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LET'S
PLAY
WASTELAND
EXPLAIN THE GAME
What Is Wasteland? What Is It All About?
A post-apocalyptic computer role-playing game released in 1988, initially for Apple II, and later that year for Commodore 64 and IBM MS-DOS ("and 100% compatibles!"). It did a lot of things that no other game had done at the time, and probably some things no other game ever did again. BESTSELLING AUTHOR Michael Stackpole said in a recent interview that the development team attended a game developer's conference around that time, and every other company's single unique defining element for their games was something Wasteland was doing--and often doing better. It was cutting-edge design, gameplay, and immersion, though anyone who started gaming in the mid-1990s would already have no idea that things like "having a persistent impact on the game world," "tactical party-splitting," or "non-fantasy CRPG worlds" were ever innovations. Wasteland was, in a way, the first time you your computer seemed to be simulating something eerily lifelike while still being bombastic and larger-than-life.
Wasteland 2 brought a lot of Wasteland-related information back to the forefront of the Internet (and brought about the request for this Let's Play!), so I will let Brian Fargo himself introduce the story of the game that started all this nonsense all those years ago (I will add some things in brackets for further exposition):
Brian Fargo posted:
On the same day [in 1998] that the U.S. and Soviet Union were attempting to extinguish each other, a company of U.S. Army Engineers were in the southwestern deserts building transportation bridges over dry riverbeds. They worked deep in the inhospitable desert valleys, surrounded by a number of survivalist communities. Located directly south of their position on that day was a newly-constructed federal prison. In addition to housing the nation?s criminals condemned to death, the prison contained light industrial manufacturing facilities.
Shortly after the nuclear attack began, the Engineers, seeking shelter, took over the federal prison and expelled the prisoners into the desolate desert to complete their sentences. As the weeks passed, they invited the nearby survivalist communities to join them and to help them build a new society. Because of each community?s suspicions towards one another, times were difficult at first. But as time nurtured trust, this settlement -- which came to be known as Ranger Center [the subject of a huge meaningless argument on the official forums--"WHY WOULD A GROUP OF ARMY ENGINEERS EVER ALLOW THEMSELVES TO BE CALLED RANGERS GRAHGRAHHH"] -- grew to be one of the strongest outposts. Ranger Center even proved powerful enough to repel the hands of rancorous criminals who repeatedly attacked in attempts to reclaim what was once ?rightfully theirs.?
The citizens of Ranger Center, after first believing that they were the only ones who survived the nuclear maelstrom, soon realized that communities beyond the desert?s grip had also survived, Because they had such success in constructing a new community, they felt compelled to help other survivors rebuild and live in peace.
Toward this end, the Desert Rangers, in the great tradition of the Texas and Arizona Rangers a century before, were born. [Now it is the year 2087, and the last pre-war generation is nearly gone, and though things are relatively stable at the moment, YOU JUST NEVER KNOW WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN]
In other words, the game took Soviet/Cold War paranoia, survivalist/libertarian nightmare paranoia, military fetishism, and liberally interspersed comic-book-level radiation speculation, in combination with the panic over sentient robots that comes from all theories of a "technological singularity," and ended up with what someone somewhere someday will probably call the "first modern video game" or something equally ostentacious (if Ultima IV does not get that honor instead). Other games did a good job making you feel like you were part of a real living world--but Wasteland was the first "near-future/post-apocalypse/ripped-from-the-headlines-of-fearmongering" role-playing game. Real-world concerns, fears, and fantasies, when combined with groundbreaking achievements in storytelling, immersion, and gameplay, all meant Wasteland was an absolute classic from the moment it appeared. Many of the larger donations for Wasteland 2 came from people who were inspired to get into the gaming industry by Wasteland.
Tarquinn made a succinct comment in the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter thread recently that gets it all right: Tarquinn posted:
Don't get me wrong, compared to its competitors of that time, Wasteland had copious amounts of story, but measured by today's standards it is almost non-existant.
The external book of supplemental paragraphs alone contained more story and dialogue than most games of the time, to say nothing of the in-game text, and the atmosphere enhanced the story significantly as well, letting your imagination run wild. But looking at it now ...
You might be tempted to think "uhhh ... right, that looks super-immersive and deep." Well, you will just have to take my word for it. FOR NOW.
"Southwestern deserts?" That is where the game takes place?
