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Portal brought to the iPhone, watch someone play it photo

A particularly clever programmer (or a gaggle of clever programmers) has brought Portal to the iPhone 3GS. Below the fold is a YouTube video of Portal working on the platform courtesy of 3D authoring tool, Unity.

Before you get too excited, understand that this is not an official port of Valve’s popular platform title. However, after watching the video, we asked Valve PR if the studio has ever considered or is considering bring the title to the App Store. They’ve yet to get back to us, but if anything, the video proves that Portal is possible. That is, if the footage is real. We have no reason to believe the video is not as of this time.

Unity, by the way, has been used to create several games across multiple platforms including Wolfquest, GooBall, Dukateers -- The Treacherous Treasure, and the surprisingly good App Store title Zombieville U.S.A.

Portal on the iPhone sounds great in theory, however, we’re pretty sure we’ll never get a single done again if that pretty baby is sitting on our mobile device. Or, at least, never be able to take a call because our battery is too low.

[via OSX Reality]


Continue: More Portal stories





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19 comments | showing # 1 to 19

TheToiletDuck's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/16/2009 08:46
TheToiletDuck
My only reason for thinking this is fake is that it looks TOO much like the real thing, i.e. the textures are pretty damn good for a 3d iphone. But then i'm not really sure what the 3GS can do.

I'll play it safe and call shenanigans.
Spysappinmahsentry's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/16/2009 09:09
Spysappinmahsentry
It's pretty neat n'all, but I can't help but feel the iphone is just an awful, awful device for trying to control an FPS. It's fantastic for (mostly) everything else, but I just can't see how the controls could transfer smoothly. Still, impressive work.
Cowboy TTop's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/16/2009 09:15
Cowboy TTop
Nice. I'd buy this if I had an iPhone.

I'd still like to know why Portal hasn't graced Wii yet? How difficult could it be to do?
Okstuke's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/16/2009 09:24
Okstuke
I played through all of Wolfenstein 3D on an iPhone and, I'm not sure what the general consensus is on this, but by the time I finished the first chapter I was very comfortable with the controls. Though that game obviously lacked y-axis rotation, I think it was still an indication of a FPS done right on a 3.5" touch screen.
AgentMOO's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/16/2009 09:29
AgentMOO
Wow, I need to jailbreak my 3GS!
Skribble's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/16/2009 09:30
Skribble
@ToiletDuck: 3GS is quite a lot more powerful, dude!

In all seriousness, the central and graphical processors have been updated so much so that you could compare it like going from HL1 to HL2. You're going from a single pipeline to openGL2.0.

The 3GS supports bump and normal mapping! No more adding more triangles to the model for extra details, you can just slap on a map. It can utilize light maps and dynamic shadows, and it can render more than twice as many triangles and alter 10 times as many pixels on screen as the original iPhone.
Freefall's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/16/2009 09:37
Freefall
Those controls look awkward and slow. Cool Idea, but it doesn't really work. Oh god, I'm 9 and trying to play dark forces without a mouse again...
Chronic Logic's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/16/2009 09:39
Chronic Logic
That looks good. A little too good...hmm...
tapo's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/16/2009 10:02
tapo
Unity is probably the best engine nobody has ever heard of. You can literally drag and drop 3D assets in (Maya models, etc), set some properties, and you have an actual, working level. Then you can code the game logic in Javascript or C#, and it runs under its built in Mono VM.

I definitely buy that this was done in 3 weeks.
Corak's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/16/2009 10:26
Corak
It does look nice but the controls seem a little clunky.
Oatmeal lover's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/16/2009 10:50
Oatmeal lover
Looks good, although "twin stick" type controls on the iPhone are always broken on arrival for me due to my sausage-like thumbs. I don't know why people insist on creating console/PC experiences on the iPhone, I feel it is always best served with things like Crayon Physics Deluxe, Peggle and Fieldrunners. It's the PSP syndrome all over again!
aaronf's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/16/2009 11:09
aaronf
Since the iPhone isn't an M$ platform, it's probably "too hard" for Valve to develop for it.
Draconianviper's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/16/2009 12:12
Draconianviper
As cool as this seems, I'm going to go with what some others are saying. Probably just a video recording of a gaming session and someone just happening to coordinate key presses. Don't get me wrong, the processing power on mobile devices are really starting to ramp up now but the video just seems a little too good to me currently.
DJDuffy 's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/16/2009 12:36
DJDuffy
Impressive! I'm guessing the iphone will only be able to handle the game on the "S" model, since it looks pretty processor intensive. Yea I'd have to agree with people above, the control scheme looks very primitive and slow for movement. Hopefully they come up with a decent solution that doesn't involve the motion sensing for movement :P
brainderailment's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/16/2009 14:29
brainderailment
I don't think it looks too good. You are looking at a recording of it too, how can you even tell how good/bad the textures and resolution is? It could be fake, but don't say it's fake because it looks too good.
Dexter345's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/16/2009 15:07
Dexter345
Neat that they can do it, but it appears to control like ass, and is missing some of the graphical flourishes that I'm used to. I'm impressed at the Achievement, but this does not have me saying "DO WANT."
mmmpek's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/16/2009 19:13
mmmpek
i always wanted to play portal by putting my hands all over the screen!
adultswim810's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/16/2009 21:38
adultswim810
that looks fake and awkward
doctor insidious's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/24/2009 18:08
doctor insidious
It's real. The Unity engine is rather powerful, and it is for the iPhone
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