Something Old, Something New · 3:09pm Apr 4th, 2014
art by StriderSyd
I’d like to start out by saying a big “Thank you!” to the reviewers AnYPony, Jim Fear, Dr. Wolf and Antony C. for the amazing collaborative review of Fallout: Equestria that they posted late last week. I know they put a lot of effort into it and had been working on it for quite some time. The hard work paid off. If you haven’t seen it, check it out below:
That was a little something “new”. Now for something “old”…
I’ve long considered one of the best things for Fallout that Bethesda has done was giving out the G.E.C.K. and openly allowing modders to play with their world. Years ago, I was part of a Fallout fan community called Fallout3Underground, a community built primarily by Fallout 3 modders and a number of hardcore fans.
A lot of the modders there enjoyed creating ports of crossover content, such as weapons and armors from other game systems – something that Nexus, the primary Fallout mod site, was strongly against. In addition to being a host site for mods by people who didn’t want to deal with some of the shenanigans happening on Nexus at the time, the site included art, fiction and roleplaying forums… and, of course, both Fallout-related and general chat. (I’ll admit, I spent an inordinate amount of time taking screenshots, finding just the right ones to post on the screenshots threads.)
The fiction section was my baby, though. I started it by posting PipBoy diaries detailing my playthroughs of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. This was also the birthplace of Fallout: Equestria.
The first several chapters of Fallout: Equestria were originally written on Fallout3Underground’s fiction forum. It helps put the first chapters in perspective when you picture them written as posts on a thread: no benefit of proofreaders, the scene breaks designed to conform to storytelling-by-post and written with an eye towards Fallout3Underground’s attitude against Walls-o-Text.
Sadly, while I had a several readers, almost none of them gave feedback. (Several admitted they were unwilling to interrupt the posting of the story to do so.) A fan of some previous work of mine suggested I try getting the story on a brony site for more feedback, specifically Equestria Daily.
[Edit: After checking the dates, I discovered that I had forgotten the sequence of events. 
While drafting my ideas for the story, I asked some fans for other locations that I could post the story to in addition to Fallout3Underground in order to share the effort with more people and get more feedback. While the story was originally crafted for, and the first chapters written on, Fallout3Underground, I had actually submitted it to Equestria Daily simultaneously.]
I lost touch with Fallout3Underground in the year that followed. Fallout no longer garnered the same passion from the modders, who were moving on to newer games. The whole site underwent a shift to being the more generic Video Games Underground. And with that, my interest waned.
For the last year, I only returned to the place to revisit a few of my old works there, such as finding online links to old screenshots that I wanted to pass around. I was attempting to do just that earlier this week when I discovered that VGUnderground, formerly my Fallout3Underground, is no more.
Fallout3Underground had always been a site by fans and for fans. It depended on donations and money from ads to keep it running. Unfortunately, the donations were rarely enough – usually the same few donating each time the site was in dire need – and most people use ad-blockers. The owner went bankrupt, and the site had to be shut down.
art by King-Koder
Rest In Peace, Fallout3Underground
You were the birthplace of Fallout: Equestria.
One of the fun events on Fallout3Underground was a communal writing project – something between shared universe writing and play-by-post roleplaying – between several of the writers on the site. The concept was Fallout: New York City. Everybody was essentially writing their own stories with their own characters, post-by-post, with occasional character meetings or indirect interactions.
art by Turbopower1000
As it turns out, I still have a copy of some of the stuff I wrote for F:NYC. So here is a little pre-Fallout: Equestria treat: the first post that I made in that writing project.
Coney Boardwalk, Brooklyn. Day One. 8:42 pm
"What's a knish?"
The downpour wrapped Coney in a blanket of sound -- rain falling on the wooden planks of the boardwalk, showering on the ocean, tap-dancing on the sheet metal and racing madcap through gutters. Alexander could barely hear his sister's voice, and turned towards her in the hopes she would repeat it. She was speaking aloud, not using their private channel, and softly so as not to attract attention. It was unwise to attract attention on the Coney Boardwalk at night. This was Joker territory.
The rain had soaked through Kitrina's armored suit in a way that Alex feared the Jokers would find far too appealing. The hunting rifle slung over her back would probably be an insufficient deterrent, should they be spotted. Alex followed her gaze and the directional spotlight of her Pip-Boy to the edifice of the pre-war storefront across from them. Faded and eroded by weather, the words "Jerry's Knishes" were barely legible above the boarded-up windows.
The fact that the store had been boarded up told Alex that sometime in the two intervening centuries, someone had fortified and used the building. From the rotting state of the boards, probably not anyone who had breathed recently. Chances were, there was nothing salvageable in the place, much less any of Jerry's nomenclature-worthy knishes. But nobody ever scavenged anything by not checking, and it was an excuse to duck out of the storm. Alex strode up the the door, pulling out one of his combat knives and started to work on it, using the screen-light from his Pip-Boy to illuminate his work. Kitrina had already turned her lights off, unslung her rifle and was pulling her goggles down over her eyes. The night vision optics for the left eye had been damaged during an incident while passing through Middlesex, leaving her blind in that eye whenever she used them. Alex hadn't yet been able to find the parts to fix it. Maybe, if they were both absurdly lucky, Jerry's Knishes would offer what had eluded them in the Brunswicks. (It would make a fine birthday present -- their seventeenth was just a few weeks away.) But he'd settle for a leftover box of Salisbury Steak. Alex suppressed a chuckle as the first board tore loose with the squeal of reluctant nails. As if boarding up a door from the outside ever stopped anyone determined to get in.
