History VideoGame / Portal1

*** [[AC:"One 18.25 ounce package chocolate cake mix (...) Fish-shaped volatile organic compounds (...) An entry called 'How To Kill Someone With Your Bare Hands' (...) Electric needle injector (...) Preservatives, deep-penetration agents, and gas and odor control chemicals that will deodorize and preserve putrid tissue."]]

** Listen to the cake [[https://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/Cake#Ingredients recipe]]... At least the less savoury ingredients are just garnishes. The recipe is legit too, so long as you know the baking instructions.
** Also, "any contact with the chamber floor will result in an unsatisfactory mark on your official record, followed by death."

As for the original, it has subsequently been released on various platforms in many forms. The Platform/Xbox360 and Platform/PlayStation3 received it on the console versions of ''The Orange Box'', while Xbox Live Arcade would receive a standalone version of the game, ''Portal: Still Alive'', which features a selection of bonus levels based on the fan game ''VideoGame/PortalTheFlashVersion'' and its 3D "map-pack" remake in ''Portal'' itself. These bonus levels have no [=GlaDOS=] dialogue and generally feature more complex sequencing and shuffling of puzzle elements to solve them, feature several denser and more compact chambers with heavier puzzle emphasis on navigation, and include game mechanics not in either main game. The ''Still Alive'' levels also feature blue hard light bridges from ''The Flash Version'', which were adapted and turned into a portal-manipulable puzzle element in ''Portal 2''.

As for the original, it has subsequently been released on various platforms in many forms. The Platform/Xbox360 and Platform/PlayStation3 received it on the console versions of ''The Orange Box'', while Xbox Live Arcade would receive a standalone version of the game, ''Portal: Still Alive'', which features a selection of bonus levels based on ''VideoGame/PortalTheFlashVersion''. A compilation for the Platform/NintendoSwitch featuring both ''Portal: Still Alive'' and ''Portal 2'', named ''Portal: Companion Collection'', was released in 2022. The PC Steam version of the game was given a free DLC on December 8, 2022 named ''Portal with RTX'', intended as a showcase of NVIDIA's RTX Remix tool featuring built-in raytracing and higher resolution textures.

As for the original, it has subsequently been released on various platforms in many forms. The Platform/Xbox360 and Platform/PlayStation3 received it on the console versions of ''The Orange Box'', while Xbox Live Arcade would receive a standalone version of the game, ''Portal: Still Alive'', which features a selection of bonus levels based on ''VideoGame/PortalTheFlashVersion''. A compilation for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch featuring both ''Portal: Still Alive'' and ''Portal 2'', named ''Portal: Companion Collection'', was released in 2022. The PC Steam version of the game was given a free DLC on December 8, 2022 named ''Portal with RTX'', intended as a showcase of NVIDIA's RTX Remix tool featuring built-in raytracing and higher resolution textures.

Released as part of The Orange Box in October 2007. It was patched in March 2010 with an updated ending through UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, a rarity for such an old single-player game.

As for the original, it has subsequently been released on various platforms in many forms. The UsefulNotes/Xbox360 and UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 received it on the console versions of ''The Orange Box'', while Xbox Live Arcade would receive a standalone version of the game, ''Portal: Still Alive'', which features a selection of bonus levels based on ''VideoGame/PortalTheFlashVersion''. A compilation for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch featuring both ''Portal: Still Alive'' and ''Portal 2'', named ''Portal: Companion Collection'', was released in 2022. The PC Steam version of the game was given a free DLC on December 8, 2022 named ''Portal with RTX'', intended as a showcase of NVIDIA's RTX Remix tool featuring built-in raytracing and higher resolution textures.

--->''"For your own safety, and the safety of others, please refrain from... ''[crackle, static]'' Por favor de donde fallar muchos gracias de fallar gracias. ''[crackle]'' ...stand back. The portal will open in three... two... one..."''[[note]]For the curious, the Spanish is a bit nonsensical, but it literally translates as "Please from where to fail thank you very much for failing thank you."[[/note]]

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: The [[TokenGoodTTeamMate morality core]] willingly detatches themself and is silent as she incinerates them.]]

