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The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
[Portal] Prelude Mod now available!
LightRider
__BANNED USERS regular
__BANNED USERS regular
Portal is 1/3rd (1/5th?) of Valve's The Orange Box.
It (will be/has been) the greatest 2-4 hours of your gaming life.
You are the subject of a lab experiment.
There is a computer voice that sounds...unbalanced...
You have no companions...that you know of...
You have been promised cake!
For maximum thread reading pleasure, please listen to the commentary in the game.
System Requirements
Valve wrote:Minimum: 1.7 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, DirectX 8 level Graphics Card, Windows Vista/XP/2000, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection
Recommended: Pentium 4 processor (3.0GHz, or better), 1GB RAM, DirectX® 9 level Graphics Card, Windows® Vista/XP/2000, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection
Note: If you look at yourself through a portal and you see purple/black grids instead of human eyes, it is because you are using DirectX 7/8, which does not render the eyes in Source. This is not evidence of you being a non-human.
Where to Buy
If you have a PC that can access the Internets, I suggest Steam.
If you prefer tangible goods or are lashed to an unforgiving console, it should be available at any one of your local dying game stores, or thriving online jungle markets.
General Links
The Current Team Fortress 2 Thread
The Current HL2:E2 Thread
The Current Valve/Steam Community/Source Thread
The Current Orange Box Gifting Thread
http://www.aperturescience.com/
durandal4532 wrote: »Few spoilers:Go to www.aperturescience.com
You can then either use HELP or LOGIN
Use HELP first for a funny message, then use LOGIN, Username:CJOHNSON Password:TIER3
You can then use LIST to see what files he has access to.
You can fill out an awesome employee application by typing APPLY, look at the company backstory by typing ADMIN(I think, the second file, either way), or get a creepy message by typing THECAKEISALIE (Which is spelt out by letters that blink and disappear in the employee application).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_(video_game)
http://orange.half-life2.com/portal.html
Custom Levels
Anybody try the map made by a guy from Bethesda?
Linky to download
Cool map. Rotating room, and lots of fun.
My apologies if this has been posted already.
There are some fun custom maps that I've played recently. Step portaling in Logic portals was fun, and Sidewinder was delicious.
But some maps just suck. Making batting an orb into a socket using a camera a required part of a map? Not cool.
Music and Sound
Still Alive
Radio Edit
Goofball's Awesome Page of Portal Sounds
Jonathan Coulton on Still Alive w/ Guitar Chords
cooljammer00 wrote: »JoCo posted up a version of Still Alive, performed acoustically. I assume this is what he submitted the song to sound like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxNmeMklFk8
LittleBoots wrote: »For all those asking for songs from the game you can goto http://nemesis.thewavelength.net/ and download GCFScape and that will allow you to open the GCF files in your <install dir>/steam/steamapps/ folder. You can open "portal english.gcf" to extract everything Glados says (in mp3 format) and "portal content.gcf" has a music folder with all portal music in it in mp3 format (including still alive). The little radio loop is in one of those folders too.
Have fun!
Mercutio87 wrote: »
It's a cool song, but that brother needs to learn to watch his levels. The distortion is quite distracting.
There's actually a few different remixes of that one already.
The original
Slightly faster version
"v2" of the original
Another Remix
The times on each of them are 3:52 for the original, 2:42 for the second, 3:27 for the third, and 4:25 for the last one. Personally the final one is my least favorite, it kinda devolves into just sounding like a rapidly skipping record.
The site also has a instrumental only version of Still Alive.
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In case you don't make it through the testing, good bye!
Things we know so far: SPOILER ALERT
Character's name is Chell.
GLaDOS is the AI that was developed as part of an Ice Inhibitor, it has gone crazy, likely killed everyone working at Aperture Science and has taken control.
Chell may or may not be an android (I say not an android).
GLaDOS likely survives on after the end of the game in the form of many AI spheres in storage.
It is unknown whether Chell survives.
Chell may be a clone, and there appears to have at least been several other test subjects before you.
HL2:EP2 spoiler
Aperture Science exists in the HL universe, and they compete with Black Mesa.Requesting that "Chell is the name of the player/main character. It's found in the credits." or something to that effect to be in the OP of the next thread (and this one, if LightRider's still around to edit it) since it comes up everyone once in awhile in the same thread (and who can go through the entire thread all the time)
Not a jab at those asking now, I'm just saying it's a FAQ
GLaDOS is the AI that was developed as part of an Ice Inhibitor, it has gone crazy, likely killed everyone working at Aperture Science and has taken control.
