Fallout Development Timeline

[@kudo7821]

My mom passed away in Jan 2019, she knew I loved videogames but didn't really understand them. I'd never really gotten into many western RPGs prior to her passing. She randomly bought me a Vault Boy shirt that Xmas before she passed (no idea what compelled her to do this, she probably thought he was cute). I knew of Fallout, but never took the opportunity to explore the series proper. After she passed away, I finally decided to check it out with New Vegas and the original Fallout and these immediately became the standards I judge all RPGs by. I'll never wear that shirt again, but it'll always be a nice reminder of how I lost someone I love and discovered something I love in what felt like the same breath. Thank you, Tim.

[@Superman0308]

Dude. God bless. Story brought me to tears. Sorry for your loss and welcome to the community of Fallout fans.

[@peoaragao]

God bless you Bro, so sorry for your mom. This really got me emotional about my parents and how they let some random legacy on me too. We're leaves of them roots.

[@DarthKorriban139]

I also lost my mom in 2012. I know how you feel pal.

[@DungeonDiving]

No need to apologize for the length, you could talk about this topic for 7 hours and people would still listen :)

[@Esquarious]

Does Tim seriously think we pause to make coffee or use the bathroom though? Especially if we made the coffee beforehand...

[@courtlandvinson9809]

@@Esquarious Yes, he knows.

[@jsullivan2112]

Yup!

[@avatarname0008]

6 hours of him going "do this" and you saying "we can't or won't" sounds really funny

[@TimvanderLeeuw]

For some definition of “funny” 😅

[@fredrik3880]

Im sure this violent "Fallout" failed anyways so the gurps dude dodged a bullet am i right?

[@bartolomeothesatyr]

In fairness to Steve Jackson, he had good reason for caution with his IP in the early 90's. *_Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service_* is a big part of why the Electronic Frontier Foundation exists. It's worth looking up on Wikipedia, it set several legal precedents for the execution of legal due process in the United States.

[@TimvanderLeeuw]

@@bartolomeothesatyr That’s very interesting. I know of the EFF of course, but I’ve never heard of that lawsuit before.

[@fredrik3880]

@@bartolomeothesatyr that he could not see it was awesome is all on him. And not just a lil awesome. Better than sliced bread mate. First time i saw the intro i was in awe!!

[@snav]

Fallout 3 opening scene is gonna hit different after hearing you originally tried to get the rights to I don't want to set the world on fire. Great video, thank you so much for telling the story!

[@DemoBytom]

That was the reason why Fallout 3 used it.

[@Yackass]

@@DemoBytom Honestly, this fact has been known for YEARS now.

[@DemoBytom]

@@Yackass Yup. I remember when the og teaser/trailer for BG 3 dropped with that music, and everyone, everywhere in the Fallout spheres back then, talked about how it was the song that Interplay wanted to use for F1, but couldn't. It's pretty much the equivalent of "Did you know Viggo broke his foot when he kicked the helmet?" :D

[@snav]

Yeah I know it's not exactly new information for everyone but it was for me. I got into Fallout only after FO4 released so there's a lot I haven't heard of.

[@LonelyKnightess]

@@Yackass Not everybody knows every single obscure trivia fact about the Fallout series.

[@PaintsAreOp]

Nearly 24 minutes of Tim? Time to do some dishes and watch this twice!

[@PaintsAreOp]

Didn't get as many dishes done as I wanted, but this was really motivating. Thank you Tim!

[@glub4234]

My Easter dinner is still in the sink

[@jres1995]

​@@PaintsAreOp Then get off of KZbin and go finish them, what kind of person does a portion of their dirty dishes? That's just ridiculous.

[@Mor-di]

@@jres1995 What are you so bitter about?

[@snowtyler]

Ah, a fellow Tim dishwashing viewer. I see you are a person of culture.

[@KeiNovak]

13:15 - Wow! This makes the inclusion of the song in Fallout 3 and the homage to it in the Fallout TV series even more epic.

