Fallout E3 1996 Interactive Demo



The Fallout E3 interactive demo was shown on May 18, 1996 as part of Fallout ' s promotional campaign that included handouts and other marketing material.

Background
In contrast with the publicly-available demo version, it used an early variant of the Junktown map populated with simple characters created specifically for the demo and using already created assets, as is the case with the elder. According to the script list, the elder was from Shady Sands.

At this point, Fallout was already known under this name, but retained the GURPS mechanics. The demo was also used to record early 1997 preview for the game. The idea of using Junktown to demonstrate the basic gameplay of the game was reused for the aforementioned Fallout demo.

Gameplay
The player, called Leona in the character inventory screen, would have entered the unnamed village and be able to interact with several characters, before ultimately heading off to the radscorpion caves to fight. The demo showed the core functionality of the game, including the GURPS character and combat system, dialogue, bartering, character reactions, and questing.

Although many assets were already finished and ready for use, the writing was still unfinished and several items had placeholder names. The Desert Eagle .44 was named Magnum and the AK-112 assault rifle was named the Colt rifle. All images come from the original GURPS website, seen here.

Characters

 * Elder, demonstrating the talking head, questing, and basic reaction mechanics.
 * Barterman, showing off the trading mechanics.
 * Barterman's guards two refer players to Sammy for journeying to the caves, enjoyer of donuts.
 * Sammy, a character who takes the player to the radscorpion caves.
 * Non-descript NPCs inhabiting the unnamed village.

Behind the scenes
The elder uses Morpheus' talking head and can be seen in pre-release Fallout materials and certain merchandise or packaging.