The franchise almost included time-traveling dinosaurs
Yes, you read that correctly. In the earliest stages of Fallout’s creation, developers toyed with the idea of centring the game around time-traveling dinosaurs. Players would play as the dinosaurs, traveling through time and space to rescue a female protagonist. The idea gained a healthy amount of traction but was eventually scrapped in favor of the post-apocalyptic wasteland that Fallout is known for.
The title wasn’t decided until late in development
Initially, the Fallout franchise was to be named Vault 13, before the marketing team at Fallout’s developer, Interplay, suggested naming it the less ambiguous, Post Nuclear Adventure. This title stuck until a version of the game was handed to Interplay founder Brian Fargo, who suggested that it should be renamed Fallout.
Fallout was almost scrapped because of Dungeons & Dragons
During Fallout’s initial production, Interplay acquired the rights to produce Dungeons & Dragons-related titles. The company saw this as an opportunity to change direction and focus solely on fantasy RPG games, with Fallout being the first in line to be canceled. Fallout creator Timothy Cain had to beg Interplay to allow him to continue the game’s development – which, thankfully, they did.
Fallout 3 was almost banned in Australia
Upon finding out that players could use a certain painkilling substance in Fallout 3, the Australian government threatened to ban the game. To avoid alienating one of their biggest audiences, developers Bethesda changed the name of the substance to Med-X, not just in Australia, but in all regions where the game was sold. The name stuck, and Med-X has appeared in several Fallout titles since.
Fallout: New Vegas held a world record for most in-game dialogue
With around 65,000 lines of dialogue, Fallout: New Vegas held the 2011 Guinness World Record for the most lines of dialogue in a single video game. The most impressive thing is, this record was set without taking DLC lines into consideration. New Vegas beat the record set by its predecessor, Fallout 3, which contained a total of 40,000 lines.
The franchise has an impressive list of celebrity voice actors
Several household names have offered their voices to the Fallout franchise, including Liam Neeson, Malcolm McDowell, and Friends actor Matthew Perry, who has admitted that he is an avid fan of the series. The most common voice heard in-game is that of Ron Perlman, who voices The Narrator and a handful of other characters.
Vault Boy’s thumbs-up gesture has no meaning
Contrary to popular belief, Fallout’s most iconic mascot, Vault Boy, is not holding up his thumb to see whether he is in the blast radius of a nuclear explosion. Although this theory seemed to make absolute sense, Interplay founder Brian Fargo has debunked the myth, stating that it is nothing other than an ironic gesture.
The franchise is packed with cultural references
Fallout’s developers have never been afraid to reference other cultural phenoms in their games, including Doctor Who’s TARDIS appearing in the first Fallout and the skeletal remains of Indiana Jones being hidden in a fridge in Fallout: New Vegas. The franchise also shares DNA with the Mad Max series, as both involve the protagonist traveling around a post-apocalyptic world accompanied by a dog.
Fallout Tactics has the largest game map in the franchise
Fancy a long walk? Then Fallout Tactics is the title for you, with a map that spans 304,585 square miles and encompasses a dozen states. The map is almost three times as large as Fallout 2’s map, which is the second largest in the franchise. It is unlikely another Fallout game will have a map of this size, with Bethesda preferring smaller, richer in-game areas.
A Fallout TV series is currently in production
A television adaptation of the Fallout franchise is in the works and is set to be available on Amazon Prime Video in the first half of 2024. The TV series will feature a completely new storyline but will draw heavy inspiration from the games, with Bethesda Game Studios producer Todd Howard being brought in as an executive producer.
Fallout 4 is actually the fifth Fallout game
The Fallout series has an illogical sequence of spin-offs contributing to the non-chronological naming of the games. Fallout 1, 2 and 3 are in the correct order, but Fallout 3 was followed by Fallout: New Vegas. The game that follows New Vegas is Fallout 4, rather than Fallout 5. Any confusion could easily have been bypassed by naming New Vegas, Fallout 4: New Vegas.
Fallout 1 cost $3 million to make
The original Fallout game was very 90s in its appearance, with an almost bird’s-eye-view of what was happening, and pixelated graphics. However, it was surprisingly expensive to make. The game cost $3 million, which taking inflation into account, would total up to around $4.5-5 million.
You can find the narrator in Fallout: New Vegas
Using a bug in the game, you can break out of the ending slideshow sequence, shift through the screen and come into contact with Ron the Narrator, named after Ron Perlman, the actor who voices him. Ron the Narrator has been given a full-body animation, which is more than what you’d expect from a character that is only meant to be seen and not heard.