[@Tailmonsterfriend]

Star System Generator has a spinning globe: This confirms to me that Tim has a life-long fascination with spinning globes! :D

[@CainOnGames]

I like big globes and I cannot lie

[@crowdestinedtobetacomeat]

guys i paused the video like 3 mins ago and now i hear scrapping and ancient chants in dead languages in my attic what the fuck did Tim do to me

[@iampfaff]

you shouldn’t have paused. he knows.

[@peterd9698]

“Hi. I’m Tim.. “

[@fredrik3880]

I paused it many times. And i found a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow so keep trying.

[@Ms.Pronounced_Name]

That demo was awesome, fridge Minigun is best minigun! I was so disappointed when I got the real game, found that same fridge, but it wasn't locked and didn't have a Minigun. So disappointed that I'm still complaining about it over 25 years later!

[@Rustvaar]

Completely unrelated to anything discussed in the video, but my four year old is watching with me (he loves your spinning globe) and trying to feed you potato waffles through the screen. He would like to know if you have ever eaten a potato waffle. Thanks for everything you create.

[@CainOnGames]

I have not eaten a potato waffle…but now I’m craving potato waffles. Thank you.

[@Rustvaar]

@@CainOnGames Thank you so much ❤️

[@MrAwawe]

I had no idea you dropped GURPS so late. There are no kids in the EU version, so that must have been the way you resolved that issue. I didn't pause you, Tim.

[@iampfaff]

i don’t think they even deleted the kids, they just made them invisible

[@UlissesSampaio]

Man, I wish we had a "GURPS baldur's gate 3"

[@DoctorFurioso]

Also hearing that Tim genuinely tried to compromise with the GURPS creator/talked for 6 hours(!) b/f Interplay unilaterally scrapping it is different from Jackson being some arrogant prick who pulled the plug.

[@jres1995]

​@@UlissesSampaio Why would a D&D game use a different RPG system

[@UlissesSampaio]

@@jres1995 what i meant was a fantasy game like Baldur's gate (high production value, etc) but using GURPS. Could be on a GURPS book setting btw.

[@mikemanau]

I first played Fallout on my 486, on Dos. It ran at about 1fps, and I remember it took a few goes to boot. When I finally got a Pentium, it was the first game I installed. Thanks for the memories Tim!

[@antoniodeodilonbrito7643]

Yes!! That’s what I’ve been waiting for!! Tim, what influences were important for you in the dark, albeit often times subtle, humor you guys inserted in Fallout? I remember, in my very recent playthrough, when reaching The Glow, hovering the mouse over one of the cadavers and reading “You see the remnants of: Loser”, and laughing out loud so much! 🤣 I would personally love to see a video dedicated to the dark humor in Fallout! Have a good one, Tim! 😄

[@TheYoungtrust]

Boy and his Dog 1975, Mad Max 1979 take a look at the "New Wave" speculative fiction/ science fiction style. All this was made before I was born. The humor was "dark" then now we are living it.

[@antoniodeodilonbrito7643]

@@TheYoungtrustCool! Thank you for the input! I watched the first Mad Max years ago, and it is a great movie! But I will also check out those other references 😄

[@fredrik3880]

The first madmax i can't see much inspiration from other than jacket and raiders clothes and hair. The 2nd however is a lot more like fallout (or fallout seems more inspired by it). A Boy and his dog i see so much from in fallout.

[@wmidler]

@@fredrik3880 when FO4 came out and I learned my PC was unable to run it, I found a reddit thread of post-apocalyptic films to watch instead. A Boy and his Dog was hard to get into at first due to the quality but my jaw dropped in the second half. Threads on the other hand, I couldn't get through that at all. Six-String Samurai was another weird one on that list, pretty campy and too late for Fallout 1 but New Vegas did reference it.

[@antoniodeodilonbrito7643]

@@fredrik3880 You’re absolutely right!

[@jacksaladin]

congratulations you just produced an historic document, it's going in my doctorate dissertation and you can't stop it

[@littlesaigon1042]

Proof that Mark Morgan was an amazing choice: so many of his songs made it into New Vegas. And the game is so much better for it!

