Looking Back - Wasteland

     1988 was a pretty good year for computer games.  Especially for fans of RPGs.  Back then, I had an Apple //c, and while the following years may have seen a serious decline as the games industry backed off of 8-bit machines, 1988 was a good high-water mark.   There was Ultima V from Origin, Pool of Radiance from SSI, Battletech from Infocom, Bards Tale III from Interplay, and, of course Wasteland, also from Interplay.

     I had received Wasteland for my 14th birthday, and it instantly turned out to be one of my all time favorites, even today.  I had always been a fan of RPGs, but there was an issue I always had with them. I was always some guy with a sword, some guy who cast spells, etc.  I was sick of the dungeons, of the dragons.  Been there, done that.  Wasteland changed that.  It was set in the post-apocalyptic future, something that was mostly new at the time.  It had guns, grenades, rocket launchers, and if you died, you stayed that way.  The gameplay took the best elements of other games, with the top-down movement view of Ultima, and the simplistic combat setup of games like Wizardry.  It was, simply put, fucking awesome.  (It also helped to pique the interest of any 14 year male that the game came with a "PG-13" sticker on the box.)

My original box, booklets, disks, characters, and cluebook.

     Wasteland came out in 1988 for the Apple 2 series, Commodore 64/128, and the PC.  It was designed by Brian Fargo, Alan Pavlish, Ken St. Andre, and Michael Stackpole of Interplay, and published by Electronic Arts.  The game came out to shining praise from magazines such as Dragon, and Computer Gaming World, where it received game of the year.  It actually still gets praise from modern gaming sources even today.

From left to right, Apple 2, C64, and PC versions.

     The game featured a lot of things that were either totally new or rare in use at the time.  It was the first CRPG that allowed you to split up your party in order to get tasks done.  It also used an unusual type of copy protection in the form of "paragraphs"- a booklet that came with the game that you were instructed to read at certain points containing important descriptions and needed passwords.  It also had several bogus paragraph entries to throw off any player who decided to read ahead in hopes of spoilers.  It also had a nifty utility that allowed you to restart your game using the same characters, resetting everything but your stats.  I honestly can't tell you how many times I've replayed this.

     Set in the southwestern US, the plot of the game starts out simple - you're the "Desert Rangers", a group that's pretty much what's left of the military/police of the "old days".  Your mission is the old "go see whats happening because something's up" routine.  You progress through small towns and villages, eventually landing in what's left of Las Vegas.  It's there that you start to find out that something much, much bigger is happening out in the desert.  Crazy robots are showing up, and nobody seems to know what the deal is.

A small sample of the many individuals eager to "air you out".

     After Las Vegas, the game gets crazier.  Secret bases, a compound of religious cultists, a mad individual playing with genetics, it all comes together in a crazy final sequence that, at the time, was seriously awesome.

     As I said, I had played the game on an Apple //c.  Back then, most apple users were losing their eyesight quickly staring at green monochrome screens.  Despite this, even today, I can still bust this game out and play it from start to finish on AppleWin.  It's actually one of the only RPGs I can play, finish, and then play again.  Even better, using a cool program called ADTPro and an actual Apple //e that I acquired off Craigslist, I am able to play with the same characters I created 25 years ago.

At 14, this sight was boner-inducing.

      Just like every RPG back then, it left a lot to the imagination.  It's a good or bad thing depending on where your preferences lie.  True, It's no Skyrim, but I feel that it's every bit as fun, though, this is probably because I'm still seeing the game with eyes "from the time".  I still remember doing lots of dumb random crap, like -

• Throwing myself into the river just to raise the swim skill of all my guys, even though it pretty much knocked everyone unconscious.
• Using a howitzer in one of the towns (Needles) and blowing up a hot dog stand.
• Staging a casino massacre in Las Vegas.
• A showdown with the Red Ryder.
• Wishing I could drive the Regan M3 Tank
• Leaving Danny Citrine or Christine in Base Cochise just to see the cool picture.  Also because I hated them.
• Killing Christine for firing single-shot at death machines, but then going full-auto, wasting ammo, on rats.

      It was also possible to just redo certain areas without totally resetting the story.  For example, by just recopying side 3 on the Apple 2, I could reset the Guardians Citadel.  This would allow me to do things I otherwise could not accomplish in one playthrough, such as getting multiple Ion Beamers, or equipping the entire party with Proton Axes.

Fallout -

     The game directly served as sole inspiration for the Fallout universe, which was also made by several members of the Wasteland team.  In Fallout: New Vegas, the Desert Rangers actually make an appearance, as well as other references to Wasteland.

Wasteland 2 -

     Recently Brian Fargo, now with InXile, launched a kickstarter fund for Wasteland 2.  It turns out I'm not alone in my love for the title, as it met its $900,000 goal in less than 2 days.  At the close of the kickstarter campaign, it ended up raising $2,933,252.

     The new sequel will be a direct follow up to the original, and even better, it's being made by the original 4 former Interplay members who created the original.  You can find out more on that here.