There is a crushed whale in the desert in Fallout 2
In a nod to the 1978, BBC radio comedy show Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the designers of Fallout 2 decided they would add a mangled whale carcass into the desert area of the map. This is because, in the radio show, a highly unlikely event occurred where two missiles were turned into sperm whales, and left vast amounts of remains on the floor when they landed.
Vault 69 is populated by 999 women and one man
Each vault in Fallout has the capacity to fit 1000 people inside, with each vault also being unique. An unnamed game designer decided to go down a bit of a cheeky route with Vault 69, filling it with 999 women and just one man. Most of the other vaults tend to have a more even demographic.
Fallout: New Vegas was created in just 18 months
The colorful world of Fallout: New Vegas was created in just 18 months, mainly because it was a collaboration between two studios. Bethesda Game Studios and Obsidian Entertainment were behind the creation of the game, pulling in game designers and other production team members to work on the game.
There is a hardcore mode in Fallout: New Vegas
Hardcore mode in Fallout: New Vegas makes the game feel more realistic. Ammunition has more weight to it, and it will take fewer bullets to kill you. You also have to make sure you eat and drink enough to stay alive, with injuries also taking longer to heal, rather than the small number of seconds it usually takes. If you keep hardcore mode on throughout the story, the game gives you a special reward.
12 million copies of Fallout 4 were sold within 24 hours
Fallout 4 was met with huge demand, with 12 million copies of the game sold within 24 hours of its release. An extra 1.2 million copies were sold on Steam, a PC game download site, within its first 24 hours. This number has risen over the years since its release, eventually rising over the 20 million mark.
A character in Fallout 4 will say your real name
Codsworth, a robot butler who follows you around in Fallout 4 has been programmed to say over 1000 different names, ranging from usual popular names to more naughty ones, which we should probably refrain from using in this article. This level of game customization was warmly welcomed, adding a more immersive edge to the game.
Fallout 4 allows players to build their own base
Along with inserting your real name into the game, Fallout 4 lets you build your own base, allowing you to decide the shape and style of the building. You can also customize the interior design of the building, and even add some neon lights outside so you can let everyone know that it is your area.
There is a VR version of Fallout 4
If the customization features just aren’t immersive enough for you, there is a Virtual Reality version of Fallout 4 available to purchase. This allows you to do and see everything, as well as get totally freaked out by mutated monsters as if you are actually in the post-apocalyptic world that is Fallout 4.
They celebrate Christmas in Diamond City
If you venture into Diamond City in Fallout 4 on Christmas Day, you will find that it has all been decked out with Christmas decorations, including fairy lights and a Christmas tree. The dialogue for the locals will even be Christmas-related, bringing some festive cheer to a game based on death and destruction.
Benny in Fallout: New Vegas is based on a real person
Benny, the main antagonist in Fallout: New Vegas is based on Benjamin Bugsy Siegel, a gangster in the 1930s and the driving force behind the development of the Las Vegas strip. He financed casinos and oversaw the construction of many of Vegas’ now iconic landmarks.
You can go cow-tipping in Fallout 3
You can tell that the developers were having fun when creating Fallout 3, as it is full of little nuances, references, and easter eggs. You can go cow-tipping in the game if you approach one of the two-headed cows and press the activate button. There is no hint or button suggestion to encourage players to do it, meaning the developers likely put it in to have a bit of a laugh.
You can eat people in Fallout: New Vegas
This slightly gruesome detail of the game allows you to eat the bodies of characters that you have killed in Fallout: New Vegas. If you eat the bodies of a selected few characters, you will receive a perk in-game, which has been slightly grossly named, Meat of Champions.
There is a character based on Elvis in Fallout: New Vegas
Elvis is a name synonymous with Vegas. His seven-year Las Vegas residency and hit Viva Las Vegas have cemented him in the city’s folklore. So much so that he appears as a character in Fallout: New Vegas. The character known as The King has similar features and quotes lines from Elvis Presley’s songs in his dialogue.
There was meant to be a post-game world in Fallout: New Vegas
Once you come to the end of Fallout: New Vegas’ storyline, you’ll watch a short slideshow, showing pictures of New Vegas before you get pushed right back to the beginning once more. The original intention was to give players a free-roam world to explore after they complete the game, but due to the 18-month deadline to have the game finished, there was not enough time to implement it.
