Portal "Still Alive" in MSDOS on a CRT Monitor

This was my first time creating a program in QuickBASIC, so it is definitely not perfect. The computer is an IBM 5160 PC XT, and the monitor is an NEC MultiSync II set to amber monochrome text mode.
Download program here: hudsongreen.com/projects/proj...
Source Code (Yes I know it is ugly): github.com/HudsonGTV/STILLALI
➢ Website: hudsongreen.com
0:00 - Booting the system
0:35 - Inserting and loading the floppy disk
0:51 - Running the program
1:03 - Program start
3:59 - End of Program
4:10 - Shutdown - Thanks for watching!

[@JaCoOoOoS]

don't worry about the missing music layers. They play automatically in the head of every portal fan who watches this.

[@Lou-yf1jo]

True.

[@adriftinglink]

I hate you for being right.

[@edwardkendrick9641]

haha yep, I was instinctively tapping along the missing parts

[@Jesus_Offical]

Never have i been so offended bye something i 100% agree with

[@somedumbgayplantboi3012]

yeah... this, cara mia addio, and want you gone all live in my head rent free and randomly play themselves

[@someguyoninternet802]

It literally looks like his old IBM telling him that he is still alive after 40 brutal years of use

[@sillyman2006]

lol

[@CHGOfficial512]

That is exactly what it is.

[@user-ro1cc8tz6d]

more like new old stock so it could be just a year of use

[@TheDuumiMuumi]

Well, it's an old IBM, machines that were build to last.

[@someguyoninternet802]

@@TheDuumiMuumi Indeed lmfao

[@NightZn]

This feels like watching a sentient AI trapped inside an ancient 80s computer trying to communicate

[@miniimposter]

SCP-079

[@ramilplay7069]

"But I'm still alive"

[@FormerlyDuck]

That's literally a brief story thread in Agents of Shield

[@denifnaf5874]

[Verse 1] This was a triumph I'm making a note here, "Huge success" It's hard to overstate my satisfaction Aperture Science We do what we must because we can For the good of all of us, except the ones who are dead [Chorus] But there's no sense crying over every mistake You just keep on trying 'til you run out of cake And the science gets done, and you make a neat gun For the people who are still alive [Verse 2] I'm not even angry I'm being so sincere right now Even though you broke my heart and killed me And tore me to pieces And threw every piece into a fire As they burned, it hurt because I was so happy for you [Chorus] Now these points of data make a beautiful line And we're out of beta, we're releasing on time So I'm glad I got burned; think of all the things we learned For the people who are still alive [Verse 3] Go ahead and leave me I think I prefer to stay inside Maybe you'll find someone else to help you Maybe Black Mesa That was a joke; haha, fat chance Anyway, this cake is great, it's so delicious and moist [Chorus] Look at me still talking when there's science to do When I look out there, it makes me glad I'm not you I've experiments to run, there is research to be done On the people who are still alive

[@CoconutPete]

this is what I miss about older computers... felt like a friend instead of a big tech spying device

[@railworksamerica]

Fr

[@rijden-nu]

That is... So well put that I keep agreeing more every time I read that line again.

[@towcat]

Even just recently it feels like that. I used the same computer for somewhere between 8 to 10 years and kept patching it up with fresh parts when things failed. The new one just doesn't feel the same. I likened it to a farmer buying a new pickup. The old one is still strong, but unreliable and filled with patchy mess. The new one is way nicer, reliable, and damn powerful, but it's not his old one

[@GuideTerrarian]

schizophrenia

[@glossymouse7712]

A computer was your best friend until you installed Windows 98 on crap hardware using dodgy drivers and the whole thing starts crashing or throwing errors the moment you turn it on. The amount of frustration I experienced trying to do stuff with such a PC seriously rivals the kind of frustration one can experience trying to circumvent Microsoft's retardation in Windows 10 and 11.

[@The_D_ray]

That floppy is now an Easter Egg of real life.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

That floppy is great, but I wonder what encoding it takes to play rickroll on the old 5150

[@themarlboromandalorian]

One solar flare or a really strong magnet and it's gone.

[@lilithbean]

@@themarlboromandalorian that’s pretty much all computers even to this day

[@JamesTDG]

Just imagine if valve actually distributed floppies as part of a collector's edition

[@mhammadalloush5104]

@@lilithbean not really, ssds are way more resistant to magnetic interference. Not sure about solar flares though

[@KillerShadow07]

As we know GlaDOS can run on a potato so running on an old IBM is a piece of cake for her 😉.

