Wasteland

aka: Wasteland 1: The Original Classic, Wasteland: Adventure in Post-Nuclear America
Moby ID: 287
Commodore 64 Specs
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$450.00 used on eBay
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$5.99 new on Steam
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Description official descriptions

Wasteland takes place in the future after the nuclear holocaust of World War III. The player guides band of Desert Rangers from town to town, gradually uncovering a sinister plot that threatens what's left of mankind.

Much of the game is played like most other RPGs of its time: the player navigates the party through the top-down world, fights enemies (which appear randomly in hostile areas) in turn-based style on combat screens represented by enemy pictures, acquires information, equipment, and items from NPCs in towns, etc. The player can create a whole party of adventurers and/or recruit some of the characters that populate the game's world.

However, Wasteland also introduced an original skill system that has had a significant influence on the genre. The game makes use of the skill system in conjunction with traditional character attributes to achieve goals and get past obstacles. Beside helping the characters to fight more efficiently, main attributes sometimes have an impact on activities used outside of combat. For example, high strength can be applied to break a heavy object, charisma rating might influence the way NPCs interact with the main character, etc.

The skills work in a similar way: some of them improve the characters' proficiencies with different types of attacks and weapons, while others are needed to solve and/or by pass certain situations during interaction with the game's characters and objects. These skills are rather diverse, ranging from physical abilities such as swimming to more complex actions (medic, lock-picking), or even psychological states (confidence). Skill learning and progression depend on the main character's IQ rating.

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Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Commodore 64 version)

19 People

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 84% (based on 19 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 163 ratings with 13 reviews)

If I could only beat this game

The Good
I loved this one. This was the first real good RPG in my opnion. Great story, weapons and other goodies. Like all great classics it could draw you in over and over again.

The Bad
I never never never could get past the sewer part of Las Vegas. I have never seen the ending much to my sadness.

The Bottom Line
If I could only recomend one Classic game for the classic gamer it would be this one.

DOS · by William Shawn McDonie (1131) · 2001

Simply put - superb

The Good
The freedom to do what you want. The ability to make unique characters. The ability to recruit NPCs each with their own unique skill sets. The impression that your small bad of survivalists were trying to make things just a little bit better. All of which has been done to death over the years, but this was back in 1988!

The setting of south-west America worked well. The storyline of post-apocalyptic survival was still relevant as the Cold War was still going on then - if only just. The presentation of the folder contents, the great Mad Max looking photograph on the back cover of the key members of staff. It just gelled together so well.

The Bad
Some of the weird bits in it like Finsters Mind Maze didn't really appeal to me. The fact that when your team got pretty tough, the game's response was to simply throw more random encounters your way - and with increasing numbers of foes.

The Scorpitron in the centre of Las Vegas. It ripped my team to shreds when I first came across it! :P

The Bottom Line
I'm 33 years old now. And I'm writing this in the March of 2008. Yet despite owning and playing literally hundreds of different games on several platforms over the years (dating back to the old Atari console back in '81) - Wasteland sticks at the very forefront of my mind.

Even in today's environment of games like Frontlines representing 11GB+ of install size, this little gem at sub-1MB just captivated me from the moment I started it. The pain of creating the install disks at the start (as mentioned by another reviewer) was a small price to pay and in no time, my group of four set out into the wilderness. Armed with little more than pistols, a canteen and a leather jacket for protection - out they ventured.

Things started easy. In radiation-sodden ground, farmers were having major issues with mutated animals devouring their crops. Signing up to help, my group of Rangers managed to put a stop to the vermin - even if the cave section was a little difficult at first.

Then they progressed further north. Through Needles and Las Vegas itself - getting into allsorts of engagements and tight spots - each time progressing and perfecting their skills so that pistol shots were a guaranteed hit - if not a instant death from the opposition.

The fond memories come flooding back. The first time I managed to overpower the two guards at the entrance to the Black Market and steal their Uzis. That in turn cost me a fair bit of cash in keeping them fed with 9mm clips! Bringing down the Scorpitron under a hail of RPG-7 and AK-47 fire and taking on Fat Freddy in his own club. Nabbing the Power Axe from the Citadel and also being very wary in the temple of the Worshippers of The Mushroom Cloud. Proper weirdos.

And....... I never completed it. I got to the very end and didn't quite finish it. It took me nine months to get to that point as well and I just stopped. I guess in a bizarre way, I didn't want Wasteland to 'end' as a game. It had been so enjoyable and immersive that seeing it finish, would have probably have been a bit of a downer.

