Wasteland Day

Today we talk about a game that influenced my life profoundly in as much as it sparked my passion for making games. Today is Wasteland Day. Exactly 19 years ago this little jewel was created by Interplay, which sadly closed its doors permanently last year.

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.
Wasteland becomes the number one best-seller of the year.

And you know what? “Wasteland” is still fun to play! Of course, Fallout and Fallout 2 – the de facto successors of Wasteland – are on my all time favorite top ten list also and I sincerely hope there will be a Fallout 3 at some point, even though it will be without Tim Cain at the helm. Pity.

‘Ha ha ha foolish human, we do not share that weakness!’
– Fallout ‘Standard mutant model’ response when shot in the groin.