Transistor

A transistor is an object, both mentioned and found throughout the Fallout series.

Although a fan theory proposes transistors, semiconductors, microchips and the like were never invented in the Fallout series, were invented much later, or were specifically invented in 2067, no canon or contemporary source has been found to support this explanation. Variants of this unsupported fan statement appear as early as 2003 including a 2015 Vice article.

Mentions

 * Typical 80s/90s desktop computers can seen as a map props in Fallout 2.
 * In Fallout Tactics, the Reavers mention transistors, making comments such as "for the glory of the transistor" and "wait, is this transistor reverse biased?"
 * In Fallout 3, the player character can remove all transistors related to "basic operations" on a malfunctioning Mister Handy in the Capital Wasteland, rendering it inoperable.
 * In a Fallout 3 random encounter, the Lone Wanderer can attempt to free slaves from slave collars. One of possible outcomes found in the game files mentions tweaking a transistor to disarm them.
 * In Fallout: New Vegas, Robert House mentions electronics and silicon, the primary component of transistors and semiconductors: "I'm flesh and blood, not silicon." In addition, concept art in the Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide Collector's Edition describes Mr. House's helmet apparatus, stating that it was designed to be potentially "fitted with transistors."
 * In Fallout 4, Jack Cabot utilized transistors to create a portable version of the Abremalin field generator.
 * The soldier on duty at Listening Post Bravo lamented that they only had, "military rations, old magazines and a transistor radio to keep me company" for four weeks.
 * One of Proctor Quinlan's possible responses about Paladin Danse is that they, "wouldn't 'miss' a synth any sooner than I'd miss a transistor radio."
 * The Fallout 76 quest the Messenger requires a memory transistor for completion.
 * Scott Conroy attempted to chase down cryptids in Appalachia, and brought along a General Atomics BS7 transistor radio while doing so.

Behind the scenes

 * While a lack of transistors would be an important part of Fallout's world-building, they are not mentioned in the 2002 Fallout Bible. However, it does mention briefly mention the transistor's predecessor, "vacuum tubes" as part of the aesthetic.
 * With unsupported fan theories about the lack of transistors and semiconductors existing as early as 2003, few developer quotes survive from this time regarding transistors. Other developer quotes have surfaced some time after the release of 2015's Fallout 4 to limited audiences. However, they are not contemporaneous to the earliest fan theories and it is unclear whether a lack of transistors was intended since the beginning of the series.
 * In June 2003 on the Interplay Forums, developer Joshua Sawyer and a user on the No Mutants Allowed forums debated over a claim that a developer had stated "Imagine a future where the transistor had never been invented", to which Sawyer cited examples where transistors and integrated circuits can be found in Fallout, such as The Glow. He also notes that he was unfamiliar with any Fallout developer at the time who used the lack of transistors to describe game's setting.
 * In a followup tumblr question in March 2019, Sawyer maintained his position on transistors in Fallout, reiterating how robots in the series are affected by EMP blasts "so the state of technology isn’t represented consistently."
 * In 2016 in a Ubisoft livestream's closing Q&A, developer Joel Burgess mentioned transistors in terms of advanced technology, in that the Fallout world reached milestones of advancement without inventing the transistor, which shines light on culture priorities.
 * In 2018 in an interview with YouTuber Matt Barton, developer Leonard Boyarsky stated that the choice to stay with vacuum tubes instead of advancing to transistors was intentional, commenting that without transistors, enemies "wouldn't be as susceptible to an EMP blast."
 * In August 2005, user Paweł "Ausir" Dembowski, one of the later founders of this Wiki, noted on the No Mutants Allowed forum about adding a comment about the lack of transistors in the "Divergence" page of the old Fallout wiki fansite, Duck and Cover. The original page has not been archived, but user Ausir also founded both the Fallout Wikis hosted on Nukapedia (wikia/FANDOM) and The Vault (Curse/Gamepedia) where much of the text material originally hosted on Duck and Cover were transferred.
 * Variants of the same statement about the lack of transistors in Fallout have also appeared on this Wiki's Divergence page (now known as Fallout setting) without substantiation in the period between 2005-2021. The page in 2005 originally contained the line: "Consequently, miniaturization of computers was never necessary and the transistor was never invented.", the line underwent minor revisions until a 2009 edit added "The transistor was not developed until just before the war,..." followed by elaborating specifics from "until the decade just before the Great War in 2077" to a 2014 and 2016 edit specifying the year the transistor was invented in Fallout as 2067. None of the registered and unregistered users gave a source or quote for this statement. Gamepedia's version of the page also contained much of the same material and featured identical 2005 creation timestamps until the merging of the two wikis in 2019.
 * In addition in May 2003 on the old Duck and Cover forums, a user posited another variant of "it's a world where the transistor was never invented" as coming from a preview of Fallout in a gaming magazine, but was unsure about the exact issue.