[@mauriceprins2852]

Love this timeline video, also: spud, the pet scorpion?! Awesome

[@aNerdNamedJames]

IIRC there's a radscorpion boss named Spud somewhere in the assets of Fallout 2, but I don't think it was encounterable in the shipped version.

[@fredrik3880]

​@@aNerdNamedJameshaha great stuff

[@Miish3lov]

that's really awesome

[@refractionpcsx2]

Wow I didn't realise you switched to SPECIAL so far in to development, that's crazy! A gold star to your team for managing to turn that around so quickly (especially with the modularity)! Now the video is over, I can go to the bathroom without being reprimanded by Uncle Tim :D

[@Brozef]

Hi Tim, it's me, me. I just want to thank you for putting out all these videos and sharing your amazing insight. Settling in this industry gets much easier listening to you.

[@Ghostcharm]

Love this stuff Tim, thanks for everything you have done

[@TheDonutguy1]

Loved the Pip-Boy video!

[@SLINKLYDLINKLY]

Was just thinking "wished this guy did longer videos" I like listening while programming :D

[@powergi3996]

I want more long videos like this. More of Tim is more of happiness.

[@pongod5751]

Fallout 1 is my favorite game. Thanks Tim

[@fredrik3880]

My top all time all genres: 1. New Vegas 2. Arcanum 3. Total war: Warhammer 2 4. Fallout 3 5. Fallout 1 6. Fallout 2 7. Fallout 4 8. Warhammer shadow of the horned rat 9. TMNT 2 the arcade game 10. Punch out Ofc my favorite thing in all entertainment is Fallout. And it was pretty much all there (setting, world, lore) in f1. So it is incredibly special. For it's time I'd rank f1 as nr 1. But things evolved and Arcanum came later and was a more fun game etc. I still play em both atleast once a year and have an absolute blast

[@pongod5751]

@fredrik3880 I know this sounds weird...but fallout 1 reminds me so much of pool of radiance with battle placement strategies and layouts...grew up with pool and saw it perfected in 97

[@fredrik3880]

@@pongod5751 it was a great era mate. Every year lots of new settings and great games

[@Alexa2z]

Happy Friday Tim! Thank you for all you do!

[@TheHonoredMadman]

Been binging all the videos ive missed, you are a highly prolific fellow, always a great and insightful listen

[@arbter116]

I feel so lucky to have one of my favorite creators talk about my favorite game series on KZbin. I also just DMed my first session of a PnP fallout campaign. My freinds loved it. One didn’t know anything about fallout and he wants to play a game now. I told him he can play any game except the first because that’s what I stole my plot from. 😂 Thank you for everything Tim.

[@farbekrieg355]

these are fantastic behind the scenes bits and pieces to fill in what was going on the otherside of fallout i was playing as an end user, downloading demos off the net on a telephone was such a hassle

[@high_foodcourt]

Fallout's been a part of my life for a quarter of a century. Thank you for making this, and all of these early Fallout dev videos.

[@charliek5964]

It is so neat seeing all this behind the scenes history. Really neat how much goes into a video game that isn't obvious from an outside perspective

[@Marandal]

I appreciate the long-form content. Thanks Uncle Tim! "Fallout Development Timeline" title is very unassuming. but the actual video is very pleasant.

[@donnyscomics3487]

Hey Tim, I wanted to say that watching your channel has been fun, a lot of developers are in the shadows sometimes, and watching your videos and relating to you has inspired me to hopefully have a career in the gaming industry someday!

[@mikez6289]

Favorite video to date! Love hearing about behind the scenes events

[@slayasloth]

I would love to see a video about how you learned how to code. Like details on what resources and methods, and your perspective looking back on that journey

[@zacharialopez4284]

this are amazing. found this channel a few days ago. it feels illegal to have this info on youtube lol thank you so much!

[@janedagger]

So nice to just listen to your story, sir. Thank you soooo much. Pls be safe.