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: The [[TokenGodTTeamMate morality core]] willingly detatches themself and is silent as she incinerates them.]]

** It's also possible for the player to inflict a Portal Cut on themselves. This, naturally, inflicts an immediate player kill.

%%* ComedicSociopathy: [=GLaDOS=]' is much of what makes the game so hilarious.

%%* LevelGoal: In each of the test chambers, the elevator to the next test chamber.
%%* LighterAndSofter: Compared to ''VideoGame/HalfLife''.

The sequel, ''VideoGame/Portal2'', was released April 2011. Chell is awakened an uncertain but very long time after the events of ''Portal'' by an AI core named Wheatley, and in an attempt to leave the facility, they accidentally awaken [=GLaDOS=]. [[VideoGame/Portal2 Now, please enter your local Aperture Science Enrichment Center for further testing]].

%%* ActionGirl: Chell, the PlayerCharacter.%%Administrivia/ZeroContentExample
* ActionSurvivor: For most of the game, Chell is simply trying to make it through the test chambers in one piece.

%%* KillAllHumans: Apparently, [=GLaDOS=] spearheaded a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7bkewdgjKA&feature=player_embedded Human Annihilation Studies]] program.

%%* SoundtrackDissonance%%Administrivia/ZeroContentExample

** The patch added one to the ending of ''Portal''. [[spoiler:"Thank you for assuming the party escort submission position..."]]

* CreepyMonotone: [=GLaDOS=] and [[spoiler:the automated gun turrets]] speak in a singsong, high-pitched, passive-aggressive monotone.

%%* IWasToldThereWouldBeCake: Indeed, Chell is told this. Frequently.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: When you [[spoiler:destroy [=GLaDOS=]' Morality Core]]. She names the trope shortly thereafter. She's [[spoiler:lying her ass off to get a dig at you in, but it also happens that the Morality Core was keeping her from assuming a much more openly lethal and sadistic role. It was pretty much the sole reason that the entire facility didn't immediately rip itself up from its roots to compact you like a garbage truck, something she has no qualms with when woken up in Portal 2.]]

%%* PuzzleGame: One of the only genres in which ''Portal'' readily fits.

%%* RoomFullOfCrazy: I [[HeartSymbol <3]] CompanionCube.
-->''the cake is a lie''\\
%%the cake is a lie\\
%%the cake is a lie\\
%%the cake is a lie''

%%* SarcasticConfession: "Do you think I'm trying to trick you with ReversePsychology? I mean, seriously now."

%%* UnreliableNarrator: This also applies in the actual game; you can't really trust what you're being told.

%%* GasChamber: Makes completing the final BossBattle [[TimedMission more urgent]].

%%* GrowBeyondTheirProgramming: [=GLaDOS=].%%Administrivia/ZeroContentExample

%%* BrutalBonusLevel: The Advanced Test Chambers. ''Especially'' Advanced Test Chamber 18.

%%* DeathTrap: [=GLaDOS=] tries one on you in the final test chamber, leading to your escape.

%%* DiabolusExMachina: Added to the ending to set up the sequel.

%%* EnergyBall: The Aperture Science High Energy Pellet.
%%* EscapeFromTheCrazyPlace%%Administrivia/ZeroContentExample

%%* EternalEngine: The facilities behind-the-scenes. Taken to further extremes in the sequel.

** The DescendingCeiling is present (with spikes) in one of the extra challenge levels of the UsefulNotes/XboxLiveArcade version of ''Portal''.

** The Xbox 360 Arcade re-release, ''Portal: Still Alive'', has an achievement for getting stuck.

** The existence of the Morality Core indicates that the Aperture's Science personnel ''did'' try to stop [=GLaDOS=] from indiscriminately killing all humans. Unfortunately (implied in the last level), it wasn't entirely effective...

!! Tropes:

%%* AsciiArt: Used in the credits to ''Portal'' as well as in the ''Portal 2'' [[AlternateRealityGame ARG]].

