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**Tom Guycott** · 10-10-2022, 11:34 PM

I will do just that, because I have been a huge fan since the original demo set in Junktown that released in 1996...

It had its talons in me ever since the opening notes to "Maybe" hit. Part of it was how full the introductory lore felt, part of it was the retro-futurism styling, part of it was Ron Pearlman's narration. It was just different than anything I had experienced up to that point... and that was BEFORE the introduction of the character creation screen. Sure, you were kinda locked into what you could do in the demo, but it was more about the presentation of possibilities and what it meant. It was my introduction to "choice matters" well before that became a gaming marketing cliche that is kind-of oxymoronic anymore.

I mean, now, it's more like a "proof of concept", but back then, it felt like THE POSSIBILITIES WERE ENDLESS! One of the quests included was Dogmeat sitting outside of Phil's house, and you had to figure out how to get him to move so the poor guy could go home. At the time, a lot of games were bound to the "adventure game logic", so you would need to do some elaborate puzzle and solve a set of fetch quests to get some dumbass item to Rube Goldberg your way into solving the mystery of pest removal. However, here was a straightfoward list of options: you could basically attack/kill him (which agaiin was the "obvious" course of action at the time), feed him to get him to move, or throw on the Leather Armor for the Mad Max reference and get him to follow you. My 16 year old mind was blown.

Then, even the meta got me. The first game was heavily populated by top notch voice talent, from Tony Shalhoub to Keith fucking David. The story about how Fallout 1 started life as the original Wasteland 2, which all came full circle by the eventual Wasteland 2/3 being born from lack of Fallout IP licencing (and similarly, fostered the birth of The Outer Worlds) is fascinating to me. The SPECIAL system we all know and love came out of the neccessity to come up with something to replace GURPS, which they ended up losing permission to use.

Anyway, I could gush all night... but instead, I think I might go see if I can just install the final retail release disc on my current laptop.

10-10-2022, 11:34 PM	#4
Tom Guycott I W C DEEZ NUTZ! Posts: 10,137	I will do just that, because I have been a huge fan since the original demo set in Junktown that released in 1996... It had its talons in me ever since the opening notes to "Maybe" hit. Part of it was how full the introductory lore felt, part of it was the retro-futurism styling, part of it was Ron Pearlman's narration. It was just different than anything I had experienced up to that point... and that was BEFORE the introduction of the character creation screen. Sure, you were kinda locked into what you could do in the demo, but it was more about the presentation of possibilities and what it meant. It was my introduction to "choice matters" well before that became a gaming marketing cliche that is kind-of oxymoronic anymore. I mean, now, it's more like a "proof of concept", but back then, it felt like THE POSSIBILITIES WERE ENDLESS! One of the quests included was Dogmeat sitting outside of Phil's house, and you had to figure out how to get him to move so the poor guy could go home. At the time, a lot of games were bound to the "adventure game logic", so you would need to do some elaborate puzzle and solve a set of fetch quests to get some dumbass item to Rube Goldberg your way into solving the mystery of pest removal. However, here was a straightfoward list of options: you could basically attack/kill him (which agaiin was the "obvious" course of action at the time), feed him to get him to move, or throw on the Leather Armor for the Mad Max reference and get him to follow you. My 16 year old mind was blown. Then, even the meta got me. The first game was heavily populated by top notch voice talent, from Tony Shalhoub to Keith fucking David. The story about how Fallout 1 started life as the original Wasteland 2, which all came full circle by the eventual Wasteland 2/3 being born from lack of Fallout IP licencing (and similarly, fostered the birth of The Outer Worlds) is fascinating to me. The SPECIAL system we all know and love came out of the neccessity to come up with something to replace GURPS, which they ended up losing permission to use. Anyway, I could gush all night... but instead, I think I might go see if I can just install the final retail release disc on my current laptop.