Unless I'm mixing up dates & forgetting important stuff, Fallout really brought CRPG's to a new age.
Before, there was Ultima series for C-64, (later parts also/only for PC) and AD&D Gold box adventures for C-64.
Fallout and later Baldur's Gate were the first major CRPG milestones made specifically for PC (and Mac). Not crippled by the need to also run on weaker systems (like older PC's). These arrived on CD, containing humongous amounts of data. Full music tracks, megabytes upon megabytes of graphics, something totally impossible with floppy systems! Also, PC's and Macs were still considered systems for grown ups, unlike Amiga and Nintendo, so the games could contain adult themes, complex plots, graphic violence.
And of course, Fallout was amazingly good! Plot, character creation, combat, everything rivaled or surpassed anything that had come before.
Retro-futuric setting, as pioneered by fallout, is one of the very few existing acceptable CRPG settings for a game wishing for any success. The first being standard Tolkienic fantasy (with variations or twists as in Oblivion or Dragon Age), and the second being Star Wars (as in KotOR). Other Sci-Fi has been mostly nonexistent until Mass Effect.
Post edited August 10, 2011 by Jarmo