Fallout: New Vegas is the first Fallout game that doesn’t start in a vault
While Fallout 4’s opening scenes have become famous for the mad rush to get into the vault, it was actually Fallout: New Vegas that was the first game in the franchise to start the story from outside a vault. This doesn’t prevent vault-based action, as you do get to explore them later in the story.
There is a Fallout board game
Yes, that’s right, there is an official Fallout board game. It features a honeycomb-style board and little figurines which represent characters from the games. As well as this, there is an official Fallout Monopoly game, which is played in exactly the same way as traditional Monopoly, just with Fallout locations and scenarios.
There are some very unfriendly vaults
While the original purpose of the vaults in Fallout was to keep humans alive following a nuclear war, the government in the game decided to repurpose them for different experiments. Vault 87 is infamous in the game for being the vault that conducted evil experiments on humans, mutating them and harming them severely.
Fallout 4 is the first Fallout game where your dog can’t die
Throughout the Fallout franchise, players have been given a dog as a companion to roam the lonely wasteland with. It took until Fallout 4 to make the dog invincible, making it the first game in the franchise where your dog can’t actually die. Animal lovers rejoice.
The salesman selling places in the vault didn’t have a place in the vault
Fallout 4 begins with a door-to-door salesman selling you a place in the nearest Vault, Vault 111. During the mad dash to get to the vault when nuclear war breaks out, you bypass the salesman who is standing at the gates trying to convince security to let him in. It’s all a bit unfair if you ask us.
The salesman that was refused entry into the vault survives
While he was not allowed entry into Vault 111, the salesman survived the nuclear war. He can be found if you make your way over to Hotel Rexford, where you will find him roaming around in the same outfit he was wearing when the bomb first exploded. He is disfigured and lonely, but at least he survived.
There is a recreation of Stonehenge in Fallout 4
Among many other references to real-life locations and landmarks, Fallout 4 has its very own version of Stonehenge, a collection of huge stones in the English countryside. Fallout’s version is made entirely from rusty old cars instead of stones, making it dramatically less impressive.
There is a Good Will Hunting reference in Fallout 4
Good Will Hunting was a movie about a janitor who works at a University. This janitor is actually a maths genius, unbeknownst to the lecturer, and solves an incredibly complicated maths problem while nobody is watching. If you go into the maths classroom in Fallout 4, you will notice the skeletal remains of a janitor next to a blackboard, which has the same problem on it as was seen in the movie.
There is a phone number that you can call in real life
The Vault-Tec phone number is dotted around several areas of the game and can be phoned in real life. If you do choose to make the call, you will be greeted with an advertisement from Vault-Tec themselves, telling you about how they are the number one choice for post-nuclear survival.
There are cameras in the birds
Look around you when you are playing Fallout 4 and you will likely notice a flock of crows will gather above you. Upon venturing into the lab later in the game, you will see screens showing what looks like surveillance footage from a high angle. Turns out, this footage is a live broadcast of what the crows are currently watching.
There is a Titanic reference in Fallout 4
If you look hard enough, you will be able to find a reference to the movie Titanic in Fallout 4. You will see a skeleton woman lying on a wooden door, with a skeleton man hanging off the end of it. Much like in the movie, there is plenty of room for both to be balancing on the door.
Players can have two companions in Fallout 3
You don’t have to travel through the wasteland in Fallout 3 alone. As well as having trusty canine companion Dogmeat by your side, you are also allowed to choose one of a few NPC characters to come along with you while you navigate the pitfalls of a post-nuclear world. You can also choose to travel alone.
You get to play as a baby in Fallout 3
The Fallout 3 story begins at your birth, allowing you to play as a baby for a very short while. You don’t get long to crawl around though, as soon enough, time fast forwards about 18 years, and you’re rushing to escape Vault 111 as an adult. This is the first and only time that you can play as a baby in any Fallout game.
The mini nuke sound effect is the Bethesda lunch bell
The most powerful type of ammunition in Fallout 3, Mini Nukes can be fired from a portable catapult known as Fat Man. The distinctive noise that is made when players fire a Mini Nuke is actually a recording of the bell that sounds in the Bethesda building to alert employees that it’s lunch time.
Fallout 2 includes a SkyNet reference
While the Fallout games never delve too deeply into the causes of the Great War that turned the world into an arid wasteland, Fallout 2 does offer an explanation. Inside the Sierra Army Depot, players can find a Holotape which reveals that SkyNet – the evil AI from the Terminator franchise – is responsible for igniting the war.
