NMA article: The History of Fallout

[Brother None]

In response to the frequent misinformation spread about the basic design of Fallout or the process in which it was made, NMA admin Sander decided to search through old Usenet discussions with Tim Cain as well as other more modern interviews with the core designers of Fallout 1 to see what was the philosophy behind Fallout 1, the how and the why.

This article is fairly short, mostly because it doesn't contain any statement not directly derived from a developer quote. It covers the GURPS/P&P mechanics behind Fallout, the decision to go turn-based, details about the setting and what inspired it, how the designers viewed RPGs, how the game's release went and what was up with the lack of children in the European Fallout 1.

Link: The History of Fallout

 

[SuAside]

short

too short

want more, NOW!

 

[Sander]

short

too short

want more, NOW!

Find more sources, NOW!

Seriously, though, the idea was to create an article that does not contain any speculation or reasoning on the part of the writer, but can be directly shown to be entirely based on real developer quotes. Which is why we don't start giving valid reason(ing)s for various elements, and why it's so short.

PS: Thanks to Tannhauser for editing.

 

[Sorrow]

Good job with finding all the sources, Sander . It was an interesting reading.

Reading some parts, especially about removing kids and losing GURPS license made me angry and filled me with disgust. I hate when people do things like that .
BTW.
It's interesting how people are obsessing about how putting killable children in game will affect the sales and public opinions to the point of removing children from european version of Fallout and having the game punish the player by adding an artificial "Childkiller" reputation while a possibility of killing cats, dogs, children, cows, squirrels, beggars, etc. in Baldur's Gate was completely unnoticed.

In article <3465672d>,
spectre911 @ hotmail.com (Thrasher) wrote:

>Fallout won't win RPG of the year. It is too good. This award is
>reserved for the non-RPG that has the most RPG elements in it and that
>sells the most copies. Probably Dungeon Keeper will be RPG of the
>year.

God, I hope you are wrong. I hope the industry has not yet sunk into the
state where the game with the most number of copies sold is assumed to be
the best.

In fact, you might say I'm betting my career on it.

Tim.

BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! Priceless .

 

[Brother None]

Fallout did win RPG of the Year.

 

[welsh]

Nicely done Sander and Tannhauser.

 

[Sorrow]

Fallout did win RPG of the Year.

I'm just suprised how these times weren't different from ours - pseudoRPGs were very popular and psychos wanted to censor computer games .

 

[Jesterka]

Interesting reading, Sander (and Tannhauser). Now I´m a bit cleverer again. 8)

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Great work Sander. You proved once again that the only good Fallout fan, is a well documented Fallout fan.

 

[Grotesque]

maybe in the near future we will hear that the korean that shot 30+ people last week was a Fallout fan, then kiss goodbye Fallout 3 with mature elements.

 

[Wooz]

Don't be silly. Everybody knows Koreans only play Starcraft.

 

[Sorrow]

maybe in the near future we will hear that the korean that shot 30+ people last week was a Fallout fan, then kiss goodbye Fallout 3 with mature elements.

Fallout fans don't get caught.

 

[Briosafreak]

Just saw this mentioned at Bluesnews.

 

[JR Jansen]

Good job, very interesting.

 

[Claw]

Very nice article. I actually think the shortness is an advantage, considering the target group.
There'll still be people who insist that Fallout is no more rooted in PnP than TES.

Fallout did win RPG of the Year.

Yeah, he won his bet that time. Unfortunately he kept betting until Thrasher's fear came true and Tim lost the bet.

 

[Brother None]

I'm just suprised how these times weren't different from ours - pseudoRPGs were very popular and psychos wanted to censor computer games .

I never like it when people represent BIS as something essentially different from the normal computer gaming trend.

Feargus Urquhart is a fairly smart businessman, SLAM DUNKS nonwithstanding, and BIS was run mostly as a business.

Though one could certainly argue that the gaming industry has degraded badly, considering that in those times a major company like Interplay was willing to have its subdivisions tinker away on miracles like Fallout and Planescape:Torment. Who's still doing that? No one, is who.

 

[Sorrow]

I'm just suprised how these times weren't different from ours - pseudoRPGs were very popular and psychos wanted to censor computer games .

I never like it when people represent BIS as something essentially different from the normal computer gaming trend.

I never said that it was different - it created only 3 good RPGs. I remember how they actively worked on destroying the RPG genre.

Though one could certainly argue that the gaming industry has degraded badly, considering that in those times a major company like Interplay was willing to have its subdivisions tinker away on miracles like Fallout and Planescape:Torment. Who's still doing that? No one, is who.

Yes. That's because RPG genre was degraded again. It started with Baldur's Gate - it set a "new standard" and "saved the RPG genre" - it saved it from Fallout of course - it saved it from becoming more ambitious.
Notice how Pete Hines didn't even talk about making an isometric game like Fallout - he talked about making an isometric game like Baldur's Gate.