By Alec Meer on November 17th, 2007 at 3:14 pm.
We know full well what Portal’s now-legendary credits song sounds like as sung by an insane AI construct (and I also have the unique horror of knowing what it sounds like as sung by half a dozen boozed-up games journalists, at least one of which appeared to have tears in his eyes come the final chorus), but how about in the dulcet tones of the guy who actually wrote it?
Dan kindly sends his intimate (is it still possible to say ‘intimate’ without it sounding like it’s about sex’n'stuff? Sigh.) recording of Jonathan Coulton performing Portal’s Still Alive, live and unplugged for the AT&T Tech Channel . It’s a specially and professionally-recorded version, rather than the shaky, farty-sounding handycam videos of Coulton performing it at a gig, which you may have spotted on other websites. And it’s a moment for Portal fans to treasure:
17/11/2007 at 16:48 Leelad says:
I know he wrote it and could please the x-factor judges with a perfect voice…but it just doesn’t sound right.
Him and Ellen unplugged? SORT IT! NEEDS TO BE DONE!
17/11/2007 at 16:50 KBKarma says:
Niiiice.
The shots back to the cake-eating guy, though, are a little… how can I say this… annoying.
Also, “We Should Really Let This Go”? What?!
Next you’ll be asking us to surrender our Companion Cubes!
17/11/2007 at 17:32 Wickedashtray says:
great song but it simply requires a glib feminine voice.
17/11/2007 at 19:45 The_B says:
“The shots back to the cake-eating guy, though, are a little… how can I say this… annoying.”
I found him slightly….creepy.
“I look like I’m eating your cake, but I’m actually eating YOUR VERY SOUL!”
17/11/2007 at 22:16 Evo says:
D:
The uber-cool’ness was ruined by the freak with the cake!
I want the cake!
:(
17/11/2007 at 22:29 The Unshaven says:
I’m torn at the moment with all the webcomics making Portal-related tshirts.
I dunno, I just think Valve should be getting the Money for this one, and yet it is advertising of a sort…
And yet several of the tshirts, like the one from VGcats.com, are cooler than Valve’s current Portal shirt, which I can’t get anyway because it’s sold out.
It’s a conundrum.
18/11/2007 at 01:13 KBKarma says:
VGCats has made a Portal t-shirt?
Interesting…
18/11/2007 at 01:19 Rodafowa says:
I really like the Valve Portal shirt. It’s quite understated and pretty groovy. The back-print on the VG Cats version is excellent, though.
18/11/2007 at 03:13 The Unshaven says:
Yeah, I really like the VGcats shirt designs… (http://www.zestuff.com/vgcats/apparel/1016/ if anyone wants to poke at it)
I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it being completely independant of Valve, and to some extent in direct competition with them.
18/11/2007 at 12:50 KindredPhantom says:
The CtrlAltDel portal t-shirt looks like it’s going to be a good one.
http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/images/news/forevercube.jpg
18/11/2007 at 15:53 Shanucore says:
Damn it, I want to play Portal!!
I upgraded right after the Orange Box release, hoping to enjoy these fabulous new games in glorious sex-o-vision. And have spent the many weeks since trying to figure out which new component leads to the BSODs whenever I spend more than three minutes in a Source game. Gnnnng.
19/11/2007 at 10:20 Kim says:
The guy eating the cake is clearly a dood.
But not quite like the Fonz.
20/11/2007 at 10:55 masayume says:
This song is he best thing happened to the video game world this year.
Yes, INCLUDING the releasing of “Mario Galaxy”.
02/12/2007 at 18:31 Frosty says:
Quite a few cool portal t-shirts out there, check out:
http://www.edwardchase.org/blog/2007/09/portal_shirts.html