[@Pedone_Rosso]

No, wait! Darn it, I had 2 whole free hours for this. 24 minutes is just wetting the appetite! (LOL!) Thanks for your videos!

[@rp4681]

So grateful for all the insight. Thank you all for creating this universe.

[@charliek5964]

Would be neat to one day have a tour of that bookshelf that's always in the background of these videos. In addition to the books there seems to be a lot of neat memorabilia

[@fredrik3880]

It warms the heart to hear all this. Fallout is so SPECIAL to me. Thanks a lot to all its makers.

[@Joepopa12]

The intro movie did such a magnificent job of setting the tone of the game. Really the entire franchise.

[@iampfaff]

8:20 so cool. thanks for sharing this picture

[@i_am_the_catman]

Ahhhh, a fantastic bit of history. Trying to remember exactly when I got my copy, might not have been until later in October? I *definitely* remember champing at the bit to get it and start playing.. Thanks!

[@Winter420]

love fallout, love gurps. so glad you have this channel

[@vinnyolmsted8018]

The iconic Fallout intro was created on my 4th birthday? Thank you for the present, Interplay.

[@jcr6548]

Looking forward to the TV show the trailer looks great must be exciting for you too

[@dr_mercio]

Fallout changed my life, and my perspective on gaming. I started on 3, but later played 2 and loved it. I still need to play the first one. Thank you so much!

[@sophomorehat]

Fascinating, Tim. Thanks!

[@clef6434]

Love these long form fallout videos Tim! I have a question regarding the Fallout TV show. Do you think you’ll watch it, and maybe even give your thoughts in a video once it’s out? Thanks!

[@burntbybrighteyes]

You can't stop me from pausing you, Tim!!

[@TheDiion_]

Can’t wait to see your thoughts on the fallout TV series when it releases

[@artoodiitoo]

""Gurps!", Pip-Boy swallowed." This was a headline in a Fallout history article in the finnish Pelit (Games) magazine x>

[@TimmacTR]

Thanks!

[@wayward8372]

Having experienced cert on consoles since 2012, it's nuts that you sent the final build October 1st and physical copies were in stores October 10th.

[@BeesUSA]

Leonard Boyarsky really doesn't age, damn.

[@Will_____]

This bloke is the best

[@graytonw5238]

"It's kinda long..." Cool, I got my coffee ready.

[@fredrik3880]

When i grow up ill start drinking coffee

[@Vaffi]

Made my friday. Thank you :)

[@Odisseia-hh2td]

18:52 Man, Steve Jackson really missed the jackpot there...

[@fredrik3880]

Lol yup

[@StavrosNikolaou]

Thank you Tim! Can you do an Arcanum one as well? :) Have a great weekend!

[@CainOnGames]

I can do that. I have extensive notes and hard drive images from Troika. I’ll get to work.

[@StavrosNikolaou]

@@CainOnGames You are the best! Thank you so much!!

[@fredrik3880]

Nice! Good idea

[@martinatzejensen6787]

"I would never pause you, Tim!" he lied, as he had just paused the video to write this exact comment.

[@Jaqinta]

19:07 The Legends , my opinion are the greatest development team of all the time

[@TheirSavior]

Organizing the code in a way that allowed you to remove GURPS easily saved that company a lot of money. Were you aware that the deal could fall through and decided to prepare early? Or were you guys just that disciplined all the time?

[@CainOnGames]

The code was written that way because I was reusing code from my GURPS apps. So they were pulled in as separate modules. No foresight, no discipline. Just happenstance.

[@AlexanderEiffel]

@2:43 wait what? Club 33? That’s the 35 grand club thing isn’t it?

[@lennyghoul]

On the early release stuff, lots of stores that had moratoriums for release dates would just ignore them and get more "word of mouth sales" by selling them the day they received them. I used to have a buddy at EB that did that crap all the time. I got many games a few day's before they officially released like that. 😬

[@WillowRat]

Oh dude an Earthdawn game would have been SICK.

