"Welcome to the Wasteland. I hope you're wearing your flak vest!"
Wasteland is a post-nuclear war computer role-playing game set in the post-World War III southwest United States of America. Your party of newly graduated Desert Rangers will explore this desert wasteland on a mission of reconaissance for the Ranger Center, the last bastion of law and order left in the year 2087.
As you explore the radioactive dunes and ruins of Nevada and Arizona's once-great cities, you will learn new desert survival skills, solve mind-bending puzzles, reduce desert scum into fine red mists with your AK-97 assault rifles and laser carbines, punch holes into robotic monstrosities with rocket-propelled grenades and proton axes, and recruit characters into your squad, all while watching your Geiger counter to avoid the deadly hot-zones. You will uncover devious and sinister plots which threaten to destroy the precarious balance of remaining life in the Wasteland!
Greetings! I'm Ranger Ben. You've just reached my ongoing Internet effort to establish an online presence for the greatest computer role-playing game of all time (in my radioactive opinion). Here I hope to preserve and perpetuate the fandom of Wasteland. At this site is located what I believe to be the most comprehensive collection of Wasteland information, hints, maps, fan fiction, and files. However, as Wasteland has not entered into public domain, those of you looking for a free download of the game itself will not find it here.
Thank you for stopping by. If you would like to send me an e-mail, visit the Comm Center and send me what's on your mind.
By the way, if you're not using the Mozilla Firefox browser yet, you ought
to! It's the best way to view this site, and the only web browser which I
recommend. I've tried viewing this site via Microsoft Internet Explorer
and it looks very different. But not just different, it looks
worse. But not just worse, it actually isn't rendered correctly! Ok,
that's my one endorsement!
[April 27-30, AD 2008] Converted and house-cleaned the Gateway Library. Moved some information through the Underground. Added three new End Statuses. Ranger Center is finally back!
Read past updates to this site here.
1984: Brian Fargo founds Interplay Productions.
January 27, 1987: Wasteland is programmed
at Interplay Productions
under the leadership of Alan Pavlish. It is distributed by Electronic Arts for the Apple ][
platform. According to the Interplay programmers, the game shipped
on January 27, A.D. 1987, "or thereabouts." Wasteland is also
released for the Commodore 64 platform.
)
1988:Wasteland is ported to the IBM platform by
Michael Quarles in A.D. 1988. (See image of IBM PC edition box
cover, right. Image is also a hyperlink to a bigger-sized image of
box.) Wasteland becomes the number one best-seller of the year.
Soon thereafter: Wasteland wins
Computer Gaming World's Adventure Game of the Year.
[unknown]: Development of Meantime begins on the Apple ][ platform.
This game, originally thought to be a sequel to Wasteland, is never
finished. Only in 2002 was it made widespread knowledge that this game
was not, in fact a sequel to Wasteland.
)
1990: Electronic Arts releases a game that
uses a similar game engine as Wasteland. This game,
Fountain of Dreams, is set in post-war
Florida and attempted to play off the success of Wasteland.
With significantly smaller game replayability, plot, and scenario,
this game nonetheless explores the scenario where not only the creatures
have mutated, but you have, too. (See image of IBM PC edition box cover,
left. Image is also a hyperlink to a bigger-sized image of box.)
September, 1993: Ghostwheel MOO, a
post-apocalyptic MOO heavily influenced by Wasteland, opens its doors.
1995:
Wasteland tours the computer gaming world as part of the
Interplay 10 Year Anthology CD, a collection of award-winning Interplay
games on CD-ROM. (See image of box cover, right.)
If you have this CD-ROM, then you have the "post-setup files"
version of Wasteland. You'll want to check out the
Unofficial Wasteland Reset Program which
simulates the setup.exe program, which allows you to reset the maps (and
thus win multiple times with the same crew of Rangers).
September, 1996: In September of 1996
Yahoo! creates a hierarchy listing
exclusively for Wasteland. (Too bad they don't update it very often.)
It's present location is: http://www.yahoo.com/Recreation/Games/Computer_Games/Titles/Adventure/Wasteland/.
November, 1996:
Computer Gaming World magazine releases a list of the top
150 computer games of all time. They rank Wasteland 9th.
Read the review of Wasteland by
Computer Gaming World. Additionally, a variant release of
the magazine has a "CG-ROM" with demos and games on it, and the
"post-setup files" are included. Here are some tips on installing the November 1996 CG-ROM copy of Wasteland.
If you want to reset your games, try using the Unofficial Wasteland Reset Program.
October, 1997: Interplay Productions releases Fallout, a post-nuclear war
role-playing game. (See image of box cover, right.) Look familiar?
