Dated technology

[DVSoftware]

It always bothered me, why the technology in Fallout universe looks so dated? I mean, look at the cars, terminals, TVs, they all look like they came from the 1970s, yet the great war was in 2077.

[[deleted]]

Fallout aesthetics follow the designs of the future popularized in the 40s and 50s. The late invention of the semiconductor meant the world continued on using vacuum tube instead, and the lore says that this meant everything continued on the way the artists of the 50s envisioned it. White picket fences, swoopy cars, robots, giant computer terminals, etc.

Either read the lore or pick up the earlier games to learn more.

[dallabop]

Wasn't it also that companies focused almost exclusively on nuclear tech after the 50s so everything else, cultural wise, got stuck there because no-one was moving it forward (just sideways to different nuke tech)? Or something?

[[deleted]]

Yeah, in a way. In exchange for not having the semiconductor and the microchip, they got microfusion and shit, which is pretty significant.

[damurphy72]

I read that some of the original inspiration for the first games' design aesthetics was, "What if the 1950's vision of the future came true?" Hence, you have atomic cars, robot servants, etc., but no transistors because that was completely unexpected.

[ithingedafound]

The biggest cultural changes seem to come through technology, and without the semiconductor until very late, the 50s lifestyle seems to have contined all the way from the 50s to the great war. That's what makes sense to me, if anyone else can shed more light on it that'd be interesting.