[@CHGOfficial512]

She still probably prefers her mainframe's processing though

[@KillerShadow07]

@@CHGOfficial512 that she does.

[@Y_N2006]

but the cake is a lie?

[@KillerShadow07]

@@Y_N2006 The cake is no lie. GlaDOS just wanted to make an additional cake with Chell as the main ingredient. She wanted to avoid running out of cake (Like she sang "you keep on trying until you run out of cake")

[@vieilatome2257]

@@CHGOfficial512 Well I prefer when Wheatley is on the mainframe

[@supermegabenji1026]

He even got the Credits to the people who made Portal, What a Legend...

[@TheCaptainSplatter]

As you should. Always credit the original artists.

[@supermegabenji1026]

@@TheCaptainSplatter What a Nice Message.

[@babroosssgames5028]

idk why, but something about the little fan whirring in the background and the speaker beeping the song is so charming. nice work.

[@Fogolol]

that sound you're hearing isnt the fan, it's the hard drive, at that time hard drives were L O U D you can even hear those things clicking away when reading data from across the room

[@babroosssgames5028]

@@Fogolol oh yeah, i forgot that old computers usually didnt have fans lol

[@Fogolol]

@@babroosssgames5028 i mean they did have a fan on the power supply but good luck making out that sound over the loud hard drive lmao

[@mikeg2491]

It sounds like starting up a car

[@PFnove]

@@Fogolol is it a problem if my (pretty new) hard drive makes those sounds too?

[@AuctorisVideo]

Love the Aperture Science asset tag on the floppy disk label, BTW…

[@michaelbauers8800]

I was really confused seeing that, thinking, did I miss an early Portal game that ran ontop of DOS, in CGA or something? lol. Nice touch, I agree.

[@opkom]

This is the most badass nerd thing I've seen...

[@protocetid]

@@ultimateman55 Nerds do a ton of incredibly difficult and amazing things for free, just look at non profit open source software. The gaming related ones span from mods to professional grade fan games that they’ll work on for a decade with an insufficient amount of volunteers.

[@vyruss000]

or the Commodordion (@lftkryo)!

[@EngineerGaming37]

You said it, brah.

[@EngineerGaming37]

Imagine the year is 2004. You have an Dell pc. Half Life 2 has just been released on this new website called Steam which you think is totally rad. You buy it. And start playing it with a pair of Sony headphones on. You loved the game. 2 years later Valve released this new game called Portal. You thought it was very foreign of Valve to make a puzzle game. You buy it anyway and play it on your brand new Dell Dimension 5100. You absolutely love the game. Then when playing one of Half Life's episodes you find out Portal is in the same universe as Half Life. Mind blown. Then a few years later (2017), Fortnite, a cringey game for 8 year olds, became so popular everyone forgor about valve. You become angry. Then a few years later (2022), you type this in the comment section.

[@EngineerGaming37]

@@NjordBlaviken lmao

[@MangaMan108]

I'm just imagining some deep underground military bunker, when these computers were just being rolled out, and one of the techies find this floppy disk and decide to see what's on it. Can you imagine the fear and confusion.

[@dogedude762]

Twist: it is actually SCP-079s real life equivalent

[@robloxian1585]

1: Those old hard drives were rather loud 2: it's impressive it still works and has no bad sectors 3: good job with making that song in dos, nice work👍

[@jacobyblanke152]

Doesn't seem like they're using one of the older hard drives, since it goes to the XT-IDE BIOS at first they seem to have an XT-IDE installed, likely with a compact flash card

[@HudsonGTV]

@@jacobyblanke152 I do boot off of an XT-IDE, but the D: drive is a fully working 20MB MFM 5.25" HDD.

[@jacobyblanke152]

@@HudsonGTV I stand corrected, pretty cool to still be using one of the old drives

[@caturlifelive]

@@HudsonGTV can i run this code on bios or when cpu booting up (using flashdisk) and use the buzzer from motherboard to make sound?

[@valiang8867]

It works because it's Still Alive

[@pepsi-chan]

One day all these cute 80s DOS computers will all be gone, but for now... this one is Still Alive.

[@alexturnbackthearmy1907]

Not really gone...i am pretty sure all its silicone is nearly immortal and will outlive all of us. But all other electrical components and screens...their time will be over much sooner.

