I recently played the game (old folks might say “video game”) Portal, which is a singular experience in computer gaming (old folks might say “wasting time”). If you followed that link to the official page, there’s a trailer which gives you some sense of what the game is about and also introduces you to GLaDOS, the omnipresent computer voice who guides you through the tests. If you didn’t watch the movie, the basic concept is that you play as a test subject who must navigate various puzzles using your portal gun. A portal gun creates two portals (duh!) so you can move to different points in the rooms. For example, to get across a room which has a deep chasm in the center, you can create a portal in the wall behind you and then create the second in the far wall. Stepping through the near portal, exits you from the far one. Or, you could create a portal in the ceiling at the far side, then create a portal directly under your feet, so you drop down out of the ceiling at the far side. The puzzles quickly become more complex, many of them relying on
conservation of momentum through the portals. If you need to cross a long horizontal distance, you can jump down into a portal in order to exit one facing your desired trajectory– Exiting it at the full velocity you gained by jumping down in the first place, thus flinging yourself across a room. Does that make sense? Now you see why I suggested you see the movie. Here’s a YouTube link to make it easy (old folks might say you’re lazy). You can also put portals above and below you so that you fall endlessly from one to the next. Wheee!
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