Who actually really played Wasteland?

[scout]

I was really interested in the game when it came out because of the box art. I wanted to buy it but my mom said "no, you can't play that in my house!" We got to play games like Boulder Dash and Beach-Head but no Wasteland or Wolfenstein 3D...

One day my friend bought wasteland and we snuck out of school at lunch time to play. It was glorious ( if a bit tedious in the battles, but the mood of the game,) we loved it! We played until my mom came home and caught us. We were so wrapped up in the game, we hadn't heard her pull in the driveway. My mom called his mom and made sure we couldn't play it again. The school also called in the middle of dinner and told my mom that i'd skipped the last half of school! <-- damn! I got grounded to my room for a week and wasn't allowed to watch tv or go anywhere, but it was worth it. I never finished wasteland but the mood of the game was burned into my brain forever.

When I heard Wasteland had a sequel coming out, I was very excited, so I went to youtube and watched a guy playthrough the entire game. He did a really good job describing things that weren't shown and adding to the mood that I remember so fondly. When I heard what happened with interplay and van buren, I had to support brian and get this started. I'm all in on this one.

[CaptainPatch]

One day my friend bought wasteland and we snuck out of school at lunch time to play.

"Oh, for shame! See? See how videogames corrupt our Youth! Videogames are ruining our children!"

Don't ever let the anti-videogame crowd catch wind of such behavior!

[/sarcasm]

[katz]

Played and won several times, first around 1998-2000, when I was 12-14. Have never enjoyed any game so much, ever.

[tauceti96]

Well at this point I blew it and missed the kickstarter but I did pre-order the game a minute ago. I guess I am firmly the target demographic for this kind of old-school game (emphasis on old) - early 40s. I cut my teeth on Akalabeth, Temple of Apshai and Wizardry for the Apple II and Atari 800. I was a fanatical computer gamer (especially loving cRPGs with PnP overtones) starting around 1979 and all the way through the early 1990s. I remember when Wasteland debuted in 1988 but never had the chance to play it.

Actually I can hang my head in shame a bit here and admit that after the career kicked in around early 1993 most all computer gaming went on the back burner. I missed the Black Isle/cRPG renessaince in the 1990s, the Gold Box games etc even though I've known all along those were *exactly* the kinds of games I enjoyed playing as a teen.

I preordered Wasteland 2 because of Brian Fargo's reputation (and his passion for this project) as well as the fact he and his dream team have had their hands in making the best hard-core cRPGs in the last 30+ years. I also have a soft spot in my heart for the post-apocalyptic genre, and Wasteland was (based on what I know of it) the closest thing to a computerized version of TSR's 1st Ed Gamma World PnP RPG (to this very day Legion of Gold is my favorite module of all time). Frankly I hope Wasteland 2 is less about Fallout and more about GW. Anyone who has played GW from that time period knows exactly what I'm talking about.

On a side note, I see that Baldurs Gate I and II are being re-released so we might be at the beginning of a resurgence of quality cRPGs with old-school sensibilities, hopefully with modern UIs etc. So here's to second chances. I like slick graphics as much as the next guy, I'm no luddite

[CaptainPatch]

Well at this point I blew it and missed the kickstarter

Wasn't/isn't PayPal still an option? Or did that approach get closed off too? Anyone out there know the answer?

[Jammet]

Back in the eighties I played The Bards Tale a whole lot, but missed out on Wasteland. I just never knew it even existed. Only after Fallout 1 and 2 were released, I realised through NMA that the game existed. And I played it, but never finished it because -yes- I'll admit it, I forgot how to play games like that. Consider me spoiled by games like Fallout, with it's at the time outstanding graphics.

I was thrilled with games like Baldurs Gate, Ultima 6 and later games, Wizardry 7 and later 8, and all that Jazz. Completely honest, if I were to play Wasteland 1 again, today, I'd probably at first need somebody next to me who'll explain the game to me all properly, because I simply don't grasp the game mechanics of old that well anymore. But I wouldn't say "no". I don't need graphics that much. If there's one thing I've learned throughout time, then it's the fact that games can be timeless.

[Drool]

Wasn't/isn't PayPal still an option? Or did that approach get closed off too? Anyone out there know the answer?

The PayPal option only ran for a couple hours past the deadline.

[tauceti96]

Wasn't/isn't PayPal still an option? Or did that approach get closed off too? Anyone out there know the answer?

The PayPal option only ran for a couple hours past the deadline.