%%* CoresAndTurretsBoss: [=GLaDOS=]%%Administrivia/ZeroContentExample
%%* CreepyMonotone: Or at least very passive-aggressive.%%Administrivia/ZeroContentExample

%%* TheSnarkKnight: With her tendency towards nuclear-level sarcasm, [=GLaDOS=].

%%* KillItWithFire: The faithful CompanionCube. [[TheCakeIsALie [=GLaDOS=] almost does this to the player]]. Then [[spoiler:the player does it to ''[[KarmicDeath her]]'']].

%%* MotivationalLie: The cake is a lie!

* NoOSHACompliance: The backstage areas are built on this, being filled with damaged catwalks, people-crushing pistons, and exposed giant fan blades. The testing areas aren't much better, as rooms contain sheer drops that would kill most people, pools of toxic liquid, and indiscriminate automatic gun turrets. Justified in that all of the Aperture personnel have been killed prior to the start of the game.

%%* NoOSHACompliance: {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in-game.
%%--> '''[=GLaDOS=]:''' The Enrichment Center promises to always provide a safe testing environment. In dangerous testing environments, the Enrichment Center promises to always provide useful advice. For instance, the floor here will kill you. Try to avoid it.

* NothingIsScarier: Despite the humour, the sheer stark ''emptiness'' of the test chambers, accompanied by understated ambient music, does create an effectively unnerving atmosphere. [[spoiler:It gets even more desolate once you break out of the test chamber as the rest of Aperture Science is rustic and abandoned, making you wonder what exactly you're stuck in.]]

* MinimalistCast: A HeroicMime and a [[TheVoice disembodied voice]]. That's it, besides an absent nutcase who wrote messages on the walls, an [[CompanionCube inanimate box]] and some [[AdorableEvilMinions automatic turrets with cute voices]]. The webcomic "Lab Rat" establishes that Rattman, the "nutcase", was actually still there. He [[spoiler:[[DownerEnding apparently died at the end of the comic when he saved Chell from the Party Escort Bot]]]], but a particularly creepy EasterEgg in ''Portal 2'' implies that he's still alive: the sixth and final Rattman Den you can find is just like the others. When you leave, any and all portals you made inside the den mysteriously vanish and the wall closes so you can't get back in.

* MoralityChip: The Morality Core, which was ''supposed'' to change [=GLaDOS=]' sociopathic tendencies into a desire to do science experiments. [[spoiler:It's the only core that's completely silent, implying that it's not working correctly (if it ever was). In addition, Lab Rat reveals that she used the ForScience loophole to finish the job of gassing the facility by asking the scientists for Neurotoxin.]]

-->'''[=GLaDOS=]:''' I'd just like to point out that you were given every opportunity to succeed. There was even going to be a party for you. A big party that all your friends were invited to. I invited your best friend the Companion Cube. Of course, he couldn't come because [[spoiler:you murdered him]]. [All your other friends couldn't come either because you don't have any other friends. Because of how unlikable you are. It says so here in your personal file: Unlikable. Liked by no one. A bitter, unlikable loner whose passing shall not be mourned. "Shall ''not'' be mourned." That's exactly what it says. Very formal. Very official. It also says you were adopted. So that's funny, too.

-->'''[=GLaDOS=]:''' Stop squirming and die like an adult or I'm going to delete your backup. Okay, STOP! Okay enough, I deleted it. No matter what happens now, you're ''DEAD.'' You're still shuffling around a little but believe me you're ''dead.'' The part of you that could have survived indefinitely is gone. I just struck you from the ''permanent record.'' Your entire life has been a mathematical error. ''A mathematical error I'M ABOUT TO CORRECT.''

* ContraltoOfDanger: When [[spoiler:you destroy her Morality Core]] and [=GLaDOS=] switches from robotic monotone to a lower, emotive (described by the subtitles as ''seductive''), and more obviously female voice... the contrast is actually ''creepier'' than the MachineMonotone that you've been listening to all game. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGp-YceTOK8 Listen for yourself]].