Interesting detail on globes
In Fallout 4, if players bother to study any globes they come across, they will notice an interesting detail: Africa, Europe and the Middle East have combined to form a single, giant landmass. Whether this has any significance, or was simply the work of a bored developer, is up for debate.
Benny looks a lot like a famous gangster
The head of the Chairmen of New Vegas and the architect of the plot to seize control from Mr. House, Benny serves as the secondary villain of Fallout: New Vegas. The character bears a striking resemblance to Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, a 20th century gangster largely responsible for creating Las Vegas as it is today.
Fallout 4 contains an insane amount of dialogue
With around 111,000 lines of unique speech, Fallout 4 contains more dialogue that Fallout 3 and Skyrim (another Bethesda property) combined. Astonishingly, that’s still some way off the world record, which – with nearly half a million lines of dialogue – belongs to Red Dead Redemption 2.
Characters from the original game can be found in Fallout 2
Deep into Fallout 2’s wastelands, players can find an abandoned diner known as the Cafe of Broken Dreams. Inside the diner are a number of characters from the original Fallout game, including Tandi, Set and Dog Meat, the last of which can become the player’s companion.
Fallout: New Vegas pays homage to Monty Python
The Fallout games are famous for their pop culture references, but perhaps the most unexpected is an homage to Monty Python’s The Life of Brian. One of the buildings in Caesar’s Fort has been spray-painted with the words ‘Romanes eunt domus,’ the same (grammatically incorrect) phrase scrawled on a wall by Brian in the film.
Fallout 4 is the first game in the franchise where the player’s character speaks
While interacting with other characters has always been an important part of the Fallout games, for most of the franchise the player’s character never audibly spoke. This changed in Fallout 4, with Brian T. Delaney and Courtenay Taylor providing the voices for the male and female protagonists, respectively.
The max level cap in Fallout 4 is 65,535
Even after completing every quest and storyline in Fallout 4, players can continue leveling up. For a long time it was assumed that there was no level cap, but it turns out that you can’t progress past level 65,535, although it would take an absolutely ludicrous number of hours to get there.
There’s a Humphrey Bogart-related reference
In the New Money expansion pack for Fallout: New Vegas, the player has to investigate a mysterious signal that is broadcasting an invitation for the grand opening of the Sierra Madre Hotel. This name was taken from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, a 1927 novel that was remade as a film starring Humphrey Bogart in 1948.
A character from Fallout 3 can become your companion in Fallout 4
After finding Robert MacCready, a mercenary roaming the apocalyptic wastelands of Fallout 4, players can recruit him as their companion. Fans of the franchise will likely recognize MacCready from Fallout 3, in which he appeared as the mayor of Little Lamplight, an underground cavern turned into a settlement.
The Railroad is modeled after a historical group
The Railroad – a secretive faction in Fallout 4 dedicated to freeing sentient robots from The Institute – were modeled after a 19th century American organization known as the Underground Railroad. Operating in the southern United States, the Underground Railroad carried out clandestine missions to free slaves and smuggle them to the north.
The Laser Musket behaves strangely
A powerful weapon in Fallout 4, the Laser Musket suffers from bullet drop-off. This is strange, given that the weapon fires bursts of amplified light, which wouldn’t have any weight and thus wouldn’t drop. It’s likely that this is because the weapon was simply coded with the same physics as the game’s other firearms.
There’s a Die Hard reference
Another cultural reference can be found in Fallout 4. A note contained within a bottle reads: ‘Come out to the coast, we’ll get together, have a few laughs.’ This quote is taken directly from Die Hard, with Bruce Willis’ character delivering it sarcastically while attempting to take out the terrorists in the Nakatomi Plaza.
The bombing is foreshadowed in Fallout 4
A section of Fallout 4 takes place in the player’s house before the outbreak of nuclear war. In the baby’s bedroom, the letter blocks on the shelf spell out ICBM, the commonly used acronym for Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, a type of projectile used to carry warheads in a global nuclear exchange.
A faction is named after a viral video
Fallout: New Vegas features a secret, invite only faction that goes by the name ‘DontTazeMeBro,’ and which allows players to leave the strip without Securitons attacking them. The name is a reference to a viral 2007 video in which a University of Florida student was violently arrested and tasered multiple times (prompting the now-famous quote), after asking then-presidential candidate John Kerry questions deemed inappropriate.
