X-8 research center

The X-8 Bio-Mechanical Testing Facility (simply called X-8 research center in-game) is a location in Big MT in 2281.

Exterior
X-8 is in the far east of the crater, resting atop a hill. It is surrounded by a number of police cyberdogs.

X-8 Central Facility
After entering, taking the left corridor will take you to the X-8 splicing facility terminal where you can splice creatures. Taking the left corridor leading into a room guard by two Mister Orderlys and grants access to the institutional test facility and the residential test facility. To the left of this door is the kennel filled with a few nightstalkers.

X-8 Institutional Test Facility
The Institutional Test Facility is modeled after an average American high school, except this high school is defended by automated hall monitor turrets and military cyberdogs. A hall lined with class rooms (the furthest of which contains leads a student record) to the central library (which contains another student record). The library leads to a teacher lounge which has stair leading up to hallway that enters the second floor of the library. The doorway leading out of the library on this floor leads to the ball storage room ("for jocks who like balls"). The same hallway has a doorway that leads to the X-8 testing facility.

X-8 Testing Facility
The X-8 testing facility is a winding series of hallways occupied by the occasional Protectron and lobotomite. The hallways have windows that overlook the institutional test facility's library as well as the residential test facility. The end of the hallway returns to the central facility.

X-8 Residential Test Facility
The residential test facility is little more than a spacious cave containing a few ranch house and Gabe, Doctor Borous' childhood pet dog, now technologically enhanced and pumped up on Psycho.

Notable loot

 * The Dog and Robot Splicing Experiment Holotape can be found in the first room to the right of the main entrance. It lies on a table in the center of the room.
 * There is combat armor and 4 proton throwing axes on the second floor of the kennel.
 * The upgrade schematics for FIDO are in the kennel by the terminal. The key for the kennel must first be obtained in X-13 research facility.
 * The Robot and Nightstalker Splicing Experiment Holotape can be found on top of one of the nightstalker kennels.
 * Sonic emitter - Gabriel's bark at the end of the residential test, in a grave in a corner.

Related quests

 * Sonic Emitter Upgrade
 * X-8: High School Horror!
 * X-8 Data Retrieval Test

Appearances
The X-8 research center appears only in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Old World Blues.

Behind the scenes

 * A terminal on level two mentions Project: Burke and Project: Hare. Burke and Hare were infamous 19th century serial killers who murdered people to sell their bodies as cadavers for anatomy classes. Project: Burke and Hare are both regarding procurement of bodies for scientific experimentation.
 * The speech from the X-8 robobrain after being created is likely a reference to the Whale from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
 * When you enter the facility, you can see two closed spaces where robotic hands are operating. The space on the right has a chemistry set which will display message "Children cannot use that" if activated. Console command must be used to get inside first.


 * In the high school area there will be a Wild Wasteland moment where you will see the phrase "Wolverines" written on the wall. This is a reference to the movie Red Dawn, as the Wolverines is a resistance group comprised of high-schoolers, taken from the name of their football team, after their school (and America) is invaded by the Russians in the beginning of the movie.
 * In the cyberdog training area, you may find another Wild Wasteland Moment where you will look in a window to find a few cyberdogs playing poker. It refers collectively to a series of sixteen oil paintings by C. M. Coolidge, commissioned in 1903 by Brown & Bigelow to advertise cigars. It is known in pop culture as just the "Dogs Playing Poker" paintings.

Bugs

 * It is possible to get stuck in the coffin found in the small laboratory.
 * When loading the residential cyberdog guard test and possibly other tests, from the computer terminal to the left of the door to enter the testing facility, said door may glitch and disappear, showing a grey background and some distant objects (e.g. doors and a toolbox). the door will still be usable, and walking toward the Kennel will fix the glitch.
 * Sometimes when standing on the force field on the second floor of the library, If a cyberdog attacks you he may warp through the ground.
 * the front door to the facility might not load, and will prevent entrance entirely