[@tezcanaslan2877]

@@alexturnbackthearmy1907 if its fixable its still immortal

[@joshuahudson2170]

I've heard actual synthesized speech out of a PC Speaker before, and I think that computer can do it. Problem is you gotta code the thing in assembly language if you expect to update the screen at the same time. There's just no other way. Manipulating both video RAM and the PC speaker pins is going to be so tight you need to know instruction timing to do it.

[@FoxWare]

where?

[@joshuahudson2170]

@@FoxWare Yab baseball. On a newer computer I had a Linux program called say, but the difference between an 8086 and a P1 is extreme.

[@FoxWare]

@@joshuahudson2170 thanks!

[@stanleybochenek1862]

Possibly

[@protoborg]

Even when those where the current computers NO ONE CODED in assembly. So no you don't have to code this in assembly, you coding snob. Also, why the fuck would you be manipulating video RAM?

[@that1lizardjamie]

This video convinced me to check if there was a steam sale for Portal. There was, and I am now playing it for the first time. edit: do not regret it for one bit. i played through it and portal 2 several months ago. these games genuinely are some of the best ive ever played and they live in my head on a daily basis. definitely worth it. another update: since this comment, i have found myself exploring many more games i had not previously. i am currently in love with skyrim, and plan to play more older titles i missed as a kid because of my obsession with nintendo. this also gave me the push to invest in a gaming pc. thank you, hudson, for indirectly changing my life.

[@JohnSmith-me4ik]

Enjoy

[@TheCaptainSplatter]

I need to replay the first one in RT one of these days.

[@ZaCloud-Animations___she-her]

Thanks for the update. I'm GLaD you finally took the plunge & had a good time. ^_^

[@nvramdotli]

i really like how there's also "want you gone" on that floppy

[@HudsonGTV]

The "Want you Gone" program was not created by me (I actually do not remember where I got that one from). But the Still Alive program featured in the video was created by me. EDIT: The creator of the Want you gone program can be found here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/d6rdgoOln7BkpdE

[@xdigetelable]

I like the idea of the music without the lyrics. It makes it feel more like a Dying AI's final words, the final message they can get out while the majority of their processing systems are shutting down from being torn apart. Final, Dying Thoughts...

[@Tuxlion]

The sweet embrace... followed by the black box torturing glados with her death god knows how many times, but lets not worry about that.

[@_M_643]

And funnily enough the song is about how the AI is still alive...

[@Cotton_Door42]

k

[@suprememasteroftheuniverse]

You clearly knows nothing about computers. It just can't do any better.

[@lumethecrow9808]

@@suprememasteroftheuniverse You clearly know nothing about storytelling

[@user-fw1mm3gf5v]

POV: Chell finds a computer in Aperture Science Labs that still works

[@ahegpbtrftcotu]

The whole staging and lighting of this is so simplistically nostalgic and beautiful all on its own it's almost hard to believe it isn't a 3D render, even when we can see you picking up and moving things. Absolutely amazing 👏👏👏

[@SynnekoNya]

This hits hard all these years later still, and the way it just feels like a more deeper message is what makes it feel crazy.

[@the_kombinator]

That monitor is worth a fortune. Took me 15 years to get one, and I paid like $50 for it. Nice rig.

[@zavaraninoveuhorky]

really? We have 2 of them home in a boxes, I never knew theyre of some value

[@Wunmaz]

@@zavaraninoveuhorky It looks rare :o

[@JimmyRussle]

Thats the exact monitor I had on my 386 when i was a kid. It was great for its time.

[@brendanr1525]

@@the_kombinator I found an imbecile scammer on ebay who is selling a nokia crt for $500, with $10,000 shipping -_- these crts for high prices are scams. crts are worth nothing now, people throw crt out.

[@HudsonGTV]

I paid like $40 for mine. What makes this monitor special is it can connect to MDA, CGA, EGA, and VGA cards. Super useful for using with a variety of vintage computers.

[@GrayHairedGamer]

Happened upon this after finishing Portal RTX over the weekend. I love it! Great work. HUGE SUCCESS.

[@adanessethesixthadanesseth9816]

I see what you did there...

[@garfieldunderfridges4810]

It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.

