Wasteland (game)

Wasteland is a computer role-playing game that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world devastated by nuclear armageddon. Created by Interplay and published by Electronic Arts, it released on January 27, 1987, for Apple II, Commodore 64, and Microsoft DOS.

Wasteland is not considered part of the Fallout universe, but it served as a major inspiration in Fallout's creation and numerous references can be found throughout the series.

Wasteland 2, the official sequel to Wasteland, was released on September 19, 2014.

Overview of Wasteland
You control a group of player-created characters ("PCs") known as Desert Rangers. After most of the world was obliterated by nuclear weapons in the Great War, your band of heroes survived because they luckily hailed from a former prison located near Las Vegas, Nevada, an area that somehow avoided a direct hit. Your initial mission is to investigate disturbances in surrounding communities: Highpool, the Agricultural Center, Quartz, the Rail Nomads Camp, Needles, and Las Vegas. The Desert Rangers uncover a sinister plot, hatched by a cyborg and a computer mainframe with artificial intelligence - to replace the world's population of living, breathing creatures, with cybernetic machines. To achieve this goal, a nuclear holocaust was orchestrated, and in the aftermath, machines are produced to destroy humans and then repopulate the earth. The Desert Rangers ultimately prevail by blowing up Base Cochise, the location of the A.I.-driven computer mainframe.

Relationship or similarities to the Fallout series
If one plays any of the Fallout games after playing Wasteland, they cannot help but recognize the similarities. Some have said (Fallout designers, specifically) that Wasteland was the "inspiration" for the Fallout series.

Entire Fallout series

 * The Brotherhood of Steel is similar to the Guardians of the Old Order as they are both xenophobic, devoted to hoarding or preserving technology, deploy combat armor and reside in bases they call the Citadel.
 * Deathclaws are similar to the shadow claws, mutated iguanas found wandering the desert in Wasteland.
 * Ghouls are similar to the mutated desert dweller, drool, pit ghoul, shambler ghoul, spineless ghoul, night screamer and night terror encountered in Wasteland.
 * Water chip - in Wasteland, the first quest given to the Desert Rangers is to fix a water pump in Highpool.
 * ZAX, a series of advanced supercomputers that appeared in the original Fallout and were set to return in Van Buren, are named similarly to VAX from Wasteland.

Fallout

 * Tycho, the Desert Ranger - the band of heroes in Wasteland were Desert Rangers.
 * He also makes references to Wasteland, such as mentioning the Wasteland character Fat Freddy.
 * Dane, a member of the Children of the Cathedral asks the Vault Dweller if anyone knows how to fix a toaster, this is a reference to Wastelands toaster repair skill.

Fallout 2

 * The little Casino War in Wasteland's Las Vegas appears to be a model for the situation in New Reno.
 * Cassidy has a few combat taunts that come from Wasteland's combat descriptions.
 * In the Mercenaries' cave, the Chosen One needs three numbers (11-16-27) from three dog tags to open a safe. These are the same three numbers found on Huey, Dewey, and Louie's ID tags in Quartz that also open a safe.

Fallout 3

 * Brick - When asked about Vernon Square, Brick mentions that she loves turning the 'muties into a "fine, red mist" with her gun; in Wasteland, this is one of the descriptions the game used for dramatic combat deaths.
 * The Children of Atom is similar to the Servants of the Mushroom Cloud, a cult of radiation worshipping zealots located in Las Vegas, Nevada.
 * Firelance is a reference to the weapon found in Wastelands meta fictitious, "decoy" storyline, in Wastelands paragraphs book.
 * Toaster - when Three Dog mentions that his toaster needs repair, it is likely (in part, at least) a reference to the surprisingly useful skill of Toaster Repair in Wasteland.
 * Wasteland Survival Guide - The book the Lone Wanderer can help make is the name of Wasteland's game guide book.
 * President Eden - When speaking with the Cochise A.I. mainframe in Wasteland, it states that its mission is "to repopulate the Earth with pure stock once my minions have destroyed all other life. I will win." This is identical to the main goal of President Eden, who is also an A.I. mainframe. Additionally, the player can ask Eden how to kill him, to which he will reply that doing so is impossible. A similar question can be asked of Cochise, with a similar answer.

Fallout: New Vegas

 * In both games, Las Vegas avoided being directly hit by nukes, are in relatively good condition, have electricity, and robots are still patrolling the streets.
 * The Toaster Repair skill from Wasteland is referenced multiple times:
 * Sarah Weintraub, the owner of the Vault 21 hotel, tells the Courier about the Vault-Tec toaster she repaired, relating to the toaster repair skill.
 * In the Black Mountain prison building, the Courier can access a terminal containing the diary of Raul Tejada. In entry 4, he will mention that Tabitha had him repair a toaster. Raul also expresses, when taken to Jacobstown, trepidation that the mutants there won't take him captive and force him to fix toasters.
 * A direct nod to the Desert Ranger faction in Wasteland can be seen on a plaque by the monument outside of the Mojave Outpost.
 * In Honest Hearts, one can find Desert Ranger combat armor.
 * The add-on Old World Blues features a large number of references to Wasteland, including the proton axe, Toaster, Robo-scorpion, the consumables thin red paste and thick red paste and the perk description for Them's Good Eatin': "Any living creature you kill has a 50% chance to have the potent healing items Thin Red Paste or Blood Sausage when looted."

Fallout 76
The holotape game Wastelad can be found in the game world and is a direct reference to Wasteland.