Chell may or may not be an android (I say not an android).
GLaDOS likely survives on after the end of the game in the form of many AI spheres in storage.
It is unknown whether Chell survives.
Chell may be a clone, and there appears to have at least been several other test subjects before you.
HL2:EP2 spoiler
There is an Aperture Science ship called the Borealis that has been discovered in a frozen area. GLaDOS may be there, and maybe Chell or other Portal related things.
PM me if you want this section updated.
LightRider on
0
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
Also, proof that you're
Uh, first two lines spoiler?
Holy moly. That was fast. And smooth looking.
...awesome.
Oops, can't put npcs through, oh well...
Azulan Saul Tigh
Oh my God.
"Pick up that can."
Azulan Saul Tigh
GLaDOS also says that she has deleted your backup file, implying that she could have recreated/cloned you before you killed her and broke her heart.
Azulan Saul Tigh
I like that though, since the early rooms actually did prepare you for things, escept maybe searching stuff out so much. Normal rooms, a lot of it was in plain sight, so plans could be developed quickly. The escape took more searching before executing any plans to move around, or they happened really fast cuz you were on the move.
As to the shortness, I didn't mind it. Honestly, if I had to play another 20 levels, it'd be fine, but setting it up the way they did, with advanced levels after the main boss dies, very nice. Turns a beat-in-one-sitting game into something I'll be picking up later, because I enjoy the gameplay, not just the storyline.
And the boss singing the song at the end? I don't think I enjoyed watching ending credits so much since Super Mario World. Then the new loading screen....
So good.
Maybe not worth a purchase on its own, but nice to get it along with the rest of the goodies in the orange box.
Click image for my huge backlog
EDIT: Screenshot added to demonstrate. Max graphic settings, color correction enabled. Screenshot taken from test chamber 14, two portals placed next to each other on adjacent corner:
I guess they look kind of blue, so I was wrong there. Nothing out of order, though.
but then where would all the calculators go?!
ha ha ha!
edit: also
most of all, most of all
someone said true love was dead
but i'm bound to fall
bound to fall for you
oh what can i do
i mean, i'm all for speculation, but let's theorize on some other aspect of the game. please.
most of all, most of all
someone said true love was dead
but i'm bound to fall
bound to fall for you
oh what can i do
Dynamic Gravity!
Prey also had this idea and used it to interesting effect, but imagine it combined with portals.
There could be chambers where the gravity shifts from floor to ceiling to wall, or shifting gradually so you have to time flinging just right.
I know the source engine has this kind of capability, so I hope to see some mods with this kind of dynamic some day.
Azulan Saul Tigh
Anyway, re: clone / android / omg
Perhaps not the most cohoerant argument... let me try to rephrase that whole mess.
The unmarked clipboards have a subject number matching the one on your sleep chamber thingy when you start the game. Because GLaDOS has no need for paper, it can be assumed that Chell was the last person to run the course in its original, un-insanified state. And, of course, you're probably the only one to actually complete the course. So you're probably the only person to run the course under GLaDOS, who must have some way of resetting you, through either erasing your memory or cloning you. Memory alteration would work if one assumes that all previous failures are only due to insanity (see: companion cube). However, the course is fucking dangerous, so cloning seems more likely.
Alternatively, the whole thing could be a coincidence. Or the sleep chamber could just be broken. Or the whole thing means nothing at all.
The only interesting point that I agree with with ANY of these shitty thories is subject #234.
also, chell is a jellyfish. a nice one.
The cutting edge of contact lens fashion
Also: I'm guessing everyone has already played the Flash version of Portal, right
Yes. This. Plus:
More likely IMHO that:
> turn on light
Good start to the day. Pity it's going to be the worst one of your life. The light is now on.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
Also, how to play Half-Life 2 with the actual Portal portals.
I believe the time line is about in line with Gordons current one. At the end you are in an overgrown field looking at a broken down and overgrown entrance. I theorize that Aperture worked with the Combine when they took over. GLaDOS states that her morality node was installed after she gassed the center, so someone had to install it on her. (I'm guessing that the heads of Aperture were very, very, stupid.)