I bought the Interplay Anniversary Collection some years ago and that had Wasteland on it for the PC. I think with 2008 being 20 years since I first fired up Wasteland - that its only fitting that I bring the Rangers back out of retirement and sort out the mess in the desert once and for all. Wish me luck!

Commodore 64 · by Darren Smith (4) · 2008

One of my all time favorites! It's much easier to give up tobacco than Wasteland.

The Good
The best part of this game was the apocalyptic RPG aspect. I loved the "temple of the mushroom cloud" where all the priests whispered NRC, NRC, NRC. And you had to avoid all the radioactive areas. Then there were the secret locations you had to locate and solve... and more mutants and bots to kill!

I think this was one of the first games that allowed NPCs to join the party - that really made it special back then.

The Bad
Falling into the river wasn't fun. If you fell in and nobody in the party had swimming skills, expect a couple of drownings. And skill points were too important to invest in swimming!

The Bottom Line
"Fallout" only with dated graphics and a better plot!

DOS · by ex_navynuke! (42) · 2005

[ View all 13 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Wasteland 2? Pseudo_Intellectual (66274) Mar 18, 2012

Trivia

Apple II version

The original version of this game, for the Apple II, used a clever technical trick, effectively virtualizing the huge game world onto four disk sides. Only the part of the world the player was currently capable of interacting with was actually in memory at any given time, and the rest was stored on disk. The division across disks corresponded to geographical boundaries on the world map, so there was no problem with data straddling disk boundaries.

The game shipped on both sides of two disks, completely write-protected. To play, you copied all four disk sides to your own writable floppies, and then booted off of the copy of disk 1.

Cancelled sequel

Interplay had planned a sequel called Meantime that was due in 1989 for the Apple II. Source code was virtually completed but when the Apple II market died. It was then deamed too expensive to re-write the code to the IBM.

The sequel involved the idea of time-travel and recruiting various important historic figures (think Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure). For more information on Meantime, read "Fallout Bible issue 8" interview with Bill Dugan.

Later Interplay attempted to revive the game once more, but Electronic Arts held rights to the title. The game evolved into what we know today as Fallout, a spiritual succesor to Wasteland that, except for some minor references, is set in a different universe.

Credits

The credits listed in this entry are a hybrid; the IBM credits have been added and overlaid on the Apple credits to make a complete MobyGames IBM PC entry.

Cover

The original packaging contained a photo of the seven main developers dressed in Wasteland gear. This photo, in silohette, is on the cover of the manual and Survival Guide. (see Box Covers).

Development

Some of the mappers on Wasteland were brought on as summertime employees for Interplay and now have careers in the game industry.

Engine

The game engine used for Wasteland was also used in the pseudo-sequel, Fountain of Dreams.

Manual

Wasteland was released with a book of text paragraphs. Specific encounters would refer players to a paragraph number for a verbose description of what was occurring. To keep players from scanning the book for clues, there were two full versions of the major story. One was the actual plot of the game and the other was a decoy involving the major settings and characters but with an entirely different explanation for the events. After completing the game, you could skim through the book and get a second (albeit cheesy) story.

Packaging

Wasteland originally came out in the classic album-square EA box for the C-64 - later versions were in the more traditional small box packaging

References

  • There are references to the game designers and their previous games in Wasteland. The two most common are the obvious spell references to Bard's Tale in the occult shop in Needles, and the character Faran Brygo in Vegas (obviously taken from Brian Fargo). Another obvious one is an arm patch worn by a 'Pistolero' -- it's the old Interplay logo. Finally, the room in Vegas with the Proton Ax has the initials "A.P." (for the developer Alan Pavlish) as a wall design.
  • The makers of Wasteland hid their own version of the Red Ryder 200-shot Carbine Action Air Rifle in the town of Highpool. You can "seek out" and battle (and kill the disappointingly weak) Red Ryder and claim his Red Ryder Gun for your very own.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • October 1988 (Issue #52) - Adventure Game of the Year
    • February 1993 (Issue #103) – Introduced into the Hall of Fame
    • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) - #9 in the “150 Best Games of All Time” list
    • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #9 Most Memorable Game Villain (Scorpitron)

Information also contributed by Adam Baratz, ClydeFrog, DreamWeaver, LepricahnsGold, Mirrorshades2k, PCGamer77, RedRyder, [rstevenson](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,1745/), [weregamer](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,35969/) and [woods01](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,5217/)

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  • MobyGames ID: 287
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Trixter.

Commodore 64 added by Quapil. Apple II added by KnockStump. Linux, Macintosh, Windows added by Sciere.

Additional contributors: bassaf, Jeanne, LepricahnsGold, Patrick Bregger, Plok.

Game added October 9, 1999. Last modified March 27, 2024.