this was an old school triumph: asciiportal

September 29th, 2009 comments stumble it! digg it! by: alisha k.

So, Portal was never a pile of eyeball candy or anything–it looked as good as it needed to look, with some really neat visuals that resulted from looking through portals, adorable turret buddies, and delicious cake, but it’s not like anyone was trying for a graphical feat there. However, this new take on Portal really can’t be accused of depending on graphics–because it’s all in ASCII.

joe larson asciiportal puzzle ascii

I love Portal, but I have to say that I find it hard to get too terribly excited about these offshoots and remakes simply because Portal, to me, is GLaDoS–she was half the fun of the game! It’s not that I don’t love the puzzling power of the portal gun (I do; I so do) for its own sake, I’m just less entertained by a Portal experiences without one of the most compelling personalities in all the history of gaming.

Yeah, I’m a fan.

That said, even with my prejudices, this particular take on the portals looks incredible. Thanks to the color scheme and the little companion cube touches, the sparse look is utterly charming. It looks great in gameplay, too:

I’m struggling with this new (old?) experience of talking about the “look” of ASCII “graphics,” but it’s true! This looks good. And fun. And it’s got portals. I’ll just put Jonathan Coulton’s “Still Alive” on repeat and nerd out while I play ASCIIpOrtal, I guess.

[via IndieGames]

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