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Adventure Game Scene of the Day - Friday June 24
Today we’re talking about Portal. Huh? What do you mean “Portal isn’t retro!”? No, not THAT Portal - the original one from 1986.
Here’s the story: You’ve returned from a 100 year space journey to find Earth empty. The only thing of use among the decay is a terminal to Worldnet, a database which recorded human activities during the time you were away. Only here will you be able to discover what happened. The game is basically a huge interactive novel. You explore different areas of the interface - military, scitech, history, and so on, to find new information which will unlock more data. It’s not just text - you’re presented with pictures, charts, facts and have to piece it together to figure out what happened. Overall, I found it well worth playing especially for sci-fi fans (which I am).
The above shot is from the Amiga version. The PC version is CGA and much uglier to look at.
Sounds interesting. Does it have an “ending” or you just keep exploring?
The above shot is from the Amiga version. The PC version is CGA and much uglier to look at.
That was always the case at the time. The power of the Amiga
Sounds interesting.
Didn’t they try to get a remake for this done through Kickstarter a while back?
The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka
Sounds interesting. Does it have an “ending” or you just keep exploring?
There’s an ending.
Sounds interesting.
Didn’t they try to get a remake for this done through Kickstarter a while back?
It seems like there was an attempt to get funding for a remake back in 2012. Apparently it would have been a 3rd person game. I’m not sure how that would work, frankly.
Yes, they did overreach rather. Shame the remake isn’t happening, though. Is there a (legal) way to play the original these days?
Yes, they did overreach rather. Shame the remake isn’t happening, though. Is there a (legal) way to play the original these days?
Yes, they did overreach rather. Shame the remake isn’t happening, though. Is there a (legal) way to play the original these days?
Overreaching is an understatement. Although, as a percentage of goal, they almost tripled their backing, All the way from 1.5% of goal to 4.6% of goal. Sounds like a good concept. More than a few decent movies have been using the last man on earth as the plot. I’ve not played the game, but it seems to me that discovering “why” you’re the last person on earth seems less interesting than finding a way to “survive” as the last person on earth.
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
Finding out “why” is very much within our genre, but wouldn’t the “surviving” venture away from the adventure game core? Or are you thinking of a Miasmata-like game?
Thing is, if surviving is the goal, when does the game end?
The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka
Finding out “why” is very much within our genre, but wouldn’t the “surviving” venture away from the adventure game core? Or are you thinking of a Miasmata-like game?
Thing is, if surviving is the goal, when does the game end?
Surviving is not, to me, a day-to-day thing. Survival is accomplished when you no longer have to worry about survival. That is when basic needs are both met and are sustainable. E.g., water, food, medicine, shelter. At that point the game can end.
Interestingly, survival must take priority. If you don’t find a way to survive, you won’t live long enough to find out the “why” of your situation.
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
Finding out “why” is very much within our genre, but wouldn’t the “surviving” venture away from the adventure game core? Or are you thinking of a Miasmata-like game?
Thing is, if surviving is the goal, when does the game end?
Surviving is not, to me, a day-to-day thing. Survival is accomplished when you no longer have to worry about survival. That is when basic needs are both met and are sustainable. E.g., water, food, medicine, shelter. At that point the game can end.
Interestingly, survival must take priority. If you don’t find a way to survive, you won’t live long enough to find out the “why” of your situation.
Considering the protagonist of this game has survived his/her whole life on a spaceship which provided water, food, medicine and shelter for 100 years, I doubt survival will be a problem.
What’s interesting to me is that 30 years ago they were still having the same conversations about what makes a game. It’s true that Portal could have been a novel, and it was criticized at the time for that. I found this review which does a good job of pointing out why it was worthwhile to make it a game. Comparisons with more modern interactive novels like Her Story and Dear Esther come to mind.
Well, as I said, I didn’t play this game. And since you commented that the PC version was ugly as sin, if by chance I did start it, I probably would not have finished it.
And you are correct. If our protagonist has spent 100 years in space, (50 years going out and 50 years coming back,) he obviously had a support/survival system in place. But that is where the backstory ended. Did he have to jettison his support system on re-entry? Was there a crash that he survived, but his support system did not? Was the support system designed to last 100 years, and even though it survived intact, was no longer functional once he returned?
So I just made the assumption that survival was more important than exploration. Or rather I made that assumption based on what would be more interesting to me based on the information at hand.
I read the review, and I know that’s not how the story turned out. But If I were going to do the story over I don’t see any reason why the two concepts, survival/exploration, couldn’t co-exist in the same, expanded, game.
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
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