#psychoportals

[psychonautswebarchive]

Psychoportals update!

A couple weeks ago I realized the keywords I was using in the wayback machine were a bit whack, some links lead to psycho-portals.com and others to psychoportals with No Dash ,,,, and I found THIS

It's the first time I've come across a link with a working video/gif that actually loaded and played and everything!

I ALSO found the psychoportals sweepstakes registration page where you could sign up for the event.

Unfourtnatly I haven't found much information on who WON the psychoportals contest other than LA being the first state to win the first PART of the game, the only place that mentions this is the MixNMojo site

Of course, I went through wayback to see if their were any deleted posts or missed updates... but theirs not.. all talk about it just kind of... stops after the LA post that ends with reminding people to check back in on April 28th, I've yet to look up the brain tumbler sweepstakes wich was supposedly the second half of the challenge so... maybe something promising?

Some other news:

This post from mix n MOJO via the wayback machine was posted on June 7th of 2005... majescos profits are doing great!! ..... right?

Well...

Couple weeks later, June 30th, 2005... Majesco is saying they spent millions on promotion for psychonauts and their shares fell by 15%

Yikes! I'm not surprised though. Between the psychoportals sweepstakes, the psychonauts receipt program and the Golden disk sweepstakes they were practically giving those games away! Yeesh. Plus cash prizes... I really don't know how it all went wrong and how little documented it is on majescos end. Oh well.

Anyways, theirs no way to login to a defunct site through wayback, and most of the files I've found for psychoportals just... don't work... no images or corrupted files (if anyone knows how to make images and gifs work from like. A cobbled together site that was deleted in the early oughts... lemme know lol) so my work for that ends here unless I find some reuploaded assets somewhere out there! Meanwhile I'll be looking into the brain tumbler o7

(Gif via mixnmojos April 11th 2005 post about the psycjonauts demo, and yeah it's a gif file... dunno why!)

[psychoportalnauts]

You can blame/thank @marysoulteller for this idea.

...Featuring what I think might be final designs for Chell and Cave! Chell's hair texture didn't sit right with me as it was too poofy, but now she has that 2000s action protagonist vibe to her. As for Cave, I took inspiration from Houston Thorney of Thorney Tower fame and mid-century caricature style.

[foursidecity]

OK!! New big post because it seems the interest in psychonauts lost media has gone COLD

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS DISC??

This is gonna be a longish post but it breaks down some of the lost media digging I've been doing and links back to my archival site so I'm just gonna put it under the read more

Years and years ago when psychonauts first came out, majesco did TWO sweepstakes, one was marketed as a golden disc from select retailers, there were 15 golden discs in total but only 5 were eligable for a grand prize of 5'000$ each! It's not certain if their even is a disc though(while their promotion states DISC!!! Their actual rules say 'certificate!!!'. ) And if there is.. no one has any clue what it could look like! Is it painted? Is it shiny? ... is it cardboard?(joking!! But really their marketing was real bad)

The SECOND sweepstakes is also... well lost? Ish? Kind of?? Majesco built an online community to Duke it out on who was the biggest nerd: PSYCHOPORTALS!

This was exclusive to the states(and even in the states, their was only a few areas that were eligable to participate) , and supposedly they had people running around the streets handing out flyers, on college campuses doing events, they even has a national radio campaign! (And I haven't found a single thing!!!! Well except for some cool web page assets and a few small articles that were archived from the wayback..)

Their were 10 online portals to unlock, and LA Won!! Kind of. Well they won PART of the contest ,,,(so says a mixnmojo post from the time that dosent expand on it further, no other sources say LA DIDNT win the whole dang thing though!) THREE seperate forums say to tune in next week on April 28th for more info but... theirs kind of no record after that! Theirs some information on a 'psi recruitment seminar' as an in person event held with tons of cool gear and trivia but I only ever found one news article for it.. wich means there's more stuff out their were missing!

