Portal is a 1986 game by Activision. It's a cyberpunk thriller / playable novel. You return from a 100 year exploration trip through the galaxy to find the Earth deserted and desolate. You log onto Worldnet to connect to Homer, the AI, to figure out what happened to humanity. #commodore#c64#InteractiveFiction#retrogaming
Ok, so today we actually started playing the game. We learned that it all began with a viral disease of sheep in New Zealand. A guy named Ezekial in Christchurch was reporting on this. And Some other person named Peter Devore seems to have played a role.
Most of Worldnet is offline, but the History section seems to be working. Funny enough 1986's vision tells us that nuclear fission reactors are phased out by 2039 in favor of fusion reactors. I think we are a bit way off still...
Visiting the History section triggered something in the game. We now have access to the HOMER AI. It seems no terminal was active in Worldnet for the past TWELVE years!
HOMER provides us now with a history of the last decade of the 20th century.
Well, it is a bit off, and the fall of the Soviet Union happened a bit differently, but all in all this is VERY impressive for a 1986 game.
I am still waiting on the dolphin communication, though...
The Voice Recognition is pretty spot on -- We call it ASR nowadays, but it was really becoming very, very good approximately 10 years ago. So that's a good estimate right there!
For those just joining in: We are playing Portal from Activision (1986), an interactive novel. It's about someone who returns to Earth after a long exploration trip and finds it deserted. Together with the AI HOMER this person tries to figure out where all of humanity has gone to. #commodore#c64#InteractiveFiction#retrogaming
Second accesible entry in the Wasatch DB is that of Regent Sable -- oh look! His actual birthday is coming up! So anyone expecting a child in December around the 12th -- please consider naming him Regent Sable!
We also have access to the MEDIO database now. At least for Regent Sable. Not sure what we do with this, but all the stats point to Regent having had a VERY stressful past. And then it got better. Interesting, but I don't yet know what conclusions to draw from this info.
HOMER is making a bit of progress reconstructing the data on Peter Devore. He mentions that Peter managed to get into PsiLink using the Wasatch DB, but also there was a possibility of misrecognition in the past, when the SciTech DB was still named SciLink -- which is homophone to PsiLink. Interesting...
Let's continue with Portal (1986) by Activision. An interactive novel set in about 2100 where a returning astronaut tries to figure out with the AI Homer where all of humanity went, as Earth is desolate.
We join Homer in his story about Peter Devore, who discovered the so called "Portal". #commodore#commodore64#InteractiveFiction#retrogaming
While talking to his mother, we learn that Peter's grandmother was a Unisex convert. It seems there was a movement in the first half of the 21st century to convert to a state of being able to experience both male and female sexes at the same time.
WorldNet gives us more details about the Unisex movement.
Some of the topics in this game seem quite relevant. But that's what makes a good SciFi story...
The worldbuilding suggests that the Unisex movement was not widely accepted and might have suffered from persecution or legal issues, as Astora seems to have been one of the last people to have made the conversion.
And we are back with Portal (1986) by Activision, an interactive SciFi novel.
Our AI Homer is slightly gloomy at the moment... #commodore#commodore64#InteractiveFiction
History has a few informations for us. For example on the Gibraltar disaster. They refer to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which was extremely current at the time of the game's publishing in 1986. The game predicts the decommissioning of all fission reactors by 2030 or so, however things do not turn out like that in real life. But we don't have fusion energy either...
HOMER now tells us a parable of desert rocks balanced upon each other, symbolising the events that Peter set into motion. He toppled some rocks in the system and created an avalanche.
Researching Jimmy Radix shows us that he was of very average intelligence. Not the brightest bulb in the shop... So what was his connection to Peter...?
Peter was watched by Regent Sable it seemed. That was a name we learned about very early in the game. It seems Regent knew about the coding error and that Peter gained access, but didn't tell...
We learn that Peter and Jimmy were friends as it seems. And Peter developed a ROM chip for Jimmy to help him with his short term memory problems.
Jimmy seems like a nice, albeit somewhat simple fellow.
We also learn that Ran, Peter's father, is noticing something, and also sees Peter's friendship to Jimmy. He is worried and starts investigating, asking his boss or colleague Mel for help.
@root42
well thank you!
i have not touched a c64 in 30 years or so and this is my first time ever to run a c64 emulator.
i am looking forward to this game.
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