[@catmaster8232]

too laggy for me, might overclock my pc

[@namenotappropriate8756]

Over the weekend? You can complete the game in like 50 minutes without even speedrunning it :|

[@GrayHairedGamer]

@@namenotappropriate8756 When you’re as old as I am, getting more than 15-30 minutes of gaming time in during one sitting is often as good as it gets. 😅

[@Jake_Broer]

Imagine this is actually GlaDOS acutally singing Still Alive and all we (and the characters in the game) hear is the beeping of a computer that we expect to be just music, but it's a sinister message that we will never escape and when we think we've done it all we're just brought back to the beginning to do it all over again.

[@avoidant560]

My jaw dropped and I can't seem to find it for the whole duration of this video! This is my first time seeing ancient technology in action! I am so GLaD the algorithm recommended me this video. Cheers.

[@Fogolol]

hey bro, i think i found your jaw, it's all the way over here in europe, man that thing flew but did you see mine though?

[@avoidant560]

@@Fogolol Sorry for the late reply, man. I got the package just now-and by package, I mean my jaw. Thanks for sending it back. I know it has been a couple of weeks, but have you found yours yet? Or has someone else in this comment section contacted you yet?

[@Duckbusinessman]

@@Fogololhey, finally found it! Flew into a tree that eventually got cut down today, fell right onto my lap. I’ll send it back. But by any chance have you seen mine?

[@Fogolol]

@@Duckbusinessman oh nice i've been missing that thing for a whole year now! Unfortunately i have not seen yours yet but i'll keep an eye out for it!

[@TornadoSandwich]

It’s even better because they used IBM PS/2 as the model for the computers on all the office desks in portal 2

[@jeffnay6502]

I remember writing a calendar program using QBasic many moons ago... Love the old IBM PC. I have an old IBM 5150 here with just two floppy disk drives in it. How big is that hard drive that you have in there? I remember doing a little PAC-Man program as well.

[@HudsonGTV]

Hi. It has a Seagate ST-225 MFM HDD, which has a 20MB capacity.

[@jeffnay6502]

@@HudsonGTV WOW !!! I remember those days. I think I had dual MFM 20M drives at one time. Running Novell 2.5 and DOS 5.0

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

@@HudsonGTV That is plenty enough for about 40 000 boot sector games ;)

[@ToasterBath]

​@@HudsonGTVit's crazy that 20 MB was considered massive back then... Now 20 MB hardly gets you anything

[@redstone1538]

This song brings a tear to my eye every time. Portal was a part of my childhood and I think I'm gonna carry my fondness for the world surrounding it and half life to my death.

[@GimmeTOKYO]

Man, seeing that IBM boot up brought back so many memories for me. Holy crap.

[@Chachoes]

I'd like to see more content like this, like watching or playing old games on a crt unit

[@SonOfMeme]

You might enjoy a channel called 'LGR'

[@SiBi2304]

this is amazing i love it! I immediately had to download it and play it on an MSDOS emulator.

[@TheUltimateYouTuberyay]

Assuming that it would work. Because that program I'm guessing is 16-bit. Your computer is probably 64-bit. I mean, it might work on DOSBox, but you're not gonna get the same experience as bare metal.

[@vinson3725]

@@TheUltimateKZbinryay he literally said with a msdos emulator

[@vinson3725]

And yes it works, i tested it

[@TaijanDean]

Stupid question, but is there such a thing as an MSDOS emulator of sorts for a vintage Macintosh. I have a Mac Plus, which I think would be fun to do something like this.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

@@TheUltimateKZbinryay Yeah, 64-Bit NT lacks the NTVDM, but stuff like DOSBox exist.

[@Bendilin]

It's endearing that you even included the game's credits, it's the fully authentic experience without being trapped in an abandoned Michigan mine repurposed into a testing facility.

[@cactusthestupid7222]

So cool! I love the noises it makes when it starts up, it really _feels_ like a machine, or perhaps some sort of creature.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

That spinup alonegives this warm and fuzzy feeling. And now I keep optimising my rickroll floppy.

[@quasarkosmis]

okay but it's so cool that the portal credits are fully plausible in terms of how they look for an old machine i don't know how to explain what i'm trying to say but

[@AvenRox]

I'd like to imagine that this is the "real" version that played somewhere in the depths of Aperture, and the lyrics and music we hear is what GLADoS herself is thinking, but not what is actually being output

[@sweetgirl070707]

Fun story... I was obsessed with Still Alive before playing Portal. It sounded so interesting that it made me play the game. I still listen to it sometimes.