Yes, it's Wasteland for the 90s!
Also this month, Computer Gaming World Magazine distributes
Wasteland again, including it on the CG-ROM bundled with their
October 1997 issue. Coincidence? I don't think so!
The files on the disc are the
"post-setup files," which means you cannot reset the maps or characters,
etc. This time, they also forgot to include the paragraph book
entries. (You can find the complete text of the
Paragraph Book entries at the
Wasteland Underground.)
January, 1998:
Computer Gaming World's January 1998 issue has a Hall of
Fame on page 370.
Listed among this "Cooperstown of Computer Games" which "broke the
records, established the benchmarks, and held gamers in delighted
trances for hours untold," is Wasteland. "Derived from
Mike Stackpole's
Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes, this is the definitive
post-apocalyptic RPG," the article notes.
Also this month, Interplay
re-releases Wasteland in a new collection of computer role-playing games,
through their DragonPlay division (which was later regrouped as
Black Isle Studios). It is called
The Ultimate RPG Archives. (See image of box cover, right.)
March, 1998:
Enter the Wasteland Ring, a web ring
devoted to Wasteland home pages. Thanks to Ranger T. Gray for the work in
putting this together. Link your site today!
September 22, 1998:
Snake Squeezins,
an eGroup (now a Yahoo! Group) for discussing Wasteland,
is created by Ranger Ben. ("Yeeessss, it's me!")
)
October 30, 1998:
Fallout 2 is released,
filled to the brim with bugs. (See image of box cover, left. Image is
also a hyperlink to a bigger-sized image of box.) Don't worry, Interplay
released patches for it.
November 19, 1998:
Desolation!, a Wasteland MUD,
opens its doors for development. (See Desolation! logo and link,
right.)
January, 2000:
Wasteland is inducted into the gamespy Hall of Fame.
February 1, 2000:
MobyGames reviews Wasteland in
their second Feature Article.
early 2001:
In August 2000, Yahoo! assimilated eGroups. As such, all eGroups
have been
converted to Yahoo! Groups. Therefore,
Snake Squeezins,
Tales From the Wasteland,
Desolation! MUD,
and all other eGroups have been translated to Yahoo! Groups formats and
addresses.
)
March, 2001:
Microforte' and 14° East,
in partnership with Interplay, releases
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, a
strategy game that takes place between Fallout 1 and 2. Characters in
this game are new recruits in the Brotherhood of Steel.
January 24, 2002:
Brian Fargo, CEO of Interplay Productions, resigns. For those keeping score,
Brian Fargo founded Interplay in 1984 and was
part
of the original design team for Wasteland. Too bad he didn't last three
more days there, to celebrate Wasteland's 15th anniversary!
Read the full story of his resignation
(archived from an article no longer found on http://ocregister.com).
March, 2002:
The Flangy News announces the arrival of a port of Wasteland for the Game Boy Advance. This has to be the best
Wasteland hoax of all time, and fans everywhere were terribly upset that
it was a hoax.
April 2, 2002:
Wasteland receives a bit of free press from GameSpy.com, in part II of their article on Computer Role-Playing Games, by
Andrew S. Bub. Part II is entitled "Computer Role-Playing Games - Part II:
Gold Rush & Beyond." Page one has the sub-heading: "SSI's Gold Rush,
A Vast Wasteland & The Underworld of Ultima."
June 13, 2003:
Brian Fargo and his new game company, inXile, acquire the rights to
Wasteland with the United States Patent Office. Soon after, Mr. Fargo
shows up at Snake
Squeezins to ask for comments about the game from its loyal fans.
He notes the reason he didn't get the rights sooner was that Electronic
Arts was sitting on them. When they expired, Konami grabbed it for use
with their Yu-Gi-Oh series, but they were kind enough to let him have the
trademark back. And the new Wasteland will be "darker in nature than the
first one," and touts that it will be "very much an old school RPG that
uses the skill systems, open ended nature of design, and puts the player
into a world that is not black and white but shades of grey." Soon after
joining Squeezins, he bails out as others were cross-posting his posts to
other forums, and I guess he didn't like that.
Fall, 2003:
Interplay again starts work on Fallout 3 and calls the game "project Van
Buren."
December 9, 2003:
Interplay shuts down it's Black Aisle Studios division, and Van Buren
along with it.
January 14, 2004: Interplay releases Fallout: Brotherhood
of Steel, a Xbox and Playstation 2 console game very loosely based on
Fallout's world, is released. It's a third
person shooter and reports are that it has lots of factual errors in
portraying the Fallout world and doesn't really have much to do with the
previous Fallout titles.
