Radio Stations in Fallout

Emil Pagliarulo & Pete Hines are both exempt, because they were working as game reviewers at the (now defunct) Adrenaline Vault website; surely they could not have missed Fallout 1 & 2 when it released
I will never forget when Emil said to fans of the classic Fallout games not to worry because he slept with the Fallout bible under his pillow while making FO3.
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Or Todd Howard saying that Fallout is one of his favourite games:
Todd Howard said:
We are overjoyed.
Fallout is one of my favorite games, and we plan to develop a visually stunning and original game for Fallout 3 with all the hallmarks of a great RPG: player choice, engaging story, and non-linearity.
When Erik Caponi said that the team wanted Fallout 3 to live up to the legacy of the series:
Writer and designer Erik J. Caponi says he felt a “weight of responsibility” when working on Fallout 3. The team wanted to live up to the legacy of the series while acknowledging it would be many players’ first Fallout game.

“Fallout 3 was going to be what Fallout was to them," says Caponi, "and I wanted to make sure it was the same Fallout at its core that I knew and loved.”

The team was divided on which of the previous Fallout games to take most cues from – Burgess says that, on balance, the first Fallout felt closer to what they wanted to create, so they made sure they were clued up on its source material, including Six Strings Samurai and A Boy and His Dog.
Vlatko Andronov acknowledging that (classic) Fallout was one of the greatest RPG franchises and that sold a lot (for those Bethesda fans who always say that classic Fallout was a not known IP before Bethesda got the rights), while wanting the keep Fallout 3 worthy of the classic Fallout franchise and for the classic Fans.
Vlatko Andonov said:
We're extremely excited about this opportunity and what it means both for Bethesda and for Fallout fans around the world.
Fallout is one of the great RPG franchises. Millions of Fallout games have been sold worldwide, and fans have been eagerly awaiting the release of a Fallout 3 title. Bethesda's proven expertise in this genre, building on our experience and the tremendous success we have enjoyed with our cutting-edge Elder Scrolls® series, will enable us to create the next chapter of Fallout that is worthy of the franchise.


EDIT: Also this is kinda relevant for this thread:
 
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The team was divided on which of the previous Fallout games to take most cues from
I guess they said fuck it and just decided to copy from the first two games.

Fallout is one of my favorite games, and we plan to develop a visually stunning and original game for Fallout 3 with all the hallmarks of a great RPG: player choice, engaging story, and non-linearity.
Hilarious, not a single thing said here was in the final product. Game looked disgusting on release, it wasn't original in the slightest, there was next to no player choice, the story was utter crap, and it was extremely linear.

Why a lot of people kept eating Todd's bullshit is beyond me when the games didn't reflect any of his promises.
 
Game looked disgusting on release
I remember saying exactly that on the official Bethesda forums back then and received a lot of flack from their fan boys.

e: The game was also bug-ridden and I got some crash-to-desktops.
 
I remember saying exactly that on the official Bethesda forums back then and received a lot of flack from their fan boys.
It is pretty hilarious seeing Bethesda fans claim the Bethesda games were never about graphics, but then the director of the game saying they are working on providing stunning graphics. Gotta move that goalpost to try to defend that product that some people for some reason tie their entire personal identity to.
 
Oblivion was also praised as having very good graphics but in reality it looked like a turd. Back then I trusted game journalists and thought something was wrong when the game looked awful and not beautiful as claimed by reviewers.
 
I made a small track list as a sort of "what if" Fallout 4 had taken the radio track selections a bit more seriously. I'll put here below:

One More Tomorrow - Frankie Carle (1946)
Since I Don't Have You - The Skyliners (1959)
Mr. Lonely - Bobby Vinton (1964)
Lonesome Town - Ricky Nelson (1959)
The Great Imposter - The Fleetwoods (1958)
If I Had A Hammer - Peter, Paul, and Marry (1962)
Take My True Love By The Hand - The Limelghters (1960)
I Had The Craziest Dream - Frank Sinatra (1980)
Don't Forget Your Old Shipmate - Jerry Bryant and Starboard Mass (2000)
Danny Boy - The Irish Tenors (1999)
Molly Malone - The Dubliners (1983)
Eternal Father Strong To Save - The Midship Men Glee Club (2016)
The Shot Heard Round The World - American Schoolhouse Rock (1975)
 
I’ve been following the Fallout: London mod’s development since it was newly announced, and have seen them release on their YouTube channel original songs as well as covers of old songs they are going to use on their radio station.

