Fallout And Wasteland

I talk about the influence of Wasteland (1988) on Fallout (1997), both made at Interplay.

Videos I reference:

[OscarFowler]

The gulf in technology between an 80's PC game and in a 90's PC game was vast compared to that between a 2010's PC game and a 2020's PC game. I don't think most people realize that.

[magnaquam]

Wasteland was my all time favorite game as a kid. When Fallout came out I was obsessed with it. I saw the “nods and similarities “ between the two but in no way have I ever though Fallout was ever derivative of Wasteland. Similar DNA but different game experiences.

[SirDigbyChikkinCaesar]

Ahhh, the floating coprocessor unit, the lack of which forced me to play the Fallout demo on the computers at my college theater offices.

[neety]

In the past month or so I got SO MUCH into the Fallout. When I saw Fallout's 1 vibe, characters, storytelling I knew I had to play it. Now I've played Fallout 1, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Fallout 4 and watched the TV show. Love the franchise and defenitely staying with it for a longer time. Greetings from Poland.

[Garnansoa]

The Fallout community is so spoiled to have someone like Tim to give us answers to our questions.

[queengames]

Interesting to hear that even 9 years after release, wasteland was incredibly hard to actually play. I think we often underestimate just how good we have it today; I can play a lot of games from 20 years ago without much issue as long as I have the right console.

[whatdoiposthere]

I remember my dad getting really excited at seeing Brian Fargo's name in the Fallout 1 intro because he was such a big Wasteland fan. So that's neat!

[blackmesacake]

I will always wonder what Fallout would be like today if Interplay hadnt been forced to sell.

[MichaelWyattMDW]

For decades, I thought the only reason Fallout existed was because you couldn't get the rights to make Wasteland 2. Now I know that I've been so wrong for so long. . .

[dudexyt]

I really enjoyed Wasteland in the early 90s and beat the game. When I got to try Fallout, I did miss having a big party to explore the world but I saw that there was multiple solutions to a quest.

I did like all the nods to Wasteland, and even the new lore. I even liked that there was robot death machines towards the end of Fallout.
The most important aspect that was preserved in Fallout wasn’t the game mechanics but the bits of humor sprinkled through out the game. In the 90s reading descriptive text helped
wasteland feel a bit more immersive, considering that in that era, most RPGs had very little descriptions.

Fallout 1 and 2 were great games. But after Fallout 2, I did wish to see a modern party based game, and that was only realized in early 2010s with Wasteland 2.

[brianreddeman]

I remember talking to Fergus about Wasteland ages and ages ago. He had the same summary about fallout and wasteland.
He never said he didn't or did like it.
Thank you for sharing, Tim!

[fixpontt]

Wasteland 3 has robot Ronald Reagan and Fallout does not! 💀

[bryanmoraski]

I was obsessed with Wasteland on my Commodore 64. God I'm getting old.

[sensorialtoe]

Tim, I can’t begin to thank you enough for your creative vision and the games that you helped inspire and have made and also for these videos. I don’t work in the games industry but I do work corporate America and I’ve used lessons from your videos to help build bridges and connect with people I didn’t think would be possible. Thank you for being transparent and thank you for your words of wisdom!❤

[matthewwp]

Hi Tim,

I don’t know if you have or won’t answer this question since you are being paid by Obsidian for consultation on the Outer Worlds 2, but what is your opinion on Gamepass and subscriptions like Gamepass. Does being on Gamepass hurt sales? Does being on Gamepass make it easier to market the game and find a larger audience?

Thanks for all the videos!

[ThePyroSquirrel]

I’ve finally found the water chip in fallout, all that’s left is confronting the master! The fallout experience is really special especially having never visited the first game but watching the show made me want to check it out

[KeiNovak]

Thanks for the clarification on this historical tidbit.

[HeadedHero]

I really love hearing all these stories about the early days of Fallout. Thanks!

[aNerdNamedJames]

Honestly think it's healthy that the team had people who disliked Wasteland in addition to the people who loved it. Diversity of ideas can really help teamwork based creative projects.

[sinhelproductions]

I played wasteland back in the day on a Commodore 128. Man that's been so long ago.