WARNING: This entry contains spoilers. View at own risk.

About

Portal is a single-player first-person action/puzzle video game developed by Valve Corporation, which was released on the October 9th, 2007. The game consists of beating levels by solving puzzles, with the aid of an “Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device”. The device allows the player to create two portals, of which they can use to solve the puzzles. The player-character, Chell, is challenged by an artificial robot named GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) to complete and survive each puzzle presented to her in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center using the handheld portal device. The artificial robot, GLaDOS, also promises cake at the completion of all puzzles.

Reception

Portal was embraced with welcoming arms by the internet community. Within a matter of time, fans begun quoting the dialogue of the game, from the turrets naive sentences to GLaDOS’ sadistic comments. Lines like “Now You’re Thinking With Portals” were making appearances, along with “The Cake Is A Lie” appearing in anything cake-related. In-game items including Sentry Turrets, the Handheld Portal Device, The Weighted Companion Cube and the cake became subjects of real-life remakes by fans of the game.

Cosplay

Fans of the Portal games would cosplay at comic, anime and video game conventions dressed as characters and items from the games.

Fanart

People began to post their renditions of the game on the internet.

GLaDOS

GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) is the main antagonist of Portal and the first half of Portal 2, and is tasked with overseeing the matinence and testing in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center. Upon activation, the scientists were forced to quickly deactivate, her due to attempts of murder. This continued until she finally then managed to trick the scientists into giving her neurotoxin, by claiming she has become bored with killing her creators, and would rather focus on science. Within her final activation, she managed to lock down the entire Enrichment Center, and release a deadly neurotoxin in order to kill the occupants.

In the original Portal, GLaDOS directs you across a series of testing chambers, promising a delicious cake once finished. This continues, until the player discovers GLaDOS’ true intentions of murder, which then forces the player to battle her. In Portal 2, she attempts to ruin the players plans of escape from the Enrichment Center. This, however, changes once GLaDOS is forced into a potato by Wheatly, causing her to take side of the player. After the defeat of Wheatly, GLaDOS tells the player that she wishes to no longer harm her, and simply wants her to leave.

Portal 2

In 2011, Valve released a sequel to Portal, which, like the first one, was embraced. In the sequel, you’re awaken to find yourself in the ruins of what was the Aperture Science Enrichment Area. New characters such as Space Personality Core and new quotes like “I’m A Potato” spread across the internet. Portal 2 also featured Cave Johnson, the founder and former CEO of Aperture Science, along with his strong disliking of lemons.

Related Memes

Space Core

Portal 2 Space Personality Core is a robot AI character at the end of the video game Portal 2. The robot has been programmed to be obsessed with space, and constantly repeats the word “space”. It also lists facts about space, and reflects on what it will do once it gets to space. It’s often quoted saying “Spaaaaaaacce”, and has inspired several single serving sites.

Cave Johnson / Combustible Lemons

Cave Johnson is a character from the video game Portal 2, who was the founder and CEO of Aperture Science, the laboratory in which the game takes place. Since the game’s release he has been the subject of various image macros and video remixes, often in the context of his famous “lemons” speech.

Cave Johnson was constantly coming up with new inventions and ideas for the future. Some of his ideas backfired, and one even cost him his life. He received a deadly disease which was caused by the contact of Moon Rocks. At first he is optimistic that his researchers will create a vaccine to save him. Unfortunately as time goes by, his optimism fades, and soon becomes enraged. Which also lead to the famous speech.

Thinking With Portals

“Thinking with Portals” is a catchphrase often accompanied with photoshopped images depicting how the concept of “portals” can be applied in real life. It also serves as a synonym for the English idiom thinking outside the box as in finding an unconventional but ultimately successful solution to a difficult problem.

A derivative of this is the phrase “Now you’re thinking with Portals”. Which is used with images that don’t contain nor use portals, but are shot from an angle where it seems that portals are used.

The Cake is a Lie

In Portal you are required to do numerous tasks by an AI named GlaDOS, who repeatedly mentions that following the completion of the experiment, there will be cake. As the game progresses, the player finds messages written on the walls as warnings from past test subjects. One message scrawled on the walls in later levels reads “the cake is a lie. the cake is a lie. the cake is a lie. the cake is a lie”.

The phrase “the cake is a lie” was widely popular between Portal players, but soon it spread to forums and blogs where the phrase began to take on a new meaning outside of the context of the game. People were using the phrase, “The cake is a lie”, on forums as an idiom meaning, “You are chasing after an empty, unattainable goal.”

The Weighted Companion Cube

The Weighted Companion Cube is a weighted storage cube in the video game Portal. They are most commonly identified by the hearts displayed on their sides. Weighted storage cubes are often used to hold down large buttons on the ground in order to solve the various puzzles throughout the game. In the level where the weighted companion cube is introduced, players are forced to bring the cube with them, only to throw it in an incinerator in the end. The idea was created from stories about isolated subjects falling in love with inanimate objects, thus creating a special type of weighted storage cube.

External Links

Wikipedia – Portal and Portal 2

Steam – Portal and Portal 2

Wikia – Combine OverWiki

Official Websites – The Orange Box and Official Portal 2 Website

Developers Website – Valve

Tumblr – FuckYeahPortal

YouTube – Valve