July 12, 2004:
Bethseda Softworks LLC, a ZeniMax
Media company, announces it has licensed the rights to the Fallout
franchise from Interplay Entertainment Corporation. Full press
release.
May 19, 2005:
At E3 2005, a sign was on display that confirms Fallout 3 is in
development. Here is IGN's article about the sign sighting.
April 30, 2008:
I don't have any new timeline entries. Do you? Still waiting
for Fallout 3 to be released and for Wasteland to be remade by inXile!
"Ok, I've read enough! How can I get Wasteland?" you may be saying. First of all, before you ask, please note that I won't be putting Wasteland up for download on the HQ-Grid due to copyright laws; nor am I in the practice of pirating my original copy over e-mail. I hope you can get your own Wasteland original! You won't be disappointed. Here are some places to start looking.
- Search eBay or Yahoo! Auctions, or other auction sites for Wasteland. Unfortunately, this may be your best bet in the 21st century!
- CDAccess.com periodically has in stock both Interplay's 10 Year Anthology as well as The Ultimate RPG Archives, and they restock their supply periodically.
- Find a used copy by placing a want ad on the Usenet newsgroup comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.marketplace or one of the other newsgroups with a "swap 'n' shop" mentality.
Over at Snake Squeezins, the Wasteland Yahoo! Group, there was a discussion in 1999 about whether Wasteland was freeware, abandonware, etc. It was one of the greatest hot issues of the group's existence. Heh! Well, the fact remains that Electronic Arts has not given up its copyrights on this game, so to this day it remains out of the public domain. If you feel EA should grant users permission to freely distribute this game, please read Toby's Wasteland Page and contact Electronic Arts. Let's not fool ourselves into thinking that it's free. In summary, Wasteland is not free so let us free Wasteland!
This site is the brainchild of one person, and is maintained by the same: me! In my radioactive circle of friends, I am known as Ranger Ben. I have played Wasteland on the PC since 1989 and got the crazy idea to put up a web page about it when I was introduced to the Internet in 1995. When not editing, revising, and writing e-mails about Wasteland, I work a civilian job as a software engineer for a retail software company.
Special thanks go out to my older brother for coming up with the name for this site back in its infancy. Also, special thanks to my younger brother who has won Wasteland more times than he can count, and as a result is one of my best sources for all radioactive things.
And finally, the current look and feel of The HQ-Grid could not have been possible without the contribution of Ranger J. Tirrell. Read all about his contributions to this site at the The Wasteland Ranger HQ-Grid Site Graphics page.
Additional thanks go out to the multitudes of persons who've written with comments about and contributions to this site, including Alan Pavlish, Ken St. Andre, Liz Danforth, Nishan Hossepian, Mike Stackpole, Bruce Schlickbernd, Charles Weidmann III, Burger Becky Heineman, and the folks at Interplay and EA.
- ⇒ Front Desk
- Comm Center
- Underground
- Reading Room
- File Room
- End Status
- Rec Center
- Site Graphics
- Links
- ⇒ Wasteland
- Meantime
- Fountain of Dreams
- Fallout
wasteland.rockdud.net is hosted by DixieSystems
This webpage complies with the W3C XHTML standards.
We rated with RSACi!
 |
| This Wasteland WebRing site is owned by Ranger Ben.
Want to join the |
|
[Prev]
[Next] [List Sites] |
All pages in this domain are Copyright © 1995-2002 Bernard Assaf.
Interplay, the Interplay logo, "By Gamers. For Gamers." are trademarks of Interplay Entertainment Corp. All Rights Reserved.
Wasteland and Wasteland artwork © 1988 Interplay Productions. All rights reserved.
Wasteland packaging artwork, Fountain of Dreams, and all Fountain of Dreams artwork are Copyright © 1990 Electronic Arts. All rights reserved.
Fallout and Fallout artwork are Copyright © 1997 Interplay Productions. Fallout is a trademark of Interplay Entertainment Corp. All rights reserved.
Fallout 2 and Fallout 2 artwork are Copyright © 1998 Interplay Productions, Inc. Fallout 2 is a trademark of Interplay Productions. All rights reserved.
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel © 2001 Interplay Entertainment Corp. Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel is a trademark of Interplay Entertainment Corp. All Rights Resrved.
Was listed at
Interplay's Assorted Gamers page. (This page apparently now offline.)
Awarded Dreg of the Day for October 29, 1996 by Dana Hughes. (Dregs of the
Net website now defunct.)
gamespy used these pages extensively
for their January
1999 review of Wasteland.