Link roundup

1. "Infographic: Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus."

2. "In China, where a growing demand for organ transplants coupled with a dramatic shortage of donors has fuelled a rampant black market trade, selling your organs for cash is a mouse click away." Via.

3. Guidance (but not instructions) on how to knit the Companion Cube sweater that was featured on various sites last week.

Image roundup

A few gems from Reddit:


Tiny turtle.



Portal poster.



If you look over a typist's shoulder in Doom 3, he'll notice.



Rap enthusiast.

Harrison Krix is making a Portal prop (spoiler)

Portal 2 spoiler below...









Midway through Portal 2, archenemy GLaDOS is separated from her body and implanted on a potato battery, becoming POTaTOS:




Prop maker extraordinaire Harrison Krix made a mold out of a potato:





And added his PotatOS to his Portal gun prop:

Rick the Adventure Sphere dialog and t-shirt design (Portal)

Late in Portal 2, you gain the assistance of a robot known as Rick the Adventure Sphere ("designed for danger"). It's a pretty heated moment, so the natural inclination is to swiftly complete the task at hand, but if you take your time, Rick says one great line after another, including singing an adventure song and suggesting catch phrases once you beat the boss. You can enjoy his dialog in the video above. And there's a brand new t-shirt design by up for vote at Threadless:



Finally, speaking of Portal, here's Erik Wolpaw's recent NYU lecture:



Via.

*Portal 2 is 40% off at Amazon.

More Lego turrets and Chell

Lego turrets, frankenturrets, and Chell by Legohaulic.

*Buy Lego minifigs at eBay.

Portal Frankenturret Papercraft; Portal Posters, and more

The frankenturret as a paper toy available for download. Also available: a gentleman dinosaur with a monocle:











Some of the Portal posters in this Flickr gallery.






Clever use of portals allows us to see Wheatley hacking the lock.

Lego Wheatley, plus a comforting message in the real world

Lego Wheatley by Chris McVeigh. Relatedly, a comforting message during finals week:

Link roundup

1. Todd McFarlane gives a video lesson on drawing hands and fingers.

2. Long article about the Portal 2 ARG. For example:

Even a player who chased after a red herring had a good story to tell. One guy got the idea in his head that he was supposed to find a clue at The Couch Potato, a furniture warehouse in Santa Cruz, California. Team Meat learned about this by monitoring the IRC channel, so Edmund McMillan of Super Meat Boy fame intercepted him at the warehouse and surprised him with a signed copy of Super Meat Boy.

And also:

The second big mistake we made was pulling the ARG champions away from their communities too early. Based on contributions in various games, on the fan wiki and in the IRC channels, we hand-selected a few individuals who had contributed disproportionately to the ARG and offered to fly them to Valve.

In order to give sufficient time to notify them and make travel arrangements, Valve contacted them a few days before the start of the crescendo. We didn't require them to sign any NDAs, but to maintain the fiction, we encouraged them to take a step back from the ARG and claim that they had been kidnapped by minions of GLaDOS.

We failed to realize just how influential these few individuals had been in keeping the ARG running like clockwork. The wiki stopped getting updated, leaving other players confused as to what was going on.

Via.

3. And speaking of ARGs, "Duff Goldman offers a lifetime of birthday cakes to anyone who finds his stolen Corvette." Via.

Link roundup

1. Funny Portal 2 animated gif. And speaking of, it would be cool if Valve made a POTaTOS kit that attached to a typical Mr. Potato Head.

2. How to set up a green screen photo studio for $100. Via.

3. Gallery of beer league hockey jerseys.

*Buy vintage cameras at eBay.

Illustration roundup

Portal movie poster by Tristan Reidford.



Hulk commission by Maris Wicks.



Does your body spell treason?



The least creepy of the new book covers for Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series. Thanks, Stephanie.

*Buy sketch cards at eBay.

Halo meets Portal

Halo given a Portal level.

Lego Portal Turret; 3D Printed Turret

Brandon Bannerman posted the parts list for his Lego Portal turret. They're pretty obscure. Chell is painted.



3D printed turrets. Via.

*Buy 3D printers at eBay.

Zero Punctuation reviews Portal 2

Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw reviews Portal 2. (See, he doesn't hate everything.)

Lego Portal turrets

Lego Portal turrets by Brandon Bannerman.

*Buy Lego minifigs at eBay.

Hudson's lines from Aliens; Cave Johnson's lines from Portal 2

Hudson's lines from Aliens. Via.



Cave Johnson's dialog from Portal 2. Via.

*Buy Hudson toys at eBay.

Lego Portal 2 diorama

Lego Portal 2 diorama by Brandon Bannerman.

*Previously: Chell wallpaper.

Link roundup

1. This review will make you think strongly about buying a first gen iPad instead of the iPad 2.

2. And if I had a tablet, I'd definitely sign up - - a year of Marvel's Unlimited Digital Comics is $60, and right now it's 30% off with the code Thor302011.

3. Portal dual screen wallpapers.

*Buy iPads at eBay.

Play a Portal/Tetris mashup

Playable Portal/Tetris mashup. (It's seconds of fun.)

*See more Portal links here.

Atlas and P-Body action figures

Atlas and P-Body from Portal 2 as custom action figures by Chris Hooton. Portal 2 is 40% off at Amazon, by the way.

*See more Portal links here.

Portal 2 walkthrough with commentary; Chell screenshots

A Youtube user uploaded a Portal 2 playthrough, edited down to the developer commentary portions. Above is part one. (The paint/gel mechanics are derived from a student game called Tag: the Power of Paint. Very interesting to listen to how the designers "train" the players as they play through the game.)

And speaking of Portal, here's some Chell screenshots:






The Valve store sells Aperture Science tank tops, but no orange jumpsuits.