Unofficial Portal Port to Android Canned Due to Legal Issues

[Chris D]

Android Community are reporting that an unofficial Android port of Portal has now been cancelled at the request of Valve's legal team.

There was also a video of the port (alpha version) running on an Android device which you can see below. It's clear from this video why Valve might not necessarily be keen on being associated with the effort, but at the same time disappointing that we might not get the chance to play Portal on a touch device.

Then again, what else would you expect when you start making a port without the original developer's permission?

 

[ríomhaire]

Aw. Too bad Valve didn't just licence them.

 

[Chris D]

My feeling is that perhaps a mobile port of some games are in the works, maybe that's why they canned it!

If they ported it properly I'd pay money for it.

 

[bobtheskull]

Strange. Not sure how smooth the interface would have been on later levels. It is a pity though, would have been interesting.

 

[JossiRossi]

It seems to me that cancellation is the best thing to happen to this. Look at those controls, they are horrid! Can you imagine using one hand to move, the other to steer, and then somehow placing portals? My guess is that you'd tap one control or the other, which means that you would either stop moving or stop looking while doing that. For the first few levels this might be tolerable, but by the end? The first Portal had quite a few twitch reaction time locations where you'd need to shoot a portal while in the air or fail. No way this apps control scheme would cut it.

Also it was really foolish of anyone to develop an unofficial port to a handheld device when Valve had already announced it was bringing Steam to hand held devices.

They look competent in their porting, so hopefully this team will go and make a good original game instead. I'd be very interested in that.

 

[Vegeta897]

FPS games that require simultaneous movement and looking in this manner just can't be done well on a touch screen without an external controller. It's like trying to play a 2d platformer with only a mouse.

 

[tabernumse]

My feeling is that perhaps a mobile port of some games are in the works, maybe that's why they canned it!

If they ported it properly I'd pay money for it.

I would love that...
I just don't think it's especially likely.