Were there other test subjects alive in Portal?

I know that there were no other test subjects alive in Portal 2 (excluding the ones in the co-op), but were there other test subjects alive in Portal? You never see them or anything that would suggest their (living) presence in the facility. I would imagine that GLaDOS had other test subjects since GLaDOS had planned to kill you. But is there any proof of other test subjects?

I am not referring to the ones found in co-op in the 1950s cryogenic freezing. I am asking if there are any alive in the more recent Aperture Science testing course excluding the ones from co-op. (directly after GLaDOS had been activated)

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6 Answers

There is no proof that GLaDOS had other living test subjects during Portal's timeframe. In fact, the comic that bridges the two games (Lab Rat) seems to specifically indicate that there weren't any humans alive in the facility except Chell and Doug Rattmann (Rattmann is not/never was a test subject).

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In the original Portal there was a clipboard with a humanoid figure on it (probably representing Chell) and another clipboard with a chicken-like figure on it. It is not clear if this represents a normal chicken or some sort of mutant chicken. However the clipboard implies that this chicken is yet another test subject, albeit not a human test subject.

The Portal Game Wiki mentions this clipboard:

Here is a screenshot of the Chicken subject's clipboard:

Here is a screenshot of the Human subject's clipboard:

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There must be hundreds of test subjects during Portal's timeframe because they are present in Portal 2 co-op. I don't think they could have gotten in the AS Vault after the events of Portal.

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In Portal Stories, A test subject named Mel and another core defeat a security system (not GLaDOS) that was

trying to kill GLaDOS.

When they defeat it the computer says there were three intelligences in the lab - one of them was GLaDOS. Mel and the Core gave her a sportting chance to recover, and that was what woke up Chell.

There were other test subjects alive but most if not all died between the events of portal and portal 2. This is because they were other test subjects in the relaxation vault but died after being in suspended animation for too long which is stated by Wheatly. Also, Chell's name was put at the top of the testing list so that she was tested first so it's likely that none of the suspended test subjects were active during portal.

During the events of Portal: Still Alive and Portal 2, most people believe everyone else apart from the main protagonist of the series, Chell. But there is evidence of another person by the name of Doug Rattman, a scientist who survived the choas of GLaDOS after it released Neurotoxin onto Aperture Science. Doug Rattman's backstory suggests he was trapped in Aperture Science after the chaos GLaDOS left with the facility. He changed the test subject order and made Chell first in line for testing as Rattman believed Chell could stop GLaDOS. After the events of Portal: Still Alive, Chell was put into sleep and Doug saved her by restoring the power on her relaxation room only before being shot by an Aperture Science Centry-Turret. Many years past and Chell finally woke up to a very interesting character.

So in conclusion, apart from Chell, only Doug survived. I hope this helped you.