Mindcrack Love: an alternative Mindcrack community

If you are the kind of person who learns mechanics better by doing the puzzles yourself instead of watching LPs, you've got three options:

1. Portal 1 itself is only $10 on Steam. Its minimum requirements are somewhat close to (non-Optifine) minimum requirements for Minecraft, so it shouldn't be difficult to play if you turn the graphics down. This is also the only way you can witness the plot first hand, obviously, though in traditional Valve fashion you're never really handed the plot on a platter; it's more about the atmosphere and the character of GLaDOS herself than anything.

2. The Valve team started working on Portal after watching a group of students create a test concept of a game with portals called Narbacular Drop for a school project. Narbacular Drop is free, and its requirements are even smaller than Portal's; it's over here. The graphics are crude, the game is short, and you can't jump, but it's not a bad introduction, and there are custom maps around if you really want/need more.

3. There is also a flash fan-made version. It's in 2D instead of 3D so "thinking with portals" is a little different/simplified, but it is, you know, a free Flash game. It's quite elegantly made for a Flash game with LOTS of puzzles (way more than Portal/Portal 2 themselves, actually) so there's many chances to get the hang of it.