Wasteland (game)

Wasteland is a post-nuclear computer role-playing game created by Interplay and published by Electronic Arts on January 27, 1987. It was released for Apple II, Commodore 64 and Microsoft DOS.

Despite some references, Wasteland is not considered part of the Fallout universe, instead serving as part of Fallout's inspiration.

Wasteland background
From the game's manual:

Tensions grew with the coming of 1998. The United States' Citadel Starstation was slated to be fully operational by March. Soviet charges that the space station was merely a military launching platform alarmed a number of nonaligned nations. The right wing governments in the South and Central Americas, many of them set up by the U.S. during the Drug Wars (1987-1993), pledged their support to the U.S. The NATO nations, including the new African members also declared their alliance with the U.S. That move forced most of the remaining neutral powers to join the Soviet protest. In six short weeks, only Switzerland, Sweden, and Ireland continued to declare themselves neutral nations.

Two weeks before Citadel was due for full operation, the station transmitted a distress signal. Immediately after the message was sent, most of the satellites orbiting the planet were swept clean from the sky, leaving the great powers blind. In military panic, each sent 90 percent of their nuclear arsenals skyward. Although the destruction was tremendous, it was not complete. Pockets of civilization remained, some even oblivious to the military exchange.

On the same day that the U.S. and Soviet Union were attempting to extinguish each other, a company of U.S. Army Engineers were in the southwestern deserts building transportation bridges over dry riverbeds. They worked deep in the inhospitable desert valleys, surrounded by a number of survivalist communities. Located directly south of their position on that day was a newly-constructed federal prison. In addition to housing the nation's criminals condemned to death, the prison contained light industrial manufacturing facilities.

Shortly after the nuclear attack began, the Engineers, seeking shelter, took over the federal prison and expelled the prisoners into the desolate desert to complete their sentences. As the weeks passed, they invited the nearby survivalist communities to join them and to help them build a new society. Because of each community's suspicions towards one another, times were difficult at first. But as time nurtured trust, this settlement -- which came to be known as Ranger Center -- grew to be one of the strongest outposts. Ranger Center even proved powerful enough to repel the hands of rancorous criminals who repeatedly attacked in attempts to reclaim what was once "rightfully theirs".

The citizens of Ranger Center, after first believing that they were the only ones who survived the nuclear maelstrom, soon realized that communities beyond the desert's grip had also survived. Because they had such success in constructing a new community, they felt compelled to help other survivors rebuild and live in peace.

Toward this end, the Desert Rangers, in the great tradition of the Texas and Arizona Rangers a century before, were born.

Overview of Wasteland
You control a group of player-created characters ("PCs") known as Desert Rangers. After the Great War of 1998 that obliterated most of the world with nuclear weapons, your band of heroes luckily hail from a former prison located near Las Vegas, Nevada, an area that somehow avoided being directly hit. Your initial mission is to investigate disturbances that have been occurring in surrounding communities: Highpool, the Agricultural Center, Quartz, the Rail Nomads Camp, and Needles. The Desert Rangers ultimately discover a sinister plot(s), hatched by a cyborg and a computer mainframe, to replace the world's population of living, breathing creatures, with cybernetic machines. To achieve this goal, a nuclear holocaust is orchestrated. The Desert Rangers prevail by blowing up Base Cochise, the location where the computer mainframe.

