# Aperture Science DS, NEW NDS Homebrew



## Another World (Aug 21, 2013)

Aperture Science DS, previously known as Portal DS, is a Homebrew version of the popular Portal game series. The project has been released as part of the Neo Flash 2013 coding competition. It features most of the mechanics found in the series and a level editor inspired by Portal 2's perpetual testing initiative.

 Download
 Project Page
 Source


----------



## redact (Aug 21, 2013)

So much yes!
I've been waiting for this baby to be released


----------



## .Chris (Aug 21, 2013)

I've been waiting for this! I wish I still had my DS to test this out, but I guess I'll have to use my Xperia Play with DraStic to run it. 
Thanks smealum and lobo!


----------



## bobmcjr (Aug 21, 2013)

.Chris said:


> I've been waiting for this! I wish I still had my DS to test this out, but I guess I'll have to use my Xperia Play with DraStic to run it.
> Thanks smealum and lobo!


I don't believe it will work with DraStic as at least the maps folder and config.ini require an sdcard to write to. (DraStic doesn't do R4 emulation yet)


----------



## .Chris (Aug 21, 2013)

bobmcjr said:


> I don't believe it will work with DraStic as at least the maps folder and config.ini require an sdcard to write to. (DraStic doesn't do R4 emulation yet)


Oh, that's a shame. I'll have to wait a little longer then lol  . 
(I still got an AK2i but have a DSi with 1.4.5  )


----------



## bobmcjr (Aug 21, 2013)

.Chris said:


> Oh, that's a shame. I'll have to wait a little longer then lol  .
> (I still got an AK2i but have a DSi with 1.4.5  )


And actually, I just tested on DraStic. It does boot, but just like on my DS, crashes 1-2 seconds after the elevator door opens. It does work with desmume so it probably works with nds4droid (if you want to play it at the speed of a potato).


----------



## pasc (Aug 21, 2013)

You Do realize that the Readme states that hbmenu is needed to run this cause itrequires fsnitro ?

Works on my Gbamp CF however …

it seems  you can only walk around.

If you could at least use the portal gun.
It makes the "shooting" sound, but doesn't create portals.

I wish smealum would reply to this thread and clarify this.


----------



## smealum (Aug 21, 2013)

bobmcjr said:


> And actually, I just tested on DraStic. It does boot, but just like on my DS, crashes 1-2 seconds after the elevator door opens. It does work with desmume so it probably works with nds4droid (if you want to play it at the speed of a potato).


 
that shouldn't happen anymore since the latest update I was able to do thanks to your guru meditation report.  download it again !



pasc said:


> You Do realize that the Readme states that hbmenu is needed to run this cause itrequires fsnitro ?
> 
> Works on my Gbamp CF however …
> 
> ...


do you mean on your DS, not on emu? it should work. try deleting config.ini if you copied it maybe...


----------



## pasc (Aug 21, 2013)

I mean DS.

Here are two vids:
Guru Meditation Error 
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u...omebrew/Portal_DS/Guru_meditation_error-1.mp4 

Select Level 
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u...port/DS/Homebrew/Portal_DS/Select_level-2.mp4


----------



## smealum (Aug 21, 2013)

pasc said:


> I mean DS.
> 
> Here are two vids:
> Guru Meditation Error
> ...


getting a 404 on both of those. the guru meditation error shouldn't happen anymore with the latest version though.


----------



## pasc (Aug 21, 2013)

yeah, they are still busy uploading to my Dropbox...

Downloading the latest version from your website works !
The filetrip one is still broken

Suggestion:

make R blue portals  and L orange ones.

Other than that: AWESOME


----------



## smealum (Aug 21, 2013)

pasc said:


> yeah, they are still busy uploading to my Dropbox...
> 
> Downloading the latest version from your website works !
> The filetrip one is still broken
> ...


 
ok so for filetrip I'll see what I can do.
and in your video you're trying to shoot portals on black walls which are "unportalable". 
as for controls, you can change them yourself! take a look at the included config.ini file in the asds folder.


