60 Fun Facts About Hard Fallout

Fallout was originally built on which tabletop RPG system before its creator objected to the violence?

Steve Jackson Games pulled out, so Tim Cain and Christopher Taylor invented SPECIAL instead.

How many days does the Vault Dweller have to find a replacement water chip in the original Fallout?

The chip turns out to be in the ruined Vault 12 beneath Necropolis, the ghoul city built on Bakersfield.

Fallout is regarded as the spiritual successor to which 1988 Interplay game?

Brian Fargo could not get the rights back from Electronic Arts, so Interplay built a new post-apocalyptic world instead.

Which two films did Interplay cite as artistic inspiration for the first Fallout?

The game eventually cost Interplay about $3 million and employed up to thirty people.

Which actor voiced the Overseer of Vault 13 in the original Fallout?

Richard Dean Anderson voiced Junktown's sheriff Killian Darkwater, and Jim Cummings voiced both Gizmo and the Master.

Necropolis in the first Fallout was founded by ghouls in the remains of which real city?

The ghouls were the former residents of Vault 12, whose door was designed never to close properly.

Which pre-made Fallout character is the granddaughter of a Soviet diplomat in Los Angeles?

The other two premades are the negotiator Albert Cole and the strong but dim Max Stone.

The Lieutenant, the cybernetic Super Mutant who relays the Master's orders, is stationed where?

The Lieutenant is a cybernetically enhanced Super Mutant; the Master himself sits beneath the Cathedral.

In Fallout 2, the Chosen One is the grandchild of the Vault Dweller and comes from which tribal village?

The village is hit by its worst drought on record in 2241, and the Chosen One sets out for a G.E.C.K.

When the Chosen One reaches Vault 13 in Fallout 2, who is living there?

The Enclave had removed the human residents; the Vault holds the G.E.C.K. Arroyo needs.

How does the Chosen One reach the Enclave's main base in Fallout 2?

The base is an offshore oil rig, and the Enclave's plan is an airborne FEV strain that kills anyone with mutated DNA.

What was the codename of Interplay's cancelled Fallout 3?

Set in 2253, it starred an escaped prisoner pursued by robot guards; Josh Sawyer and Chris Avellone were on the team before it died in 2003.

Who was the main antagonist of the cancelled Van Buren, a mad scientist planning to spread a virus?

His plan used the prisoner protagonist as an unwitting vector across the American Southwest.

Fallout Tactics (2001) was developed by which Australian studio?

Published by 14 Degrees East, it swapped towns for Brotherhood bunkers and missions.

Which 2004 Interplay game was the first entry in the series released for home consoles?

Interplay made it for PlayStation 2 and Xbox after the success of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance.

Fallout 3's Lone Wanderer grows up in which shelter near Washington, D.C.?

The Lone Wanderer leaves after their 19th birthday when their father James, voiced by Liam Neeson, disappears.

In Fallout 3, where does the Lone Wanderer rescue their father from Stanislaus Braun's virtual-reality program?

Braun's Tranquility Lane simulation is a 1950s suburb where he torments the residents for fun.

Who voiced President John Henry Eden, the Enclave leader in Fallout 3 who turns out to be an AI?

Peter Gil voiced Colonel Augustus Autumn; Eden wants the purifier laced with a virus that kills all mutated life.

Project Purity in Fallout 3 is a water purifier built inside which Washington landmark?

James and Catherine planned to clean the Tidal Basin and Potomac; Catherine died giving birth to the Lone Wanderer.

Which Fallout 3 add-on raised the level cap to 30 and let players keep going after the main quest?

It also changed the game's ending, the one where the Lone Wanderer originally had to die in the purifier chamber.

According to Fallout lore, in what year did China invade Alaska and start the Sino-American War?

The US liberated Alaska in the Battle of Anchorage in early 2077, months before the bombs fell.

How long did Bethesda give Obsidian to develop Fallout: New Vegas?

Journalists have called it a very short time for a AAA game; Josh Sawyer used USGS data and his own photos to build the map.

Which Securitron digs the Courier out of a shallow grave at the start of New Vegas?

Doc Mitchell of Goodsprings then patches up the bullet hole Benny left.

What was the Platinum Chip originally meant to do before the Great War interrupted its delivery?

Benny stole it as part of his plan to usurp House; the war started before it could reach the city.

New Vegas's Dead Money DLC takes place at a casino resort called what?

Rogue Brotherhood elder Father Elijah collars the Courier there; the tech was supplied by Big MT, setting of Old World Blues.

Honest Hearts is set in which national park?

Its four factions are the Dead Horses, the Sorrows, the invading White Legs and the New Canaanites.

Which New Vegas DLC ties together the plots of the other three?

It is the last of the four story add-ons and finally introduces Ulysses, the courier who refused the Platinum Chip job.

Fallout 4 is set in which year?

That is ten years after Fallout 3 and exactly 210 years after the bombs fell on October 23, 2077.

How much revenue did Fallout 4 generate in its first 24 hours on sale?

Bethesda shipped 12 million units to retailers for launch day, November 10, 2015.

Which Fallout 4 companion is a prototype synth detective?

