I hear a lot about Fallout 2 lulzy humor...

[DefJam101]

Fallout 1 humor is low-key and not really the type you laugh at. Smile, mostly.

 

[Roguey]

"Didn't. Got killed!" makes me exhale or crack a smile every time because of the delivery.

I'm having a hard time thinking of any joke and/or pop culture reference in Fallout 1 that's younger than the early 60's. This fits perfectly with the notion that the Fallout universe is based on 1950's society and Science! instead of science.

You also have Mad Max's jacket and the Blade Runner gun. Supposedly one of the guys holding the Brotherhood hostage quotes the '89 Batman movie but I've never seen it happen.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

"Didn't. Got killed!" makes me exhale or crack a smile every time because of the delivery.

You also have Mad Max's jacket and the Blade Runner gun. Supposedly one of the guys holding the Brotherhood hostage quotes the '89 Batman movie but I've never seen it happen.

Doh! How could I forget about the jacket and the Blade Runner gun.

 

[Serus]

What's the big difference between giving a valuable item for a bottlecap/seashell/coin/piece of paper? They're all practically worthless things to which a value has been attached, based on their relative scarcity.
As long as the value will be recognized and enforced, they're not worthless.

You miss the point. The difference betweem "coins" in history and bottlecaps was the fact that they were made of metals used for other purposes as well - precious metal like silver or gold mostly, material with proprieties having a value on its own. Why do you think sliver and gold have value today even if not used as moeny anymore ? Because its used by industry among other (jewelery) things. But bottlecaps are worthless - they are not used for anytyhing else in Fallout 1 afaik, their only pupose is being "money" which is absurd.
The difference between "piece of paper" and caps ? Early paper money was usually guaranteed to be fully exchangable to silver/gold at will and used mostly for convenience. When it is not, it only functions because the governement has monopoly to "produce" money and is the only supplier. There is someone who - as you said it yourself "enforce" it. In a post-nuclear wasteland there can't be any institution trusted (or feared) by everyone to do it. Unless as someone suggested the Hub had this power.
I strongly suspect that the origins of the mysterious "seashell" money - you failed to give an exemple btw - is based on one of the above principles. It had value on its own or was enforced by some authority.

 

[Santander02]

I strongly suspect that the origins of the mysterious "seashell" money - you failed to give an exemple btw - is based on one of the above principles. It had value on its own or was enforced by some authority.

Spondylus

You are correct however in that they did have an actual value attached to it, they were used a jewerly and/or religious offerings

 

[Hobo Elf]

I wouldn't say it's even a contest. Fallout 1 had a great tongue-in-cheek vibe all through it, but it was usually pretty low-key and rarely if ever there just for the sake of being funny. Fallout 2 had giant scorpions that wore glasses and played chess because they'd eaten too many smart pills and that's what smart people do.

This is pretty much it. The only lulzy humor in FO1 was in the special encounters. FO1 is not a serious and humorless game, its humor just meshes better with the more serious atmosphere.

In before MDK vs MDK2.

Also, in before Anachronox.

MDK humor is surreal in the same way as all Shiny games are. It wont make you laugh, but it blends in well with the setting.
MDK2 is just kind of lame.
What's there to discuss?

 

[visions]

It would be nice if you provided some source on seashells being used.

Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_money

Yes, I'm lazy and no I don't have much interest in searching for more in-depth materials on the matter at the moment, you can see that it has been used though.

Was too busy with both, real life and computer related problems (my old CRT died ) to bother checking the codex in the last couple of days.