[@SeanHodgins]

Nice! 👏

[@Robert-bn1gq]

System operative..Linux better.

[@Metqa]

Wow. Goosebumps. All the ambient sounds really sounds of the computer booting and reading will never not be a part of my memories.

[@shmitty_7317]

this made me wish i could go back to when portal and half life were the big games just to relive all this stuff

[@NotTheCIA1961]

Not sure if I'm missing your point, but both Portal and Half Life would've been around 2 decades after this computer.

[@tomothan]

You still can :) replay everything

[@TFD500Official]

i can just imagine this being used in a DOS virus actually, portal-themed

[@KevinChaires]

I love this! It's so oddly nostalgic hearing it like this, beeping cheerfully, with the constant hard drive background noise. Great work!

[@gyuhurn.z4152]

윈도우즈 XP가 주력이었던 2005년 무렵까지는 컴퓨터 부팅시 들리는 팬의 소음, 하드 디스크를 직직 읽는 소리, 삑하고 울리는 비프음들이 저 것과 완벽히 동일했었습니다. Until around 2005, when Windows XP was the mainstream The noise of the fan when the computer boots, the sound of reading the hard disk directly, and the beeping sound It was exactly the same as that one.

[@HarvestStudios_38]

i like how when ever it goes to "for the people who are still alive" it immediately cuts out instead of a music break.

[@thomasway0320]

This actually makes me kind of emotional, reminds me of the first time I beat this game when I was just a kid, playing with my big brother sitting beside me, the good ol times, simpler times. Now I’m still studying in a different city, and we’ve grown to like different genre of games, but we still talk about the days where we’d play Battlefield 2 testing dumbass mods and grind Warframe all day together. Thanks for this, this is amazing.

[@HudsonGTV]

Check out my friend's proof of concept of "Want You Gone" using multiple computers for each voice: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fYfEnp2fgtp2bMU Source code for my program has been added to the description of the video. BONUS CONTENT: Beta Test 1: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rpiccmiGmL2jnNk Beta Test 2: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jIWXg2OpZ8Stbck Final Beta: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qXbZh6aCn9OSkMk Examples attempted by other users: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oHfTYneErbJkb68

[@chuckufarlie8215]

You build gaming PCs? Info? Website? My old rig is across the country and needs both hardrives repaired. I don't know if I'm getting it back. I was wondering what it would cost to have one built, if that's a reasonable option. I have seen how it's cheaper to build it yourself and found that unenjoyable and not worth the money saved. I saw it in your channel description and thought I'd ask. Basically I need something that can run really heavily modded Skyrim fast as fuck. Highest specs I can get for least money would be my starting point. I can't remember all the jargon, I learn this stuff while I'm doing it and forget it, but I had an Asus motherboard, a western digital terrabyte hard drive and a SSD...I can't remember all the stuff, I researched it at the time individually. It would be great if I could get a machine without bloat wear and some crappy parts thrown in and all that. I don't know how this works so I was wondering what you charge etc. Further Information would be appreciated, but I don't want to make it sound like you have a sale on the line just yet, heh...more like an estimate and some context on how it would go down with you.

[@mantycoo390]

it's feels nostalgic even though I never played portal 1 or had a CRT Monitor

[@yamo511]

ok zoomer

[@n646n]

ok gen z

[@Vorticough]

you might be experiencing Anemoia (a feeling of nostalgia for things you was never there for) or you just are confusing nostalgia with another feeling

[@pomurain]

go play the portal series then! you won't regret it

[@edwardkendrick9641]

This is fantastic, all the fan and electronic sounds really add something nice to the track that just isn't there when played normally. I love the little details you added on the floppy disk itself too.

[@uploader11459]

You are an amazing human being. Thank you so much for contributing to my happiness and the happiness of so many others. This game has a very very special spot in my heart and will forever remain there. I've also dreamed of owning a legitimate terminal since before I even played the 1st portal on orange box (or fallout 3). So this was very special nostalgic for me.

[@SofaJusticeWarriors]

One doesn't go through the effort of doing all this without wanting to put smiles on faces, and let me tell ya', as DOS user who loves Portal, you sure put a smile on mine.

[@markycrash7229]

idk why this has me weirdly emotional but this was absolutely beautiful and i hope you have a wonderful day.

