This Cake is Not a Lie: Portal on iPhone is Real

Last week a mysterious video surfaced of what appeared to be Portal, Valve’s popular puzzle game, running on the iPhone. Many commenters on YouTube, Reddit and other social sites called it a fake. And who could really blame them. The game shown in the video looked nearly identical to the PC version, how could a mobile device run a desktop class game? True, Portal is by no means a power hog like Crysis, but it’s not exactly mobile friendly either.

After reading through various comment threads I started to seriously doubt the validity of the video myself. So I contacted the creator of video to gather more information. He was kind enough to send me a copy of the game. I loaded it up on my iPhone 3GS and off I went. Even after launching the game and getting some hands on time with it apart of me still had trouble believing. I was simply amazed that Portal could actually run on the iPhone.

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52 Comments

  1. rob says:

    I AT LEAST WANT PORTAL FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

  2. rob says:

    i really wish nintendo would make games. sega already has, and nintendo could do great if they get a good iphone programmer. but something tells me if they do make apps, they won’t. like the de Blob game. it suks. they COULD have made it etter, but they didnt because they are cheap and just make promo games. i just can’t believe they charged that much for such a stupid little game.

  3. jeremywhite says:

    may i ask who the original creator was. i’m curious if he ever plans on any time of release or any other progress made on the game or if he has any other projects.

    i need a good puzzle and a fps for iphone, and portal is perfect for this. but seeing his work with portal, i’m fascinated in any other works.

  4. CyberCitizen says:

    It’s not entirely Portal, it’s called Teleport it’s a VNC client. You need to have a server installed on your machine and connect via WiFi.

    • Ironcell says:

      No VNC is necessary, the game runs on the iPhone itself, not through a server.

      Please do not post links to files in the comments. I’m sure you have good intentions, but there’s always the possibility someone could be linking to files that contain computer viruses.

      • CyberCitizen says:

        Well The IPA File I Linked Had The IPA File, That IPA File Was A Custom Version Of VNC That Links To A Server, So Your Saying That The Version That You Have Is A Single IPA File That Contains All Of The Portal Settings And At Least A Level. How Big Is The IPA File You Have, I Still Don’t Believe It To Be Standalone. Would Love To See Some More Proof.

        • Ironcell says:

          When developers share their app with you, it’s done through ad hoc, each copy has an expiration date, after that date the app no longer works until you have an updated provision file. There are ways around this, but I’m not a hacker and I had no further interest in testing Portal on the iPhone, I’ve already recorded a video to share with readers, which was the only purpose I had for obtaining a copy.

          After my copy expired I deleted the file to make sure it never spreads, I feel that it’s up to the original creator of the application if they wish to distribute that app, it’s their call, not mine.

        • Rob says:

          Why do they bother making them then don’t launch? I HATE it with all my guts when a company does something like that, show something awesome to people then never release it. It appears to be working, so there’s no reason he shouldn’t add a beta version to the app store. Tell him this.

  5. jeremywhite says:

    i must say that is amazing, and the controls look like they would provide beautiful gameplay. such a shame valve doesn’t have anyone in iphone development, or to allow others to release their games for the iphone.

    glad to see there are so many amazing possibilities for the iphone and ipod touch.

  6. Tim says:

    Fair enough, but perhaps you should change the post title to “The Cake is Not a Lie (But you can’t have any)” :P
    PS. Not your blame to take, of course.

  7. Bill Clay says:

    Would all you pathetic leeches stop begging for a copy of this demo. He already stated this is not for distribution, and you morons still keep posting your email addresses.

    • Ironcell says:

      I appreciate the comment Bill.

    • rob says:

      Bill, shut up. think about this. if it’s not for distribution, then why show it to people? he could have just not shown it to anybody then we would be Ok because we didn’t know that we were missing out. im searching all over the internet to find it, unsuccessfully so far. i just want to see it for my own eyes. i don’t have to own it. i do agree on the email thing though =)

  8. Altair77 says:

    Can I have a copy too at Devilmanaltair1995@yahoo.com .I want that realy bad …. Thanks

    -peace

  9. Manila says:

    Could I please have a copy of this game at Manuel.Nila@gmail.com i love tis game and I would greatly appriciate this game =)

  10. Uncle Jah says:

    Maybe a cydia release…? Caaamon, I need this cake!
    I’m a noobie developer and would love to try help progression,
    like I said it’s a favorite!
    First you will be baked, then there will be cake.

