What specifically inspired Fallout for you? What were the biggest influences?

Specifically, Fallout. I had very little historical knowledge of the decades influencing the Fallout world, and so it was basically the previous games that directly influenced my limited input into the big picture. One of the biggest resources a drew upon when working in a more significant role on the ill fated FOT2 was varied treatises and comments from Fallout fans on what they felt constituted the Fallout universe. I was also lucky enough to have the original docs for Fallout on hand, and so between the original vision and a collective perception of that vision once realised it painted a pretty clear picture. Likewise, criticisms of the Tactics game world were taken on board and mentally collated.