They must have re-opened their link with Paypal recently, I had no problem charging my paypal account just yesterday (4/21), the charge cleared with no problem. This website offers you the chance to pre-order and I took it.

[Brendan]

I played it on PC in the early 90's but never did get far. I do remember enjoying it though. If I recall correctly I stopped playing after we moved house and lost the disks.

[MDF_MadDogFargo]

Back in the eighties I played The Bards Tale a whole lot, but missed out on Wasteland.

For me it was the reverse. I never played Bard's Tale. I had friends who played it. I never got into it myself. I tried playing it a few times but couldn't get into it, maybe because I lacked the documentation.

[Drool]

They must have re-opened their link with Paypal recently, I had no problem charging my paypal account just yesterday (4/21), the charge cleared with no problem. This website offers you the chance to pre-order and I took it.

That's a preorder. Some of that money will probably go towards the project, but it's not the same as the Kickstarter. Which is why it's $20, not $15.

[Hell Razor]

Wasteland came out back when, as Fargo said, the video game industry wasn't even called the video game industry yet. Computer games, like movie rentals, were exclusively offered by small, independent businesses, owned and operated by one guy who was there every day and always gave perfect recommendations.

I would ride my bike every day in the summer to two such places, next to each other in a small office park off of Main Street. Long story short, I never got such a strong recommendation for anything as I did for Wasteland. I was only 10 so I had to bring my mom in for the purchase, but the owner did a great job letting her know that, no, it wasn't exactly kid-friendly, but yes, I could handle it. I played it on a PC XT, and I even bought a second copy a few years later when they released a version that came with 3.5" disks, so I could install it again on a newer computer.

Two of my best friends also had it at the same time, one on a PC clone, and one on a C64/128. We were jealous of the Commodore version's ability to re-install single disks at a time, but when I eventually had the hardware to play it in 16-color, I'd have to say that the PC version looked better.

Anyway, among the three of us, and several people I discussed it with on BBSes, I was able to beat it over the course of about 2.5 years and several restarts. I continued to play it afterwards, first just roaming around the completed game world increasing my level, and then later replaying the game but with my experienced party, and then trying several playthroughs to experiment with optimal new character builds. I would load it back up and play through it again every year or so, and then every two or three years, into adulthood, but recently it had had been a good 7 or 8 years since I'd played if, until I saw the Kickstarter.

I actually got in touch with both of those friends, and, if you can believe it, found one of the people I used to chat with about it on BBSes, and got them all in on the Kickstarter.

Regarding the interface... words can't accurately express how familiar I got with it over the years. I was an avid piano player, and my fingers learned to instantly input strings of keyboards commands without thinking about it. I kept the scroll speed at max, and learned to scan it quickly to identify the exact info I needed. And, most importantly, I completely mastered the macro system. Part of the beauty of the Wasteland interface was how logically unambiguous it was. Certain actions seemed unnecessarily tedious or convoluted, until you realized just how perfectly the arrangement fit into a recorded macro that could handle multiple scenarios with a single button press. When a combat encounter began, for instance, I could simply hit F1, and a complex macro would execute that could handle numerous variable situations, such as a jammed weapon, fighting multiple groups of enemies with efficient use of attacks and ammo, etc. Becuase of the logical design of the interface, I could input strings of commands containing effective sub-routines of commands that would be ignored if not needed, but effective in scenarios where they were needed. Even today I still remember a lot of that, and me playing Wasteland is a blur... I zip around the map, complete encounters and "use" commands too fast to even see, and I can heal the whole party in seconds.

[Mathsorcerer]

I played the original Wasteland and finished it--what a long, grueling but rewarding experience that was. The guy who ran the computer game store in my old home town knew me so the day that Wasteland hit the shelves he kept a copy aside for me; I came in later that day and bought it. I was a freshman in college at the time and I cannot tell you how many late nights and weekends I spent turning things into an undertaker's nightmare. My girlfriend at the time was a trooper for putting up with me (she, of course, was working her way through...hrm...I think it was Curse of the Azure Bonds, but that was a long time ago).

My fond memories of Wasteland led me to back Wasteland 2.

[Kromiv]

Yeah, I played it back in '88 on my Commodore 64. I remember I first downloaded a cracked copy of it from a BBS. I was really getting into it, but because I didnt have the paragraph book I didnt know what was going on a lot of times and was missing out on some important stuff. So I went out and bought it.

