Technology



Technology in the world of Fallout is different from ours. First, due to the Divergence, it has developed in a radically different direction. It's a world in which integrated circuits were developed very late and even then their popularity was limited, as people preferred the more resistant and reliable vacuum tubes. Second, the technology has progressed beyond our current level, as the development proceeded all the way until 2077 and even further in certain cases (such as the Enclave).

Much of Fallout's world and technology is inspired by 1950s pulp science fiction. The world is not our own, functioning due to a different set of rules. It is a world in which radiation can mutate people into ghouls and portable directed energy weapons are not only viable but also (relatively) widespread. This article aims to summarize the available information and present just how advanced the technology of Fallout is.

Energy
One of the key elements of the backstory are the Resource Wars, fought for the last remaining energy resources on Earth. In the wake of the crisis, as the economy ground to a halt, the United States sought alternatives to energy derived from fossil fuels. In 2060, hydrocarbon fuels became too precious to waste on automobiles so other alternatives were beginning to be explored. Researchers arrived at two solutions - utilizing fission and fusion as the primary power sources. The first crude fusion cell was unveiled in 2066, providing the United States with an edge and averting its imminent bankruptcy.

By 2077, microfusion cells were commonplace, used widely as chargers for energy-consuming technology, ranging from laser rifles to cars, with further innovation being presented in the form of the Microfusion breeder utilized in the Recharger rifle and pistol. However, perhaps the most representative element of the new energy source is the iconic T-51 power armor, powered by a back-mounted TX-28 microfusion pack, with enough fuel capacity to allow operation for nearly a century. Another source of energy was the fusion core, used in power armor frames, fusion generators, and Gatling lasers.

Fission power sources have found their use as well, as power sources for robots, which can utilize a nuclear power unit as its energy source within backup generators (typically Wattz Electrobox units, like the one used in Broken Hills).

All the spent radioactive material had to be disposed of somewhere and the deserts of the American Southwest, especially the Mojave Desert, became prime dumping grounds.

In some places such as Acadia National Park, companies like Verdant-Air Wind Power used wind turbines as a front for illegal dumping and public reputation and then discovered to be sustainable source of energy, although the project was quickly taken down as soon as this was discovered, due to the possibility of such a discovery undercutting the parent company's goals of selling fusion power to the masses.

Vehicles
In 2077, due to the oil crisis, gasoline was no longer a viable car fuel, even more so with the excellent power the automobiles had, though the wealthy still drove gasoline-powered cars, as well as companies providing gasoline and diesel fuel across America. As such, many car companies had desperately pursued research into alternative power sources, with Chryslus Motors finally patenting the successor to gasoline: electric engines, powered by energy cells. Charged with fusion cells, a Chryslus Corvega or Highwayman featured 800+ horsepower and acceleration from 0 to 60 MPH in under a second, all done with a full analog system and no computers. However, not many of these cars were produced and those that were had a limited success due to their hefty price tag ($199,999.99 for a Corvega).

Unlike the bulky and harder to maintain electric and nuclear vehicles, Steam-powered trucks were also being used by 2161, as they were very viable for transit in the post-Apocalypse. The Master and his Unity made significant use of the trucks in such dastardly deeds as attacking Necropolis or Vault 13. Fallout Bible 6 Questions galore: "6. Last update, you said there were 1/200 cars/people ration in the NCR. If there were so many working cars in NCR, where were they?" "They're there. It's game logic. You don't see them for the same reason NCR is only three maps, only has 1 councilor/senator, and only about 40-50 people in its city limits. That's why the Chop Shop in Reno exists, why the bum outside of NCR offers to watch a car for you before you show up in one, and a reason that NCR built a garage in Shady Sands." "So to explain "game logic" in this instance, there's nothing precious about building a car of your own if you can steal one – or if somebody else in town has one. Or in the words of one designer (me), "there's no good reason why a PC would want to undertake a fucking huge Fed Ex quest to rebuild one if they can jack one from the locals." The last part is especially true considering town-wide mass murder is possible in both Fallout 1 and 2." "And before you get the image of tanks and jeeps flying around everywhere with heavy machine guns mounted on the back, most of that junk is old tractors and crap like taxis, old buses, snowplows, and even old construction equipment. It's possible that mysterious old steam-truck mentioned in the bowels of the F1 data archive is still lumbering around somewhere. The caravan houses of the Hub, in particular, around the time in Fallout 2, have been looking to further its trade influence, and new vehicles (and types of transport, such as trains, boats, or barges) have been eagerly sought after for carrying large amounts of trade goods vast distances. Good ol' human greed will move mountains. Or at least rebuild things that can. Once they learn of the Enclave's presence in the North, they are likely to have huge bounties promised for vertibird plans - or better, a working vertibird. "One from Steel Knight..."''