They usually refer to it as the American Southwest, and thanks to Wasteland.Wikia.com, we have a reasonable approximation of the game's world map overlaid onto its real-world geography:
Of particular note is the fact that Needles is a real town in Nevada (and mentioned in the hit 1972 Three Dog Night cover of the song "Never Been to Spain"), Quartz is based on the real town of Quartzsite in Arizona, and supposedly "Las Vegas" is also a real place[citation needed].
So how was this different than Fallout?
What, just because both games try to get this point across:
does not mean they are the same game!
Still, I can likely explain the differences in more detail than you want. The most immediate difference is that Fallout is an inherently sardonic explosion of 1950s American pop culture ideas about the impact of a third global war escalating to the nuclear level, whereas Wasteland was basically a black comedy about then-modern fears of accidental nuclear annihilation as a side effect of Cold War tensions. Definite similarities, yes, but prominent differences as well. The main way this difference in tone manifests through the games is that there is absolutely no "gee-whiz" optimism, even ironically, in Wasteland. Everything is awful, and everyone knows it. Also, Wasteland's structure reflected a very different conceptualization of role-playing games than Fallout; in Wasteland, it was expected that some of your characters may well die in the course of the game, and you could always head back to Ranger Center and replace that person with a new recruit. Fallout's you-are-the-chosen-one focus meant that the player character's death was basically the end of the world. Nobody is the chosen one in Wasteland. As it should be.
Many aspects of Wasteland recurred in the Fallout series, some because Fallout was clearly an effort to continue the idea of Wasteland without the ability to make an actual sequel, some because as the Fallout series went on the designers began including homages for their own sake. From the beginning, the same contours could be seen; repeated motifs (beyond the genre itself) include an organization marshalled to maintain order in a fashion somewhat akin to the old world (Desert Rangers vs. NCR), a cult of pre-war technology and culture (Guardians of the Old Order vs. Brotherhood of Steel), general settings and locations (Southwestern Deserts, Las Vegas, et cetera). The New Vegas expansion "Old World Blues" was full of even more references, and Chris Avellone mentioned in a recent interview that there was even more Wasteland influence there than we realized, possibly referring to the way that those lobotomites and robo-dogs and the like seemed to constantly spawn and run at you out of nowhere ala Wasteland's much-more-frequent random encounters.
What makes you think you have any business doing this Let's Play!?! You do realize Forums user Mr. Lobe already did one in 2008?!?!
I do realize this, yes, and I am sure it was a great runthrough, but it also happened before people started saving them for posterity, so unless you have archives access (which I do not) you cannot see it. Plus, the pictures from the post are likely long gone, too. Basically, all signs point to DO IT AGAIN!
Plus, this is the wall of my office, how can you deny me my ability to help:
(I spent more having FedEx Office print the Wasteland box art on 2-foot-square foamcore than I spent on the game in the first place)
I totally liked Xenocides' Forgotten Realms Gold Box Let's Play introduction and will quickly run through those questions too:
EXPLAIN YOURSELF
Why are you "Let's Play"ing this game?
To respond to Lizard Wizard's suggestions as to how to know you should be Let's Playing a game, from earlier in the thread:
"Do you have a unique perspective on this game?" YES
"Does this game need more exposure?" ASTOUNDINGLY PROBABLY
"Are you knowledgable about this game?" YES
"If not, can you at least beat it?" N/A, BUT YES ANYWAY
"Are you comfortable with the responsibility of explaining this game to people who have never played it?" YES
"Can you think of a good way for the thread to participate?" UMMM
"If you can answer yes to three or more of these questions, then congratulations, you've found your game!" YAY!
This is all in the name of the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter thread, whose support and, dare I say, community has been amazing in both donating to the sequel and drumming up interest in a Let's Play of the original. It really seemed like not that many people were interested in a Let's Play until I went through the thread and actually started taking note of how often it was requested.
Thus, a shout-out to those wonderful people who specifically asked me to do/are excited that I am doing a Let's Play: Megadyptes, HondaCivet, AxeManiac, Seorin, RagingBoner, Catalina, Cullan, Urdnot Fire, Zaii, Fredrik1 (though only if I am eating dog food), The Rat Says Squee, Waqii, Smol (who wanted me to Toxx myself in the name of Wasteland), Yegods, Evil Fluffy, CrookedB, JebanyPedal, Rupert Buttermilk (who wants me to have dibs on Wasteland 2 also), Xik, Woebin, Diet Coke, and Tarquinn.