  11. Uncle Jah says:

    Btw could you send it to unclejahjah@googlemail.com, if possible.
    Xxxxx thanks

  12. Uncle Jah says:

    Please could I get a copy of this .IPA, I would like to contribute with it being a favorite of mine. Let’s get a sexy companion cube going baby! I Would be most thankful.
    Uncle Jah X

  13. robert says:

    @ironcell- who exactly is developing it?

    • Ironcell says:

      I didn’t get the person’s actual name, he was kind enough to provide me a copy to prove that it was in fact real. Respecting the developer’s wishes, I did not spread copies of Portal on iPhone.

      • robert says:

        ok…
        By the way, is it coming out on itunes anytime within 2 months?

      • Ironcell says:

        I don’t think the game will ever come to the App Store, the game shown in the video was ported by a third party, not by the original developers, valve. Valve hasn’t ported any of their games to mac or iPhone so the odds of them porting any future games seems pretty slim.

        But not all is lost. These developers have made a significant accomplishment by porting Portal to the iPhone, they showed us just how capable the iPhone hardware really is. I personally think it’s quite impressive to see a game like Portal run smoothy on a device that fits in the palm of my hand.

      • robert says:

        yes, but there isnt anyone who has taken advantage of that yet. i will wait for it anyway.

        so do you know his email? email it to me so people don’t junk up his inbox w/ mail about the game.

      • robert says:

        Wait…
        By third party did you mean he was still developing the game, but he didn’t get permission from Valve, or did you just see the video because he had somehow got a hold of a Valve project?

  14. robert says:

    …and for those who doubt the graphics, look closer. look at the button. look at the portal animation. notice how the backgrounds are made of rectangle shapes. take a look at the physics. as far as the file size, the original would still fit on the ipod, even the smallest gb one, 8 gb. also look how when he goes through the portal. It’s possible. just face it, @ those who like to argue.

  15. robert says:

    I know that ( above ) is pathetic, but I’m asking for the game for christmas.

  16. robert says:

    could you email it to me? i am a HUGE portal fan, but dont have the actual game so i have devoted at least 30 mins a day working on emulations of it, mostly on roblox. they are fine, but you cant see the portals. plz email it to me. i really want to try it.- linkandnavi@yahoo.com . you can get to know me if you want, too.

  17. Kyle says:

    Pls send to me as well!! fsfsunshine@gmail.com

  18. Arc says:

    Super. A portal for iPhone – developers good fellows!

  19. expdk says:

    would like a copy also :)

    contact@explode.dk

  20. Zoltan says:

    Please please please zoltan99@gmail.com

  21. Austin says:

    Tht would b so cool if i could get this plz send me a copy shadowleu13@hotmail.com

  22. Simon Foster says:

    If it is possible, please, send it to me too. That would be amazing. Please again and thank you anyway )
    simfoster@gmail.com

  23. Jerry says:

    Can someone please send me the file or name, or whatever, where i can get it?? would be AWESOME to get it ! my mail is jerry.ask@gmail.com :]

  24. Xavier says:

    So its called “Teleport” right? I can’t find it in the app store, can you please e-mail me where you got it please! xgamercrazy@yahoo.com . THANK SO MUCH

  25. Justin says:

    Hey i would love it if someone could send me this file with basic instructions on how to install it. Portal is my favorite puzzle game of all time! If you could be so kind to send it to me you can email me at Hypergeek7399@aol.com. Thanks in advance ;)

  26. Tom Pepper says:

    This isn’t running directly on the iphone – it’s a remote desktop technology playing it remotely on a VM in a datacenter somewhere. Still, brilliant.

    • Ironcell says:

      Good guess, but I’d like to point out, this build of Portal on the iPhone does not use any Internet access. I can assure you no remote desktop streaming is occurring here.

  27. “I was simply amazed that Portal could actually run on the iPhone.”

    Why? The gameboy advance, an arm7 running at 16mHz with 25% the pixels pushed, can run Quake levels, and Portal’s rendering engine isn’t much more complex. The modern iPhone is a 600mHz ARM with 256 meg of ram three orders of magnitude faster than the GBA and 1024x the RAM.

    3d engines aren’t that expensive. The reason most of your iPhone games are horrifically slow is that they’re written by people with no idea what they’re doing. Your iPhone is as powerful as a top of the line PC from about ten years ago, and Portal doesn’t put significantly more demand on a machine than games of that era.

  28. [...] on iPhone According to OSXReality, it looks like iPhone owners are going to be getting a seriously badass addition to their iPhone [...]

  29. James says:

    Wow! I also suspected the original video to be a fake, but this seems to prove otherwise.

    It would be great if Valve released it on the App store.

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