So all that information to say: hey theirs cool stuff here!! I made an archival website just for it! All the merch and dates and lost things I could find have all been compiled right here(brand new website too! Redecorated and new code from the ground up! It's still a wip but it's got all new info and lots of old images of merch)

You can also check out my sideblog @psychonautswebarchive for more steady updates too!

If anyone has any info or ideas( or if you were around during the razputin.net era or even had a psychoportals account and participated!!) Please reach out to me I'd love to hear from you!

[babycharmander]

when is raz going to pay for his crime of stealing Sasha's psychoportal and NEVER returning it

[sheltershock]

An idea I’ve always enjoyed thinking about is art student Sasha. Yeah, he’s a scientist that works with machines and brains, and knows psychology stuff like brain workings and dream interpretations, which you’d think require some sort of higher education. And I’m not saying he wouldn’t have those kinds of degrees. But I think it’s amusing how often Sasha is talked about being a genius, and his intellectualism and all about his experiments… and then I glance over at the source material and the most evidence we get for education actually implies he was an art student and that’s hilarious to me. 

There’s the title to the track that plays in his level, “A Mind of Bauhaus Principles,” in which the Bauhaus is an art school. There’s the second face of the cube in the level which has like spinning disks on rods and I don’t really know what this part is supposed to represent, but the figments are of like drawings and people at pottery wheels so the best explanation I have is a collection of strange art projects(or since all of the memories in the level are negative, failed/frustrating/difficult art projects). The cube itself is painted in a Bauhaus style. The Psychoportal that Raz “borrows” from Sasha doesn’t have machinery or neural pathways decorated on it but painted rectangles that are more artsy than scientist themed. And when Raz meets Edgar, a literal prisoner of art, and throws Sasha’s Psychoportal to enter his mind, Edgar comments on the door. “Are you working on an abstract piece? …Nice use of color.” (Of course the comment could be about Raz entering the mind, I think the other inmates have comments while entering, but Edgar starts talking before the door even opens. I think both could be valid interpretations.)

But I like the references to Sasha being artsy, it’s a nice touch. Especially since people on the Spectrum often are both intellectually and artistically talented, but often autistic characters are often displayed having one or the other. I think the reasoning for this is because each part is often attributed to different sides of the brain, so having a character both smart and artistic is a strange idea? But actually having a character on the Spectrum have both is a nice touch. It’s also neat because being an artist has little to do with being a Psychonaut, it’s not part of his job. Much like the space/alien interest it’s a nice little detail that being a Psychonaut is not Sasha’s core identity, he has other things going on which is a humanizing detail. 

I personally have the headcanon that initially Sasha went to college for art, but then stopped for some reason(stress, money, mental breakdown, etc.), got scouted by the Psychonauts and then switched gears to a more intellectual based degree like psychology or engineering or something. And ever since joining the Psychonauts, he always had the goal of going back and completing that art degree so he’s been saving a portion of his salary for whenever that happens. Then years after the fact, decided to start on that again and eventually completed it on the side. He’s not ever going to use it, to his knowledge, because he likes his job as a Psychonaut. But it’s the degree he’s the most proud of and exclusively has it hung up in a nice frame in his house. He has his other degrees at work as a symbol that he knows what he’s doing, but he gets the most joy observing the art degree, either from how hard it took to eventually get it with all the stops or just from intrinsic value. 

He’s probably doodling all the time at work in secret. People in meetings are secretly intimidated/impressed about how quickly and dedicated Sasha is at taking notes. But he’s actually just absentmindedly scribbling on the free page he gives himself in the stack of papers he gives himself for actual notes and annotations. It’s an invisible stim that gets you to use your entire hand to do controlled, impulsive movements but in a socially acceptable way. Plus art is therapeutic, so it’ll be a nice way to step away from an infuriating experiment to calm down and approach it later with a more stable mental space. 