Entire Fallout Series

 * Assault Rifle (Fallout 1 & 2's "AK-112", and Fallout 3's plain "Assault Rifle" - an homage to Wastelands AK 97 Assault Rifle and M1989A1 Nato Assault Rifle'
 * Brotherhood of Steel - appeared in Wasteland as a purely hostile NPC faction called the Guardians
 * Deathclaws - an homage to the Shadowclaws, mutated iquanas found wondering the desert in Wasteland
 * Energy Weapons - an obtainable skill introduced in Wasteland
 * Ghoul - an homage to Wastelands mutated Desert Dweller, Drool, and Pit Ghoul'
 * Great War of Oct. 23, 2077 - Wasteland's "Great War" occurred in 1998
 * Laser pistol (Fallout 1 & 2's "Wattz 1000 Laser Pistol", and Fallout 3's "AE97 Laser Pistol" - an homage to Wastelands plain Laser Pistol'
 * Laser rifle (Fallout 1 & 2's "Wattz 2000 Laser Rifle", and Fallout 3's "AER9 Laser Rifle" - an homage to Wastelands plain Laser Rifle'
 * Mole rat - an homage to Wastelands mutated Rat, Rad Rat, Cave Critter, Naked Molerat, and Radioactive Vermin'
 * Nuka-Cola - an homage to Snake Squeezins, the popular drink found in Wasteland
 * Power Armor - an homage to the Wasteland armor with the same name, obtained in the Guardian's Citadel
 * Raiders - an homage to Wastelands Bodyguard, Bouncer, Bandit, Biker Scum, Brass Jerk, Cutthroat, Desert Scum, Desert Nomad, Deserter, Guard, Gunsel, Gunman, Hired Gun, Jerk, Knifer, Leather Jerk, Leather Thug, Outlander, Outlaw, Ozoner, Madman, Marksman, Mercenary, Mulefoot, New Waver, Pistolero, Punker, Rail Raider, Rail Thief, Rib Cracker, Scavenger, Spiker, Squint, Thug, Wasteland Warrior, Widowmaker, Leather Jerk Gang, and Ugly John's Gang'
 * Red Ryder BB Gun - an homage to the gun with the same name found in Wasteland, but only available through an exploit
 * Water Chip - in Wasteland, the first quest given to the Desert Rangers is to fix a water pump in Highpool

Fallout 1

 * Children of the Cathedral - an homage to the Servants of the Mushroom Cloud, a cult of bomb-worshipping zealots located in Las Vegas, Nevada
 * Dugan, the Nuka-Cola addict - a likely homage to Wastelands Hobo Oracle, a bum addicted to Snake Squeezins, found at the Rail Nomads Camp'
 * Gizmo, the crime lord - an homage to Fat Freddy, an obese gangster from Las Vegas, Nevada
 * Junktown - a likely homage to the Savage Village, the home of the Junk Master
 * Tycho, the Desert Ranger - the band of heroes in Wasteland were Desert Rangers
 * ZAX - a likely homage to VAX, a recruitable humanform robot NPC, found (after being built) in Base Cochise

Fallout 2

 * Chrissy - an homage to Christina, an Uzi-packing, recruitable NPC found in Needles

Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel

 * Calculator - a likely homage to the evil computer found in Wastelands Base Cochise'
 * Followers of the Apocalypse - an homage to the Servants of the Mushroom Cloud, a cult of bomb-worshipping zealots located in Las Vegas, Nevada

Fallout: Van Buren

 * Helen Wheels &mdash; truckers, smugglers (together with Eddie "Crazy Horse" Galensky)
 * Job - Mr. Handy administrative police robot in Denver
 * Christina Royce - cut-off NPC, mature Chrissy from Fallout 2
 * ZAX - two units appear once again: Twin Mothers, Boulder
 * The Nursery - an homage to the Agricultural Center
 * Circle Junction - an homage to Rail Nomads Camp
 * US Engineers mentioned together with military prison at Tibbets design document

Fallout 3

 * Children of Atom - an homage to the Servants of the Mushroom Cloud, a cult of bomb-worshipping zealots located in Las Vegas, Nevada
 * Cloning Lab in Vault 108 - an homage to the cloning lab in Wastelands Sleeper Base'
 * Firelance - a reference to this weapon is found in Wasteland's metafictitious, "decoy" storyline, in Wasteland's paragraphs book
 * Harkness - a likely homage to Irwin John Finster, an adversarial cyborg found in Darwin Base
 * John Henry Eden, President - a likely homage to the evil computer found in Wastelands Base Cochise'
 * Little Lamplight - an homage to Highpool, a teen camp that has a nearby cave
 * Protectron - an homage to the nearly identical in appearance VAX, a recruitable humanform robot NPC, found (after being built) in Base Cochise
 * Tesla Cannon - a likely homage to Wastelands Meson Cannon'
 * Toaster - an homage to the Broken Toasters found in Wasteland
 * The Wasteland Survival Guide, a book which Moira Brown commissions the PC to help research/write - the real-life Wasteland (game)'s hint and walk-through book has the same name
 * ZAX - the unit appears again as the computer mainframe known as President John Henry Eden

Wasteland