November 14th: EXTRA! ASCIIpOrtal 1.2 is out! Re-download for a decidedly enhanced experience.
See high res text graphics. Master physics bending puzzles. Escape the test chambers. Play ASCIIpOrtal!
ASCIIpOrtal is a unique puzzle game. You can create custom maps so even when the game is over the fun doesn’t need to end. Use a text editor (or the mostly functional map editor by Mads Lund) and share the maps you create on the ASCIIpOrtal forum.
ASCIIpOrtal is by Joe Larson with sounds designed by Steve Fenton. Original concept inspired by Increpare’s Portile game, Super Serif Bros, and Valve’s Portal. Source code is included in the zip. Simply unzip and play.
Original Videos/History
The ASCIIpOrtal development thread is where I determined to document the development process and publish interim builds in and still exists, documenting some of the cool things that have happened since. When it got to the point that I didn’t want folks playing it out and getting bored with it (about the time I added the actual portal mechanic) I stopped publishing interim builds and made a video showing it off. That video went crazy popular and can be found here:
http://bytejacker.fliggo.com/video/RuZobi9H
I followed it up with another video :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnvxDk2sAZg
Which brings us up to present day.
Download Links:
In windows simply download, unzip, and play.
Download Windows 1.2c binaries and source
Download Linux-32 1.2c binaries (by Sam Heybey)
Outdated Version
Download Linux-64 1.1 binaries (by Linus Sjögren)
OSX Binary. 1.0 is still available at ModDB
Download Dingoo Binaries (for the Dingoo personal media player)
Tip Jar
If you like ASCIIpOrtal or Cymon’s Games please consider a donation or purchasing a t-shirt. Even just $0.99 for the download would be appreciated.
 ASCIIpOrtal Mens tee by Cymon. $17.99 |
 ASCIIpOrtal Womens tee by Cymon. $17.99 |
 Men and Womens ASCIIpOrtal The GUI is a lie tee. $17.99 |
RSS Comments.
September 22nd, 2009 - 11:03 am
I built a 32-bit Linux binary. You are welcome to have it.
September 22nd, 2009 - 11:53 am
Brandon, could you possibly post a link to the 32-bit linux binary until he gets it up on the site?
September 22nd, 2009 - 1:28 pm
This was a triumph.
September 22nd, 2009 - 1:49 pm
IM NOT EVEN ANGRY!
September 22nd, 2009 - 2:37 pm
game looks pretty lame… lode runner did it better
September 22nd, 2009 - 2:56 pm
In 32 bit Ubuntu I got the error ./asciiportal: error while loading shared libraries: libSDL_mixer-1.2.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
You might want to mention that the game depends on the package libsdl-mixer1.2 (the game works fine after installing it).
September 22nd, 2009 - 3:09 pm
@mike your a [edit], this is an awesome game. Very well done Cymon. I love how you managed to get a build for the major Os’s :D even linux 64 bit. Your gonna need a map upload section or something where i can upload my maps with a screenshot.
September 22nd, 2009 - 3:11 pm
Your enthusiasm in the demo videos is an inspiration for me to get back into game programming. Might even jump in on one of your projects if I have the free time someday. :D
September 22nd, 2009 - 3:11 pm
No need for slander. I agree with mike. Lode runner was awesome.
And share your maps here. In fact there’s already some new ones there for you to challenge yourself with.
September 22nd, 2009 - 3:25 pm
Is there a source tarball? This seems like the kind of thing I’d enjoy hacking around with. Though if it’s closed source I guess that’s okay…
September 22nd, 2009 - 3:39 pm
Source is included in every binary. The code is universal (hopefully), just link it to SDL, SDL_Mixer, and PDCurses (set to run through SDL), which by the way…
@Brendan above, doesn’t the source say that it depends on SDL, SDL_Mixer and PDCurses? I thought I put that in there. My apologies if I didn’t.
September 22nd, 2009 - 3:52 pm
My one complaint: the music is in .mp3 files, .ogg would be better and also would allow it to be packaged with music in most linux distributions.
September 22nd, 2009 - 5:37 pm
The mirrors seem to be fried. Anyone able to upload it somewhere else?
September 22nd, 2009 - 6:40 pm
The music is awesome. Great game.
September 22nd, 2009 - 7:34 pm
I already love this \o/
But you made the same mistake every single person who produces free games and uses an QWERTYU keyboard has… expect everyone to have Z and X as neighbors…
*looks at his poor little QWERTZU keyboard and starts crying* :’(
September 22nd, 2009 - 7:40 pm
@ratfink .oog music… yeah I coulda done that. In fact it wouldn’t be to hard to just recompile it with oog files if you were so inclined. I just wish I had taken the time to make the sound file’s names in an external datafile. I knew it would have been a good idea at the time, I just didn’t want to do it.