----------



## pasc (Aug 21, 2013)

Somehow this thing should win I think.

It works so smooth that one wonders why a Portal DS was never realized.

Now for a ridiculous question:
How about custom background music support ? 
Lets drop our mp3's inside a /data/apsds folder or something


----------



## raulpica (Aug 21, 2013)

Probably the most graphically stunning game ever released on DS, and it's homebrew, to top that! Big kudos to smealum


----------



## smealum (Aug 21, 2013)

pasc said:


> Somehow this thing should win I think.
> 
> It works so smooth that one wonders why a Portal DS was never realized.
> 
> ...


 
unfortunately it's not that simple. basically the DS has two CPUs, a main one (arm9) and a secondary one (arm7) in DS mode. the arm7 has access to all the sound hardware and the arm9 does not, so usually only menial tasks are relegated to it, such as playing sound and such. the thing is, in portal I use it to run my physics engine ! so not only can it not really spare the cpu power to decode any kind compressed of sound format, it's actually got very, very little RAM left available (I think in this latest version it has like 4KB of ram left out of 96KB). so I can't add any kind of code to decode stuff there, and I can't very well decode it on the arm9 either because, well, it has to run the game so it's pretty taxed itself already. so essentially the only solution would be to use RAW format sounds (which is what I did for the couple SFX I threw in there), but since they're uncompressed, they take insane amounts of RAM that I just don't have right now.
so that's why there's no music of yet; I still have to think about how I might get that to work. but mp3 is pretty much out completely of the picture at this point. 


also I just realized that I'd forgotten to switch to higher res textures before releasing.... I still have like 100KB of vram left, so I could get the doors and such to look much nicer, but I guess it's too late now.


----------



## pasc (Aug 21, 2013)

About that control ini file:
I changed the bracket from [notouch_controls] to [controls] as stated, however the game still hasn't got
INPUT_R=CONTROL_SHOOTY
INPUT_R=CONTROL_SHOOTB
applied.

Saving and creating levels to the cf card seems to work fine, so dldi or something similar shouldn't be the problem.

why is that ?


----------



## Coto (Aug 21, 2013)

smealum said:


> unfortunately it's not that simple. basically the DS has two CPUs, a main one (arm9) and a secondary one (arm7) in DS mode. the arm7 has access to all the sound hardware and the arm9 does not, so usually only menial tasks are relegated to it, such as playing sound and such. the thing is, in portal I use it to run my physics engine ! so not only can it not really spare the cpu power to decode any kind compressed of sound format, it's actually got very, very little RAM left available (I think in this latest version it has like 4KB of ram left out of 96KB). so I can't add any kind of code to decode stuff there, and I can't very well decode it on the arm9 either because, well, it has to run the game so it's pretty taxed itself already. so essentially the only solution would be to use RAW format sounds (which is what I did for the couple SFX I threw in there), but since they're uncompressed, they take insane amounts of RAM that I just don't have right now.
> so that's why there's no music of yet; I still have to think about how I might get that to work. but mp3 is pretty much out completely of the picture at this point.
> 
> 
> also I just realized that I'd forgotten to switch to higher res textures before releasing.... I still have like 100KB of vram left, so I could get the doors and such to look much nicer, but I guess it's too late now.


 

Great work smealum !


----------



## bobmcjr (Aug 21, 2013)

Fun Fact: Standing under a vertical platform will push you below the map


----------



## T-hug (Aug 21, 2013)

This looks fantastic great work smealum! Unfortunately I can't test it as I no longer have a DS but I do use drastic a lot with my FC30!


----------



## smealum (Aug 21, 2013)

bobmcjr said:


> Fun Fact: Standing under a vertical platform will push you below the map


 
yeah I meant to make the player die in that case but I forgot. you'll find player collisions are rather buggy in general.

btw, just made two videos : 
* *​


----------



## dragonblood9999 (Aug 21, 2013)

It crashes for me on my acekard 2i on my 1 gen ds as soon as I fire the portal gun


----------



## smealum (Aug 21, 2013)

dragonblood9999 said:


> It crashes for me on my acekard 2i on my 1 gen ds as soon as I fire the portal gun


 
what do you mean by crash ? guru meditation error ? if so, can you give me the address next to "pc" ?