GhostSlug, Al!, HotCanadianChick, Mordaedil, and CaptainScraps were borderline asking me specifically versus adopting a generic "'somebody' should do it!" stance.
Speaking of "a generic 'somebody' should do it!" stance, thanks also to Cytoc, Dissapointed Owl, Tendronai, BobTheJanitor, 100 HOGS AGREE, Phanatic, Lethial, Bonds0097 (who even started a video runthrough to hold back the horde for a while), NotZaar (who says LPing is for dudes with too much free time and that no real-life problems are worth a forums reputation, which I kept in mind in order to first pass my dissertation proposal defense before starting this), Synertia, Dvorak, Tippis (wants to be sure it is a video Let's Play with PC speaker beeps and all, though he is also concerned that I described my voice as half-way between the screech of a pterodactyl and the gutteral burblings of a Fat Golem), ThePutty, DiscGolferGuy, and Steakmancer.
Also Pussy Cartel for making a well-deserved snarky comment about this taking me forever
What format are you using?
Mostly screenshots, but also some video action both because it was requested and because I can clearly do something mildly entertaining with videos, even with a game that basically has nothing going on that is not represented perfectly via still or lightly animated images. Plus you have no idea how much awesome music I have that I want to put in a video somewhere (and no, I am not talking about the song I wrote for the Risen 2 contest).
Though I have read in other posts in this thread that my "Midwestern American" accent will be THRILLING AND EXCITING! Though as someone from the legitimate "General American" dialectical region, I take offense to the idea that this manner of speech is that widespread 
Goon Input [Y/N]?
The characters are from a vote in the Wasteland 2 thread, and though I am not going in assuming that people will be voting on my every action, I also would not object to someone saying "hey, you should totally skip the Mines and go get murdered in Las Vegas over and over again!"
Speaking of the characters from Goon input:
Per the magnificent vote on the character pool I created in the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter thread, we assembled our fearless band of adventurers from the finest post-apocalyptic stock:
Dappertron, human-android relations.
A Vicious Pug, the world's most vicious pug.
Human Folly, a physical manifestation of the limitless hubris of homo sapiens.
Ace Creamcone, hard-bitten private eye who gave up the glitz and glamour of investigating for the good, honest work of Desert Ranging. Also an anthropomorphic ice cream cone.
And with special thanks to 
FauxGateau , I have what may well be the first ever fan art produced before a Let's Play starts, and can show how the assembled party looks after basic training hardens them up:
UPDATES
How often will you update?
Never.
How often will you update?
Sometimes. I am not trying to drag this out until the Wasteland 2 beta begins or anything, but I was chosen for my enthusiasm, not for my having-the-time-to-do-thisness. Rest assured that I do relish the idea of playing through this game for the first time in about 10 years, and actually having other people enjoy(?) it in the process. I will work a few updates ahead just in case I get stun-locked and am unable to play for a while, per the advice in this thread.
I think this is going to be my 12th playthrough overall, though 9 of those were when I was in grade school or junior high and named my characters things like "Hulk Luger" or "Mr. Uzi."
Other things you should know:
Wasteland is from an era when, believe it or not, text could be too substantial for the storage capacity of the day: 5 1/4" or 3 1/2" disks. If you do not know what these are, be thankful, as that also means you do not know about AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS, HIMEM, EMM386, files, buffers, MSCDEX, or possibly even IRQs. Even if some games might have been great in those days, the computers we played them on fought every step of the way to keep us from enjoying ourselves, and we should be glad that they are all dead and buried. That said, I have a Pentium/133 with MS-DOS 6.22 as the sole operating system because apparently I will always be a glutton for punishment.
Oh, but anyway--the reason it matters that excess text was a size consideration is because Wasteland solved this problem by creating a physical document that came with the game, as mentioned earlier, operating as both an expository repository and simultaneous light copy protection. I say "light" because you could still play the game just fine without the Wasteland Paragraphs book, but you would never learn any of the passwords that made the game significantly easier. It would be sort of cool to actually post scans of the actual paragraphs when they come up in-game, but since my own paragraphs book is across the country from me right now, I will just be pasting the text when relevant. Or I could link to the crazy person who uploaded the whole paragraphs book to that one site; I think I will do that.
ANY LAST WORDS?
IT'S WASTIN' TIME