In the Portal games, what is the testing all about?

Question

What was Aperture science really going for, with those "test chambers"? Was it an experiment in human cognition, like a rat maze? Were they testing the portal device? GlaDOS's AI? Cubes and buttons? And what does it all have to do with shower curtains or Pentagon defense contracts?

Asked by Mihai

Answer

As far as I can tell from the dialogue in the games and the lore surrounding the games, is that the testing was fulfilling a multitude of purposes, most notably testing:

• the portal gun
• human reactions and behavior in certain situations
• GLaDOS
• the turrets
• the gels, repulsion, propulsion and portal conduction surface gel

The shower curtains come into play early in Cave Johnson's career as CEO of Aperture. Before Aperture Science, it was named Aperture Fixtures and had contracts with military organizations to make shower curtains.

The portal technology was originally used as a shower curtain (presumably because the water would enter one portal and exit another, inside the same shower, preventing the water from leaving the shower area.)

What the portal technology was later being repurposed for, in the form of a gun as their dispenser, is still unknown - presumably the purpose will be revealed in the next installation of Half Life, whether that be episode 3 or a full sequel as Half Life 3, in the form of the Aperture Science research vessel, the Borealis, which became a major plot point towards the end of Half Life 2 episode 2.

Answered by Jasarien

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What's the difference between “closed captions” and “subtitles” in Portal?

Question

In the Portal settings, I can choose between "no subtitles", "closed captions" and "subtitles". What's the difference between the second two?

Asked by Mark

Answer

Subtitles generally display only what is spoken by a character. They are intended for players who are able to hear, but prefer to have the dialogue of the game displayed.

Closed captions provide a way for those who may not be able to hear the game sounds at all to fully enjoy the game. They include dialogue, sound cues (such as "machinery starting up"), and they don't contain jokes by the developers which could lead to misunderstanding by a player who is unable to compare the actual audio to the subtitles (for example, in the subtitles, the line in GLaDOS's song "when I delete you maybe I'll stop feeling so bad" is marked as "REDACTED", because she doesn't want to admit to liking the player. In the closed captions, this line is presented correctly so that a non-hearing player can gain the full understanding of the song)

Answered by Steve V.

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Who is the character you play in Portal?

Question

The character you play in Portal is never named throughout the game. I can see that it's a female by looking through a portal, but the game always skirts any information about the character (e.g. GlaDOS speaks to you, but cuts out the name by saying "Subject name here.") I understand that Valve did this because they want you, personally to become more immersed in the game, but I think having a compelling character with a great story makes a good game even better.

Who is she? What is her story?

Answer

She is Chell.

See here:

Although Chell's origins are unknown, she was most definitely among the people present during GLaDOS's activation in 200-, as GLaDOS locked down the facility after her activation, letting none escape, or be let in from the outside.

EDIT: Visiting aperturescience.com, you can learn that she is the daughter of Cave Johnson (CEO of Aperture Science) and that she was brought there on Bring Your Daughter To Work day.

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How do you get out of chamber 3?

Question

So, I'm in Test Chamber 003 of Portal 1, and am trying to get into a door, but I can't reach it. I have to go down a set of stairs and then there is no way up... How can I get up there?

Answer

Based on where you are standing in that screenshot, there should be an orange portal already in place to your right. You can only shoot blue portals so how would you get a portal on the other side so you can use the one that you can already reach?

Just shoot a blue portal to the other side and walk through the orange portal that is nearby.

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How to get out of chamber 3?

Question

So, I'm in Test Chamber 003 of Portal 1, and am trying to get into a door, but I can't reach it. I have to go down a set of stairs and then there is no way up... How can I get up there?

Answer

Based on where you are standing in that screenshot, there should be an orange portal already in place to your right. You can only shoot blue portals so how would you get a portal on the other side so you can use the one that you can already reach?

Just shoot a blue portal to the other side and walk through the orange portal that is nearby.

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What is that ASCII Art From the Portal Credits

Question

The end credits to Portal include a bunch of ASCII art, but one of them is really hard to make out. The one below looks like some sort log-cake or something. I’ve tried resizing it up and down, but it did not make it any clearer.

