Ever wonder how the physics of Portal's portals worked? Or how Mario could walk on space rocks in Super Mario Galaxy? Games Demystified seeks to answer these pressing questions, with code samples and working demos. [more inside]
posted by hellojed on Nov 7, 2009 - 8 comments

bonus level is a new flash gaming portal. Games include Captain Dan V Zombie Plan, reminiscent of Berzerk, Push, an unusual platformer that combines level manipulation with quick-reflex timing and jumping, Jump Gear, an acrobatic timed racer and a ton more I haven't even tried yet. What sets bonus level apart from other gaming portals is that it's headed by three great names in game development, Wouter Visser (Wouter), Tõnu Paldra (tonypa) and Jean-Philippe Sarda (JP). Part of their philosophy is allowing anyone who registers to make and share levels for their games, as well as giving budding designers access to the flash APIs used to create all of bonus level's games.
posted by boo_radley on Jul 8, 2009 - 7 comments

DIY Portal Gun on flickr, with a few other pictures and build notes. You want of your own, you can either contact this guy or just ask Aperture about working at their test facilities.
posted by Greg Nog on Jan 21, 2009 - 61 comments

So you've spent the holidays playing games, but now you have to be back at work. How to get your gaming fix during commutes and lunch-hours, whilst keeping up with that resolution to Learn Something New this year? Well, you could make a Sack-Boy. You can keep your portable games device warm with a Zelda cosy. You can knit up a Pacman scarf or a Space Invaders bag or socks if you're feeling retro. Or you can make a pocket ninja, an invincibility star to get you through the afternoon, a maqgnetic Katamari ball to spring-clean that desk, or a friendly companion cube. (and if you're too cack-handed to knit, you can sew a friendly cube with the pattern here and tutorial here!)
posted by mippy on Jan 4, 2009 - 13 comments

Nostalgic for a time when robots tried to kill you while being condescending? Well, Hunted Forever isn't Portal, but if you're jonesing for some Flash Friday, it might be right up your alley.
posted by 235w103 on Nov 28, 2008 - 15 comments

Magnetic Portals Connect Sun and Earth. "Like giant, cosmic chutes between the Earth and sun, magnetic portals open up every eight minutes or so to connect our planet with its host star. Once the portals open, loads of high-energy particles can travel the 93 million miles (150 million km) through the conduit during its brief opening, space scientists say." [Via]
posted by homunculus on Nov 5, 2008 - 34 comments

Do you miss blasting with your orange and blue space-warping cannons? Surely you miss Companion Cube... Nine months of work by a dedicated modder: NykO18 (and team) has crystallized into what amounts to an epic prequel to Portal, called Portal: Prelude, whose story arc focuses on the "pre-GlaDOS epoch". It's said to have more gameplay than even the original: 8 chapters, 48 challenges, 6 advanced maps and more than 400 lines of speech. [more inside]
posted by tybeet on Oct 21, 2008 - 58 comments

Portal, Atari 2600 style. [more inside]
posted by jbickers on Sep 11, 2008 - 16 comments

MIT TechTV [beta]. Like YouTube for braniacs (minus the scandalous invasion of privacy).
posted by Rykey on Jul 18, 2008 - 8 comments

Ask and it shall be given. Also, here's what Knight Industries has been working on for the past 20 years. Seems like they went backwards a bit.
posted by assoctw on Jul 9, 2008 - 11 comments

It's been almost a year since Roger Ebert responded to Clive Barker on the debate over whether games can truly be "art." In support of Mr. Barker's position, here are some of the most artistic moments from games in recent years - the tragic, the trippy, the Saturday mornings, the darkly comic, the downs and the ups, and the rare phyrric victory. [more inside]
posted by Navelgazer on Jun 23, 2008 - 126 comments

Jonathan Coulton performs "Still Alive" in Rock Band.
posted by ryoshu on Feb 26, 2008 - 52 comments

Portal's "Still Alive." The man who wrote it. The woman who sang it. The official skinny, with lyrics and chords. A music video parody. On piano, guitar, and Garry's Mod. Its place in video game history. And finally, one or two ways to get it. (Spoilers all.)
posted by Soup on Nov 6, 2007 - 121 comments

2D Flash Portal A competent 2-d scroller featuring mechanics from the new Valve game Portal.
posted by boo_radley on Oct 11, 2007 - 51 comments

SciTalks - from the press release [19 June]: "The site launches today with over 1,000 lectures online, and more are being added daily. Segments range from a series of hour-long lectures by the late Richard Feynman, to a short, hilarious Ali G interview with Noam Chomsky, and a fascinating talk on designing a semiconductor-based brain, by up-and-coming Stanford researcher Kwabena Boahen." [via]
posted by peacay on Jun 25, 2007 - 7 comments