I think Milla found out about it because they were sitting together in a meeting and she hadn’t heard anything particularly worth taking a note on yet, but for some reason Sasha’s pen/pencil hasn’t stopped moving. So she looked over his shoulder to see what she was missing in the meeting, and just found artistic renditions of various objects and people in the room plus some random scribbles. She looked away before Sasha could notice her peeking, but he noticed her anyway. They talked about it later, and she thought it was pretty cool. Milla even asked if he could draw her, and he did, though he immediately apologized saying that he was never proficient at female anatomy. She loved the drawing anyway, and she still has it. But she had to give it back and insist that he sign it, because he didn’t initially. It took some convincing, but she did get the sketch signed by the artist, to which Sasha thought she was too giddy over. 

In meetings she occasionally looks over at the sketch page, smiling, almost getting them both in trouble by laughing at a couple. She always insists that he draw her more often, and you can see the improvements between each drawing. Some are in color, some are in black and white, some look more experimental, and some are in mixed medium. Milla saves them all regardless. 

The one drawing that always makes her tear up is one in her old nurse’s outfit. When they moved in together, she couldn’t throw it away because of the memories, both good and bad. Regardless, she wanted to put it on and look at herself in the outfit after all these years and after how much she’d changed. But she ended up being unable to put it on, stashing it in the back of the closet. She was able to play the piano and look after children again, but she couldn’t put the outfit on no matter how badly she wanted to see herself in it. Milla said over dinner how she remembers she looked back then, noting that she wore her hair up in a neat bun rather than down like she usually does. And then later that night, she was handed a piece of thick paper that depicted her wearing the outfit. It was in a pose and with an expression that she never had worn back then, but it was definitely the current Milla Vodello wearing that outfit with the accompanying hairstyle. She ended up bawling when she saw it and had to explain through tears that she was really happy with it and grateful for it.

On nights where neither of them have to stay late working, I like to imagine Milla seated at a piano, playing whatever song comes to her at that moment, and Sasha sitting with a book off to the side, listening to the pleasant melody. When she gets tired of playing she’d get up so they could sit together. And she’d realize at some point between her getting up to play and sitting down together, that without her noticing he’d put his book down and started sketching her without her knowledge. She’d chuckle, since it happens occasionally, and ask why. She’d get some answer about how her form was interesting, or it was her expression, or the shadows…but each drawing just has this pure joy emanating from her from the elegant lines.

[wrenchswango]

Wyland’s psychoportal is an elevator, his mental world is a giant office complex with thousands of floors and a system where flooding overtakes the lower floors and rises up occasionally when he’s in a heavily depressive state and receeds when he’s recovered but it never drains away entierly 

[jnixz]

Old observation screenshot about Psychonauts 2 Collective Unconscious door locations (spacing is eh, camera pov magic):

Antagonist related characters on the left of the picture

Cassie’s & Bob’s nearby each other as they were in the gulch

Bob’s & Helmut’s are together

while Ford’s and Lucy’s is across each other, as far as they can be

Hollis & Ford next to each other - leader type & with kind of altered mental states

Compton’s across Cassie’s (not sure if the spacing really is that huge but if it is I’ll be like "man really be psychoisolating”)

[field-of-sungflowers]

if you make a psychonauts oc and don’t design their psychoportal wyd

[bland-psychonauts-headcanons]

Headcanon:

On missions, Milla doesn’t usually carry a purse, so she just keeps all her stuff in Sasha’s coat pockets. He’s so used to it now that he doesn’t even object. 

[404-tacts]

A redraw with characters from @psychoportalnauts Psyhonauts X Portal AU

[goopi-e]

Commision for @delblogs19 — Virgil, Mel and AEGIS from PS:M redesigned for Psychonauts AU! Had a great fun while doing this.

Bonus sketch with twice as more test subject ladies and also concept art:

[psychonautswebarchive]

UPDATE!

remmeber my last post where I shared the discovery of a second half of the psy portal challenge? Well I found a bit more information on that! Via the wayback,Razputin. Net fansite:

The April 28th announcement!! Finally, getting somehwere.. now I'm not sure why that mixnmojo post described a second part, claiming LA only won the first half, but rhis also makes alot more sense! Unfourtunatly, as you can see on this post it has a link so that you can see more information, but the link is not backed up on the wayback! If their IS anything thier, I have no way of knowing what it was, but still! I've only found one news article published on the 29th of April, 2005 for San franciso,,, I wish I could find more of the physical and radio marketing they did for the Psycjoprtals challenge because its super interesting to me. But for now this is pretty solid!