@Wesley, the mirrors are fine. It’s just 10 megs of data.
@marcus Dang it, I should have done x and c, huh? Well, lots of solutions. You could use zero and period, you could just use space, or you could recompile the program. I’ll fix that for the update.
September 22nd, 2009 - 8:34 pm
@Markus I see your QWERTZU and raise you a Dvorak.
September 22nd, 2009 - 8:49 pm
it turned out better than I dared to hope. The puzzles are fiendish! Each one stretches your brain just a little bit more. Yes, Lode Runner was wonderful, but IMO this does more (mindbending) with less (graphics) – quite a feat! Tip jar donation on its way…
September 23rd, 2009 - 12:54 am
I loved it! Built a linux 32-bit version from the 64-bit tarball (easy enough, but nice to see someone’s posted a 32-bit binary already). Thanks!
September 23rd, 2009 - 3:17 am
@Joe Sorry, download speeds were around 9kb per sec, (Now that i think about it, probably was my connection), but i finally got it down with the Down Them All firefox extention. I’ve gotten a chance to play it. I’m making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS.
September 23rd, 2009 - 7:36 am
@Joe:
You could still make z and y do the same thing or read in a config file with keycodes. That way everyone can have it their way.
@Eliot:
Heh. :)
September 23rd, 2009 - 8:50 am
i have found a glitch, is there an e-mail address we can forward glitches to?
September 23rd, 2009 - 9:33 am
If you want to sign up on the forums (fast and free) and post it in the ASCIIpOrtal developement thread or start a bug report thread, that’d be great. Or you can use the easy to use contact form, or you can just post it here.
September 23rd, 2009 - 10:52 am
Very cool! Two bug reports which I’m too lazy to investigate in the source:
1. No sound — I get “open /dev/sequencer: No such file or directory”
2. There’s a strange bug in the portal mechanic visible on level 10:
a. from the start square (0,0), aim straight up and shoot blue
b. aim right and shoot yellow
c. take one step right
d. keep aiming right and shoot blue
e. take another step right
Observed: You end up two squares right of your starting spot, (2,0), and the yellow portal can’t be seen
Expected: Actually I’m not sure what to expect here, but there shouldn’t be any way to go from (0,0) to (2,0) given the lines of sight.
September 23rd, 2009 - 11:33 am
#1, What version was that that you’re playing?
#2, anything like this: http://screencastle.com/watch/e8a5d014b7efa124c87158223557abc9 Yeah, it looks like you can shoot through portals while standing in the walls, which is a really big bug and I’m upset at myself for not finding before. The next version will fix that.
Also, if that’s the way all linux version run, yeah, that’s real slugish. Gotta do something about that.
September 23rd, 2009 - 1:04 pm
Just as a side note, period and zero are seperated too on a German keyboard unfortunately
September 23rd, 2009 - 2:05 pm
I’m using the Linux-32bit version but I can’t manage to open a portal. Balls seem to explode against the walls without opening portals. Or maybe I’m missing something in the gameplay??
September 23rd, 2009 - 4:29 pm
Ok I was just too impatient :-) Everything’s ok now !
September 24th, 2009 - 2:54 am
Do you plan a user maps repository ?
That would be really nice.
(If possible, rating each level difficulty would be even nicer)
September 24th, 2009 - 7:38 am
@Mr. Brown: I just can not win here.
@sebsauvage: I don’t have anything in-game to keep the maps, for now. At the moment this thread is the maps repository, Tho I haven’t seen much happening there!
Come on, people, does no one have any new maps? Is everyone afraid of making text files in their “extralevels” directory?
September 24th, 2009 - 9:23 am
@joe:
Oh no ! Not in game.
Just a simple website to share maps (map name, author, screenshot, difficulty, comments).
You could even propose a “map pack” download (simple zip file with all additional levels).
The forum thread is not very handy to publish maps.
September 24th, 2009 - 6:42 pm
Great game! Thank you!
September 27th, 2009 - 12:52 pm
Found two errors with the mac build. Firstly the numberpad doesn’t work, and secondly when you resize the window it messes up. The first time it corrected itself after a few minutes, the second it went flat grey. Would it be possible to have it increase the font size to fill the window instead of just showing more of the map?
September 27th, 2009 - 4:19 pm
Is this in any way related to PortalZZT? I once made a ZZT world based off Portal.