Monorails became a relatively common mode of transportation before the Great War. Typically elevated (although suspension is noted ), these rail lines are notable for their abundance in the highly congested areas, such as the Columbia Commonwealth, and downtown Las Vegas.

Personal protection
One of the most noticeable technological leaps was made in the field of protecting people from harm (as well as causing it, but more on that later). The United States was especially proficient at doing so, as its research into polymers paid off, resulting in suits of advanced combat armor being widely deployed across the country to police and military forces, sometimes even civilians with a special BADTFL permit. This armor protected the wearer considerably from conventional and explosive damage as well as laser and plasma, a trait quite useful on the modern battlefield.

Another example of considerable advancement is the power armor, an armoured suit with a hydraulic endoskeleton, powered by a fusion pack, designed to be a one-man tank replacing traditional, inefficient vehicles in their role. It is an exclusively American technology, which is also the root of many other technologies, such as the aforementioned cold fusion.

Even the Great War failed to stall research into the technology, as the Enclave continued to develop new suits to create an even more powerful suit than the pre-War cutting edge T-51b power armor based on X-01 power armor.

An interesting example of research into personal protection exists, in the form of the Tesla armor, a suit based on Nikola Tesla's blueprints, in which Tesla Attraction Coils attract and disperse energy attacks, providing a surprisingly effective protective apparel and another example of how Fallout's physics are different than our own. This concept was later improved upon by the Enclave in the form of their Tesla advanced power armor and later their Tesla advanced power armor Mk II. The concept was also used by a group of raiders in the creation of Tesla T-60 armor.

Robotics
A fledgling field of science in our world has become a thriving industry of its own in the Fallout world. Robots are widely used and have reached a very high level of refinement and advancement. They can operate individually, can process visual and audio data in real time and make tactical decisions in the heat of the moment, operate human or inbuilt weapons with deadly accuracy and even host artificial intelligences. Despite this, robots are also still susceptible to flawed programming, as well as Electromagnetic pulses.

An indication of just how advanced robotics were, is the fact that robots were commercially available to both civilians and companies decades before the Great War. Products such as the Mister Handy, and apart from the military variants, multi-use robots like the Protectron were the best examples of just how widespread and popular they were. They were used to replace humans in jobs deemed unsafe, or to increase efficiency in - at first - relatively simple manual labor, then specialized labor. This however was taken to its logical extreme, as corporations - both large and small - had to compete with one another with automation. This effectively collapsed the value of the labor market. Both exposing the population collapse and ever diverging wealth creation gap. As those with specialized lengthy and expensive degrees became just as easily replaced as the day laborers. While those who were able to secure vast sums of capital off of automation had effectively become slave-labor barons.

Weapons
Likely the single field in which the greatest advancements were made, weaponry of the Fallout world is varied and incredibly advanced in some regards. Apart from conventional weapons based on combustion of gunpowder, energy weapons development advanced at a rapid pace, allowing for the creation of mass produced laser, plasma and pulse rifles.

While many conventional weapons echo those available in our world (such as the AK-112 assault rifle or the humble service rifle), there was considerable progress in the development of conventional weapon, including bullpup and caseless ammunition designs and advances in polymers. Yet, there is a single type of weapon that is pure science-fiction: man-portable miniguns. Developed not only by America, these massive rotary cannons are capable of delivering extreme firepower in a compact package.

Yet they were still horribly bulky and inefficient when compared with energy weapons. These advanced armaments were developed to be powered with microfusion cells, although battery packs or cabled power systems could also be used as well. There are three distinct types of these weapons in the wastelands - laser based, which emit a several megawatt beam of coherent light, plasma based, relying on delivering damage via condensed plasma and pulse based, in which the damage is done via a powerful electrical energy pulse, and electromagnetic pulse. The United States Armed Forces were principally interested in the development of these weapons and employed them widely. The Enclave, a successor to the U.S. government, followed this trend.

