Talk:Pip-Boy

From The Vault

[edit] Pipboy explanation.

The way I see it, there are 2 possible explanations in a "Computers are never miniaturised" world for the pipboy.

One is that the pipboy could simply be a wireless terminal to a computer somewhere else. Likely in an orbital satilite seeing as that would certainly have survived the nuclear attack and would have coverage outside of the vaults. This explanation is somewhat attractive as it is consistant with the terminals in Fallout 3 which essentially makes the pipboy the "laptop" of the fallout universe to their "desktops". This also explains how the terminals in fallout 3 have server access when all the visible above-ground wiring is destroyed.

The other possibility is that the pipboy taps into the user's central nervious system and uses it to augment its own data capabilities. This explanation is also consistant with fallout 3 (you cannot remove the pipboy 3000, and it's not explaned why that would be designed in). This explanation helps with how the pipboy can pick up on certain bits of information actively (it simply plucks it from your own memory).

This has been brought to you by The Accountless Avenger, serving this, and other Wikis without an account since 2005.

It's a possible theory, the second bit, but when you think it about it a little more, it's... not as likely. "SPOILER AHEAD, PEOPLE" You need to remember that the 101 Dweller was not originally born in the Vault- if there are any physical, surgically implanted augmentations necessary to allow PipBoy usage through something as complex as the CNS, then you'd probably have to get them in-the-vault, and they'd have to remain consistent through age, making it unreasonable to pick one up at the age of 10. And tapping into the CNS through the arm?

well it's not a surgical procedure in the traditional sense, it's more like a "Surgury in a can" kinda procedure as seen in fallout 3. "Hi there, here's your pipboy, oh and you can NEVER take it off" kinda deal, I mean in fallout 1 and 2 there are scrappers and other people (including the brotherhood of steel) who would be VERY interested in owning a portable unit capable of doing what the pipboy could, why you can't sell it to them (short of citing game mecanics) is easily explained by "It's attached to me". Also the Lone Wanderer while not born IN the vault was born in a technologically (relitively) advanced area to a medical doctor and was relocated to the vault before her second birthday. At any time in Rivet city or shortly after arriving at vault 101 she would still be young enough to have any "Pre-surgury" prior to the implementation -The accountless avenger

I'm not really buying either explanation so I'll offer up the 3rd, which is the canned response. "Science works differently in the Fallout universe." Fallout 3, and the entire fallout universe, are not "Hard" science fiction; the focus is on the fiction, not on the science. Things there do not work as they do here; they work as if the stuff people believed about future science in the 40s and 50s was actually correct. This means their idea of miniaturization is "smaller vacuum tubes" and stuff like that. Keep in mind that in the 40s and 50s, such things were in fact a reality, prior to the transistor revolution. RCA created a vacuum tube called a 'Nuvistor' in 1959 that was small enough to use in a Pip-Boy type application, and we're talking about vacuum tubes with 100 years more R&D in the Fallout universe.Bsdasym 00:17, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

It's fiction, anyway. The G.E.C.K. doesn't make a lick of sense, either, but it's still fun.--68.111.251.45 19:58, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

The Chosen One was a tribal and used his ancestor's Pip-Boy without any problems, so it can't require any surgery. And the earliest models weren't even attached to your wrist. Ausir 23:35, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

True they werent attached to your wrist, but you never do get to see if it's attached to anything else. I still believe the mere fact that you're unable to sell the nifty gismo off to somebody means that it may have some kinda CNS input and may have some kinda "Surgury in a can" kinda effect, (you pick up a dead guy's pipboy and it implants itself into you kinda deal) -Accountless Avenger

Complete Amateur Note: Has anyone noticed the Pipboy screensaver? I got it on Fallout 1.2 with alarm mode turned on when I left the computer for a while. Sweet! I think it's worth mentioning in the Pipboy article.

[edit] 360 bug?

I May just be being dense, but I can't seem to find a way to scroll notes in the Pip Boy on 360.

---Use the right analog stick to scroll.

[edit] Inconsistent

Did you notice in Fallout 3 only the vault 101 dwellers wear a pipboy ? None of the other vaults dwellers. Ok, but the vault was sealed 200 years ago and None in the world had a chance to see a Pip Boy or know its purpose They don't only seem familiar with the device but know how to use it, access informations, add informations, read them and so on. There is no protection on what should be a personnal device, unlike any computer in game. But it is impossible to remove the Pipboy from the body of any character. The Pip Boy comes in 2 parts, the glove and the bracer. We have no clue of the use of each of the parts but at the beginning, the overseer brings only the bracer to the character.

The "Nobody else inside the vault wears a pipboy" is probably due to only those with Maintainance jobs requiring them

Err, I think there's a contradiction: this wiki states that Operation Anchorage is started from an outpost controlled by Outcasts. Near the simulation pod, in a room is the corpse of "Garry 23" from V-108. Apparently, the Outcasts attempted to convince him to do the simulation for them but when he didn't yield, his arm was cut off to remove his PipBoy.--Amitakartok 16:53, 29 April 2009 (UTC)