     So, in closing, Wasteland = good.  That's all I got.  If you're a fan of older RPG's there's not a better one I can recommend.  If you're a fan of the PC, DOSBox will help you out.  For the Apple 2, AppleWin is the best bet. For the C64, I recommend WinVICE.

Hahaha!

HuckleCat

Metal Max Returns (Final)

     Finally!

     After beating who I thought was the games "main boss", and then having nothing really happen, my only thought then was that I probably had to wipe out all of the games "bounty bosses".  Only then would I get some sense of closure, or so I figured.  I made my way back to Santa Poco and resupplied and prepared myself for another duel with Rodriquez.

That's right.

     This time I had the guy beat pretty easily.  My soldier ended up taking him out in like 4 rounds, with not much damage at all done to her.  I then sat back and prepared myself for some sort of cutscene or story twist or...  something.   But, nothing. Nothing happened at all.  I checked my main characters stats and I had all the badges for killing all the bounty guys.  I went to a few towns and talked to several NPCs and none of them really had anything to say about it.

     It had to be that last building beyond Hell's Gate.  I made my way up there.

     I was repeatedly blasted with mortar fire upon approaching it, and from the looks of the building itself, I guessed that it had to have an important role.  I had to enter on foot, as the front gate was closed behind a beam fence.  Inside were several computers and they all demanded an ID card.  After searching a few floors I found it, as well as some codes.  I kept looking for more codes... you know, 4 computers..  they'd probably need 4 codes.  On the roof were all the mortar cannons.  You're actually able to push them off the roof to prevent more fire later.

     Once I had all the codes I went back downstairs and played a ton of trial and error, trying to match the codes with the right computers.  Once that was dealt with I was allowed into a room where I found a 3rd lens!  This had to be all of them.  I think.  I was also able to open the front door, and disable the laser fencing.  There was also another lift going down that I activated, but I wanted to see about the lenses with that doctor guy north of Canabelle first.  (Also to resupply the tanks)

    

Bitchin!

     Turns out it was a good call.  Not only did I have the lenses, but it made a sweet weapon as well.  If there was going to be a final boss, this was likely going to help a ton.  The doctor guy allowed me to arrange the lenses in my own order, and I assume that the end result would vary depending on how I chose, but hey, whatever, I'll try it out and come back if it sucked.

     I made my way back to the building and then down a very long elevator ride into the basement level.   As usual, I was attacked an unreasonable amount of times.  The map was easy to deal with, but there were these weird sand whirlpool-type things in some rooms.  I figured it was best I stayed away from them.  Before going down another level, I was attacked by some guardian sentries.  After that it was a matter of unlocking a few more doors (on foot) and then being confronted by this guy:

     It was some sort of crazy big-ass artificial intelligence that went on about how mankind was an enemy of the earth, and to save the earth it had to kill off mankind.  Sort of like Skynet in the Terminator movies, but with an environmental angle.  It asked if I intended to destroy it.  Instantly I said yes.  I was then attacked by series of 3 "cyber walls", each one being pretty easy to kill.  After that, more talk and questions on if I still intended to destroy it.  This time I had to fight 3 robotic statue guys, and they were equally as easy to deal with as the walls.  After that the combat field panned to the left, and then shit got real.

   
     If the game had a final boss fight, this had to be it.  Had to be.  He was kind of tough, and you really have to fight him twice.  The first go round, he was easily dealt with, but the second time he almost totally destroyed my tanks.  Still, I managed to beat him, and then was presented with a cutscene that I won't talk about for spoilers sake.

     After all that though, I just basically appeared by my tanks, ready to go outside.  Still, nothing seemed to happen.

     Was that it?  There were no credits.  No story resolution.  I bummed around for a bit, thinking about what it could be, but then I remembered the beginning.   In the start, your dad kicks you out, but, you can still talk to him.  He'll fix your tanks for free, and also teach you more about repairing.

     He also asks if you want to come home.  So, I tried that out, and that's what did it.  I got the game's close, and had formally finished the game.  I got a talk from him, and the credits rolled.

What I liked: I liked the somewhat new setting (for a SNES JRPG anyway) that it had.  I liked the open endedness of the world.  The art and monsters were varied and cool, and the setup of the characters and tanks was fresh.  I wish there were more games back then like this.  I'm surprised that this game and its sequels (except Metal Saga) haven't gotten a western release.  It was also pretty big, and it made exploration fun.

What I did not like:  The story.  There really wasn't one.  You pretty much had to figure it out.  Mostly the game was all about leveling up and killing off a series of monsters to collect a bounty, but every once in a while I'd be hit with a half story that I just did not care about.  The one NPC, the "Red Wolf" guy, the game made it seem early on that he'd likely be a big deal.  He wasn't.  Halfway through he gets killed by someone else.  Then there was also the main boss "Noah" that seemed to come out of nowhere at the end.  It just seemed so tacked on.  Things like that sort of detracted from the game.
     I also was not a big fan of how often I got attacked.  Sometimes it got so tedious that I found myself fleeing from because it was just such a chore.


     Overall it was good though, and I'd recommend it to anyone that's a fan of JRPGs.

HuckleCat