Start the new year with a new start page: a hundred or so internet start pages, most including nifty Ajax or flash features, and many with third-party modules. Netvibes and its ecosystem of developers is a favorite among many reviewers, but the new MS Live and its gadgets are also getting good press, at least among Windows users. Of course, there are are always the standards. Alternately, you can select a homepage for kids that will make your eyes bleed; a site that lets you share your own portals; a homepage that creates itself; or download the amazing Orb 2.0 to create a personalized portal that lets you stream any media or files on your PC to any other device connected to the internet. What is your homepage? [Warnings: Not all pages work on all browsers. Not having MeFi as your homepage may be viewed as a sign of disloyalty, but not having the RSS feed on your page certainly will.]
posted by blahblahblah on Jan 1, 2007 - 20 comments

Student Projects from DigiPen, a computer game college. A few I've tried and approve include Narbacular Drop, which is very short, more of a tech demo, but contains the idea and some of the people behind Valve's upcoming Portal^, Orblitz, a get-the-ball-to-the-goal puzzle game with extremely calming graphics and music, and Bontãgo, a weird combination of RTS, Tetris, and Jenga.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim on Jul 22, 2006 - 19 comments

Welcome to the Aperture Science Enrichment Center. Remember our motto: "There's a hole in the sky, through which things can fly." (Coming soon.)
posted by nervestaple on Jul 20, 2006 - 26 comments

PopExperiment

"Anyway, the idea behind this site is similar to stumble: provide links and representations to (of) artists that I love. To that end I've already started populating the music, photography, visual arts and motion arts sections with some art I hope you really enjoy (and real links to the amazing artists responsible)."

[And check: via via via]
posted by peacay on Aug 6, 2005 - 2 comments

News Room [Oct. 4] From Germany, many Germans still speak about the "Mauer im Kopf", the Wall in the head... Town Square [Oct. 4] From NPQ, excerpts from a panel of Nobel laureates in economics... Ivory Tower [Oct. 4] From Dissent, Shalom Lappin (KCL): The Need for a New Jewish Politics... Such are the top three links in the extremely link laden and indispensable--think of it as the Arts & Letters Daily of political theory and philosophy--Political Theory Daily Review, which came via the also indispensable Abu Aardvark.
posted by y2karl on Oct 4, 2004 - 3 comments

NASA to consolidate all their sites into the nasa.gov portal The argument for change is that users will be served better by a single website because the agency's various sites vary in quality and content. But scientists and fans at NASAWatch say consolidation into a single NASA portal - which is more suited as collection press releases rather than in-depth information - will greatly reduce the amount of public information available from NASA. Is consolidation a good idea or is it just a power grab/manipulation by NASA administrators?
posted by stevis on Aug 9, 2004 - 11 comments

Hot Links is a visually appealing link blog portal. Featuring links from local heroes Andy Baio (waxpancake), and Tom Coates (barbelith).
posted by riffola on Jun 9, 2004 - 7 comments

English-friendly Arab web portal: For those who want to better understand what Arab news agencies are printing/broadcasting or if you want to be able to read any web site published in Arabic, the Ajeeb portal has a free translation service. It translated Arabic to English more clearly than how I've seen babblefish handle other languages. However, one should approach any translation with circumspection, especially in light of current events.
posted by Modem Ovary on Mar 23, 2003 - 5 comments

Main Room - China the Beautiful [much more]
posted by hama7 on Mar 11, 2003 - 5 comments

CHAIN: Oklahoma's Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Information Network. A prototype web portal, designed to provide one-stop access to AIDS information for a state with a lower HIV infection rate. Funded by the National Library of Medicine. The concept is that people in small towns or rural areas can access information and contacts without leaving home. Web designers and MetaFiltrans - does the concept work? Seen anything similar in your community?
posted by sheauga on Dec 1, 2002 - 0 comments

AltaVista goes back to its roots I regularly used AltaVista when I first came to the web but now haven't used it as a Search Engine for many months. Portals, and MSN in particular seem to be very popular but I'm unable to see the attraction (smacks of spoon-feeding idiots "content" who can't find it themselves) so I'm pleased to see AltaVista changing back to what they do best. Can't see me switching back from Google though..
posted by jontyjago on Nov 25, 2002 - 12 comments

CNN portalizes? Not exactly, but the portal is clearly the model for their new design, which resembles nothing so much as a tall Yahoo. Headlines, except for the top story, are smaller and scattered about the page in more than one category -- something they've done for some time, but now with magnified effect (I counted six links to Lockerbie stories). Have they forgotten that their mission is delivering news?
posted by dhartung on Jan 30, 2001 - 8 comments

WebbieWorld - The Best of Everthing If you haven't seen Mark Connell's portal you're in for a treat. Is this the future direction of the Search Engine?
posted by fbeach on Jan 31, 2000 - 0 comments

Powderlog, the snowboarder's weblog looks like the first specialized weblog I'm really going to like. It seems more portal-esque than a weblog, but that's ok. I wish it were customizable though, I'd love to be able to have the links to my local resorts in the sidebar. Oh yeah, that reminds me, I'm going to code the ability to customize the floating link thing this week.
posted by mathowie on Dec 8, 1999 - 0 comments