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The Fallout Franchise

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The Fallout franchise is nearly 20 years old, but the history of the series goes back far more than 20 years. While Fallout can easily be considered the studios most successful franchise, their legacy goes beyond the post apocalyptic, being publishers of such games as Descent 3, Baldur’s Gate, and the developers of Wasteland. Baldur’s Gate and Descent 3 certainly helped shape Interplay into the developers they would eventually become, but it was Wasteland, first released in 1988 on the Apple 2 computer, that really laid the foundation for Fallout. Not only did Wasteland pave the way for Fallout, it nearly single handedly brought a genre to mainstream audiences. Wasteland takes place in 2087 after a nuclear war between the United States and Russia plunged the world into darkness. Sound familiar? The player takes the role of a Desert Ranger, a division of what’s left of the United States Army, who travels throughout the Southeastern United States investigating a series of disturbances. Eventually, the player discovers the source of the disturbances, a …show more content…

However, Wasteland, due to the technical limitations of the time, had a several hundred page long book to provide context and information about events in-game. Fallout, being released almost 10 years later, wasn’t constrained by those same limitations, and was able to put all information in the game itself, most of which was done via the Pip-Boy 2000. The Pip-Boy, or Personal Information Processor model 2000, is a personal computer worn by all vault dwellers. It acts as a menu of sorts, providing you with maps of the area, information about quests, lists of skills and perks for your character, your inventory of weapons, armors, and health items, and will even wish you a Merry Christmas on December 25, in game. The Pip-Boy took all of the clutter of tabletop RPGs and condensed it into a sleek and clean user

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