50's atmosphere - Why?

Dakilleux

First time out of the vault
I always wondered. If the war happened in 2050 or so, why does every place in the wasteland has these vintage looking ads and buildings?
 
Dakilleux said:
...

You guys may not realise it, but you guys make me feel retarded.

Seriously, I'm not trolling.

Lets humor the newb.

Its because the war that destroyed the world didn't take place in 2077, it took place in 2077 as seen by the science fiction and comic book writers of the 1950s.
 
Dakilleux said:
So, it took place in the 20th century then?

Yes and no.

In essence, yes. Retro-futurism. Its what people imagined the future would be like in the 1950's, though a 50's perpective and mentality.

But as has already been explained, it happened in the 21st century (2077), but as we would have imagined it back in the 50's.
 
Chancellor Kremlin said:
Dakilleux said:
So, it took place in the 20th century then?

Yes and no.

In essence, yes. Retro-futurism. Its what people imagined the future would be like in the 1950's, though a 50's perpective and mentality.

But as has already been explained, it happened in the 21st century (2077), but as we would have imagined it back in the 50's.

Ah. Thought you guys were mocking me before. I knew the war happened in 2077, right after the resources war and stuff.

I get it now. Thanks.
 
Fallout is set in an alternate timeline that diverged from ours in the 1950s. In the 21st century, it looked like the future as imagined in the 1950s pulp science fiction. E.g. instead of transistors you have huge vacuum tube-based computers with artificial intelligence and monochromatic terminals, robotic servants, a pseudo-utopian society based on 1950s values, black and white TV, music from the 1950s considered all-time classics, and most modern musical genres never appearing, etc,. Weapon development was also different from ours and thus plasma and laser weaponry was introduced, 10mm became the most common ammo type, etc. The modern high-tech weapons were never created - instead, weapons based on how people in the 1950s thought 21st century weaponry would look like are used.

For more information, see:

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_world
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Divergence
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline
 
Ausir said:
The modern high-tech weapons were never created - instead, weapons based on how people in the 1950s thought 21st century weaponry would look like are used.

I always liked this fact and I always didn't liked it that Fallout 2 has broken with it (P90, CAWS, FN FAL, ...).
 
The FN Fal was designed in the 50s so it sorta works with the setting.
Never use the P90 or Caws and other guns because they just don't fit. Do use the Desert Eagle though, that gun is so awesome it transcends realities.
 
I never use the real world weapons too, they feel wrong. FN FAL was nice, it was made after wwII and yanks DID consider using it.
Not absolutely unplausible that USA bought some, made blueprints, BoS found those and then gave it to NCR.

i miss 14mm pistol and my 223. :cry:
 
Patton89 said:
I never use the real world weapons too, they feel wrong. FN FAL was nice, it was made after wwII and yanks DID consider using it.
Not absolutely unplausible that USA bought some, made blueprints, BoS found those and then gave it to NCR.

i miss 14mm pistol and my 223. :cry:

I don't really have so much of a gripe with the real weapons. Most of them are pretty useless anyway.

I mean, the 50's could have advanced in their own peculiar way, but still have absorbed/created the technology we have today. It doesnt ALL have to be 50's era stuff. I don't mind some diversity here and there.
 
No and yes, see, if something so shockingly different had happened, the design and purpose of weapons would have changed. Look at miniguns and power armour, because of them the ak assault rifles were developed to be "light" infantry weapons, "sidearms"

Desert eagle is okay, it fits the bigger cartridge thing going on in handguns.
But P90 ? Not that much. Pancor Jackhammer ?
Change the names to fit the fallout universe and re-design a bit.
Then i am okay.
 
The Pancor strangely fits, because in RL we didn't use it. This shows another small divergence: In the Fallout Universe, they use Pancors. In our universe, we don't.
 
Slaughter Manslaught said:
The Pancor strangely fits, because in RL we didn't use it. This shows another small divergence: In the Fallout Universe, they use Pancors. In our universe, we don't.

No, it doesn't. It was designed in the eighties.
 
alec said:
Slaughter Manslaught said:
The Pancor strangely fits, because in RL we didn't use it. This shows another small divergence: In the Fallout Universe, they use Pancors. In our universe, we don't.

No, it doesn't. It was designed in the eighties.

Not everything in fallout is exclusively from the 50's. C'mon. Skynet? :D

I like it actually. I wanted more Terminator references lol...
 
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