We all know one of the unique things about Fallout is that it uses the 1950's as a theme, since that was the era when Science Fiction became popular and everyone was obsessed with Atomic Bombs.

But I was thinking, what if they used an 80's era? And referenced all the films about Nuclear Aypocolyses like Road Warriors and The Terminator. I mean they do sort-of use the 80's, like the Raider Haircuts. But what if the universe was based on the mindset of the 1980's rather then the 1950's? And all the pre-war clothes were outfits popular in the 80's.

I mean I know it wouldn't be as unique as the 50's setting, but it's still something to think about right?

Not really.

It wouldn't be much different than it is now. The mindset and culture of America underwent a massive transformation in the 60s. Between space travel, hippies, the Vietnam War and the overall 'loss of innocence' the nation experienced. Not to mention the most important thing, the invention of the integrated circuit that made vacuum tubes obsolete. The vision of the future in the 80s isn't much different from our own.

Yeah, I guess you're right. I only thought of this because of those Aypocolyptic films from the 80's like Road Warriors, but I guess they do add a little touch of those films in the games, like with the mowhaks that Raiders wear and the leather jackets.

What's unique about the American 50's setting is the political vibe that everyone had...the play between the potential for nuclear war (and the ability to "win") and the entirely self delusional belief that a Utopian society could be built in the face of real social problems just building just under the surface. We don't see quite the same mix in any other time. The whole "life is grand because we are living in a vault" sort of thing.

the 50s sugary sweet contrasting with the sheer brute force of armageddon is a contrast in flavors that works great, like bacon and syrup!

if i had to listen to depche mode whille playing fallout, well. then i wouldnt play fallout

If you want to explore such a world, you may want to pick up a copy of the Twilight 2000 RPG (as in the pen and paper kind). I think it was written pre-berlin-wall falling as It sees a Unified Germany as being one of the early dominos leading to WW3, and a US torn in two between the Civilian administration, and a military administration that doesn't recognise the legitimacy of the former.

Yeah, if you're making a Fallout game that references another time period - a la the 80's - then you're kind of losing a large part of what makes a Fallout game, a Fallout game. I mean, you can make a post-apocalyptic game where everything looks like you blew up 80's Americana - but if you're going that route you probably might as well just start up a whole new IP.

I always loved that game. They did make a computer game of it way back in the day, which (at least at the time) I thought was pretty decent - it played a lot like the PnP game, at least.

I think it would be pretty fun if inXile made Wasteland 2 retrofuturistic based on 1980s sci-fi (think Back to the Future), given that the original Wasteland actually was made in the 80s.

I could see it happening in the late 1800s/early 1900s and developing into a steampunk type future.

Steampunk is fun; I never played Arcanum admittedly, but I enjoyed the atmosphere of the Thief series. I can't imagine a post-apocalyptic steam punk world for some reason, though. Possibly because there probably wouldn't be nukes in a steam punk world.

Aracanium was interesting in that magic and tech were in opposition, and this opposition of spiritual vs science has driven history for a couple thousand years. It's an interesting thing, but such a discussion violates TOS in several ways, alas. If a game could capture that classic struggle, it would certainly attract my attention, just as Arcanium did (and does...i played it again earlier this year.)

Well Fallout doesn't really feature a 1950s theme, what it actually does is feature the future as seen in 1950s scifi and that's a bit different. But if you were to follow this train of thought and have the setting dependent on the vision of the future from another era than the 50's World of Tomorrow: what you would see in the game's setting is how that decade reflected its idea of what the future will look like.

Seeing flms that feature the future in the 1980s firstly would have terrible electronic soundtracks, many ventured a guess at the widespread use of flying cars by the early 2010s, plenty of aliens would certainly run around trying to eat us, there would be technologies featuring either faster than light speeds or in the least cryogenic freezing for long distance space travel, robots killing machines would have undoubtedly turned against humanity and spared no seconds doing anything else than trying to completely exterminate them, and loads and loads of punk leather and stupid haircuts.

Now if you are looking into the Fallout setting with this mind set then just take the above and nuke the planet and there you go, 80s imagined future post-apocalyptica.

80s era?? I wouldn't want to hear Alphaville & Rick Astley on my PipBoy the whole day, sorry. :bolt: