Understanding the Fallout backstory: A resource guide for academic librarians

The Fallout universe began as a video game series whose backstory has its origins in 1950s America. Fast forward to 2077: a post-apocalyptic world where players navigate the remnants of a nuclear-ravaged America, encountering mutated creatures, warring factions and remnants of pre-war society. Wildly popular among gamers, the Fallout universe made the jump to TV with an equally popular Amazon Prime series that enjoyed the biggest opening in the streamer’s history in the United States.

Fallout’s backstory is captured in retro-futuristic aesthetics, including a carefully curated soundtrack and period details that transport players and viewers to a bygone era. Libraries can engage aficionados of both the gaming and TV series by curating materials that allow them to explore the real-world context and jumping off point for the game and TV series. Libraries can help their users find answers to their questions:

• • Why is the Fallout soundtrack so important?
  • Is Fallout based on a true story?
  • How do I learn more about gaming?

Why is the Fallout soundtrack so important?

In 2024, the Fallout TV series won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Supervision, underscoring the pivotal role of music in shaping its narrative and emotional landscape. ProQuest™, part of Clarivate™, has released a resource guide that delves into the audio heart of Fallout's allure, providing links and exploring the lyrics of some of the most iconic songs in its soundtrack. Available in Music Online: Listening, the soundtrack features music from the 1940s and 1950s and reflects the era's blend of post-war optimism and Cold War anxieties. Each song, from the haunting "I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire" to the playful yet ominous "Uranium Fever," helps contribute to Fallout's narrative depth and immersive experience. For scholars, this resource guide provides an opportunity to explore Fallout's soundtrack in the broader contexts of culture and history.

Is Fallout based on a true story?

While Fallout creates a fictional world, it sets its origins in a real place: 1950s America. Libraries can showcase primary source documents that shed light on real-world historical and scientific influences behind Fallout's development as well as the realities and anxieties of the atomic age. For instance, History Vault: Records of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Early Cold War, 1946-1960, available from ProQuest, includes the "Handbook of Atomic Weapons for Medical Officers." Published in 1950, it provides readers with that era’s medical and scientific understanding of atomic warfare—a central theme in the Fallout universe. Actual documents like these help Fallout enthusiasts judge the historical accuracy of the Fallout series and take their fandom to the next level.

How do I learn more about gaming?

For libraries serving gaming enthusiasts and researchers, ProQuest has one of the most expansive collections of documents related to entertainment and video gaming with the Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive Collections. Archive 5, which is exclusively dedicated to video gaming, provides over 40 titles that span from the 1980s through 2020. Titles cover a variety of consoles/computers and include publications such as Computer & Video Games (1981-2004), PC Gamer (1994-2020) and Edge (1993-2020). Scholars and enthusiasts can benefit from the in-depth reviews, original advertisements, interviews with developers, retrospectives on game evolution, discussions on gameplay mechanics, and examinations of game aesthetics. The breadth of this archive allows researchers to explore how Fallout and other influential games have shaped and been shaped by broader cultural trends over time.

Download the resource guide.

ProQuest can assist your library in building collections that engage and inspire. Whether expanding your gaming history section or supporting interdisciplinary studies, we provide tailored solutions that spark curiosity and deepen understanding.