Fallout

Fallout (also known as Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game) is a 1997 role-playing video game developed by Black Isle Studios and published by Interplay Entertainment. Set in a mid-22nd century post-apocalyptic and retro-futuristic world, the game takes place decades after a global nuclear war between the United States and China. The protagonist, the Vault Dweller, inhabits Vault 13, an underground nuclear shelter. When the vault's water purification system fails, the player must scour the surrounding wasteland for a replacement computer chip, interacting with survivors, completing quests, and engaging in turn-based combat.

Tim Cain began working on Fallout in 1994. It was initially conceived using the GURPS ruleset, but after Steve Jackson Games objected to the game's violent content, Cain and designer Christopher Taylor created the original SPECIAL system (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, Luck). Interplay initially gave the game little attention, but eventually spent $3 million and employed up to thirty people to develop it. The game was considered a spiritual successor to Interplay's 1988 title Wasteland and drew artistic inspiration from 1950s Atomic Age literature and media, as well as films like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog. The quests were intentionally designed with moral ambiguity, allowing multiple solutions.

Fallout received critical acclaim for its open-ended gameplay, deep character customization, immersive setting, and strong writing. It won Role-Playing Game of the Year from GameSpot and Computer Games Magazine, and was nominated by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences at the Spotlight Awards. Commercially, it sold over 600,000 copies worldwide by 2002, far exceeding expectations. The game is often listed among the greatest video games of all time and is credited with revitalizing the role-playing genre. Its success spawned a franchise, with the rights purchased by Bethesda Softworks in 2007, leading to sequels including Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76.[edit]

Fallout uses a turn-based tactical combat system governed by Action Points (AP). Each character has a pool of AP that dictates how many actions they can perform per round, such as moving, attacking, reloading, or using items. A critical hit system can inflict special effects like knockdowns or instant kills. The interface includes a Pip-Boy 2000 that manages inventory, maps, quests, and character stats. The world is divided into large hand-drawn overworld maps and smaller detailed location maps. Random encounters occur during travel, ranging from friendly traders to hostile raiders or mutated creatures.

Character creation uses the SPECIAL system, where players allocate points across seven attributes that influence dialogue options, skill checks, and combat. Players also select Traits (e.g., Fast Shot, Gifted) and Tag Skills (e.g., Small Guns, Lockpick, Speech) to further specialize their character. The game offers high player freedom: quests can be solved through combat, stealth, diplomacy, or bribery. The game's engine is a tile-based 2D system rendering sprites on a grid at 640x480 resolution with 256 colors. It features pre-rendered backgrounds, a day/night cycle in some locations, and parallax scrolling.[edit]

The game begins in 2161, 84 years after the Great War of 2077. The player character, the Vault Dweller, lives in Vault 13, designed to sustain 1,000 people for 200 years. The Vault's Water Chip malfunctions and is estimated to fail within 150 days. The Overseer tasks the Vault Dweller with finding a replacement chip in the wasteland. The journey involves exploring settlements like Shady Sands, Junktown, the Hub, and the Brotherhood of Steel's bunker. The protagonist eventually traces the chip's origin to the Mariposa Military Base, where they discover the source of the mutant threat: the Master, a mutated human leading an army of super mutants from the Cathedral in Los Angeles.

The Master plans to forcibly convert all humans into super mutants to create a unified, radiation-resistant race. The Vault Dweller can either destroy the Master's base by detonating its reactor or convince the Master that super mutants are sterile and cannot reproduce. Upon returning to Vault 13 with the Water Chip, the Overseer exiles the Vault Dweller for being contaminated by the outside world. The epilogue shows the Vault Dweller founding the settlement of Arroyo, which becomes the starting point for Fallout 2.[edit]