[@FluffySylveonBoi]

6:55 Ahhh, Gizmo Junk. I wonder what impact this name had on the game :)

[@piggosalternateaccount4917]

1996 for Mark Morgan arrival - fantastic. 4 years until I was born!

[@littlesaigon1042]

Did Steve Jackson games ever give reasons for WHY they hated the Vault-Boy? Every time you mention it, it baffles me.

[@bartolomeothesatyr]

Yeah, I'm curious about that, too, it was immediately obvious that it was iconic branding. Maybe *_too_* iconic, in that maybe Steve Jackson just didn't want Vault-Boy to come to be a stand-in for the whole GURPS brand? He maybe *_did_* have good reason to be paranoid about what his IP was attached to in the early 90's; look up *_Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service_* on Wikipedia.

[@aNerdNamedJames]

If only we had "fly-on-the-wall" footage of that weeks-before-shipping interaction between Tim and the executives who wanted last minute design changes 🤣

[@aleksey7669]

Great video!

[@veraxiana9993]

Ayy November 13th mentioned, that’s my birthday!

[@abe_is_live]

Apologies Tim. I had to pause the video to use the bathroom 😥. Interesting video though. Also hello from a fellow Tim. Have a nice day!

[@UlissesSampaio]

4:43 Man, I wish we had a "GURPS Baldur's Gate 3"

[@nowayjosedaniel]

In what setting? Honestly even if the same I agree. 5e is garbage.

[@UlissesSampaio]

@@nowayjosedaniel I like GURPS settings: bannerstorm, fantasy, etc.

[@DoobieDoctor5000]

OMG an Earthdawn video game I wanna cry.

[@SpookySurprise]

Thank you for the wonderful breakdown on the timeline of Fallout! It's always such a treat to see all the small details you noted down. I heard you mention working on Stonekeep, do you have any memories or notes to share of your experiences on that project? Interplay games were my early childhood, and Stonekeep and Fallout were easily my two favorites of that time.

[@CainOnGames]

You might like Castles (1991) and Stonekeep (1995) kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y6nOhXunp76lbLc

[@SpookySurprise]

@@CainOnGames I will definitely check that out! Thank you so much for the link to it!

[@fredrik3880]

The spirtes of the kids were removed if i remember correctly foe the uk version

[@JuegosAlDetalle]

I definitely loved this! Where my knowledge was somewhat weak was regarding the development of Mac. I used to think that Tim Hume was the one who had translated GNW in a weekend, but it seems that it was Chris Desalvo instead and Hume was then in charge of polishing the version of the game itself using that MacGNW, right? Was it a quick process done at the end or was it made accompanying the development of DOS/Windows on a daily basis once he joined the project?

[@jsullivan2112]

Awesome.

[@adamdravian]

Thanks for this, Tim. Very informative. During that six-hour meeting with Steve Jackson, had you been empowered to make the changes he wanted, do you think you would you have agreed to them?

[@christopherdavis1860]

Damn, Leonard’s showing off the big guns in that pic.

[@wrathchild7218]

Hi Tim! A bit of an off-topic question: have you heard about, or played Underrail? A lot of people consider it a spiritual successor to original Fallouts, which I adhere to as well. It's, of course, a post-apoc from a different perspective than you guys had, but it has a very deep and rich lore standing on its own two legs. I believe they weren't trying to replicate your design philosophy, but they took all the right notes. I hope you have time to give it a shot, I'm pretty sure you'd like it!

[@CainOnGames]

Yup, I own and have played Underrail.

[@KeiNovak]

BTW, the Epic Store currently has The Outer Worlds for free until April 11th (2024).

[@Esquarious]

Yep, the new premium version too so good to get even if you have base game.

[@vagabondht5791]

From the UK the reason the interplay office would have said about the removing kids or killing them was down to the shooting at a school in Dunblane scotland in 1996 (famous tennis player Andrew Murray was there at the time as a student). and the BFFC ( the organization that would age rate stuff before PEGI) would have banned it for sale, BFFC is also the reason Carmaggeon turned people to zombies in the uk. FO2 still had children turned invisible used to think the game was infinite combat turning while in the Den while killing Flick down to it moving all the invisible kids.