I played all the way through maybe 2 or 3 times and thought it was the greatest thing in the world. A few years after that I bought an Amiga and sold my C64 and all the software (including Wasteland). Though about 15 years ago I was in a used software store and I found a copy of the IBM version of Wasteland for sale for just a few dollars. I grabbed that one really quick. It has the original discs and paragraph book and everything. But its the old 5.25 discs and I didnt have that type of drive anymore.

I bought the Interplay 10 year anniversary cd when it came out in the early 90's and had Wasteland again, though I never played it all the way through again. I guess I couldnt handle the random encounters anymore. There is just so damn many of them it makes me want to pull my hair out.
But after Win XP came out, I wanted to go back and play Wasteland again, but it would never run right on XP. It would keep locking up and crashing all the time, so I would just give up.
It wasnt until recently after this Kickstarter campaign started, it got me excited about Wasteland again. I found out about DOSBox, and I've been using that to play Wasteland. Its been a lot more stable and Ive been able to actually play the game. I still get annoyed at constant random encounter fighting, but I'm having fun. And I'm going to finish again this time I swear!

[axeldeath]

I wanna understand their reasoning behind backing this game.

Because I like good games, especially good RPGs. Before I even thought of pledging to W2 I played through the original on DOSbox then decided it was worth spending $55 on a sequel to it.

[Alexicacon]

I played Wasteland on C64 back when it was released. I beat it, not sure how many times. Had a cloned party, mostly all clones of Snake Vargas as i recall.

Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Also logged thousands (thousands) of hours on original Bards Tale. With several hundred hours fighting the 99 Berserkers (x4). Other 2 bards tales as well. Glad to see Brian is still out there.

[Grave]

I started playing Wasteland back in 1988, when I was 11 years old, on my Apple II GS. And 24 years later, it's still my favorite video game of all time. When I was a kid, my friends would come over to my house, and would watch me play Wasteland, and we would try and re-enact some of the battles together. We'd either use GI Joes, or we would just go though the motions and explain to each other in great detail exactly how Mayor Pedros turned Baby Topeka into a fine red mist with an RPG-7. Or how we'd beat everybody to death in Fat Freddy's casino with only a canteen.

I think I've beat Wasteland a total of 16 times, and I've played it every which possible way I could imagine. I also played Fountain of Dreams, and of course Fallout 1 & 2, but Wasteland was still the king. Even all these years later, after playing such great games as Baldur's Gate, Elder Scrolls, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, etc... I still to this day haven't played a game that I enjoyed as much as Wasteland.

I've dreamed about a sequel for decades. And when I found out Brian Fargo was creating Wasteland 2, I was completely shocked. I thought it would never happen. And here we are. Wasteland 2 will be released a quarter century after the original game debuted. I've never anticipated a video game release more in my life... 2013 can't come soon enough!

[Five1thOUsanD]

(and with played i mean dont start it up once in Dosbox or Emulator and go like 'cant get over crappy gfx and cumbersome menu, what a sucky game!').

I have to admit, I didn't start gaming until around 2002, so I'm firmly in this camp. (Minus the calling it a bad game just because I'm too young to appreciate it)
I had never heard of Fallout or Wasteland until Fallout 3, which I enjoyed immensely, was released and it inspired me to try out these older games. I bought Fallout 1 & 2 but I was never really able to have fun with them because of the outdated graphics and UI, though I heard they were great games and I didn't experience anything that would contradict that.

In short, I joined in on the fun too late to truly enjoy the post-apocalyptic classics... but I would love to experience a modern version that could really show me what all the fuss is/was about.

[ffordesoon]

(and with played i mean dont start it up once in Dosbox or Emulator and go like 'cant get over crappy gfx and cumbersome menu, what a sucky game!').

I have to admit, I didn't start gaming until around 2002, so I'm firmly in this camp. (Minus the calling it a bad game just because I'm too young to appreciate it)
I had never heard of Fallout or Wasteland until Fallout 3, which I enjoyed immensely, was released and it inspired me to try out these older games. I bought Fallout 1 & 2 but I was never really able to have fun with them because of the outdated graphics and UI, though I heard they were great games and I didn't experience anything that would contradict that.

In short, I joined in on the fun too late to truly enjoy the post-apocalyptic classics... but I would love to experience a modern version that could really show me what all the fuss is/was about.

Fallout's a bit tough to get into, but you should stick with it. That's true of most of those old games, actually. Also, READ THE MANUAL AND SAVE EARLY AND OFTEN. The quicksave button does exist, incidentally, though the way it's implemented is a bit janky. As for Fallout 2, download Sfall and run through the Temple Of Trials instead of fighting, and you'll go far.