[psychoportalnauts]

Reconstructing Caroline

In Portal canon, Caroline is already a certified narrative haunter, but in this AU she plays an even bigger role; plus, we get to see her through the eyes of other characters. So, I thought it'll be interesting to compile her most prominent* appearances, both as herself and as Gladys.

* — Sadly, I haven't put much thought into Clairvoyance images or figments featuring her yet... Maybe sometime later?

...

Gladys Calvin and Caroline Caramia:

That's right, they have last names now, like any self-respecting Psychonauts character should. I'm not even kidding, announcing this fact was literally the main goal of this post. If you know what (or, rather, who) Gladys's last name refers to, go get some choccy milk bc that makes you epic in my eyes. If you know how to pronounce Caroline's last name, go get an extra glass, because even I'm not sure about the right pronunciation.

To quickly recap their backstory for posterity: when Cave Johnson died (?) and things went super south for Aperture Paranormal, Agent Caramia was so scared of accidentally revealing the dark secrets of the company, she saw no other choice but to blow up her mind with a lil' bit of help from a certain someone. After that, a new person emerged from the rubble of Caroline's fractured mind — Gladys, the ultimate skeptic. Her goal is to disprove the existence of psychic powers, which she deems to be nothing more than pseudoscience, and close off Aperture Paranormal and/or Psychonauts at large; this agenda, however, doesn't stop her from using these same powers herself.

Rattenkönigin, The Rat Queen:

Finally, some genuine Psychonauts creepiness in a Psychonauts AU. This giant rat that makes all the rules is the final boss of Rattmann's mindscape. Not unlike El Odio, she roams the level, hanging from the sky and using her hands to stride around and catch unsuspecting victims — her main goals, however, are Doug and his faithful friend, Companion Cube.

There's a strategy to fighting her, albeit an involved one. You have to utilise Invisibility, which Doug fortunately bestows upon Chell, to avoid being caught, and Psi-Blast to shoot smaller rats — only when they're down will the main hand drop the head rat and make it vulnerable. And you also want to avoid the Confusion gas explosions these smaller rats emit, because apparently they're just as prone to do that upon defeat as the rats from Thorney Tower.

Lifeline:

Found in Mr. Johnson's mind, this is the first version of Caroline proper that's encountered by Chell and Wheatley. Pretty as a postcard, and just as flat, this lovely assistant may not carry over the intelligence, or exact height, of her real-world progenitor, but that doesn't stop her from staying fiercely loyal to Cave. She even calls him her "noble psychomaster" — now that's an odd nickname. But I do wonder what Cave thinks of her...

[foursidecity]

Girls when they know the exact font style and size the old psychonauts psychoportals website used because they read through the CSS and HTML like a nerd

[tshidar]

milla “mental mynx” vodello and her friend agent caroline from @psychoportalnauts au!!

[dczh]

Décharge d'adrénaline

Complete Psi p83 - Psychoportation (Téléportation)

Niveau Furt 1, GPsi 1, V_Force physique 1

[+] (AR) Le psionique gagne un bonus [Intuition] +2 en Force et Dextérité, +2 en Initiative, pd 1rd ; +1 supp/3 PP supp

Incantation : 1 action rapide

Portée : Personnelle

Composantes : Olfactif

Effet : Le psionique

Durée : 1 round

JS : N/A

RM : N/A

Une odeur métallique et musquée envahit le psionique alors que son corps est énergisé par la force de son esprit.

Vous pouvez augmenter vos prouesses physiques et votre vitesse de réaction jusqu'au début de votre prochain tour. Vous recevez un bonus d'intuition de +2 à la Force et à la Dextérité.

Amélioration : Pour chaque 3 points psi supplémentaire dépensé par le psionique, le bonus augmente de 1.