Maybe I should copy all the levels I designed for that game and put them in a level pack for this one!
September 28th, 2009 - 6:53 am
@Lallander Apparently Ubantu has a problem where the numberpad only works if it’s on before the game starts. Near as I can tell that’s a consequence of the library I’m using and not anything I can do about it. It’s one of those “good to know” but I actually didn’t compile the mac build because I don’t have a mac. Here’s looking forward to the online version fixing this maybe.
@nupanick Do you mean this Portal ZZT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I1R1TkkDsM ? If so, no.That’s top down, this is side view, and I never even heard of this video before I started.
But any excuse for map packs is good in my mind.
September 30th, 2009 - 2:36 am
Coll=) Very Very Very clever game=) Valves Portal sucks ?D
October 1st, 2009 - 1:13 pm
Hey Joe,
Justin B COO Of Dingoo-Digital-USA.com here loved the game and wish you would have won at ByteJacker.com contest we provided the Dingoo A320 for. But now to the good stuff would love you to port it to the dingoo. Below is a link to the SDK to develop apps for the A320. If you need me for anything or assistance don’t hesitate to e-mail me at sales@dingoo-digital-usa.com or support@ dingoo-digital-usa.com
Here is the link to the SDK:
http://a320.freeforums.org/s2dsdk-installation-guide-t299.html
Also How to Compile Tutor:
http://a320.freeforums.org/guide-how-to-compile-apps-for-dingoo-native-os-without-sdk-t814.html
Love to see others also develop apps and games for the Dingoo A320…. Also just a plug we sale the A320 and accessories to North America.
October 1st, 2009 - 9:24 pm
I don’t feel bad at all about the person I lost too. He totally deserves it.
There are lots of cool things planned for ASCIIpOrtal, and a portable build just might be in the works. But there’s some technical debt to play first. I sense that porting it to the dingo may be a bit more than just moving the code into a new IDE. Learning a whole new IDE is… daunting. But I’ll get there eventually.
Tho, having a dingoo would be nice motivation.
October 5th, 2009 - 11:58 am
I love this game. You could develop a J2ME version, since the controls are simple. And perhaps add customizable controls.
October 6th, 2009 - 9:07 am
game is amanzing!
build a java version for mobile phones please!!!
October 6th, 2009 - 1:38 pm
Thanks for the mac version, loved every minute.
Only change I would like is holding the key to run immediately, i know why you didn’t but I think it would make it more playable.
October 10th, 2009 - 3:06 pm
2 Suggestions:
1. Could you please make an “NoViewThroug”-Portal-Mode? It’s often very confusing when you can
2. It would be great if the looking-through would be recursive :> (so you can see what behind the portal is which you see through an portal)
October 10th, 2009 - 4:18 pm
@skywalker – Easier said than done. Way eaiser. This is C++, that’s Java. It mean an entire rewrite. Possible, but not very likely, sorry. Not any time soon anyways.
@James – Actaully, I’m gonna fix that run thing in the bug-fix build, coming soon(ish).
@Spell – So you are simultaneously suggesting more and less portal views, is that right? The “No Portal View” view is actually really easy to do, but not worth doing, honestly. Trust me, I played it that way. Seeing your character jump when you enter a portal is kinda jarring. If it were a game like the other 2D portal games where the view is fixed that might be okay, but ASCIIpOrtal’s scrolling view doesn’t lend itself well to that.
As for the recursive view… gee wiz, man, do you realize how hard it was just to get one and you’re asking for multiple? I thought we were friends. Just kidding. Naturally I tried doing that the first time but because the new view is in a different part of the screen I had trouble calculating where it goes on screen. It’s a thorny problem, in truth, but one I may visit again.
October 11th, 2009 - 8:10 am
yeh guys ASCII portal is such a great game but i saw a vis on youtube about a map editor plz can any one give me some help with that i really need it plz reply
October 17th, 2009 - 3:09 pm
May i be a beta tester? i have expierience with c++?
October 24th, 2009 - 8:46 pm
Downloading. Nice work!
October 28th, 2009 - 12:15 pm
I wish someone would build a 1.1 Linux 32bit version. I would try, except that I don’t have pdcurses and don’t want to mess around with getting that to work right now. When both Linux builds are out, I’ll put this version on happypenguin.org.
October 28th, 2009 - 2:23 pm
Joe asked me to build a 32-bit linux binary, and I did. He’ll probably put it up pretty soon.
October 28th, 2009 - 2:24 pm
Joe asked me to build a 32-bit linux binary, and I did. He’ll probably put it up pretty soon.
