Fallout PIPBoy in FO1 & 2

[rusty_shackleford]

1. Is there a 3D render or concept art of the full device itself?

It was worn on the wrist.​

The RobCo PIPBoy 2000 (hereafter called the PIPBoy), is a handy device that you wear on your wrist.​

Van Buren also stated that it was worn on the wrist​

A RobCo 2000 PIP Boy is a Personal Information Processor, a personal data device developed by Vault-Tec designed to be worn on the wrist​

...But I'm almost certain it's not actually displayed on the PC's arm, it's sort of hard to tell.

The Lil-Pip 3000 does have a piece of concept art from Van Buren:

Doesn't really resemble anything like the original PIPBoy 2000 though.

2. How come nobody tries to steal it?

FO1 & 2 material only, possibly including relating content(e.g., FO bible, scrapped Van Buren stuff, or whatever is known about the real Fallout Online)


and as a fun bonus: the Macintosh version of Fallout has the PIPBoy speak.

 

[Interceptor]

...But I'm almost certain it's not actually displayed on the PC's arm, it's sort of hard to tell.

In Van Buren, PC actually is wearing the PipBoy on their wrist.

 

[Melcar]

I always envisioned it as a sort of clunky wrist watch, but not too big.

 

[Interceptor]

Speaking of Van Buren, here's the original highpoly mesh render (credit: Glenn Price, BIS)

 

[rusty_shackleford]

...But I'm almost certain it's not actually displayed on the PC's arm, it's sort of hard to tell.

In Van Buren, PC actually is wearing the PipBoy on their wrist.

Was referring to the FO1&2 PC. I'm not sure which model he's supposed to be wearing, presumably the Lil-Pip.

Speaking of Van Buren, here's the original highpoly mesh render (credit: Glenn Price, BIS)

Yep, but again, it's the Lil-Pip. Unlike the PIPBoy 2000, it uses integrated circuits meaning it looks much different.

 

[Glop_dweller]

Not official; merely what is shown in the game. Inconsistent with the paper manual. This one is better IMO.

 

[laclongquan]

The impression of F3 Anchorage is implying the Pipboy 3000 is personalized and the cloned Gary they attemp to take it need to be amputated. And that specific robbery is not successful.

FNV Honest Heart there's an addict implied he took it from a dead person (seem to be a V22 vault dweller). So retaking it might be possible once the original user is dead (that V22 is spore-infected).

FNV has Mick can upgrade Pipboy 3000 to Pimpboy 3000. So upgrade the case is possible as long as you have the required cases.

F2 has multiple plug-n-play modules (from Mrs Bishop's language modules to others). So that imply Pipboy 2000 has basic function and need extra modules to work well. if have nothing, it's barely function.

 

[Bad Sector]

The Fallout wiki has this concept art for Pip Boy:

...which doesn't look very wrist-friendly.

IMO they didn't really think the whole "wear on your wrist" too deeply before Van Buren and this is why they came up with "Lil Pip". I do not think in Fallout 1 it is mentioned anywhere else than the manual that it is worn in the wrist either, so it might be just some stuff the manual writers came up with for flair after most of the game was written/made. I might be forgetting something though.

I think Bethesda's design is the most plausible one ("Lil Pip" still doesn't make sense with that protruding vacuum tube and the technical clash of having a vacuum tube with a TFT - also the visual design is a bit too much "early 2000s audio player skin" IMO), but the CRT is a bit too big - though it could be a projection through a mirror like in some """portable""" TVs that used a tiny CRT with a mirror to display a larger image. Not sure if they ever released any concept art for the device's internals.

 

[Interceptor]

The Fallout wiki has this concept art for Pip Boy:

...which doesn't look very wrist-friendly.

IMO they didn't really think the whole "wear on your wrist" too deeply before Van Buren and this is why they came up with "Lil Pip". I do not think in Fallout 1 it is mentioned anywhere else than the manual that it is worn in the wrist either, so it might be just some stuff the manual writers came up with for flair after most of the game was written/made. I might be forgetting something though.

I think Bethesda's design is the most plausible one ("Lil Pip" still doesn't make sense with that protruding vacuum tube and the technical clash of having a vacuum tube with a TFT - also the visual design is a bit too much "early 2000s audio player skin" IMO), but the CRT is a bit too big - though it could be a projection through a mirror like in some """portable""" TVs that used a tiny CRT with a mirror to display a larger image. Not sure if they ever released any concept art for the device's internals.

I don't think this concept depicts the Pip Boy device. As the concept art says, it's Talk/Barter Interface. And I'm not sure if other UI screens are supposed to be a part of the same device or not (but I don't think so).

On that note, here's what Leonard Boyarsky has recently said about the Pip Boy:


Basically, he imagines the Pip Boy is a handheld device, probably worn on a belt.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

This is just the dialogue interface which I assume is meant to be an abstraction we shouldn't think too hard about, like the HUD itself.
Otherwise, I'm starting to have even more trouble envisioning what the PIPBoy actually looks like.

I think Bethesda's design is the most plausible one ("Lil Pip" still doesn't make sense with that protruding vacuum tube and the technical clash of having a vacuum tube with a TFT - also the visual design is a bit too much "early 2000s audio player skin" IMO), but the CRT is a bit too big - though it could be a projection through a mirror like in some """portable""" TVs that used a tiny CRT with a mirror to display a larger image. Not sure if they ever released any concept art for the device's internals.

I dislike a lot of the stylistic choices they were making for Van Buren but who knows what it would have ended up looking like. Strongly prefer what Bethesda ended up going with over the Lil Pip concept.

 

[Glop_dweller]

It's a video-phone; for communication. All of the UI in Fallout represents found or salvaged electronics and machinery. The barter interface literally depicts a wooden table where both parties place their goods for barter.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

I never took the Pip-Boy 2000 as something that was meant to be a wrist mounted thing. The visible vacuum tubes, the sticky note, and the size of the screen in comparison to these things would indicate something too large to actually be worn on the wrist. My guess would be the Pip-Boy 2000 was conceived as something like Dick Tracy's watch:

But then the art guys started designing it and it become a bigger portable device...something like a slightly bigger retro looking Sony Watchman as opposed to even a still large smaller thing (like the size of a Motorola Wearable Barcode Scanner) they probably originally had in mind. To me it always seemed like a retro version of a '90s table.