"Hey Alex..." Kitrina's voice this time spoke directly into his ear, carried there by the dedicated channel between the sibling's specially-rigged Pip-Boys. Alex turned to see his sister staring out over the churning water. The storm sent waves crashing against the boardwalk. "...there's a ferry out there."
I’ll leave you with some exciting wasteland action, care of Mistermech and Stormcaller.
I'm disabling AdBlock for Fimfiction, because I don't want it to disappear.
at least Fallout3Underground didn't turn into something stupid like turntable did
Wow. even back then you were still so eloquent...
I love when a story is so detailed that it feels like I'm eating and tasting the words rather than just reading them.
This is why I rarely use ad-blockers, I know that sites need the cash otherwise...I'll lose them.
OH, and I watched that review on April fool's day where I was pretending to hate everything I like and love everything I hate. So throughout the review, I had to pretend to disagree with them on everything. It was the hardest thing to do on the planet, even trying to enjoy a bad dub or compliment every bad fic. Because I love this fic way to much.
> A coal-powered train
> With actual coal
What sorcery is this?
... something barrode, something blue.
1981403 Don't get me wrong please, this is a great idea, if the folks whom pick ads would be less invasive about it. Given the malware, virii, and attack ads that destabilize a pc in those. Yeah. If we could be sure that a site wouldn't use them. I'd gladly support ads in a place, but the risk really, isn't worth it.
There are many sites like this, if ad revenue would keep it afloat, I would. If we could be sure on the ads.
hi hi
But... what is the ferry doing out there, in that kind of weather of all things?
All I want for Christmas is for Kkat to write a thing
Any thing
Hell, preferably a professional thing, so I can give her money for it
the very first image reminds me of an old story from when I was a kid. 'The Indian in the Cupboard,' I think it was called? So now I'm envisioning those figurines coming to life.
Do want.
I was going to send you the review if you hadn't gotten to it yet! I'm currently trying to work on my review, but I've been lazy all week because I have a bunch of projects in my head that need to get started, or at least have the basic ideas written out so I don't lose them, and I don't know which to start with!
Anyways, I know what it's like to be a part of a certain community, fall away from it, then go back and try to find it only to see that it's gone. I used to do a lot of roleplaying on Yahoo Groups, but almost all of those communities are dead and have become spam-infested wastelands now (pun intended). First it was "The Great Purge", then it was just people moving on to other interests or more stable sites that didn't interest me as much.
1981592 Add in the Characters for FoE:PH and I'd agree with you completely.
1981627 Agreed. The idea of a Somber and Kkat collab, while impossible, has enough oomph to give me very happy dreams.
Even back then, your writing makes me want more! I hate it when sites go dead, by the way. I've seen it happen one too many times...
Damn you. Just... damn you. I never see Fallout made in my area, so I'm going to just have to fanfic Fallout separate from pony just to get the Fraser Valley into the scene, even though I've never played the games.
Y'know, this is the first franchise-specific online community I've ever been involved in. I was on the general anime forum Gaia Online before pony, lurking somehwere between the Video Games, Chatterbox, Heaven, Writer's, and Music forums, and actually learned of this site through that forum. Been here ever since. Before that, it was Bob and George, the anime art style, and Homestar Runner, but I never got involved in the surrounding communities. Before that, no internet.
I don't know if I'll get involved in another bandwagon like this in the future. I've got my own stuff to consider and a family to support. My efforts would be much better spent on actually getting published. I think, other than publishing, I'll be just another fanfic author, posting on Fanfic.net until it dies.
I don't know. Ain't life grand?
Kkat,
I enjoy these weekly blog posts (almost) as much as I did reading Fallout Equestria!
You're so good at writing in general you could probably be a successful author, so I have to wonder: Are you planning on writing anything in the forseable future? Pony, FoE, anything?
To remain on a happy note, I'll just come right out and say it.
I'd kill for that Steelhooves on that wall.
I'm gonna go disable AdBlock now...
1981592 Oh my god, I forgot about that book... It's ancient, and I cannot believe I forgot it. It was an amazing book...
Expected doctor who reference... Much dissapoint.
DAMMIT, KKAT.
YOU ARE SO AWESOME.
This isn't the first time I've heard this, or the first time it's made me think of someone forever ago who made a 'diary'-style Let's Play type dealio of Morrowind that I really enjoyed. All I remember is that it was a pink-haired female... Wood Elf, maybe? Was that you?
Just out of curiosity have you seen the Fallout Equestria honest trailer?
Thus endeth my plans for a video review of Fo:E.
Hmm...
There's someone missing, the question's who?
Then she remembers something old, something new,
Something borrowed, something blue!
Is the blog title a reference to "Big Bang Two" by Chameleon Circuit, or am I going crazy?
1990188
Was the downvote truly necessary?
Heh, just had an idea...
English Fallout.
Fallout in England. I as wondering about this subject for a while, has any one heard of something similar or should I go ahead and do it? I'm already writing stuff in the FoE universe so why not expand to regular fallout and regular ponies?
I've had the idea of making everything all a bit more steam punk and clockwork to reference the Steampunk genre that started here in Victorian England and just make it all a bit more... well... English.
So, good idea? Yay? Nay? (Or should I say Neigh?- no, I shouldn't.)
2012427 that sounds pretty interesting, just don't leave the technology too far behind. After all the technology is from 2056.
2019736 Ah, don't worry on that on, I know what I'm doing. The tech would still be similar, what with the fancy computers an laser weapons. I was thinking thatpre-war stuff would still be the kind of tech that you find in fallout but the people living there would make their own stuff from clockwork mechanisms and steam systems and whatnot.
2021027 dooeit! Sounds awesome