Van Buren Interview: Sean K Reynolds

[S4ur0n27]

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You won't get banned, just flamed. It can't be worst than Rosh though.

Also we don't think we know better than the designers, it's just logic.

[Spazmo]

Well when they toss a SPACE SHUTTLE into a Fallout game, yeah, yeah I do seem to know better than the designers.

As for the rest--hey, it's Science! not science. The point is that there's no transistors in Fallout--only vacuum tubes. I mean, if there were transistors, why the fuck would vacuum tubes be used so often? Christ, just look at the mythical water chip. In our world, it'd be a tiny little microchip. In Fallout, it's an enormous assemblage of tubes and wires.

[Voluptuous Pachyderm]

Well when they toss a SPACE SHUTTLE into a Fallout game, yeah, yeah I do seem to know better than the designers.

As for the rest--hey, it's Science! not science. The point is that there's no transistors in Fallout--only vacuum tubes. I mean, if there were transistors, why the fuck would vacuum tubes be used so often? Christ, just look at the mythical water chip. In our world, it'd be a tiny little microchip. In Fallout, it's an enormous assemblage of tubes and wires.

When you create an electronic device that is vital to a population's survival, and it's supposed to survive Nuclear Attack you made damn sure that it isn't knocked out by EM attack, or the game's over before the show starts. Hardened electronics or more prefereably vacuum tubes and simple circuitry because then chances are incredibly high that it WILL survive.

It may even have to be running when the bombs drop, so you can't nessasarily rely on it being turned off and stored protectively.

The only place transistors would be used is where they *need* to be used, to be used for prewar tech and to be used in things that are abundant and the knockout chances are so that *some* will survive.

[PsychoSniper]

That view is reinforced by the Corvega add in the opening sequence of FO.

Remember the full analog, NO electronics bit there ?

[Saint_Proverbius]

When you create an electronic device that is vital to a population's survival, and it's supposed to survive Nuclear Attack you made damn sure that it isn't knocked out by EM attack, or the game's over before the show starts. Hardened electronics or more prefereably vacuum tubes and simple circuitry because then chances are incredibly high that it WILL survive.

You do know that bunkers and vaults are gaussian surfaces, right? As such, EMP won't affect anything in them. There's no reason why they wouldn't use transistors for things like waterchips and computers if they actually had those.

Then again, I guess I'm the only one who remembers that old, "Imagine a future where the transistor never existed" thing that was said during the development of Fallout.

[Voluptuous Pachyderm]

When you create an electronic device that is vital to a population's survival, and it's supposed to survive Nuclear Attack you made damn sure that it isn't knocked out by EM attack, or the game's over before the show starts. Hardened electronics or more prefereably vacuum tubes and simple circuitry because then chances are incredibly high that it WILL survive.

You do know that bunkers and vaults are gaussian surfaces, right? As such, EMP won't affect anything in them. There's no reason why they wouldn't use transistors for things like waterchips and computers if they actually had those.

Then again, I guess I'm the only one who remembers that old, "Imagine a future where the transistor never existed" thing that was said during the development of Fallout.

Fair enough I dont seem to remember that bit. In which case, apologies to all, I'm very sorry to have wasted your time.
But even were there transistors would you put that much trust into the shielding that you would risk thousands upon thousands of lives on a transistor that in those circumstances could be replaced with a component that was more reliable, proven and vastly harder to damage from EM pulse? Even today the full causes and effects of EMP isn't understood, last I checked we dont even have a foolproof shielding method we just know what will, up to a point, defend against EMP attack. Rather like a *primitive* understanding of gamma radiation, no certain way to nullify, varying materials MAY shield us well enough from nuclear blast radiation.

[Koki]

If the devs said it, fine with me then. It's just hard to believe that they have plasma technology and their computers operate without transistors.

But ok.