[@Themistocles30]

My favourite classic games was pandemonium and small soldiers. 90s was a great time to be a gamer.

[@moonverine]

3:00 I love the notion of a card game so complex that the creator doesn't even know the rules.

[@MetalgearLuke]

you know when we pause you? :O

[@CainOnGames]

Yes, I do.

[@MetalgearLuke]

@@CainOnGames lmaoooo alright my dude

[@uncouthboy8028]

There is more to this whole GURPs thing. Hopefully we will hear all the gory details someday.

[@caelanread3199]

I loved that story:!

[@fighterpantsguy6961]

Ooo I caught this one early! Glad I already got my coffee and went to the bathroom

[@Nurolight]

I'd love an in-depth on the creaion of the cutscene physical models, the digital creation, the animation.

[@samd2013]

Hey Tim, I’ve been watching a lot of your videos a lot lately and I’ve been really enjoying them. Especially because I admittedly do not know much about game development or the behind the scenes stuff that goes on in the industry; it’s been really fascinating and interesting to hearing your perspective on a lot of things. One thing I’m curious to know your opinion on is on gaming consoles and their effect on game development. Have game consoles throughout game development history been a chokehold on games or have they been beneficial to the industry? It’s kindof hard to articulate exactly what I mean, but PCs in general have always been more powerful pieces of hardware compared to their contemporary consoles of their time. I know that some games are developed only for PC for this reason because they’re the only things capable of running it, yet I know that the console market has always been huge and it makes perfect sense if developers make compromises on the games they make if they want to reach a larger market. Do consoles limit the game development or is it a completely irrelevant thing?

[@AltraWave7]

If I recall correctly for the German/European market release kids where removed from the game.

[@isittrash]

I was wondering if some of the art assets were carried over from an older game using the engine. The hooded characters and buildings with faces on them feel a little fantasy-ish in their design, so I kind of figured the artists were just told to start making stuff but then the decision to be post-apocalyptic came later. Makes sense that the writing team would decide to create a cult faction so they could save on scope.

[@8Paul7]

Why the hell wouldn't at least Ferg meet with Jackson, seems disrespectful when they were the ones with decision making power

[@scorpzgca]

This is awesome and insightful thanks for telling us your history working in games what do you do now ?????

[@dannydropshot9588]

It blows my mind that the executives or whatever didn’t like Vault Boy. He’s the perfect Mascot and Fallout wouldn’t be the same without him.

[@Odisseia-hh2td]

Btw, Fallout series debuts next week: Thoughts?

[@Cobalticer]

Hello Tim, I was wondering back when you were developing fallout you mentioned how you created multiple game engines. How did you know how to create them? Were there books/websites on how to create them? I’m asking since I assume the internet didn’t have as much resources as it does know. I love your videos I always watch them for motivation for my own game dev journey.

[@CasualtiesOfGaming]

I for one would like more info on V13. Both the fallout version and non fallout version

[@developerdeveloper67]

Tim, I heard mentioned in a long-form podcast (Resonant Arc, Planescape: Torment Ep1). That Fallout was built on the Infinity engine, that sounded wrong to me, since I know you build the Fallout engine and Fallout 1 and 2 looks nothing like the other games made in the Infinity engine. To me it seems this info is completely wrong.

[@CainOnGames]

It is incorrect. The Fallout engine was not built on the Infinity Engine, which was made at BioWare. The Fallout engine was made from scratch

[@AmareloStudios]

time to stop listening to that podcast

[@developerdeveloper67]

@CainOnGames Thanks for the reply, Tim. I thought it could be so that the engine you developed for Fallout went on to be "evolved" into the infinity engine, but that sounded unlikely. Thanks for clarifying.

[@developerdeveloper67]

@THEEEJONESY No need for that, I didn't meant harm with the original comment. I really enjoy these guys podcast. They are often very insightful. Recommend.

[@Xerdar36]

Fallout music producer.. so talented..