, not the top right one. The Coffee Shop was quite dull, there was no game and no upstairs. You could also become a ninja, by pressing the “n” in Penguin in the window “Select your new Penguin”. Ninjas were pretty cool, and they could become invisible and had swords strapped to their backs. Ninja clans used to meet in the boiler room. There was also a toolbar, but with fewer windows. The chatbox, the actions, the emotes, the “Tell a Joke” button, the enter button, and the “Select your new Penguin” button. The chatbox didn’t look like Club Penguin’s and it was less wide. Oh, and back then, moderators were snails. Get it? RocketSNAIL?

Here is a picture of the old toolbar.

   Eventually Penguin Chat 1 was replaced by Penguin Chat 2 then Penguin Chat 3. They began adding more places to go too, and in Penguin Chat 3, you could pretend to be driving a snowcat and drilling into the ground using the hard helmet by going to areas left and right of the town.

    Finally, at the start of summer in 2005, Rocketsnail announced that Penguin Chat 3 would be replaced by Club Penguin, and soon after that, Rocketsnail’s Penguin Chat 3 closed down, but you can still play the other games on Rocketsnail TODAY by going on this link, http://web.archive.org/web/20070314005254/www.rocketsnail.com/flash-games.htm. In a few months Club Penguin had asked for beta testers, and those beta-testers today are represented by the rarest item in Club Penguin: The Beta-Tester hat.

  Here are pictures of Penguin Chat 3, thanks to Club Penguin Wiki at http://clubpenguin.wikia.com/. Most of this info came from them too, especially about the older sites.

 

LIke I said, these are all pictures of Penguin Chat 3. Though I had never visited Penguin Chat 3, I could tell it was quite fun. I want to know how it was like to be in a ninja clan.

Then Club Penguin announced volunteers for beta testing. People who wanted to join would be asked to take a simple assessment to see why and how they want to be betas. If they were accepted, they would be given a password to the beta-testing area. Beta-testers can be represented by the extremely rare hat. In the first party, the free items were the beta-tester party hats, of course!

Finally Club Penguin released to the public on October 24, 2007. From then on it began to grow. At first I could picture no pizza parlor, no pet shop, no iceberg, no forest, no sports shop, no cove, no lighthouse! It would be like a prototype of the Club Penguin we know of today.  In November, there was no party, but they released the puffle. First they were in only blue color. Finally, to conclude the events of 2005, the Christmas party came very early, they added some cool games, they fixed the glitches and squashed the bugs.

After that all those parties began starting. Here are all of the parties plus its free items.

Beta Tester Party: September 21st 2005. Not really considered as an official party of Club Penguin. (beta tester hat)

Halloween Party: October 31st 2005. Very simple, not much decorations. (no free item)

Christmas Party 2005: December 22nd to the 25th. The first Christmas Party of Club Penguin. (Santa Hat, Christmas Scarf)

Winter Luau: mid-January 2006. Not much is known about this party. (Red and Orange Lei)

Valentine Party. February 14th, 2006. Not much is known about this party either. (Bowtie, Red sunglasses, Blue Sunglasses)

During February 2006 they made testing servers, where any penguin could go into. (Blue togue and pink togue)

St. Patrick’s Day 2006: mid-March 2006. Club Penguin turns totally green! (Shamrock Hat)

Pizza Party(MEMBERS ONLY): late March 2006: The opening of the pizza parlor. (Chef Hat and pizza apron for members, just the pizza apron for non-members)

April Fool’s Party 2006: April 1st, 2006. Not as good as the April Fool’s Party of 2007. It had less decorations. (Red propeller cap)

Easter Party 2006: mid-April 2006. Had a scavenger hunt in order to get the free item. (Pink bunny ears)

Mine Opening Party 2006: May 2006. Celebration of the opening of the mine. (Mining helmet)

Summer Party 2006: June 2006. One of the biggest parties of 2006. (Blue lei, yellow inflatable duck, orange water wings, whistle)

Wild West Party #1: July 6th-July 14th 2006. A very wild west party. Considerably better than the Wild West Party #2. (Cowboy bandanna)

Sports Party:August 4th-August 20th 2006. The longest lasting party in all of Club Penguin history, though not the largest. (Red face paint, blue face paint, and ice skates)

Lighthouse Opening Party: September 2006. Happened in the lighthouse, where the Penguin Band played. (lighthouse shirt, red beanie)

On October 13th, 2006, Rockhopper pulled in at the beach for the first time, giving out eyepatches.

1st anniversary Party: October 24th, 2006. Happened at the coffee shop. (Blue and green 1st year party hat)

Halloween Party 2006: October 27th-November 1, 2006. Club Penguin was decorated to look spooky. They did a horrible job though. :b. (Wizard Hat)

Lime Green Party(MEMBERS ONLY): mid-November 2006. Happened in the dojo, where it was sprinkled with lime green paint. (green cape for members only)

On December 8th, 2007, Rockhopper pulled into port again and he gave out the red pirate bandanna.

