Multimorphic today announced the latest game kit for their P3 pinball platform with the reveal of Portal.
Based on the popular first-person puzzle platform game by Valve, Portal pinball’s action takes place within the Aperture Science Enrichment Center human testing facility, and features many of the video game’s key elements including the portals themselves, two Companion Cubes, turret guns, jumps and the acid pit.
The game is fully licenced from Valve, with the video game’s developers working with the Multimorphic team to ensure all the features are accurately represented and they had access to all the assets from the Portal and Portal 2 games.
Ellen McLain reprises her role as the voice of the GLaDOS control system which runs the Center and administers the objectives, while an additional Personality Core called Reggie is voiced by Marc Silk. Personality Cores are plug-in layers which were designed to (and ultimately failed to) prevent GLaDOS turning on its human creators.
The game design is a team effort, with a mix of established Multimorphic members mixed with some new talent.
Stephen Silver is Co-Creative Director and in charge of video animations, Michael Ocean is also Co-Creative Director and handles the software alongside Ian Harrower who is the third Co-Creative Director.
Portal is Ian’s first game working for Multimorphic, although not his first P3 title. He previously created and published the Bird Watcher and Blood Bank Billiards mini-games under the Ian Harrower Games brand.
Also making his Multimorphic team debut is Brad Albright who created the game’s artwork. Brad is a regular exhibitor at the Texas Pinball Festival where he can be found exhibiting many examples of his 2D and 3D artworks. At last year’s show he also showed the full art package he created from David Peck’s Motörhead game which is expected to be produced by Spooky Pinball.
Multimorphic regulars TJ Weaver and Trey Jones created the mechanicals for Portal, while Rory Cernuda was the Technical Artist and also worked on the video animations.
Game Designer and Musician, Scott Danesi, was in charge of the audio package for Portal.
As usual with new Multimorphic releases, the title is available as either a plug-in playfield module or as an entire Portal-branded P3 machine.
So, is there cake, or is the cake a lie? Let’s find out by taking a look at the full Portal pinball.
The playfield module is described by Multimorphic as having more features than any module they have made before.
It includes two aerial ball features (the Faith Plate and the Momentum Jump), an upper-left mini-playfield with a moving Companion Cube, a loop, plus two standup targets, the Faith Plate landing zone and right Companion Cube, two playfield lift ramps with portals underneath, a full left/right orbit lane, plus a centre orbit shot, a Turret Control Center scoop, a captive ball on the right in front of another portal, a right-side dual-purpose sculpt featuring a Personality Core (Reggie) with an animated iris on one side and a turret with LEDs for its iris and guns on the other, plus three more standup targets on the main playfield level.
The Companion Cube on the mini-playfield can be ‘pushed through’ the portal so it disappears on the upper playfield and re-appears out of the other side of the portal at the base of the Faith Plate landing zone. This can then be used as a ball lock for multiball.
There is a captive ball in front of a portal which pushes the ball through, so it too ‘reappears’ on the other side. It is flanked by two of the three playfield-level standup targets (plus the other two seen above on the upper playfield).
Next to the captive ball is a rotating sculpt with different features on either side.
Also shown above is one of the game’s two lift ramps, each with portals beneath. Between them is the Faith Plate aerial ball launcher.
Next to the left lift ramp is the Turret Control Center scoop where Turret Multiball is started, and also where the Office Party Surprise mystery award is given.
Portal introduces some changes from the design philosophy of previous P3 game modules.
For the first time, as well as a packed upper playfield module, significant additional mechanical features have been added to the lower part of the game’s playfield.
These new top-mounted mechanisms extend over, and interact with, the under-playfield LCD. They include and right inlane diverter (which sends the ball either to the inlane or to a kickback), the kickback mech, a right lift ramp, a left-side user-controlled Wall Plate, a left-side orbit lane entrance, a spinner, and four additional standup targets.
On the extended left side, the flipping Wall Plate mechanically attaches to the upper left flipper on the main playfield level to allow it to push the ball off the ramp return.
These playfield extenders are optional and the game will work perfectly well without them, although there are some changes to the gameplay. The Portal P3 game is available with or without the extenders. Without them, the game is called Portal Standard, whereas the version which includes them is referred to, reasonably enough, as the Portal Extended. The extenders can also be purchased later and added to the Portal Standard playfield to turn it into an Extended model .
Multimorphic head, Gerry Stellenberg, told Pinball News that the team have always had the ability to add mechanisms to the lower part of the playfield, but it needed a theme such as Portal, where you are exploring rooms full of interactive items, before it made sense to add them.
Portal‘s gameplay sees the player attempting to complete a series of objectives based around areas of the playfield. These are: Ramps, Loops, Portal Mini-Loops, Hard Light Bridge, Momentum Jump, Repulsion Gel, All Targets and All Portals.
Completing one of the objectives leads to a hurry-up on the Faith Plate at the top of the playfield. These hurry-ups can be stacked if you can complete them quickly enough, rather like the hurry-ups on Attack from Mars. After completing them all, they reset and become both more valuable and more difficult to complete the next time.
Gerry described how they created the rules for Portal.
He told us, “We landed on a main ‘Hub’ mode that presents a ’90s-style ruleset, where you have a bunch of objectives to complete to prove you’ve mastered the playfield features, each resulting in a stackable hurry-up on the Faith Plate, along with three stackable multiballs. There’s also an elevator call button, which, when hit, brings up the left-most scoop as the elevator. Shooting into the elevator takes you to one of six planned (four currently playable) Test Chambers, where we introduce different and theme/story-integrated patterns and puzzles. There are two additional modes planned for Rat Man and the final GLaDOS battle (wizard mode).”
The four Test Chambers currently in the game are:
- The Big Fling (shoot the flashing shots to climb higher)
- Encouragement via Discouragement (shoot pedestal buttons to invite team members, shoot the spinner to rotate beam, & activate four receptacles to open the exit)
- Proactive Energy Redirection (shoot the flashing shots to set deflection panels in the correct position)
- It Takes Two (grab the Companion Cube and carry it through to the end)
A pinball based on a video title needs to respectfully honour the look and feel of the video game. That means extensive use of dynamic imagery on the under-playfield LCD panel not only to convey the atmosphere and illustrate your progress through the game, but also to indicate the required shots.
If you already own a P3, the pricing for the Portal game kit is $3,900 for the Standard version, plus another $1,600 if you want the Extended kit.
Complete Portal-themed P3 machine pricing is $11,620 for the Standard, or $12,500 for the Extended version.
The optional topper is priced at $750.
Orders for Portal pinball are open from 10am Central Time through the Multimorphic website.
Pre-order deposits are required to secure your order and your place in the production schedule. The production of Portal modules and entire Portal machines is scheduled to start in the summer of this year.
Multimorphic have also created a promotional video for Portal showing many of the game’s features, the Extended model’s additions, and a first chance to hear the voices of GLaDOS and Reggie.
Here it is:
The current Referral Program which offers a $1,000 discount to new P3 buyers and $1,000 store credit to P3 owners who refer the new P3 purchaser is still open. To speed up the process and ensure buyers don’t risk any delays in securing their spot, Portal buyers just need to indicate the referrer’s name and registered e-mail address when placing their order.
We look forward to trying Multimorphic’s new Portal game at the Texas Pinball Festival which starts on Friday. Check out the Pinball News show coverage once it begins later this week to find out much more, and then listen to the joint Pinball News and Pinball Magazine Pinball Industry News PINcast at the start of April to hear our thoughts.
