Why are certain keys highlighted?
If, for whatever reason, you had a closer look at any of the keyboards in these behind-the-scenes areas, you may have noticed a few of their keys being a different colour.
The letters highlighted are A, S, D, E, R, H, N, I, P. That might seem like nonsense, but the story goes a little deeper- and provides another nod to the Half-Life series.
As you may remember, the portal gun's full name is the 'Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device'. As an acronym, it spells out ASHPD; strikingly similar to 'Adrian Shephard', the protagonist of Half-Life's 'Opposing Force' expansion.
In the months leading up to Portal's release, some fans took this coincidence and ran, speculating that Shephard would be Portal's protagonist, too.
The portal gun's acronym ended up being a a total coincidence, but the Shephard theory prompted the developers to pay homage to it with a few extra highlighted keys on the game's keyboards - as seen below.
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Hints written by Kieron West
Kieron West
Hi! I have written video game guides since 2018. Any money I make here will go towards improving my equipment so I can make the things you enjoy even better (and faster!)