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