Endgame Runaround

by Oliver Kosut, Bryan Ruddy, and Ricky Liu

The runaround claims to require a portal gun. Since you probably don't have a portal gun, to complete it you'll need to make do without one. It's possible to follow the instructions in a single group, by running back and forth between where the portals should be. However, much easier is to split your team into two groups, one following the path of the orange portals, and one following the path of the blue portals. When you are told to "go through" the portal, instead have the other half of your team pick up where you left off. Because of the structure of the preconditions and direction sets, the two halves of the team can work in parallel, since if one half knows which direction set the other half is following, they can determine which directions they should follow before the other half finishes. The two halves of the team will have to communicate via sufficiently advanced technology so that each half can keep track of what the other has done.

That teams should split up was hinted at by the fact that GLaDOS gave them two copies of the instructions. Mario and Peach would also gently suggest that it was a good idea; then Mario would go with one half of the team and Peach with the other.

What follows are the instructions in the order that they would be performed if you did the runaround with a portal gun. If you do it by splitting your team in half, one team will follow the odd direction sets (the orange portals), and the other will follow the even direction sets (the blue portals).

To begin, you fire an orange portal at 4-164 and a blue portal at 4-166. You walk through the blue portal and emerge with your back to the orange portal on 4-164.

Precondition selection:

Directions:

You now fire an orange portal at 4-361 and step through it to emerge from the blue portal on 4-166.

Precondition selection:

Directions:

You now fire a blue portal at 4-132 and step through it to emerge from the orange portal on 4-361.

Precondition selection:

Directions:

You now fire an orange portal at 26-437 and step through it to emerge from the blue portal on 4-132.

Precondition selection:

Directions:

You now fire a blue portal at 13-3087 and step through it to emerge from the orange portal on 26-437.

Precondition selection:

Directions:

You now fire an orange portal at 38-370 and step through it to emerge from the blue portal on 13-3087.

Precondition selection:

Directions:

You now fire a blue portal at 9-308 and step through it to emerge from the orange portal on 38-370.

Precondition selection:

Directions:

You now fire an orange portal at the stairwell door on 37-2 and step through it to emerge from the blue portal on 9-308.

Precondition selection:

Directions:

You now fire a blue portal at the west door to 37-212. The orange portal is still on the door to the central stairwell on 37-2. Both these doors are along the south wall on the second floor of Building 37. The door at the midpoint between these two doors is the east entrance to 37-212.

By this point, you have encountered four of the five star piece locations; if you've been doing the runaround without a portal gun, by splitting your team in two, each team will have encountered two of the star piece locations. The only one left is from Zelda: NERF SWORD. Enter 37-212 and search for a nerf sword. You'll find one hidden in a trash can (well, really it was a short boffer sword that had been planted by Metaphysical Fungus representatives), taped so as to point upward toward a light fixture on the ceiling. A ladder will be conspicuously in the room, which can be used to follow the direction indicated by the nerf sword to the top of light fixture. There you will find a Mario question mark block, holding the Weighted Companion Cube, the friend that Peach was unwilling to leave Aperture Science without, and the coin of the 2011 MIT Mystery Hunt.



After the first team had found the coin, subsequent teams to reach the final location would find an empty block looking like a Mario question mark block after a coin had been removed from it.