Demakes are blowing up in gaming communities as of late. Rather than see a game come with the updated graphics and gameplay that a remake or remaster can offer, some fans would rather see what a new game would look like on an older console. A lot of the demand for demakes comes from nostalgia, and people are creating games or fan animations that evoke the style of older titles, such as one Mass Effect demake that combined the game with Advance Wars. Now, one Portal fan is going beyond making a fan animation and has decided to make a full game.
YouTuber James Lambert has been working on his demake of Portal for some time, showing off features of his Portal64 game running on real Nintendo 64 hardware. The Nintendo 64 is one of the most popular platforms of the fifth generation of video game consoles and was a competitor to the original PlayStation and Sega Saturn. The N64 saw the release of some incredibly popular titles, including Goldeneye, Mario 64, and Perfect Dark. Fans of the console are plentiful, and modders are working on porting many N64 games to PC. Lambert is working on quite the opposite, bringing a modern game to the N64.
Portal64 has had a few major updates over the months. Most recently, Lambert showed off a working portal in his game. Considering the title of both Valve's original classic and Lambert's demake, portals are quite the important aspect of both games, so to get them working is a huge milestone for the future of Portal64. Moreover, in his most recent update Lambert shows viewers that the physics engine of his Portal demake is in a much better state, allowing for wall and object collision.
Perhaps more striking than the details of the physics engine is the style of Portal64. The portals themselves are not a neat circle like in the original game, but are instead octagons with clear sides. The companion cubes and background of the Aperture science labs are given an N64 coat of paint too, making them look like they're assets pulled straight from the 1990s. For Portal fans who want to dig into its N64 demake, Lambert has offered the current build as a free download, but it is very much a work in progress. For any gamer looking for some more official Portal content, there will be Switch versions of Portal 1 and 2 coming later this year.
In terms of an official sequel to Portal, it seems quite unlikely. In many gaming communities, it is a running joke that Valve is unable to make a third game in any of its most popular franchises, though one Portal writer recently expressed a desire to make Portal 3.
Portal is available on Mobile, PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.