----------



## dragonblood9999 (Aug 21, 2013)

smealum said:


> what do you mean by crash ? guru meditation error ? if so, can you give me the address next to "pc" ?



Sorry I deleted it and now I can't download it from filetrip.
But I do think it was a guru meditation error.


----------



## smealum (Aug 21, 2013)

dragonblood9999 said:


> Sorry I deleted it and now I can't download it from filetrip.
> But I do think it was a guru meditation error.


 
ok well you could download it from here : http://smealum.net/ASDS/ASDS_r1.zip
if you do try it again, let me know !


----------



## dragonblood9999 (Aug 21, 2013)

smealum said:


> ok well you could download it from here : http://smealum.net/ASDS/ASDS_r1.zip
> if you do try it again, let me know !


for some reason it's working now. i put it in the same folder that it was in before


----------



## smealum (Aug 21, 2013)

dragonblood9999 said:


> for some reason it's working now. i put it in the same folder that it was in before


 
maybe you had the old version ! at any rate, glad to hear it works.


----------



## dragonblood9999 (Aug 21, 2013)

smealum said:


> maybe you had the old version ! at any rate, glad to hear it works.


I downloaded it from the download link on the first post. So I don't know if it's the old version.


----------



## pasc (Aug 21, 2013)

I also love this error:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u...Homebrew/Portal_DS/3_Portalds_blkscreen-1.mp4


----------



## lismati (Aug 21, 2013)

dragonblood9999 said:


> It crashes for me on my acekard 2i on my 1 gen ds as soon as I fire the portal gun


 
Have exactly the same thing.


----------



## filfat (Aug 22, 2013)

Finnaly  great job 

(Off topic alert)
Smelaum post one more post so you get 404 XD


----------



## BLsquared (Aug 23, 2013)

I've been running the r1 version from Smealum's site on my Acekard 2i in a newer DS Lite, and it runs perfectly!  
Also,  while I have yet to play the original Portal 1/2, I think that this is awesome! 
Great job!


----------



## myspacee (Aug 24, 2013)

GREAT job Smealum!

test on my fake r4 and playing without stopping, is there any donation page?

thank you,
m.


----------



## zfreeman (Aug 25, 2013)

myspacee said:


> GREAT job Smealum!
> 
> test on my fake r4 and playing without stopping, is there any donation page?
> 
> ...


 
Check the upper right of his homepage. http://smealum.net/


----------



## Mthb54 (Aug 27, 2013)

Its awsome, thanks smealum!!


----------



## drakorex (Jun 20, 2014)

I have a DSTWO. So I need to download NitroFS in order for this to work?


----------



## Sicklyboy (Jun 20, 2014)

drakorex said:


> I have a DSTWO. So I need to download NitroFS in order for this to work?


 
EOS has NitroFS support.

Try to run it, and see if it works.

If it doesn't, download and run it through the Homebrew Menu program.


----------



## drakorex (Jun 20, 2014)

Sicklyboy said:


> EOS has NitroFS support.
> 
> Try to run it, and see if it works.
> 
> If it doesn't, download and run it through the Homebrew Menu program.


Ok. Just wasn't sure if I needed Nitro tracker or some shiz.

Oshit. Stacking portals causes a guru meditation error. o.O

And also, the eternal bungie.

WEEEEE?


----------



## bobmcjr (Jun 20, 2014)

Stacking portals will cause the meditation error on any flash cart or emulator.

Also, since you have a DSTwo, could you try creating and saving a level in the level editor? My DSTwo freezes, but I think it's the microSD.


----------



## piratesephiroth (Oct 4, 2014)

best part was when the custom controls didn't work and smealum never answered any questions about it


----------



## abveost (Jan 17, 2015)

piratesephiroth said:


> best part was when the custom controls didn't work and smealum never answered any questions about it


That was the best part, wasn't it?  I was upset at how good this game was until I learned it was unplayable due to the controls.  Now that it's clear the custom controls will never be fixed I can sleep easy at night.


