Portal Theme on 8080 Computer with C64 Sound and Assembler Source

Posted by Joel Johnson, January 18, 2008 5:56 AM | permalink

A Portal fan has hacked together this "Still Alive" rig controlled by an Intel 8080 running at 2MHz, with a sound chip from a Commodore 64. Then he released the source code in Assembler. You win the fan prize, sir.

8080 Computer playing Portal Still Alive [YouTube via via RPS]

Previously:

• Jonathan Coulton on Writing Portal's End Theme [BBG]
• Rule 34: Portal Edition [BBG]
• Portal Weighted Companion Cube Papercraft [BBG]
• Portal Papercraft [BBG]
• Portal in LEGO [BBG]
• Portal Writer Erik Wolpaw Interviewed [BBG]

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Discussion

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#1 posted by Tim , January 18, 2008 6:28 AM

That's great. I wish I could see the text better. I'm surprised a computer that old supported two monitors, but it's a great effect. Maybe someone could get a pair of Apple Cinema displays and a red rotary phone to better imitate the Portal decor, run that program, and then film it in HD so you can see the ironically low definition characters better. It's all gilding the lilly, but there's nothing too anal or crazy in the world of video game fandom.

Oh wait. I just realized it's TWO computers working in tandem. But I still want to see a higher res version. The one hosted on the site still isn't clear enough to really read the text.

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#2 posted by strider_mt2k

, January 18, 2008 7:02 AM

Who else was singing to this? (show of hands?)
Oh, so it WAS just me. :(

I'm impressed!
Not everyone can make that stuff go anymore.

I was running two monitors as far back as my 7Mhz Turbo XT, although it worked best on a small form factor 12Mhz 286 rig I had later.
I ran a CGA and later a VGA adapter right alongside a monochrome one, using a little DOS TSR to copy/paste BBS system info from lists to the monochrome monitor. It worked flawlessly, but I didn't do anything more with it than that.

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#3 posted by Joel Johnson

, January 18, 2008 7:13 AM

Terminate Stay Ready is my new handle.

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#4 posted by dculberson , January 18, 2008 8:01 AM

I thought it was Terminate Stay Resident?

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#5 posted by Skwid

, January 18, 2008 8:36 AM

I was singing and bobbing my head, Strider. It's hard not to.

You can buy the Orange Box soundtrack (or just this song) from Amazon's MP3 download store, and I had to go fire up the original as soon as I was done listening to this version.

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#6 posted by A New Challenger

, January 18, 2008 11:13 AM

Yeah, this is pretty great.

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#7 posted by Anonymous , January 18, 2008 11:42 AM

This was a triumph!
Well, somebody have to say it. ;-)

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#8 posted by Luc

, January 18, 2008 12:50 PM

#1, it's not two computers in tandem, it's two screens (and a SID sound chip) attached to a home-built computer based on a 8080 CPU.

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