In 2007 video game developer Valve Corporation released a video game by the name of “The Orange Box.” The Orange Box included five Valve games: Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2 and Portal. While the compilation as a whole sold and reviewed very well, one game in particular stood out from the rest. Portal, Valve’s intelligent and humorous puzzle title, quickly gained a sizable following.
Portal puts the player into the shoes of a female who is being used as a test subject for a company called Aperture Science. Using a portal gun that is picked up relatively early in the game, the player must traverse the world and complete the increasingly difficult puzzles presented to them. The player can shoot a blue entry portal and an orange exit portal. Obviously travelling through the blue portal allows the player to exit through the orange portal, where ever they may have placed it.
Fast forward to present day and what you’re about to see is quite possibly the best homemade in-game replica item ever created.
This Portal gun is the second replica created by YouTube user volpin. It features working blue and orange lights and even produces sounds taken straight from the game. The outer casing, which couldn’t look any more authentic, is stamped with a bar code and Aperture Science logo.
As if all of this weren’t enough, this gun wasn’t created just as a time filler. This Portal gun will be auctioned off on December 7th to help raise money for Child’s Play. Child’s Play is a charity created by the founders of Penny Arcade whose goal is to improve the lives of children. The Portal Gun will also be auctioned off with a custom base that will be autographed by some of the game’s creators at Valve (as well as the creator of the gun).
It’s always great to see what video game lovers with an abundance of talent can put together. It’s even more of a treat when the talent is being used to benefit charities.
Of course this isn’t the first piece of replica video game memorabilia that we’ve seen. This LEGO Master Chief helmet certainly stood out while this Mario made of bullets tickled our more artistic side and the NERF Raider gun is great for the kiddies.