[Elexa]

i played it on my 8088 in January of 1989: no hard drive, no sound card, thought the mouse was a useless peripheral because none of my software actually used it. my dad bought me The Bard's Tale initially, and it frustrated the daylights outta me (it did for like the next 10 years, but i digress)... a few months go by, and my dad wants to buy me a game for my birthday, and thought Wasteland was something like Dune, and insisted that i get that instead of... i dunno, something that has faded into the sands of time, Archipelagos, Weird Dreams, Dig Dug, or somesuch...

only *once* has WL left my hard drive since then... because my hard drive needed to be formatted. my floppy disks have LONG since been corrupted (my grandmother thought it was smart to *WASH* a floppy disk... WITH SOAP AND WATER!), my 20 copies of the main disk and scenario disk long since seeing better days... copied to 3.5... copied to CD... lost the WL manual and paragraph book in my divorce last year, as well as the CD with the copy-of-the-copy-ad-infinitum... all that was left was the installed version on my 'puter... needless to say that i hope after 25 years of dedication (and pre-ordering WL2 ^_^), i can be forgiven for d/ling a copy with the reset files.

to be honest, i'm hoping that WL2 will have the same impact on me as WL1 did... (for the record, i'm sitting here in camo shorts; a 7.62 bullet on a necklace; my man is ex-USMC; i know how to shoot a gun, pick a lock, crack a safe, and actually survive in the Mojave Desert with no food or water; i have an obsession with chessboards; most of my characters in other games are named after WL characters; if my eldest son would've been born a girl, her name would've been Christina; for years wanted to, and then eventually tried to buy the rights to WL from EA to either develop on my own or to wind up giving to Brian Fargo to see WL2 come to fruition in one way or another [stupid lawyers... :/ ]; INSISTED that one character in Fallout 3 would be named after a character in Wasteland or else i would've refused to buy it on the basis that it no longer had a connection to WL [lo and behold, named after my favorite character from the party, Paladin Vargas]; Quartz is in the wrong spot in the game- the location it's at is Quartzsite, AZ, whereas Quartz is in northern California; and the RL location of Ranger Center happens to reside at 2500 E. Van Buren St., Phoenix, AZ)

so... did i play WL?

yes.

what was all the fuss about?

...i remember a few years ago, everyone praising the destructible terrain in CoD3 or whatever it happened to be... sure, you could blow up buildings... but 20 years ago, you could aim a mortar at the hot dog stand, blow it up, have the dying, but dedicated, girl ask you for order... never again for you to have Tramp's Rump again... not like blowing up a building in CoD makes a whoooole lot of difference... it's just filler material for you to blow up.

...don't remember the last game where STDs were that big of a deal...

...can't recall the last time you were *PUNISHED* in a game for cheating, like having a 100MT warhead blow up on you, or getting a sex change for everyone in your party...

...don't remember any games lately that have an alternate reality version of things (Martians/Serpoids)...

...choices and consequences, where what you do actually matters on an immediate level, and large scale...

...there is NOTHING so terrifying as Finster's head; forget Dead or Alive, forget Resident Evil, forget Doom... the power of a little girl's overactive imagination and the phrase "Kibbles and bits, kibbles and bits, I'm gonna carve you into kibbles and bits"...

...Ugly's Hideout...

...permadeath...

...the Scorpitron...

...the entire paragraph manual, however two lines in particular: "If you read any further, Wasteland Thought Police will appear at your door within three hours to conduct you to a cell in Needles where your fingernails will be systematically removed. You have not been instructed to read this paragraph anywhere, hence so dire a punishment."... that, and: "This paragraph can be reached from no place in the whole adventure. We know who you are, and we will get you for reading this paragraph. Expect it most when you expect it least." ...i would almost bet that those two lines affected me more than anything else i have ever read from any book... as it spoke to *me* the person, not "me" the player, nor "me" the reader... "They" knew i was cheating, and "They" were out to get me... needless to say, i didn't read any further until instructed to, and only after i finished for the first time about a year later did i read the entire paragraph book. (as an aside, I think the first one might have actually been so influential on me it may have had long-lasting repercussions on certain... activities... of mine ^_^)

while a Choose Your Own Adventure book was written with the same point of view, that was more like a modern FPS, "take the player on an adventure"; those two paragraphs were the biggest bit of personal self-reflection i had from a work of fiction all the way up until i played Planescape: Torment about 3 years ago...

the list honestly goes on and on, what made it so great for me.