So my thinking is that GLaDOS behaved until Gordon popped a cap in the towers power core at the end of HL2, and then the people at Aperture booked out as the Combine was falling apart. This is inline with the overgrown appearance outside (Nothing was particularly well cared for anymore...) and explains why Aperture had Combine tech. The Combine takes the species and adds it to itself right? It also treats those who work with it rather well. A.K.A. Breen. It's already been shown the rather low moral standards of Aperture, so it is reasonable that they took test subjects against their will and boxed them in, keeping them in storage until needed. The Combine showed it can 'cold storage' items until needed, and Aperture is probably using the same tech under a more gentle appearance.
Given these wild speculations I think that in future you'll need to return to Aperture to rescue people. Those would make fascinating puzzles in themselves trying to move people about.
GLaDOS herself struck me as rather tragic, I fancy she would very much like to get out of there herself and it would be a daring move on Valves part to center the story around the psychotic computers redemption rather than to kill it (again) to have it run away shaking its fist about how it'll get you next time...
Of course, if it was to be redeemed then they'd have to explain why it was running tests. I can see it working around the morality node and killing people why using twisted logic about science experiements, but why it would do them in the first place just to kill people needs explaining.
If there ARE androids, maybe she can be uploaded to a body?
[/wild speculation]
caffron said: "and cat pee is not a laughing matter"
1956 - Eisenhower administration awards Aperture a contract to provide shower curtains to all branches of the military except the Navy.
1957 - 1975 - Mostly shower curtains.
1978 - Aperture Founder and CEO, Cave Johnson, is exposed to mercury while secretly developing a dangerous mercury-injected rubber sheeting from which he plans to manufacture seven deadly shower curtains to be given as gifts to each member of the House Naval Appropriations committee.
1979 - Both of Cave Johnson's kidneys fail. Brain damaged, dying, and incapable of being convinced that time is not now flowing backwards, Johnson lays out a three tiered R&D program. The results, he says, will 'guarantee the continued success of Aperture Science into the fast-approaching distant past.'
Tier 1: The Heimlich Counter-Maneuver - A reliable technique for interrupting the life-saving Heimlich Maneuver.
Tier 2: The Take-A-Wish Foundation - A charitable organization that will purchase wishes from the parents of terminally ill children and redistribute them to wish-deprived but otherwise healthy adults.
Tier 3: 'Some kind of rip in the fabric of space... That would... Well, it'd be like, I don't know, something that would help with the shower curtains I guess. I haven't worked this idea out as much as the wish-taking one.'
1981 - Diligent Aperture engineers compelte the Heimlich Counter-Maneuver and Take-A-Wish Foundation initiatives. The company announces products related to the research in a lavish, televised ceremony. These products become immediately wildly unpopular. After a string of very public choking and despondent sick child disasters, senior company officials are summoned before a Senate investigative committee. During these proceedings, an engineer mentions that some progress has been made on Tier 3, the 'man-sized ad hoc quantum tunnel through physical space with possible applications as a shower curtain.' The committee is quickly permanently recessed, and Aperture is granted an open-ended contract to secretly research on the 'Portal' and Heimlich Counter-Maneuver projects.
1981-1985 - Work progresses on the 'Portal' project. Several high ranking Fatah personnel choke to death on lamb chunks despite the intervention of their bodyguards.
1986 - Word reaches Aperture management that another defense contractor called Black Mesa is working on a similar portal technology. In response to this news, Aperture begins developing the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System (GLaDOS), an artificially intelligent research assitant and disk operating system.
1996 - After a decade spent bringing the disk operating parts of GLaDOS to a state of more or less basic functionality, work begins on the Genetic Lifeform component.
Several Years Later - The untested AI is activated for the first time as one of the planned activities on Aperture's first annual bring-your-daughter-to-work day.
In many ways, the initial test goes well..."
Basically many years before HL2/Portal, GLaDOS locks down the facility on the first annual "bring-your-daughter-to-work day" and takes over the security system. She then kills everyone in the facility with the neurotoxin but a few guys tossed together the morality core and plugged it in. Either GLaDOS or the scientists put all the children into stasis/"relaxation chamber" but since the building is still full of neurotoxin the scientists still die. GLaDOS continues being batshit crazy and works on the Portal project herself, thawing out test subjects as she needs them. Meanwhile outside .the events of Half-Life 1-2 fuck up the world making no one ever come check up on GLaDOS or the Aperture Science facility.
So fast forward to present time and GLaDOS completes work on the portal gun and insert the events of Portal after a few test subjects get dead.
I never asked for this!
I never asked for this!