I have to commend them for their dedication to writing original songs that fit the retro future aesthetic really well.
And the playlist even has songs that use atomic terminology that don’t feel out of place or jokey, but rather compliments the setting.



Some of my personal favorites from this list:

Nuclear Submarine
That Girl From Valley Road
Train to Merseyside
Since You Left Our Love Behind
 
Aside from Fallout 4, the existence of a radio station or at the very least 1960s music in the Fallout 1 era is also heavily implied by the Fallout 2 Vault Dweller memoirs where he references Frank Sinatra.

"They want me to write my memoirs. Fine. I'll do it. But as the song goes, I'll do it my way. And I'm old enough that I will get my way."
Take this how you will but in fallout 76 they've got wouldn't it be nice by the beach boys playing.

As far as the radio I think it was probably a good inclusion and one of the few good things the game did. As a kid I remember how pulse raising the DC subway system was with all the ambient noises there and the only hope I had other than my gun was three dog doing his reps. Definitely something I remember.

As far as song genre for the series, I think covers to sound more like the time period would be welcome. Wasteland 3 did that and those songs fit quite well in it.
 
Well, Wasteland 3 is different considering the war happened in 1998 in that universe. And its divergence from our world started in 1988 at the earliest. Quite a different beast than having to come up with a hundred years of doo-wop and big band jazz.
 
Do radio station work in Fallout universe?
Yes. If nothing else, they have music resource of a dead world to rely on. The holotape recordings of all that will spread all over the wasteland, and especially well in the vaults. So they only need to fill a few hours of dead air with local news.

DJ? Depend. They could be AI like Mr Vegas, or real persons like Agatha, Three Dogs or whathisname in Diamond City.

Theme? Not especially. You can build up your own specific theme for your radio channel but no real lore reason to enforce one. Like I said: music resource of a whole dead world to build on.
 
Well, Wasteland 3 is different considering the war happened in 1998 in that universe. And its divergence from our world started in 1988 at the earliest. Quite a different beast than having to come up with a hundred years of doo-wop and big band jazz.
Yeah no doubt about the time periods but what wasteland did was change the songs to fit the theme of the setting. Which for wasteland is very country. So finding songs and making them sound appropriate to fallouts era is a good idea which the op had asked about earlier. I was just using it as an example, BioShock infinite did it as well.
 
Yeah no doubt about the time periods but what wasteland did was change the songs to fit the theme of the setting. Which for wasteland is very country. So finding songs and making them sound appropriate to fallouts era is a good idea which the op had asked about earlier. I was just using it as an example, BioShock infinite did it as well.
Oh, you mean like this?
https://youtube.com/watch?v=N9gdj1TZBIk
 
There's a raider radio station like that in New California.

Speaking of, some highlights of fan made radio stations for NV.

NCR 440 (New California)
Commercial NCR radio playing pre-war tapes and post-war songs.
They broadcast news on the MQ (with several updates depending on your choices) and from NCR (Senate resolutions, recent vote results, archeological digs around New Arroyo, etc).
They have a couple of ads for NCR businesses like Crimson Caravan and self-advertisement where they offer to buy scavenged music tapes.


DETH 98.1 (New California)
Raider metal station with 2 hosts. They never specify if it's pre-war or post-war music.
Instead of news they have a "talk show" where they torture an NCR officer.


Canyonland Radio (Tales of New Reno 2)
Purely pre-war music, ranging from Buddy Holly, Marty Robbins, a couple of doo-wop tracks to nuke songs like Great Atomic Power.
Run by a couple Ron and Dawn, with field reporter Ricky supplying news.
They only have news regarding the Canyonlands.
They have reactions to MQ and some of the side quests. You can additionally sell some news to them.
Killing them removes news segments and the station just plays music.


Portland Folk Radio (Frontier)
Station only plays music. Songs are covers of folk tracks like "Down in the River to Pray".


John Walker Show (Frontier)
NCR radio playing 50s pre-war music.
They have news segments regarding the war with Legion with updates depending on who you've decided to support. They also air survival tips.
Killing Walker removes news segments and tips show.
There's a Legion side quest that completely removes them off air.


Breach Outreach (Frontier)
Purely news station. It had post-war music, but it was removed during the Frontier shitstorm at the request of performers.
News cover the MQ and several of the side quests with variations depending on your choices (including a couple where you work as a reporter for them).
You can meet their DJ, but he's unkillable behind bulletproof glass.
 
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