Fallout 4 was almost set in New York
During Fallout 4’s early development, New York City was strongly considered as a possible location. A design document was created by Emil Pagliarulo, but in the end Boston was settled on as the game’s setting. Bethesda kept the design document, however, suggesting that a future game could be set in NYC.
Certain companions can be quite judgemental
Fallout 4 gives players the option to steal Fusion Cores from enemies, either by pickpocketing them or by shooting them out of their armor by using VATS. Certain companions, however, will disapprove of this thievery, eventually resulting in them disliking the player.
Fallout 2 contains a literal Easter egg
The Fallout games are renowned for the number of Easter eggs they contain, and the franchise’s second installment took the concept rather literally. If players hunt around in the basement of New Reno Arms, they can find a brightly painted egg, which – while completely useless – is sure to elicit a chuckle.
There’s a Police Academy reference
When leaving Hardware Town through the loading bay, players can eavesdrop on two Raiders discussing a Drifter who attacked them by mimicking the sounds of various weapons. This is likely a reference to Larvelle Jones, a character in the Police Academy franchise who frequently uses his talent for impersonating firearm sounds to cause mischief.
The cars are based on the Ford Nucleon
Players of Fallout 3 might have noticed that cars within the game release radiation when destroyed. This is because the game’s vehicles are based on the Ford Nucleon, a nuclear-powered concept car designed by Ford in 1957. A mockup of the car can still be seen in Dearborn, Michigan’s Ford museum.
Novac gets its name from a broken sign
While exploring the town of Novac in Fallout: New Vegas, players might spot a large sign hanging near a T-rex statue that seemingly bears the town’s name. The sign – which once belonged to a motel – clearly used to read ‘NO VACANCY’ before the last four letters were destroyed, and Novac’s settlers, obviously running low on inspiration, used it as the name for their town.
Fallout 4’s reveal trailer hit 10 million views in one day
Fallout has become one of the most popular franchises in gaming history, as evidenced by its incredible financial success. Fallout 4 is the highest-selling installment so far, which was presaged by the fact that the game’s reveal trailer amassed ten million YouTube views the day it was uploaded.
A weapon in Fallout: New Vegas is a nod to Bladerunner
A powerful pistol in Fallout: New Vegas is labelled in the game’s inventory as ‘That Gun.’ The weapon’s look was inspired by the firearm carried by Deckard, Harrison Ford’s character in Bladerunner. In addition, a challenge that involves using the weapon against robots is called ‘Benefit or a Hazard,’ which is a nod to one of Deckard’s lines in the film.
The game environment changes on specific dates
Players of Fallout 4 will likely notice that settlements sometimes display decorations celebrating seasonal holidays, such as Christmas and Halloween. While these dates don’t correspond to the real world, they do match the correct dates in the game, which players can easily verify by checking their Pip-Boy.
The comic book Preacher is referenced in Fallout 2
When conversed with, John Cassidy, a bartender who can be found in Fallout 2’s Vault City, mentions that he is named after a 90s comic book character. The comic in question is Preacher, a collaboration between writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon, which was published by DC between 1995 and 2000.
There’s a Princess Bride-themed Easter egg
Yet another movie reference can be found in Fallout: New Vegas, this time in Broc Flower Cave. If players enter with the Wild Wasteland perk equipped, they will discover that the Giant Rats have been renamed Unnaturally Large Sized Rodents, a nod to 1987’s The Princess Bride.
The NCR Veteran Ranger armor was first described in Fallout 1
The character that can be seen on the Fallout: New Vegas box is wearing NCR Veteran Ranger armor, which can be unlocked in the game. This armor’s design – which includes a gas mask and brown leather overcoat – is taken from a description of a non-playable character in the very first Fallout game.
The ‘Fallout 2 Handbook’ allows all stats to be maxed
After beating the game, players of Fallout 2 can find a hidden book, literally named ‘Fallout 2 Handbook,’ that allows every stat to be instantly maxed. To find the book, players need to head to the church in New Reno after defeating the final boss and speak to Father Tully.
Mr. New Vegas is voiced by a famous entertainer
Mr. New Vegas is an AI radio personality, created before the nuclear apocalypse and still performing its role over 200 years later. The AI – which acts as a kind of narrator – is voiced by Wayne Newton, a famous singer and entertainer who goes by the name Mr. Las Vegas in real life.
