We cover not only the Wasteland series, but also fan projects! For an archive of the reverse-engineering attempt, see Wasteland: The Definitive Deconstruction. For the Wasteland decryptor by Ian Goodale, formerly on enigmalake.net, see here.
For related games, see Fountain of Dreams, Escape from Hell, and Meantime.
Wasteland is one of the seminal RPGs of the late 1980s, which (re)defined role-playing games for a generation, pulling them out of the dusty confines of fantasy and plunging right into the dry heat of a post-nuclear Nevada! Based on a modified Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes ruleset, Wasteland paved the way for Fallout and other major RPGs. It was reborn years later with Wasteland 2, continuing the story of the Desert Rangers across Arizona and California, and expands further to Colorado with Wasteland 3!
Curious as to what started the whole thing? The original Wasteland comes from an age when manuals weren't just ten pages of epilepsy warnings. No sir, it was made in an era when a good manual was prized and desired. Start with the manual and the paragraphs to get a taste of what made Wasteland so special back then - and what keeps making it special.
Interested in what the canon playthroughs are? Consult the canon page!