[@YourMothersFavouriteTerminal]

This is truly incredible. And lore accurate, too! The old Aperture ran on IBM machines, so this is exactly what could have happened in the game

[@scotthodgins7975]

Wow... the whole boot sequence, and keyboard typing sounds brought back many memories

[@HudsonGTV]

I decided to leave that in and have timestamps for those who didn't want to watch the boot sequence, as I think the boot sequence is a part of the whole experience.

[@scotthodgins7975]

@@HudsonGTV I still had my old apple ][+ up until about 10 years ago. Along with some 150 floppies that I could still tell you what games were on them.

[@gamingcorner107]

lol it sounds like a airplane taking off when you turn it on 0:05

[@lincolnv9261]

Well done internet person. I was almost brought to tears. Truly an amazing song from an amazing game, and at that amazingly performed. I’m gonna have to save this one. Thank you.

[@abyvs]

the lighting and camera work is beautiful

[@ZaCloud-Animations___she-her]

VERY nicely done for your first QuickBASIC program! What a neat idea, & beautiful way to present it. It feels so perfect to see this on a genuine old computer & CRT monitor. :3 Ahh, the nostalgia, in more ways than one...

[@thehipinmyear]

Man, that brought back the fucking feels..... This was one of the best treats to witness after beating the game. All the nods to the in-game lore... the connections between Aperture Science and Black Mesa... I remember losing my shit with my brother friend when she mentioned them - it was an awesome way to have a little nod towards the other series whilst not shattering the fourth wall. "YoOoOoOoO! She just made a shout out to Black Mesa!"

[@dreamhollow]

Whoever made this is not only the biggest nerd, but also the coolest Portal fan.

[@sophie____]

hearing the loud fan and those mechanical clicks feels like like a soft forgotten memory ❤

[@pbaryski]

I don’t even know where to start. It’s super cool that you went ahead and built this decided to share it on the Internet. And it’s incredible that KZbin figured out that I wanted to watch this.

[@NijiHoloFan]

The usage of that specific IBM CRT monitor to further match the credit roll made it even better. I imagine that this would be the last active computer in Aperture Laboratories that GlaDOS used to play this song, with the program printed onto that floppy disk. There's my immersive thinking. Amazing work! By the way, how long did it take you to program this?

[@HudsonGTV]

It took like 2-3 days. I wanted to challenge myself with a programming language I had never used and see what I could come up with. The code is pretty ugly though.

[@NijiHoloFan]

@@HudsonGTV wow, that's quicker than i imagined. Then again, like you said, you did want a challenge. As someone who came into the world a year before Win98 released, i can imagine coding in DOS would look ugly lol Once again, this came out amazingly well! Cheers!

[@egold555]

Aigh't that's neat. Nice work my dude!

[@Everettalla]

That makes the ending so much spookier knowing that this is realistically what chell saw

[@bloom-mania]

that ascii art brings this hold thing together amazingly

[@hydroxan1508]

This is cool as hell! Excellent job!

[@Xerdar36]

Oh my God, the boot up… it brings up so much memories

[@Xerdar36]

Yep reminds me of the old is of turning on my computer, walking away and pouring a cup of coffee and getting ready in the morning.

[@watercrate]

can confirm that this works on DOSBox! The download is in the description of this video if you would like to try it out!

[@deanharstad5404]

Why did this make me think the computer was kind of adorable Like, something about it doing its job and singing the little song was kind of cute. Also really fitting for the end credits of Portal lol. Super cool

[@MiketheTiger9]

This is beautiful and incredibly impressive

[@Kole_Gamer]

this is so amazing whattttt like this use to be like the old models from portal 1 or whatever and then they use the same coding dex of the apeture logo! truely nice and i love portal 1 and 2.

[@BattlewarPenguin]

That is awesome! Really enhances a lot the song having that computer running it Well done!

[@theemeraldjester5351]

This was incredibly charming and made my day. Thank you for making this.

[@blacklight683]

that pc still turned on faster than my current pc 💀(actually no joke)

[@armchairphilosopher6880]

This was high key a nostalgia overload Which is weird cus im 22. I wasn't around when this stuff was normal. Mostly... i remember a fair bit of the early 2000s One thing i think contrbutes is stuff like portal and halflife being these colossal aesthetic gateways into older tech as a kid. So in a way i kinda did grow up with retro stuff, just through a different means.

[@TurtMusic]

Something about this gives me a lonely, bittersweet, world-ending goodbye feeling.