Until then, you can get it at this temporary link:
http://www.allacrost.org/staff/user/winter_knight/asciiportal1.1-linux32.tar.gz
October 28th, 2009 - 7:13 pm
Okay, I have the new version. I see several bad things:
1. The new running is bad, I liked it better the way it was. Mostly it’s too slow, but I’m also just opposed to making it non-curses by principle. Also, I’m pretty sure it’ll break a level in my map pack to have running slower..
2. The new font is bad, they hyphen is off-center and that makes the aim look a bit messed up.
There are good things too:
1. I like the fixed vertical flinging.
2. Making you go through a portal as soon as you step into it is wonderful.
All in all, I’m not really sure if the good things out-weigh the bad ones. But it’s nice to see that you’re working on it still.
October 28th, 2009 - 7:21 pm
Oh, also I see the music is still .mp3. I believe .ogg has better compression and is a free as in freedom format. But if you wanted that changed you’d need to ask the creator for an .ogg version, or you’d still have the .mp3 compression stuff on top of the .ogg slightly less bad stuff.
October 29th, 2009 - 1:12 pm
The 32 bit Linux download link is broken. It should link to: http://cymonsgames.com/games/asciiportal/asciiportal1.1-linux32.tar.gz
October 29th, 2009 - 1:31 pm
The sound you heard was my hand hitting my forehead.
I’m a software tester. You don’t expect me to test my own stuff before I commit to it, do you?
And Ratfink, you can fix the font by renaming or deleting pdcfont.bmp.
And it doesn’t run any faster. It just runs sooner. Yes, it’s the first, and only time, that it deviates from curses compatibility, but tell me 1 old action based text game that didn’t try getting around that. That’s my justification. I’ve played all the new maps in this new build and they all work just fine, beginning to end. Some are even easier, tho I don’t think anyone would dare say they’re easy.
As for the sound thing, this was a bug fix version, and that’s a design choice, not a bug. I don’t know if I’m going to go with oggs for the next version or not. As long as the sound plays, who cares.
October 29th, 2009 - 3:38 pm
Well, the sound actually doesn’t play for me, which is why I care. And I’m pretty sure you now run at the same speed as boulders, and in the previous version you ran twice as fast as boulders.
October 30th, 2009 - 2:30 am
Running is pretty slow. And jerky. Take level 2 of extralevels, for example. At the end, you have to quickly run off a cliff. If you just hold the right arrow key down, you will fail. The only way to complete that level is to repeatedly press the right arrow key.
I think the problem is that asciiportal uses keyrepeat to continue moving, and this causes an initial stutter, and you can’t control how fast the character moves. I think a better solution would be to detect when the key goes down, and when it comes back up, and to move the character one space every x number of frames in between.
November 1st, 2009 - 3:00 pm
I have submitted version 1.1 to The Linux Game Tome now. It should appear there soon.
November 1st, 2009 - 5:57 pm
I’m wondering if these timing and control issues aren’t related to the way I handled timing in the game, in conjunction with the keyboard repeat ting. Unfortunately, I don’t know what the solution is either, aside from getting that online version up and running ASAP.
November 2nd, 2009 - 5:09 pm
I think the best solution for asciiportal input would be to have SDL do it. I’ve been looking into it, and it seems that PDCurses has no way to determine when a key goes up, except for special meta keys such as shift and alt. This makes it not suitable for handling action game input.
As for PDCurses input, I liked the handling in 1.0 better than 1.1. The shorter delay is great, but now moving is too slow and jerky.
November 4th, 2009 - 4:29 pm
I had it all set up to do that, but backed out when I thought I found a one line solution. Ah, well, try again.
November 11th, 2009 - 12:37 pm
I like the idea, and the video’s look great, I’d love to play it, but my arrow keys are broken.
Is there anyway you might be able to either have the option to set your own controls, or release a version using WASD, or you know just something to that effect?
Thanks :D
November 11th, 2009 - 1:14 pm
Yeah, I think that having wasd and the arrow keys at the same time would have no ill affects as these keys aren’t used by the game at all I think. That could be a nice feature really.
November 16th, 2009 - 2:06 pm
Again, compiling this is a bit out of my league. Could someone pleeease make a Linux 32bit build of 1.2?
November 18th, 2009 - 11:02 am
Shirt idea: “ASCIIpOrtal is pISCAtOrIal”
Makes no sense… but it’s fun.
November 28th, 2009 - 3:07 am
I’ve compiled a 1.2c 64b and will do a 32b tonight, but where can i upload it?