Christmas/New Year Party 2006: December 22nd, 2006-January 2nd 2007. The entire area was covered with snow! Snow was gathered and stored in the Lodge Attic to be used for the festival of Snow. (Santa Hat, Santa Beard)

Winter Fiesta 2007: January 19th-January 22nd 2007. Looked similar to the 2008 one but not quite. (Maracas)

Right after the WInter Fiesta of 2007 they released the tour guides. They decided to give away a free item(Tour Guide Hat) to those who passed the test.

On February 9th, Rockhopper pulls in with a damaged ship. Willing penguins help to rebuild his ship to its former glory. The free item is a pirate belt. When he left, it is very likely that Bambadee the stowaway ran off with Rockhopper too.

Festival of Snow: February 9th-February 19th 2007. There were many snow statues of many things about Club Penguin. (Ice Crown, Snowflake T-Shirt)

Rockhopper pulled into port again on March 9th, 2007, where he gave out pirate boots. He also returned Bambadee to shore and added a book to the Book Room, the first in the Library. It had the friendship bracelet, still availible today.

St. Patrick’s Day 2007: March 16th-March 20th 2007. Club Penguin turns very green. Kind of makes me sick. (Shamrock Hat)

April Fools Party 2007: March 30th-April 2nd 2007. Lots of cardboard boxes, teleporters, glitches, and more. (Blue propeller cap, novelty glasses)

Easter Party 2007: April 6th-April 9th. Another easter egg hunt. (Blue bunny ears)

Rockhopper arrived again on April 27th 2007, bringing treasures, and the free item, the Puffle bandanna! He opened up the ship hold to normal penguins. He also got a surprise with the Pirate Party!

Pirate Party: April 27th-May 2nd 2007. Club Penguin is dressed up for pirate style! (Sailor cap)

Cove Opening(MEMBERS ONLY): May 29th-June 1st 2007. A member party, which was a very small party. (Life ring and whistle for members, just the whistle for non-members)

Summer Party 2007: June 8th-June 18th, 2007. One of the biggest parties in Club Penguin history, with many items as well. At first they included only 3 items, but it turned out to be five! (blue lei, green sunglasses, ice cream apron, flower headdress, green inflatable duck)

Just a few days after the summer party ended, Rockhopper came again and gave out the red pirate bandanna, an old item that was revived.

Water Party: July 13th-July 23rd, 2007. When Club Penguin was flooded, some penguins used the water to make a water party!!! (Umbrella Hat, Blue Water Wings)

Rockhopper came at the end of July, bringing with him the fishing rod. However, he came back very quickly, like 2 and a half weeks. In mid-August the free item was the stuffed parrot.

Camping Party: August 24th-Augusy 26th, 2007. Club Penguin was renamed Camp Penguin and many areas were altered to look like camp sites. (marshmallow stick)

Fall Fair: September 21st-October 1st, 2007. The Fall Fair had 6 games where you could earn tickets, which were used to get free items. It was the largest party in Club Penguin history. (feathered tiara, paddle ball, lollipop, candy necklace, cotton candy)

2nd anniversary party: October 24th, 2007. Also took place in the coffee shop, but the free item was in the book room. (Yellow and orange 2nd year party hat)

Halloween Party: October 26th-November 1st, 2007. Club Penguin was remade to try to look spooky, which they did a horrible job at. (pumpkin basket, halloween scarf)

Rockhopper pulled into port on November 9th, 2007, with the free item the winged helmet. He also stayed for an extra long time because of his long time at sea.

Wild West Party #2: November 23rd-November 26th 2007. Decorated to look like a desert in the wild west. Considered a very unpopular party. (Cowboy bandanna)

On December 14th, 2007 Club Penguin released the Coins for Change, where penguins donate coins to 3 sectors to find the proportion. There was a free item, which was the bell.

Christmas/New Year’s Party 2007: December 21st, 2007-January 2nd, 2008. Was a more laid-back Christmas Party, like during the Victorian Time in Great Britain. (Santa Hat, Christmas Scarf, Reindeer Antlers)

WInter Fiesta 2008: January 18th-January 21st, 2008. A comeback of the January 2007 Winter Fiesta, with some major alterations. (Festive maracas)

Rockhopper came back in a rowboat! That was because an iceberg came and crashed into the Migrator, so he came with a rowboat. All he had for everyone was a life vest.

Sub-Marine Party: February 15th-February 20th, 2008. The first party of its type, such as underwater sunken ships, submarines, seaweed, starfish, and more. (yellow snorkel, seashell belt)

Do you like my list? I will update it when there are more parties.

~~~Bigboy543~~~