Portal was originally released by Activision for the Commodore 64 in 1986. Portal was a unique game for its time; it was one part text-driven adventure (ala Zork or Planetfall) but with a graphical interface.

Game Play

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The game told the story of a returning astronaut who finds that the entire Earth is now devoid of human life. Cars are rusted and covered with moss, the streets are completely barren and everything appears as though the entire human race just vanished suddenly. The odd thing is there is no real sign of nuclear war or any one particular reason why everybody would be gone. Wouldn't there at least be skeletons everywhere?

The player happens upon a barely functioning computer terminal that is tied into a historical mainframe and through this interface you need to help the computer put back the pieces of what occurred. For instance, spending some time in the Medical Records section may unlock a piece of data in the Science section, and through these links you begin to piece together the wonderous things that happened to your race.

Portal is not an action game, and its pacing has been described by some as slow and possibly tedious. However, the game appealed to Science Fiction fans who enjoyed complex plots. Portal has a narrative that can entertain fans of Arthur C. Clarke and Issac Asimov, as well as Zork.

Producer: Brad Fregger

Coder: Nexa Corporation

Design: Rob Swigart

The Activision Commodore 64 15 Pack, released for Windows 95 in 1995, included Portal running via emulation. Commodore 64 games