How popular was Fallout before Fallout 3?

I received Fallout 1 and 2 in dual pack when I was a child in the 90s. Back then AOL was barely a thing where I lived so I only ever heard of new games to play on PC from friends, family and the occasional tech magazine. The person that purchased it for me was a big advocate of the series and talked about it whenever we discussed RPGs. This was taking place at the same time of my discovery of handheld gaming and Pokemon so it had a big impact on my taste in games. I remember when Fallout 3 was announced I had just rediscovered and beaten Fallout 2 for the first time that year. I was lamenting about how sad that there were no more isometric RPGs in the Fallout universe. I was cautiously happy about the announcement.

I'm glad someone at Bethesda had enough respect and enjoyed the series to want too make it their own. If not for them it probably would have stayed a cult classic. Now everyone knows what Fallout was and is. Its sad to see some of the old mechanics being slowly phased out for more streamline systems but they are trying to bring new ideas in as well. Just knowing that everyone can enjoy something that I've enjoyed for years makes me happy.

I still play the older games to this day just started a new run in Fallout 1 but I also just got all my Fallout 4 DLC so will probably play that alongside it. To answer your question though. Probably not but thats okay because there were people that loved it all the same.

/r/Fallout Thread