Portal Counters — Magic: The Gathering Life Counter for Meta Portal Go

A free, open-source Magic: The Gathering life counter, commander damage tracker, and dice roller built for the Meta Portal Go 10″ touchscreen.

Features · Screenshots · Installation · Building from Source · Supported Devices · Tech Stack · Contributing · Known Limitations · License

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Portal Counters turns a discontinued Meta Portal Go into a dedicated tabletop companion for Magic: The Gathering games. The large 10.1″ landscape display shows all players simultaneously — no more passing a phone around the table.

Features

🎮 Game Modes

• Standard — 2–4 players, 20 / 25 / 30 starting life, or any custom value
• Commander / EDH — 2–4 players, 30 / 40 / 50 starting life with per-player commander damage tracking

❤️ Life & Counter Tracking

• Life totals with ±1 and ±5 buttons, animated floating damage/heal numbers
• Poison counters (☠) — game ends at 10 poison
• Energy counters (⚡) — track energy generators
• Commander damage — per-opponent damage breakdown (Commander mode); a player dies when they take 21+ damage from a single commander
• Full undo history — every action can be reversed, including lethal actions
• Counter clamping — poison, energy, and commander damage cannot go below 0

🎲 Dice Roller

• Built-in D6 and D20 dice — no more reaching for physical dice

🔊 Sound Toggle

• Mute/unmute sound effects with a toggle button in the control bar
• Preference persists between sessions

🏆 Stats & Game History

• Player leaderboard — wins, losses, win rate percentage, current streak
• Recent form tracker — W/L pattern for the last 5 games per player
• Head-to-head stats — who beats whom, how often
• Game history — saved when you leave a completed game (not auto-saved on lethal)
• Streak badges — 🔥 fire emoji for hot streaks (3+ consecutive wins)
• Last 100 games stored locally on device

🎨 Player Customization

• Name players from a saved roster (dropdown + "Add New")
• Assign MTG color identity — White, Blue, Black, Red, Green, Colorless, or Multi
• Player setups remembered between games
• Duplicate name validation prevents stats confusion

✨ Animations & Sound

• Screen shake on damage
• Green/red glow pulse on life changes
• Floating +N / -N text particles that drift and fade
• Scale bounce on life total updates
• 10 synthesized sound effects — 5 damage sounds (hit, crunch, sting, doom, dark) and 5 heal sounds (sparkle, shimmer, chime, ascending, glow), randomly selected per event

🖥️ Optimized for Portal Hardware

• Landscape-first layout — 2, 3, or 4 player zones arranged for the 10.1″ screen
• Opposite players are rendered upside-down so everyone can read their own zone
• 64dp top reservation for Portal system overlay
• Minimum 40dp touch targets on counter buttons — comfortable for tabletop use
• Dark theme with atmospheric colors — no pure black or white
• Inter font at 18sp body / 140sp life total
• Keep-screen-on flag — display never sleeps during a game

⏱️ Game Timer

• Elapsed time displayed in the control bar
• Duration saved to game history for stats

Screenshots

Game Setup & Stats Dashboard	2-Player Mid-Game
Dice Roller (D6/D20)	4-Player Commander Game

Installation

Option 1: Download APK (Recommended)

Download the latest APK from the Releases page.

Option 2: Sideload via ADB

# Enable ADB on your Portal Go:
#   Settings > Device Info > tap "Build" 7 times > Developer Options > enable ADB
# Connect via USB-C (port under the rubber cover on Portal Go)

adb install portal-counters.apk
adb shell am start -n com.pgedeon.portalcounters/.Main

Option 3: Build from source (see below)

Building from Source

Prerequisites

• JDK 17 (OpenJDK recommended)
• Android SDK with platform android-29 and build tools 34.0.0+
• A Meta Portal Go with ADB enabled, connected via USB-C

Build & Install

git clone https://github.com/pgedeon/portal-counters.git
cd portal-counters
./gradlew assembleDebug
adb install app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk
adb shell am start -n com.pgedeon.portalcounters/.Main

Run Tests

./gradlew test                    # Unit tests
./gradlew connectedAndroidTest   # Instrumented tests (requires device)

Build Release APK

Release builds have minification and resource shrinking enabled. To build a signed release APK locally:

1. Create a keystore (if you don't have one):

   keytool -genkey -v -keystore release.keystore -alias portal -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000

2. Add signing config to app/build.gradle.kts (do NOT commit secrets):

   android {
       signingConfigs {
           create("release") {
               storeFile = file("release.keystore")
               storePassword = System.getenv("KEYSTORE_PASSWORD")
               keyAlias = "portal"
               keyPassword = System.getenv("KEY_PASSWORD")
           }
       }
       buildTypes {
           release {
               signingConfig = signingConfigs.getByName("release")
           }
       }
   }

3. Build:

   export KEYSTORE_PASSWORD=yourpassword
   export KEY_PASSWORD=yourpassword
   ./gradlew assembleRelease

The signed APK will be at app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk.