He is one of six companions the game forces you to at least meet, along with Dogmeat, who is mandatory.

Fallout 4's synth-making faction grew out of which fictional pre-war institution?

Its synths are the reason the Railroad exists, and the Brotherhood and Minutemen round out the four factions.

Which Fallout 4 companion is a Super Mutant sympathetic to humans?

He is one of the six optional companions alongside Cait, Curie, Danse, MacCready and X6-88.

Fallout 4's six add-ons came out one a month across which stretch of 2016?

Far Harbor was the biggest in gameplay, Nuka-World the biggest in file size, and the season pass price went up after Far Harbor.

Who is the villain of Fallout 4's Automatron add-on, assembling robots that attack settlers?

The robot companion Ada joins you to hunt them down via signals sent to brain-in-a-jar RoboBrains.

Fallout 76 is initially set in which year?

That is 25 years after the war, making it the earliest point in the timeline of any Fallout game.

Which Fallout 76 update finally added human non-player characters, in April 2020?

The game had sold 1.4 million copies by the end of 2018 to a chorus of complaints about the empty world.

Fallout 76 swapped the series' usual crooners for heavy metal from Slipknot, Devin Townsend and which band?

Earlier games leaned on the Ink Spots, the Mills Brothers and Louis Armstrong.

Fallout Shelter first launched in June 2015 on which platform?

It was announced at Bethesda's first E3 press conference and reached Android that August.

Vault Boy's design by Leonard Boyarsky drew on 1950s films and the look of which board game?

Boyarsky first thought of him as the skill guy; George Almond and Tramell Ray Isaac drew the finished cards.

Which fictional company manufactures the Pip-Boy?

Fallout 2 hands the Chosen One a RobCo PIPBoy 2000; the TV series wears a Pip-Boy 3000 Mark V.

On what date did the blue-glowing Nuka-Cola Quantum go on public sale in Fallout lore?

That is the very day the bombs fell, which is why so few bottles were ever drunk.

Who invented Nuka-Cola in 2042, according to the franchise's lore?

It reached market in 2044 and its bottle caps became the wasteland's currency.

Which actor narrates the Fallout games' intros, including the line "War. War never changes"?

He has been doing it since 1997 and also narrated 1000 Ways to Die.

Fallout creator Tim Cain began work on the isometric engine that became Fallout in which year?

He had been running GURPS sessions with Interplay colleagues, which is where the ruleset idea came from.

Feargus Urquhart, later CEO of Obsidian, established which internal Interplay RPG division in 1997?

He and other veterans left in 2003 to found Obsidian, which later got the New Vegas contract.

Josh Sawyer of Fallout: New Vegas later directed which 2022 RPG set in 16th-century Bavaria?

He also led Pillars of Eternity and its sequel, and had been lead designer on the cancelled Van Buren.

Who created the Fallout television series for Prime Video?

Nolan and Joy's Kilter Films produced it with Bethesda; the first season cost $153 million.

In the TV series, Lucy MacLean leaves which shelter to search for her kidnapped father?

The story is set in 2296, and her father Hank, played by Kyle MacLachlan, is the Vault's Overseer.

Before he became the Ghoul, Walton Goggins's character Cooper Howard was what?

His wife Barb was a senior Vault-Tec executive, which is the thread season two pulls on in New Vegas.

Which actor plays Robert House, ruler of the New Vegas Strip, in season two of the TV series?

House is the CEO of RobCo Industries, whose Securitrons the Courier fought over in 2281.

What was the budget of the Fallout TV series' first season?

It premiered on April 10, 2024, and was renewed for a second season eight days later.

Roughly how many lines of dialogue were recorded for Fallout 3, then a Guinness World Record for an RPG?

Fallout 3's 40,000-plus lines set the record for a single-player RPG at the time.

Which drug did Bethesda rename in Fallout 3 after Australia's classification board refused the game?

All references to morphine became the generic 'Med-X' and the injection animation was cut, in every version of the game.

How many copies did Fallout 3 sell worldwide in its first week on sale in 2008?

Fallout 3 shifted 4.7 million copies and $300 million in a week, outselling every previous Fallout combined.

What was one of the working titles for Obsidian's 2010 Mojave-set game, later called New Vegas?

Josh Sawyer wanted a story about greed and excess, drawing on Las Vegas's mob history; 'Fallout: Sin City' was a working title.

What Metacritic score did Obsidian need for a New Vegas bonus payment, which the game missed by one point?

Bethesda's bonus required an 85; the PC and Xbox 360 versions scored 84 and the PS3 version 82.

Which historical event did Josh Sawyer use as the cut-off for real-world references in New Vegas?

Sawyer used the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 as the cut-off for any historical references.

Since 2022, an annual New Vegas fan event is held in which real Nevada town, the game's start point?

Fans gather each year in Goodsprings, where the Courier is dug out of a shallow grave.

Fallout 4's Diamond City is a settlement built inside which real Boston landmark?

Diamond City sits inside Fenway Park, where the Sole Survivor first learns about the Institute and its synths.

Which two actors voice the fully voiced Sole Survivor in Fallout 4, a series first?

Fallout 4 was the first game in the series with a fully voice-acted player character, including all dialogue options.