My best guess (if I really squint and stretch my imagination) is that it is supposed to be one of GLaDOS’s spheres.

Can anyone shed some light on what it is supposed to be?

Answer

According to the ASCII art it's "GLADOS"

Check this page. Look at the second post, click Show and scroll down to GLADOS you'll see the same ASCII art there in reference to that name.

EDIT: In case that page goes away here it is

"GLADOS1" "[12.000]       #+ @      # #              M#@   "
"GLADOS2" "[12.000] .    .X  X.%##@;# #   +@#######X. @#%  "
"GLADOS3" "[12.000]   ,==.   ,######M+  -#####%M####M-    #"
"GLADOS4" "[12.000]  :H##M%:=##+ .M##M,;#####/+#######% ,M#"
"GLADOS5" "[12.000] .M########=  =@#@.=#####M=M#######=  X#"
"GLADOS6" "[12.000] :@@MMM##M.  -##M.,#######M#######. =  M"
"GLADOS7" "[12.000]             @##..###:.    .H####. @@ X,"
"GLADOS8" "[12.000]   ############: ###,/####;  /##= @#. M "
"GLADOS9" "[12.000]           ,M## ;##,@#M;/M#M  @# X#% X# "
"GLADOS10" "[12.000].%=   ######M## ##.M#:   ./#M ,M #M ,#$ "
"GLADOS11" "[12.000]##/         $## #+;#: #### ;#/ M M- @# :"
"GLADOS12" "[12.000]#+ #M@MM###M-;M #:$#-##$H# .#X @ + $#. #"
"GLADOS13" "[12.000]      ######/.: #%=# M#:MM./#.-#  @#: H#"
"GLADOS14" "[12.000]+,.=   @###: /@ %#,@  ##@X #,-#@.##% .@#"
"GLADOS15" "[12.000]#####+;/##/ @##  @#,+       /#M    . X, "
"GLADOS16" "[12.000]   ;###M#@ M###H .#M-     ,##M  ;@@; ###"
"GLADOS17" "[12.000]   .M#M##H ;####X ,@#######M/ -M###$  -H"
"GLADOS18" "[12.000]    .M###%  X####H  .@@MM@;  ;@#M@      "
"GLADOS19" "[12.000]      H#M    /@####/      ,++.  / ==-,  "
"GLADOS20" "[12.000]               ,=/:, .+X@MMH@#H  #####$="

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Does GLaDOS actually say “There Really Was a Cake?”

Question

I found some youtube videos playing this GLaDOS sound file which I don't recall in the game at all. All the videos are fan made, none show the quote being made in game.

I've beaten the game about 4 times but I've never been able to discern this from her final words. Was this included in the real game or is it an extra sound clip?

Answer

GameFAQs has a script with all the lines from Portal "There really was a cake" is indeed in the script, GlaDOS says it when defeated.

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Can I save my weighted companion cube in room 17?

Question

At the end of room 17 you are asked to toss your cube into the fire before it will let you complete the level.

Without using cheats, is there a way to save it?

Answer

Yes, there is. You just need to take advantage of two glitches -- one in level 16 that will let you take a Weighted Storage Cube up in the elevator to level 17, and another using that cube that allows you to get a second Companion Cube and incinerate it instead of your faithful companion.

This YouTube video has the details:

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Portal 1 Saving companion cube in room 17?

Question

At the end of room 17 you are asked to toss your cube into the fire before it will let you complete the level.

Without using cheats is there a way to save it?

Answer

No, I'm afraid not. There's no way to take the companion cube outside this testing chamber, as the door will not open until you've dropped it in the incinerator.

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What do GLaDOS mean with “One day they woke me up”?

Question

A few days back I completed Portal and Portal 2. I had a lot of questions about this awesome game, like who Caroline is, why there's no personnel and other things that I didn't understand.

I am interested in the start of story. There was a line in the ending song Want You Gone:

One day they woke me up

What does this mean? Who woke her up or does this line have another meaning?

