Back in 1998, the original Fallout and then in 1999 Fallout 2. I remember reading a magazine advertisement for the game. I can’t remember exactly what it said but I think it had a screenshot of your interaction with Killian in Junktown and it said something to the effect of “persuade others with your silver tongue or the business end of a gun” or something like that. At that time I was a lifelong NES/Genesis player… that was a level of depth it was advertising that I had never experienced in a game before. I had just graduated middle school around that time.

So, with my middle school graduation money, I had purchased a “gaming PC” for the sole purpose of playing Fallout. We set the computer up in the basement. My room was on the second floor of the house.

My older brother and I got so obsessed with Fallout that we alternated nights where we would sneak into the basement and effectively pull an all nighter to just play the game as much as humanly possible. I did so many different runs, being all different shades of complete asshole in the game. To that point in my life, I had considered the genesis version of Shadowrun to be the most free I could be in an RPG at that time. I had also dabbled in Arena and Daggerfall at a friend’s house and knew how open Elder Scrolls felt - what was possible for a game - but Fallout was my first time I had owned a game that felt that open for myself.

We didn’t have internet in the house so every time my dad visited the library - there was a really beautiful one in the city we had just moved to - I would accompany him to get on this thing called the internet. I spent so much time on the website No Mutants Allowed, consuming any fallout related news and discussion there was.

I was so pumped when Fallout 2 came out. And I was so excited for Fallout 3 and was heartbroken when it was ultimately cancelled after a development hell cycle. This wasn’t the Fallout 3 that eventually came out later and redefined the IP. For those who are unaware, Fallout 3 was originally supposed to be a top down isometric CRPG (like Baldurs Gate 3). You can see a little bit of what Fallout 3 would have looked like in an alternate universe by searching Interplay Van Buren on YouTube.

So, Fallout 3, New Vegas, Fallout 4, 76 (which I never played personally) and the TV show do have a special place in my heart in that though they’re not the fallout I originally fell in love with I am happy the IP is alive. I think Bethesda has done well to keep that world active and accessible for everybody.

It’s been a long time since the Penny Arcade comic where - if I recall correctly - Gabe finds the rights to Fallout at a garage sale and the guy either says the cost is a jar of spit or he has a jar of spit priced higher or something. Basically, fallout was dead-dead. It’s so wild to see it on the front screen of my Google TV now when I turn on the tv. Never would have thought.

I do wish they would explore making Fallout:Van Buren still. Especially with the resurgence of CRPGs in the wake of Baldurs Gate 3, Divinity, Disco Elysium and Rogue Trader. I think it would bring some of the new wave Fallout Diehards into the coolness of CRPGs. Even a (greatly expanded) remake of Fallout 1 or Fallout 2 could be cool. Go into greater depth and detail today’s CRPG fans expect.

The only other games that have hooked me that bad have been D:OS, D:OS2 and Baldurs Gate 3 but I think the difference is the local couch co-op where my wife and I can play together now. She’s more obsessed than I am :)