
Portal for Apple II - pavel_lishin
http://www.deater.net/weave/vmwprod/portal/
======
ChuckMcM
This comment from the creator summons such mixed emotions:

 _" 13 January 2017 (continued) For those of you suggesting I should make an
assembly language version of this: I'd love to. But I'm up for tenure this
coming year, so unless you have a plan for how I can either get a peer-
reviewed academic paper from the work, or else some sort of federal grant,
then I should probably be working on less fun projects :("_

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nom
That's so awesome! It reminds me of Mari0, a Super Mario Bros. clone, but with
portal guns [0]

0: [http://stabyourself.net/mari0/](http://stabyourself.net/mari0/)

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fattire
From the News, he says: "For those of you suggesting I should make an assembly
language version of this: I'd love to" and goes on to say how he won't have
time...

At the very least he might want to look into the TASC compiler, which was/is a
Microsoft Applesoft compiler that makes BASIC programs run 2-20x faster than
w/the on-the-fly interpreter.

[http://everything2.com/title/Microsoft+Applesoft+Compiler](http://everything2.com/title/Microsoft+Applesoft+Compiler)
and of course documentation and everything else is around if you google for
it.

If I remember right, it's really easy to use and results in a binary
executable that just flies...

~~~
pvg
Making it run faster wouldn't make it a better game while making it worse
performance art.

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stinkytaco
I love projects like this. I wish I had the desire to just _do_ something
cool, whether or not its useful or utilitarian. Accomplishment strictly for
the sake of accomplishment is pretty admirable.

~~~
solipsism
I agree it doesn't have to be utilitarian to be admirable. That's called art.
But you seem to be saying it's particularly admirable because it's for its own
sake? That is a weird POV to me.

~~~
stinkytaco
That's what I'm saying. I wouldn't call this art, and it certainly has no
point, at least not a utilitarian one. You wouldn't make money, and it
probably wouldn't even be that fun to play. It's just cool.

It's mastery. Doing something because it's a challenge you find interesting,
not because there's something external to be gained. It's pretty zen, really.

~~~
solipsism
_I wouldn 't call this art_

You'd be wrong then.

 _It 's pretty zen, really._

You have a very low bar for calling something "zen". I'm good at flipping
bottles of mustard and such behind my back without dropping them. No point
really, just fun. Zen?

~~~
eludwig
When you are hungry, eat. When you are tired, sleep. This is exactly Zen.

~~~
apricot
When you are neither hungry nor tired, hack.

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foone
I just now realized this story I'd been ignoring isn't about the game "Portal"
for the Apple II. Activision published a game with that title in '86 about
exploring the future internet after the death of all mankind.

~~~
throwanem
The Internet Archive has that game, playable online; it appears to have
originally come on six disks, which are the first six things listed (albeit
not in order, but numbered) here:
[https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_apple_games?and[...](https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_apple_games?and\[\]=portal)

I did also once find a web-based version of its content, which used hyperlinks
between pages to simulate the transitions in the original game. Can't find it
again now, though, and the only version I still have would be in the source
content directory for my old conversion pipeline that fed the Plucker reader
on PalmOS. If there's interest, I'll dig that stuff out of cold storage and
see if I can get it up and going.

~~~
foone
I've actually got the game in-box, that's how I remembered it. The only web-
version I know of is the one based on the novelization, which is only
available on internet archive now:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20020424235218/http://portal.sto...](https://web.archive.org/web/20020424235218/http://portal.stodge.org/)

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eru
Reminds me of the Macromedia flash version of Portal.

Pretty good game.
[http://portal.wecreatestuff.com/](http://portal.wecreatestuff.com/)

~~~
leeoniya
yep, just came here to link this also.

more screenspace:
[http://portal.wecreatestuff.com/Portal_wcs2.swf](http://portal.wecreatestuff.com/Portal_wcs2.swf)

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JoeDaDude
Epic Hack! Someday, if I work real hard, I hope to be someone like you showing
people my projects.

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rhinoceraptor
The fake warez signature on the splash screen is a nice touch.

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robin_reala
See also Portal Prelude for the TI-83:
[http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/4/3726536/portal-prelude-
gam...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/4/3726536/portal-prelude-game-
ti-83-84-calculator)

------
contingencies
I just uploaded a whole bunch of new Apple IIe images to Wikimedia Commons a
couple of weeks ago, see for example:
[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iie-with-
manuals.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iie-with-manuals.jpg)
[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iie-
software.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iie-software.jpg)
[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iie-
system.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iie-system.jpg)

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lilgreenland
Here is my version of a portal I wrote while teaching scratch coding to middle
schoolers.

[https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/43690666/](https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/43690666/)

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stesch
Apple ][

Or as we called it in Germany: Apple üä

(Switching to German characters changed the ] and [ to ü and ä.)

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aaroninsf
Ooo please upload to Archive.org's Apple II!

[https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_apple](https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_apple)

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RUG3Y
This is awesome! I miss my Apple II...

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asciimo
That mint condition Apple IIe Platinum made my jaw drop.

~~~
throwanem
Retr0bright [1] is good for that.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retr0bright](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retr0bright)

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nsxwolf
I like how the title screen says it's cracked by the author.

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adam12
I immediately went to Craigslist to search for an Apple IIe.

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gugagore
The melody for Still Alive at the end has a differing note for "it's hard to
oVER state my satisfaction". Still sounds good!

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l0c0b0x
One word: YES!!!!!

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hossbeast
Have not read BASIC source code since I was 12. Love it! Peek and poke ... How
far we've come.

~~~
throwanem
I've been working on a quine in Applesoft BASIC that calls into the system's
token table in order to detokenize itself as it reads itself out of program
memory. It's been a fun ride so far! And really given me a new appreciation
for modern text editors, too.

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jafingi
I love this! And so interesting to be able to view the source code.

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throwanem
This is brilliant! I can't wait to play it on my IIe at home!

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webmaven
Hah! This is awesome.

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edgartaor
I want his time machine.