Answer

They mean the day she was initialized. During the game Cave Johnson mentions that he wants his team to take the personality of Caroline and put her in a computer.

Since GLaDOS exists, we must assume that his team succeeded in doing this. So they started building her and putting Caroline's personality into GLaDOS. Then, one day they woke her up so she could live forever and feel bad for Chell because it'll never happen to her.

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Trouble in Portal The Flash Version Map Pack - 4th Room

Question

I seem to be having trouble in the fourth room of the Portal The Flash Version Map Pack. It's kind of irritating because, well, it's just the fourth room! This one should be child's play!

The second part of the fourth room in the map pack seems as if it's meant to be analogous to room 6 in the flash game, but the same trick doesn't quite appear to work here. Any hints/tips?

Answer

If I've counted correctly, this is a walkthrough of room 4 (and beyond):

It appears to be a couple of those "speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out" puzzles. This means you'll need to use your falling momentum to shoot you out of a wall, over a jump. Also notice that, in this video, the player crouches as they are flying through the air, presumably to make Chell more compact and therefore more likely to make the jumps.

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Is it possible to transfer Steam games from one PC to another?

Question

Recently, I bought Portal 2 from Steam. I downloaded and installed it on my PC, which is running Windows. Unfortunately, days later, my PC crashed, and it was rendered useless. Thankfully, my technician helped me transfer everything in my hard drives to a back up drive. Yesterday, I got a new PC, which runs Windows too. Could I transfer the game files from the back up drive to my new PC without buying the game again? It's okay if my game progress is lost in the process, because I don't want to spend more money buying the game again.

Answer

Once you have the game in your Steam Library, you own that license and can install it on as many computers as you want*. Simply install the Steam client, log in, and you'll be able to download and install any games you own.

If your program files were recovered, you can save some time and bandwidth after you reinstall Steam by copying what's in your old \steamapps folder to the new one

For example, copy [your backup drive]\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\ to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\ (or wherever you installed the client). If you wanted to just copy (all) games between two functional computers you could do the same.

^{*Beware games with additional 3rd party DRM}

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Developer Commentary without Completing the Chamber

Question

I've played (and finished) the original Portal on my Xbox 360. I really liked the game, and thought many times about having another go to listen to the developer commentary. However, I do not fancy another play-through using that wicked game-pad contraption.

Recently I picked up the PC version on steam. To my utter chagrin, it requires me to finish a chamber before being able to access the commentary. This would mean two entire play-throughs, which is a bit much even using keyboard and mouse.

Is there some way to convince the game that I've played it already and let me listen to the commentary unhindered?

Answer

1. Finish the first level.
2. Return to the main menu.
3. Start over in developer commentary mode.

You should now be able to finish the entire game with developer commentary on. (You are however giving up on achievements.)

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How do you time Portal speed runs?

Question

Now that I finished the game I wanted to start training for a speed run but I'm not sure how I can time it.

Is there a built-in function I have to activate?

Is it just timed "manually"? If yes do the cutscenes count or not? And how can you time it so precisely, for example this guy (for portal 1 though) has it down to the millisecond.

Answer

"Down to the millisecond" may be a touch disingenuous; the time 0.567 is about 17/30, or 17 frames assuming the video is 30 fps, the default rate to export frames from a Source engine demo (see here). The final time he calculated (in seconds) would then be the number of frames he got from the startmovie command divided by 30.

As far as how speed runs are "officially" timed, the most "official" (notice the quotes) body I know for speed-runs would be the Speed Demos Archive, who maintain a decent amount of runs across various platforms. They have an FAQ about how to time runs, which may also play a role in how he figured his time (their rules say from the start of player control to the end).

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Easter Eggs in Portal/Portal 2

Question

Since Valve makes numerous games that are quite popular, I was wondering if anyone had a good resource for listing the Easter Eggs in Portal and Portal 2. I've seen some web pages that list a couple, but I have a feeling that they are incomplete. Has anyone compiled them all in one location?

Answer

Try searching the Half-Life Wikia for "Portal easter egg".

Addendum: The site will eventually move to http://combineoverwiki.net/

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