Other curious offshoots of research were conducted for find ways to harm other humans. One such example was the Gauss coilgun technology. Originating in Germany,, and later utilized by China, the weapons fired a small caliber metal slug (2mm energy cell) down a barrel surrounded by magnets, propelling it to extreme speeds and guaranteeing massive damage upon impact. Similarly, railguns were also developed, with West Tek developing the X277 magnetic rail cannon specifically.

Another strange weapon technology that was researched was the use of microwave radiation to cause harm to biological tissues. Less then lethal weapons were also being developed.

Biomedical technologies
Yet another startlingly advanced field in the Fallout world, biomedical science flourished in the retro-futuristic world. The most basic example, the stimpak is astounding by our standards - a self contained stimulation delivery package, sending the cells into a replication frenzy, swiftly healing minor wounds, doing in seconds what often takes days by regular means. Furthermore, superior versions of stimpaks also existed – the super stimpak and Ultra stimpak – which can heal even the worst of injuries at a minor cost of health damage from the frenzy of replication a few minutes later.

Furthering the gap between out technology and that of Fallout is the presence of automatons whose sole purpose was to detect illness and quickly treat it. Machines like ACE, Sympto-Matic, and Auto-Docs were programmed to perform even the most difficult medical procedures without the presence of classically trained personnel. Unlike Auto-Docs however, machines like ACE were designed with tanks that the patient was submerged in during healing.

Of course, developments also took place in fields other than healing, namely, pharmaceutical enhancement. In comparison, our drugs look like primitive hallucinogenics, as those in the Fallout world last longer and have much stronger effects. Buffout, synthetic steroids, amplifies Strength and Endurance greatly, Mentats increase Intelligence and Perception while psycho increases both resistance to pain and physical damage. Not to mention cryoscience being an uncommon thing for a doctor to be trained in. Cryoscience was even utilized by Vault-Tec in one of their Vaults, as well as being utilized for weaponry and fire services, though the actual process of using cryogenics caused some to question if it were really safe or not.

Yet all of the above pales in comparison with truly revolutionary technologies. Beginning with the ability to easily clone replacement limbs and organs for humans, an experimental process before the Great War, through implants permanently enhancing the human body all the way to viruses capable of rewriting human DNA and altering their physical appearance in real time. This last, most phenomenal achievement is called the FEV, Forced Evolutionary Virus.

Computers
Compared to other fields, many west coast computers are strangely primitive - while portable units (such as RobCo Industries Pip-Boys) and robots exist, it seems that the actual processing power is quite low (64k of RAM in Enclave terminals, up to 256k in Pre-War RobCo systems), contrasting with other advanced technologies. Their frames are also typically large and blocky, compared to the small, sleek forms of today. One of the main reasons for this is that the computers in the Fallout universe are based on a mismatch of integrated circuits and vacuum tubes. Reason for this is uncertain, although it is possible that there simply was a monopoly on advanced computer manufacturing - many robots would seem to require much more computing power than is available for common computers around the wastelands, and there were some supercomputers in existence - most of them owned by the U.S. government. East coast and Mojave Desert computers, on the other hand, are much more advanced, capable of holding and transmitting up to 200 blocks of data when converted by a specialized iridium-infused magnetic tape, to performing various types of activities, from gaming, to personalized home computing, to professional business usage.

Another example are displays, all CRT with no LCDs in sight. Barcoding and the internet both existed, albeit in different forms than in real life. Barcoding was limited to military personnel and food products. The internet, while never explicitly referred to in the games, has been present in the form of slang,, intranet, and the creation of new networks.

Super science
Where science continued to progress quite quickly in the civilian field, super-science such as that conducted by corporations and groups like Big Mountain and the Institute were being constantly developed. One such example is that basic matter replicators were a common enough tool to be included within the basic GECK. The Sierra Madre vending machine was able to take a simple Sierra Madre chip, and convert it into a wide variety of goods. The teleportation device was also a large accomplishment in the field of super-science, capable of teleporting an individual from the Mojave Desert to a specially designated area.

Molecular Relay
The most closely-guarded secret of the Institute, the Molecular Relay allows for teleportation and operates via the Classical Radio station. It is known to cause strong interference across all wavelengths of the electronmagnetic spectrum, and this interference can be identified and followed by listening to the radio it operates over. Institute Coursers have a direct connection to the Relay with special hardware that is embedded within their head.

Neuro-programming
Using light waves to affect the moods/thoughts of creatures. The Sink light switches are one such example of a technology capable of performing such a phenomenon.