----------



## smealum (Jan 17, 2015)

yes let's all be dicks to the person putting hundreds of hours into making you a game for free just because he's unable to deliver a perfect product.


----------



## Another World (Jan 17, 2015)

abveost said:


> That was the best part, wasn't it?  I was upset at how good this game was until I learned it was unplayable due to the controls.  Now that it's clear the custom controls will never be fixed I can sleep easy at night.



1st post eh? you're off to a good start. good job. pat yourself on the back. you've accomplished your goal for the day.



smealum said:


> yes let's all be dicks to the person putting hundreds of hours into making you a game for free just because he's unable to deliver a perfect product.



did i read something on twitter about this making its way over to the 3ds? would that mean a possible future for the project?

-another world


----------



## Jhynjhiruu (Jan 30, 2017)

It's sad because a lot of people like this game but it's almost impossible to download now, and even the 3DS version is hard to find...


----------



## FAST6191 (Jan 30, 2017)

Jhynjhiruu said:


> It's sad because a lot of people like this game but it's almost impossible to download now, and even the 3DS version is hard to find...


Like the download link from the first page?
https://filetrip.net/nds-downloads/games/download-aperture-science-ds-r1-v2-f32304.html
and the 3ds version (called portal3ds)
https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-do-i-install-aperture-science-portal-3ds-on-my-n3ds-xl.397274/
Source
https://github.com/smealum/portal3DS


----------



## Jhynjhiruu (Feb 19, 2017)

FAST6191 said:


> Like the download link from the first page?
> https://filetrip.net/nds-downloads/games/download-aperture-science-ds-r1-v2-f32304.html
> and the 3ds version (called portal3ds)
> https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-do-i-install-aperture-science-portal-3ds-on-my-n3ds-xl.397274/
> ...


Yeah... lol
It's also annoying because apparently it just works with stuff - R4, DeSmuME, TWLoader etc but it doesn't work properly on anything for me.


----------



## 427_rOom (Jan 8, 2018)

What is happening? On my NDS lite, in hbmenu, i'm have guru meditation error. How to fix that, or what i'm doing wrong? My card is R4 Dual-Core.


----------



## Jhynjhiruu (Jan 9, 2018)

427_rOom said:


> What is happening? On my NDS lite, in hbmenu, i'm have guru meditation error. How to fix that, or what i'm doing wrong? My card is R4 Dual-Core.


It has to be loaded through a flashcart as far as I can tell.


----------



## 427_rOom (Jan 12, 2018)

Jhynjhiruu said:


> It has to be loaded through a flashcart as far as I can tell.


I'm have endless loading through a flashcart, if you about portal


----------



## Jhynjhiruu (Jan 12, 2018)

427_rOom said:


> I'm have endless loading through a flashcart, if you about portal


I can't get it to load any way _other_ than with a flashcart, so I can't help you.


----------



## Mehmet59 (May 25, 2019)

It doesn't open i'm using R4 Gold


----------



## randomperson007 (Mar 16, 2021)

smealum said:


> that shouldn't happen anymore since the latest update I was able to do thanks to your guru meditation report.  download it again !
> 
> 
> do you mean on your DS, not on emu? it should work. try deleting config.ini if you copied it maybe...



I love your stuff smealum!


----------



## Carlosani (Apr 14, 2021)

Dose this work with a homebrewed 3ds?


----------



## toast27 (Apr 27, 2021)

Carlosani said:


> Dose this work with a homebrewed 3ds?


There exists a remake for the 3DS, called "Aperture Science 3D". I'm a new account, so I can't post hyperlinks, but a google search pulls it up as the first GBATemp result. It's a 3DSX/SDMH; you'll just stick these in /3ds/portal3DS/ with the content folder and run it with the Homebrew Launcher.

EDIT: Well, I say "New", but I mean chronically inactive. Also, you might have luck with twilightmenu++, but I haven't.


----------

