With the Fallout 4 hype train running full steam ahead, Bethesda Softworks LLC has decided to revisit both the new and old games from the series with an all new Fallout Anthology.

The anthology will feature every Fallout game except the console-only Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel and the recent mobile title, Fallout Shelter. This includes the original Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics, Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. The anthology will also include all DLC for both Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas.

Almost more exciting than the games themselves, the anthology will come in a collectible mini-nuke storage case “complete with audible bomb sound and a space reserved to add your copy of Fallout 4.” It would probably look great next to your Fallout 4 Pipboy Edition. You did manage to pre-order one before they instantly sold out, right?

Unsurprisingly, the collection will be available for PC only, as the first few games would be incredibly difficult to port to modern consoles. The Fallout Anthology will sell for $49.99 and is scheduled to release on September 29, less than two months before the upcoming release of Fallout 4.

18 years of Fallout

The Fallout series spans a period of nearly two decades since the 1997 release of the original game by veteran game studio Interplay Entertainment Corp.

The first Fallout, which was a turn-based role playing game, became a PC gaming classic and earned critical acclaim for its strong writing and deep gameplay. The second game received similar praise, but the less story-focused Fallout Tactics received a lukewarm response from fans and critics.

Before it became a modern classic under Bethesda, Fallout 3 was originally being developed by the now defunct Black Isle Studios under the codename “Van Buren.” The game was cancelled when Black Isle’s PC development team was laid off by Interplay in 2003, and the rights to the series were sold to Bethesda. While Black Isle never got to finish the game, several members of the studio wound up working for Obsidian Entertainment, who would later develop the most recent game in the series, Fallout: New Vegas, which borrowed some of the characters and plotlines from the cancelled project.

Although Bethesda’s Fallout 3 instantly became the most successful game in the series by far, not everyone was a fan of how far the game strayed from the series’ turn based third-person roots. Fans of the original games commonly denounced Fallout 3 as “Oblivion with guns,” but after several million units sold, I doubt Bethesda was very upset.

Image courtesy of Bethesda Softworks