Wasteland - The Secret History of Fallout

Wasteland is a hugely important game from 1988, one of the first ever post-apocalyptic RPGs, and in a very real sense the first Fallout game - so let's take a look at how both franchises came to be...

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[SocratesOnFire]

Finds a lost child in a dark cave,
Child: "Oh thank you for saving me"
Desert Rangers: "RUN! TAKE COVER!"

[copperhamster]

One thing you should have pointed out, there's a lot of what was the time, innovative versatility, because they used an actual Pen and Paper RPG system as the base and wanted to have it feel the same. So for example, that first door you picked. You didn't have to pick it. If you only had a character with safe cracking, they could also use it to open the door, just not as easily. A strong character could have used strength to break it down. A slightly weaker character could have used a crowbar, or sledgehammer, to bust it open. Explosives such as TNT, Plastic Explosive, or even grenades could be used to blow it open. You could even use the various portable rocket launchers to blast it to smithereens. And finally, the most overpowered stat in the game, Luck, could often be used to luckily stumble on things (though I think that door you couldn't luck open, but I know there are several safes that it will work on because you just guess right on the combination).
Sometimes even high perception would work, as you might, say, find a key under a doormat (I think that's in the game somewhere). Also, the game checks perception if there is anything near you every time you move, but it is not as good as the full 'Use perception' skill. So a 3-4 perception character might notice the cave without needing to look. You also gain exp that isn't displayed for automatic or even used abilities. If Angela Deth picks the lock, she gets a bit of exp for it.
The match is usable down there in the cave, but I forget where, I think it might be right where you came in? It lets you see the dog at a distance, and changes the name of the dog to something else, and makes the fight slightly easier. Note that hydrophobia is a classic sign of rabies, btw. Thus the note.
A few other things: Canteens for each character are absolutely necessary for travel in the heavier desert, otherwise you take damage every step. If you wander around at night there is an actual game effect: You can see the glow of radiation at a distance, thus avoid it. And skills can be improved through use as well as spending skill points, which you earn by raising your intelligence. Walking back and forth in the water will give you a chance to improve your swim skill. There are slippery sand dunes that improve acrobatics. Etc.
The hint about the man older than the wasteland is about the equivalent of Mama Murphy giving a cryptic clue about Kellogg. It won't help until significantly later.
One interesting thing that carries over kind of into Fallout is that the NPC's you hire are not fully under your control. You hire one with a cool gun, they might refuse to hand it to another character, unless they've already been given a better one. They can also do things in combat you would not normally do, against large, potentially dangerous enemies they might fire all the ammo in their weapon when you are trying to carefully whittle it down with 3 shot bursts from everyone as it approaches. Or instead of attacking, they may move on their own. Oh! The best thing about splitting the party members off is they could be split way off, let's say you got 3 rad suits and wanted to cross a radiation zone, you could literally drop two people off in Highpool and take the other three across the map. Though it will swap to the other party in combat and make you Evade them, which is annoying.

[librarianseth]

grognak and the ruby ruins looks different than I recalled...

[Not-Great-at-Gaming]

Rex was okay after all. He got a brain transplant, some fake legs, and a new owner who talks like Elvis.

[ameliagil]

Ah Jon. Starting a new channel plan then absolutely failing to keep up to your own expectations that are far higher than our own and giving us another just as great video as compensation. Never change!

[PoisonInc]

"We just have to be the bigger person and walk away."

-Jon, on potentially beating up a sad child

EDIT: Nevermind.

[Finality]

I started watching this channel a few years ago as a way to distract me while dealing with major depression. I've had a hard time of it again recently and stopped watching as I find it hard to concentrate nowadays. This was nice to watch though, so I guess I just wanted to say thanks for still putting out some great content. I've a lot to try and catch up on at some point and I look forward to doing it.

[tetsubo]

The first post-apocalyptic role-playing game came out in 1976 and was called Metamorphosis Alpha. It was tabletop and used dice and a real rule book. I still have my copy bought in 1978.

[matthewpippin]

2:25 "We'll make our own post-apocalyptic RPG! With Blackjack! And Hookers! (In fact, forget the post-apocalyptic RPG!)"


I fucking love it.

[Thomas-zryu]

Hell Razor, Angela Deth, Snake Vargas and...


Steve Smith.

[JoshuaBardwell]

I am so happy to see this game again. I never have the attention to make it all the way through a replay but I will relish watching Jon do it.

[mudcrab]

"Murdering children... that's evil"


Two minutes earlier after hiring Jackie the juve - "So she's a bit of a front liner, too".


Oh dear... and this is BEFORE he talks to Bobby again...

[BradfortBottlenose]

You even meet the Grim Reaper if your entire party dies. This game's really got some of Fallout's dark humour as well. Love it. XD

[ZeRedSpy]

I'd love to see a Wasteland 2 run, I never played the original but my goodness was Wasteland 2 a huge amount of fun.

[TuxedoCrab]

I know this probably isn't a planned series...but more episodes of this would be amazing...I've been recently playing wasteland 2 on my switch and just this 1 episode clarified so many things that the story expects you to know

[christertell]

The over 100 years old man who sent you to kill the bunny master is older than the wasteland.

[smgeezus]

2:25 Perfect analogy using Futurama Memes.

Thank you for being Awesome, John.

[CrazyYog]

Played this with a friend in my dorm room on my Commodore 64 when it originally came out. We would switch off with one of us at the controls and the other reading any paragraphs. It was such an amazing game to play at the time. I’m sure our GPAs suffered a bit the semester from overplaying. We had a similar experience playing the Bard’s Tale games. Thanks Jon for the trip down memory lane!

[deckam]

Now if you like fallout type games try "Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead", it's like the dwarf fortress of fallout type games

[brycevo]

I played through Wasteland after hearing that it was the original Fallout, and I wasn't disappointed. It was really fun, but it is a little dated now.
I still recommend it to any Fallout Fan