November 28th, 2009 - 4:46 am
D’ailleurs ya une faute dans le makefile:
cat ASCIIpOrtal-linux-Makefile.txt | sed ’s/al_/ap_/’ >> makefile
November 28th, 2009 - 4:14 pm
I love this game! I love the way you ACTUALLY USE MOMENTUM, as opposed to most other portal “clones” I’ve played. I’m making a map pack as we speak!
December 2nd, 2009 - 9:54 pm
THE CAKE IS A LIE!
December 17th, 2009 - 8:12 pm
If this were for DS, I would never put it down.
December 29th, 2009 - 5:02 am
I Love ASCIIpOrtal! Great game! Thanks developers! Good luck and creative successes!
January 3rd, 2010 - 12:35 am
Joe, this was my first time playing ASCIIpOrtal. Now I understand why everyone was in an uproar about it not being in the games of the year list. This is freaking amazing!!!! Thanks so much for designing this! What a mind trip.
January 3rd, 2010 - 12:37 pm
@Tom: Ooh, your gravatar made it here too. Cool.
@astroraptor Hmm, a DS version…. Might actually be a possibility. I just need to get me a DS.
It’s been a bit quite around here, tho from time to time the feedback keeps rolling in, all positive.
I’m gearing up to do the next version of ASCIIpOrtal, ASCIIpOrtal online. It will play in a browser, feature a map editor, and if I can manage it, allow you to share your levels through twitter and facebook with easy links to your made levels. I’ll also be making static versions and releasing the source code speciffically for compiling portable versions like the DS homebrew, dingoo and Pandora. The betas will be available through Cymon’s VIP section details coming soon-ish.
January 3rd, 2010 - 2:41 pm
WOO PANDORA! I want to get one of those when they’re released.
On topic: Will there be a way to upload maps to ASCIIpOrtal online?
January 3rd, 2010 - 8:12 pm
@ratfink …Um, details have yet to be worked out.
Chances are there’ll be some sweepting changes to the map format to do things like eliminating the switch/door cap and other things. So being able to upload your levels will require a conversion tool, and I just don’t know if I’m up for that on top of everything else. On the other hand that means all the levels I’ve got so far may have to be re-done by hand. So which is better?
I’ve still got a ton of technical hurdles to overcome first, so things aren’t going to happen overnight, but I’ll keep you all posted either here or on the forums.
January 6th, 2010 - 7:06 pm
I am trying to build a v1.2 linux 32-bit binary, without much success. I’ll need an e-mail to send it to when I get it working, though.
BTW, I may be able to make a map conversion tool if you give me a map in the new format.
January 6th, 2010 - 8:21 pm
Anybody know of a Xaw c header box.h?
January 7th, 2010 - 7:27 pm
v1.2 linux binaries will be ready within 10 minutes.
January 16th, 2010 - 6:32 am
I too, would adore a DS version of this
January 16th, 2010 - 9:19 am
Well then, all I need is someone to send me a DS and a Supercard One and I’ll make sure the next version has a DS version.
January 17th, 2010 - 8:06 am
How do I get that sdl1/pdcsdl.h ? I searched for it using “yum provides” but I can’t find a package which provides it. libsdl-dev and libsdl-mixer-dev is installed.
January 17th, 2010 - 10:16 am
It’s in PDCurses. Download http://pdcurses.sourceforge.net/ and you have to compile the sdl1 directory yourself.
January 17th, 2010 - 11:55 am
@bas89: yum? Do you use Fedora (or some similar system)? I do. The easiest way to compile ASCIIpOrtal for me is to rename the file with “makefile” in its name to Makefile, replace the filename in it that starts with al_ with a similar one that starts with ap_ , then just type “make”. It should get everything for you.
February 8th, 2010 - 11:08 am
Where are the levels saved for later continuing (i always have to start from beginning after quitting)
February 8th, 2010 - 1:01 pm
You should be able to use the “select level” option. It will even go as far as remembering the highest level you’ve gone.
February 8th, 2010 - 1:47 pm
No, it doesn’t that’s the reason why i ask. Plus: I can’t find a configuration file or folder in my home directory namend .ascii*
ASCIIpOrtal version: 1.2c-1
uname -rm: 2.6.32-ARCH x86_64
February 8th, 2010 - 2:36 pm
Well, use a valid e-mail when you write a comment here or have a webpage i don’t have to add an exception for and I can try to contact you to see if I find figure out what exactly the problem is.
February 8th, 2010 - 6:44 pm
It IS a valid mail address and you only need to add an exception if your browser does not have the CAcert root certificate ;)