DATA ENTRY: PORTAL [VR]

DATA ENTRY: PORTAL is a VR game sourced from the adventure game Portal created by Rob Swigart and published by Activision in 1986. Moving the gameplay from the 2D space of the Commodore 64 and other early computers to the 3D environment of the Quest 2 enhances player experience through immersive images, sound, and interactive elements.

Portal is the brainchild of writer Rob Swigart who had become interested in Cyberpunk novels of the mid-1980s and their prevalent trope of internet consciousness. This trope became the germ of Swigart's idea that the computer screen is a kind of doorway‑a portal‑into a different fictional world. After writing a music software program manual for Activision, Swigart proposed his idea for Portal. Swigart's friend, Gilman Louie, who owned a company called Nexa (later Spectrum-Holobyte), came on board as the game's programmer. Meetings with Activision led Swigart to create the game as a database management system. The game was released to much acclaim in 1986. No longer accessible in its original format, Portal can still be played through emulation software.

Learn more about the project on our website.