[@maranathaschraag5757]

The whirring sound as the monitor powered off brought back some memories!

[@89ry89]

Well this was thoroughly awesome!

[@noctarin1516]

This makes me miss portal

[@protocetid]

there are developers in Valve that have publicly stated they have ideas for a Portal 3 and that they’re trying to convince their workmates to get it started

[@E5rael]

​@@protocetid Too bad it's really hard for anything to get enough momentum at Valve to actually turn into something substantial, with how their work culture is and all...

[@kleetus92]

That startup sound... man... My first computer was an IBM XT with the 8086 at a blazing 6 MHz. Had a ram expansion card about the size of 4080... but not as thick. I had a meg and a half of memory. Those where the days of dial up bulletin board systems.

[@ErzaRosenberg]

Still bringing people smiles a year in. Thank you.

[@GetloHawking]

This almost brought a tear to my eye. I still remember the day I first beat it, I got through the entire thing on my first sitting and I don't regret a single second of it. Even if it never gets another sequel, for me Portal will always be Still Alive. . /```\./```\ \.........../ ..\......./ ....\.../ ......V

[@ghostmagic416]

Love it.

[@sirflimflam]

I love this. Some of my first Qbasic programs in the 90s was music from my favorite video games at the time (specifically Mario and Sonic) with some kind of ASCII backdrop. This really brings me back.

[@metalsuazo1173]

por cosas como estas amo a internet y a las personas

[@imSaerilee]

Just having the buzzing in the background makes me relax. Like we're back in time, where we're younger and didn't have things to think about other than to play

[@kettujabamiesukkeliukko]

This is just so wholesome. It's like old Aperture computers in the buried section.

[@zazuradia]

OMG this was SO satisfying. As a fan of Portal and retro computers, this was pure joy. Thank you.

[@monkeywithocd]

Too bad this isn't an amber phosphor monochrome CRT. =P Still, good job. Been trying to learn Cartridge BASIC on my PCjr so I can make similar stuff, so I know how time consuming something like this can be.

[@gdfgdfgdggdhhgfgfh1271]

I had years ago a green monochrome monitor on a 286 running dos 5.0 and a 300/1200 baud external modem. Dialup BBS systems were the best.

[@HudsonGTV]

I unfortunately do not own one. At least my monitor had an amber text mode, but it will of course not be as sharp as a purely monochrome tube.

[@MIurbex]

kick ass

[@niradtcat1062]

I'm crying joy over this. Well done

[@ITBERYAN]

Absolutely incredible, some of the pauses are a little too short so it doesn't line up perfectly with the music I'm hearing in my head, but goddamn it's really awesome to see it like this!

[@Klonkus]

You'd be lucky to get a monitor from today to last as long as this CRT did.

[@BrowncoatFairy]

uhm i'm gonna disagree with that -- those old CRT monitors, while they have their advantages, do inevitably require recapping and other stuff to remain functional. modern LCD screens will probably work for a much longer time on average.

[@Klonkus]

@@BrowncoatFairy Yeah how about I drive my car through your house what about that smart guy

[@BrowncoatFairy]

@@Klonkus awww look folks, i hurt the edgy boy's feelings. it's ok, little guy. you'll get 'em next time.

[@Klonkus]

@@BrowncoatFairy You are so geriatric

[@sleeplessengineer1450]

@@BrowncoatFairy I wonder if it depended on the quality of caps or how often the crt was used, because i have a 1977 toshiba tv that I think has never been worked on yet still works fine.

[@mEandthEgamE]

Holy...shit

[@PlauS__]

This shit is so good, after so many years, this thing still works like new

[@isitlauren]

This is what my heart monitor will play before I flatline

[@arrowrunner]

Do you have the source code available for download?

[@HudsonGTV]

I may include a GitHub link in the description, but I haven't yet because my code is really messy as this was my first QuickBasic program and I'm kinda embarrassed about it.

[@HudsonGTV]

github.com/HudsonGTV/STILLALI

[@heartcore7339]

oh god this made me feel so nostalgic, I feel like I can't feel like before... thanks for posting this

[@brianwhit1646]

Thank you for making this, its incredible and special.

[@finwik5448]

Dear lord, I feel old looking at this and i wasn't even alive for it's use!

[@gracebohler4380]

This was a delight. Awesome job 🟠🏃‍♀️🔵