Supported Devices

Portal Counters targets the Meta Portal Go (10.1″ touchscreen, landscape, SDK 29) but works on any Android device running API 24+.

Device	Screen	Connection	Status
Meta Portal Go	10.1″ 1280×800 landscape	USB-C (under rubber cover)	✅ Primary target
Meta Portal (1st/2nd gen)	10″/15.6″	USB-C	✅ Compatible
Meta Portal+	15.6″	USB-C	✅ Compatible
Meta Portal Mini	8″	USB-C	✅ Compatible
Meta Portal TV	TV (no touch)	USB-C	⚠️ No touch input — D-pad support not yet implemented
Other Android tablets	Any	USB / wireless	✅ Should work

Tech Stack

Component	Technology
Language	Kotlin
UI Framework	Jetpack Compose with Material 3
Architecture	Single-activity Compose app
State Management	Compose mutable state + sealed class actions with undo history
Persistence	SharedPreferences with JSON serialization
Audio	SoundPool for low-latency SFX
Build	Gradle (AGP), Kotlin Compose plugin
Min SDK	24 (Android 7.0)
Target SDK	29 (Android 10 — Portal hardware)
Font	Inter via XML bundled fonts
Animations	Compose Animatable, spring physics, keyframe sequences

Project Structure

app/src/main/java/com/pgedeon/portalcounters/
├── MainActivity.kt              # Entry point, navigation, deferred game saving
├── audio/
│   └── SoundManager.kt          # SoundPool-based SFX with mute support
├── data/
│   └── GameStorage.kt           # SharedPreferences: game history, player names, sound pref
├── model/
│   └── GameState.kt             # Game state: players, actions, undo, death detection, counter clamping
└── ui/
    ├── ControlBar.kt            # Bottom bar: timer, dice, undo, sound toggle, new game, menu
    ├── GameScreen.kt            # Active game layout with SoundPool lifecycle management
    ├── GameSetupScreen.kt       # Pre-game: config, validation, stats dashboard
    ├── PlayerZone.kt            # Player zone: life, buttons, counters with 40dp touch targets
    └── theme/
        ├── Color.kt             # MTG color palette, dark theme tokens
        ├── Theme.kt             # Material 3 theme
        └── Type.kt              # Inter font family + 140sp life total style

Known Limitations

• No Planeswalker loyalty counters — not yet implemented.
• No custom counter types — energy is tracked but arbitrary counters are not supported.
• Portal TV D-pad support — the app requires touch input; D-pad/remote control navigation is not implemented.
• No data export — game history cannot be exported as CSV/JSON.
• Stats keyed by player name — changing a player's name creates a separate stats entry. Duplicate names in the same game are blocked at setup.
• SoundPool resource — SoundPool is created per game screen session. While it's released via DisposableEffect when leaving the game, rapid screen switching could cause brief audio glitches.
• No Material You — dynamic color is disabled to maintain consistent dark theme on Portal hardware.

Roadmap

• Planeswalker loyalty counter support
• Custom counter types (experience, +1/+1, etc.)
• Portal TV D-pad / remote control support
• Material You theming for non-Portal devices
• Game replay / turn-by-turn history
• Export stats as CSV/JSON

See open issues for the full list.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! This is a hobby project for repurposing discontinued hardware.

1. Fork the repo
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

See CONTRIBUTING.md for detailed guidelines and STYLE_GUIDE.md for Portal-specific UI requirements.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a Meta Portal device?

No — the app runs on any Android tablet with API 24+. The UI is optimized for the Portal Go's 10.1″ landscape screen, but it works fine on other devices.

Does this app require internet access?

No. Everything is stored locally on the device. No accounts, no cloud, no tracking.

Can I use this for other card games?

The counter system (life, poison, energy, commander damage) is designed for Magic: The Gathering, but the life counter works for any game. Future versions may add custom counter types.

Why target SDK 29?

Meta Portal devices run Android 10 (SDK 29). Targeting this SDK ensures maximum compatibility with Portal hardware.

The sounds aren't playing?

Check that the 🔊 sound toggle in the control bar is not muted. The app uses SoundPool which should work on all Android devices.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.

Based on the Meta Portal Sample App template. Original Meta code is Copyright © Meta Platforms, Inc. and affiliates, licensed under MIT.

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Acknowledgments

Special thanks to @facebook (Meta) for unlocking developer mode and ADB access when the Portal hardware line was discontinued. Instead of bricking the devices, Meta chose to let owners sideload any Android app — turning what would have been e-waste into fully programmable 10-inch Android tablets. That decision saved countless Portal Go units from the landfill. This app exists because that door was left open.

💜 Repurpose > landfill.

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Made with ⚔ for the Magic: The Gathering community and the Meta Portal ecosystem.