I was wondering, considering the bombs were dropped in the late 2000's Then why does this game have a 50's style? It's not like they didn't live through drum and base, dub step etc. And why is most of the items found in the game less futuristic? Of course there's power armour and energy weapons but things such as the old style cameras? And the computers? Even jukeboxes?

I don't want this to sound like a rant but I just don't understand why it's like technology was sent back 100 years. :brokencomputer:

The Fallout universe split off from ours in the 50s and cuturally plateaued at a fifties mindset.

Or another way off putting it. The Fallout universe is the future as people from the fifties imagined it. Hence lasers, robot butlers, nuclear power cars (See Ford Nucleon). Thats also why the emphasise on fighting Communism.

its called retro futuristic..... its retro style... but still in the future.... like what the people in the 50s thought the world would be like in 2070 http://www.animationarchive.org/pics/50sfuture.jpg http://www.animationarchive.org/pics/venus29-big.jpg http://www.animationarchive.org/pics/venus02-big.jpg

The time line diverged in the 40s or 50s and while some new technologies were developed that the real world doesn't have (particularly in terms of energy output) other technologies weren't developed which is why some technology is very 'dated.'

Right, thanks for clearing that up :user:

It's like that because it's just awesome.

I like the fact that Fallout has a 50's theme, it adds more character to the game imo.

Seriously. Does anybody read their instruction manuals these days? Hell, even just glance at them?

This stuff's all explained on page 3 of your Fallout 3 manual, under the heading "Introduction to Fallout 3"

I do. But I've been convinced that makes me part of a very, very tiny minority for more than a decade.

Kids these days. :shakehead:

I read them.

If fallout wasn't 50s it would loose my appeal

I mostly read the random Vault-Tec messages in my manual, but I was able to get the retro-future thing on my own.

On a grander scale to this retro future stuff there are (very) old pen and paper games that combine the trapping of the past with the wonders of the future. Traveller is renaissance class system with blasters and spaceships. Same can be said for Battletech. Centurion is a galaxy wide setting in which the most powerful government is styled after the roman empire. Hellios of course is alien and lasers in a greek motif.

For another computer game, anyone remember Wizardry 8? A world of both both medival monsters and magic plus aliens and weird technology. There's also the pnp and electronic versions of Shadowrun combining retro fantasy and near future science.

Any other retro science examples?

I happen to work at an electronics store, and honestly it isn't the kids that don't read the manuals it's usual the people over 35 that go "oh, there's a manual" to which I reply in my head with "yes. see this booklet thingy that has INSTRUCTION MANUAL written on the front of it?" or "anyone can read a manual" to which I reply in my head with "yes. anyone can read a manual, that is their intended purpose so you can understand how to USE the item without WASTING my time..."

I usually read the manual to get a brief overview of the game, it isn't that hard for a person to skim read over it. So please for the sanity of your local electronics store guru READ THE FREAKING MANUAL BEFORE YOU ASK STUPID QUESTIONS!!!! sorry... I'll be quiet now

Other than the developers comments, where is this written or stated? Or is it just common canon? I mean, a childrens Toy from the 50s or pictures without a context are not really saying that people in the 50s imagined a dystopian postnuclear World of Tomorrow = the Fallout Universe.

Imagine someone would create a postnuclear universe for a computer game in 2060. This would be based on the 2010 sources, in this case our childrens toys or our contemporary picture or the future.

- in 1950, a predominant sci-fi picture was Mr. Handy, Robby the Robot or the Ford Nucleon.
- in 2010, a predominant sci-fi picture is ??? (really don't know what to put in here), this microsoft mini robot or cyborg dogs from China and solar-energy driven Cars?

Honestly, I don't remember anything being specifically explained in the Fallout 1 or 2 game manuals. Back then, I think we just kind of put two and two together. :shrug:

I mean, you take the retro-sounding opening song, all the vacuum tubes and other retro trappings, and then combine that with more futuristic things like Plasma Rifles and Power Armor, and the rough timeline you were given - and it just kind of coalesced eventually, as I remember it. To my recollection (and memories can be wrong, of course) it was a more intuitive connection than anything else. You just kind of accepted it and moved on.

Personally, I don't think it's the sort of thing where you're really supposed to over-think it, either. All this talk of "divergence" and such - I don't think the game was necessarily designed, originally, with much more thought than "how do we intuitively drive home the concept of an idealized future world that was then obliterated in a nuclear holocaust?" (Though, obviously, not being a developer on the original games, I could very well be entirely wrong.) Going into "why did culture remain stagnant for 120 years," or "what cultural revolutions and divergences led to society coming full-circle in 2077 and appearing as an idealized version of 1950's futurism" is kind of missing the point, I feel.

(My thoughts, anyway :shrug:)

I'd say the predominant picture of the future today is space faring civilisation that knows no limits, thats solved all the problems of our world, or a dark, world whith corporations that have run amok.