Platinum Chip | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Platinum Chip is a quest item in Fallout: New Vegas.
Background[]
The Platinum Chip was designed by Robert House[1] and was printed at great expense in Sunnyvale on October 22, 2077, a day before the Great War, but it became lost in the following nuclear holocaust.[2] After regaining consciousness from his coma after saving Las Vegas from full nuclear destruction, Mr. House spent millions of caps (812,545 in 2280 alone)[3] to find it. Once it was located, he had it sent to New Vegas via the Mojave Express.
Carried by the Courier from southern NCR, through the Hub,[4] to New Vegas, the chip was intercepted by Benny in Goodsprings. House's protégé intended to use it to gain control of the New Vegas Strip and make it an independent power in the wasteland, free of his employer's machinations.[5] The only locations on Earth that have the computer hardware necessary to read the chip are inside the Lucky 38 Casino and a weather monitoring station on Fortification Hill.[6]
Characteristics[]
The Chip is a sophisticated, high density data storage device.[7][8] In addition to opening otherwise locked facilities controlled by the Lucky 38 casino's computers, the Chip contains the Mark II operating system for Securitron robots. The Mark II operating system has numerous features that the Mark I system lacks, most notably drivers for an auto-repair system as well as the correct drivers for the grenade & missile launcher weapons that all Securitrons are equipped with but unable to use.
Though a proprietary format,[7][8] the Platinum Chip also contains software upgrades for the Lucky 38's systems. Besides being a casino and the head quarters for Mr. House's endeavors, the Lucky 38 is also armed with a missile defense grid. During the Great War, these weapons where used to prevent most of the nuclear warheads from destroying Las Vegas and the surrounding area,[9] and, if the Platinum Chip had reached House in time, would have prevented all of the warheads from hitting the Vegas area. Despite its name it is not made of platinum, rather it refers to the data itself.[10]
Location[]
The Platinum Chip can be obtained by killing Benny. It is also possible to obtain the Chip by either working with or killing Caesar.
Notes[]
 | The following is based on Fallout New Vegas cut content and has not been confirmed by canon sources. |
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- Inside the game files exists a unused duplicate item called just "Platinum Chip" (no "The"). It has a value of 1 and uses the blue pass card as a model.
| End of information based on Fallout New Vegas cut content. |
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Behind the scenes[]
- A replica platinum chip is included in every copy of the Collector's Edition of Fallout: New Vegas. The Collector's Edition chip has Morse code numbers on each of its sides. The 200 side reads "112281," while the Lucky 38 side reads "232077." Also on the 200 side, there is a symbol of a roulette ball in a 7 slot, while the Lucky 38 side shows a roulette ball in a 10 slot. When presented in MM/DD/YYYY format, the date ascertained from the Lucky 38 side is in fact 10/23/2077, the day of the Great War and the day the Chip was to be delivered to Mr. House. The significance of the date obtained from the 200 side, 07/11/2281, was the date the events of Fallout: New Vegas began before the change of the developers for the 10/19/2281.
- The Chip being made in Sunnyvale, CA is an homage to the movie War Games.[11]
Bugs[]
It's possible to obtain 2 Platinum chips. First obtain the first one from Benny. Then visit Caesar. Then exit the premises of The Fort and become vilified by Caesar's Legion (or any reputation that makes them hostile). Then pay another visit to Caesar and kill him. The second Platinum chip can now be looted from his corpse.- Alternatively, allow Benny's capture by the Legion, and complete the quest of choice in Mr. House's bunker. Afterward, pickpocket the chip from Caesar and then leave the camp, returning to Cottonwood Cove. You should arrive with two Platinum chips.
- If you kill Benny and obtain the Platinum chip and then proceeded to talk to Caesar the chip will be taken from your inventory once entering The Fort. To obtain another chip return to The Tops and start the Yes Man quests. Go to the Lucky 38 and kill Mr. House. You will receive another Platinum Chip.
- It is possible to end up losing the platinum chip, thus preventing you from finishing the game's main story line. This will occur if you enter Caesar's legion as an enemy and then slaughter Caesar and his guards, and then choose to let Benny live. Since Caesar is already dead, the chip will not appear in his inventory, and if Benny escapes, he will disappear from the game and you cannot loot it from his corpse. Paradoxically, even though the chip will not appear in your inventory, you can return to Mr. House and he will act as though you have and have handed over the chip, even upgrading his Securitrons and inviting you to return to Caesar's fort and open the secret bunker. For PC, you can just use console commands to get the Platinum Chip to appear in your inventory.
Gallery[]
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Collector's Edition replica front -
Collector's Edition replica back
References
- ↑ The Courier: "I have a right to know more."
Robert House: "That's simply not true. I am the only person to hold any rights pertaining to the Chip. I designed it, and I paid for it - dearly. To develop that Chip, I spent a sum of U.S. dollars - not the bottle caps that pass as currency these days - but a sum beyond counting. For decades, I paid salvagers to comb the ruins for it. And when it was finally discovered, tens of thousands of caps spent to have it brought here. We know how that turned out. Complete your contract and it will be the last time I pay for the Chip. Save your questions for then."
(Robert House's dialogue) - ↑ Robert House: "Such a small thing, isn't it? And yet so... capacious. So very dear. Decades of hiring salvagers out west to search for this little relic in the ruins of a place called Sunnyvale. Back then, anyway. That's where the Chip was printed, on October 22, 2077. It was to have been hand-delivered to me here, at the Lucky 38, the next day. But the bombs fell first. Suffice it to say, the delivery was never made."
(Robert House's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "What do you know about the courier Benny shot?"
Yes Man: "I knew he/she was carrying the Platinum Chip! And I knew right where Benny should wait for him/her! That's why Benny put me here! To monitor Mr. House's data transmissions. They're all encrypted, of course - but I'm quite a decrypter! Did you know that Mr. House spent 812,545 caps hiring salvage teams to find the Platinum Chip- just in the last year alone? Of course you didn't! Or that there were seven couriers, but six of them were carrying junk? How about their exact routes, and the mercenary teams that screened them? I knew all that. Pretty smart, huh?"
(Yes Man's dialogue) - ↑ J.E. Sawyer: "The Courier carried his/her delivery from southern NCR, toward the Hub. We intentionally left the Courier's origins and the exact nature of the initial transaction vague."
- ↑ The Courier: "If the Chip's so valuable, why use a single courier to transport it?"
Robert House: "You realize you were just one of many couriers, the rest of them dummies, so to speak? Add to that many thousands of caps worth of mercenary protection to screen your avenue of approach. Had I used an armed caravan to transport the Chip, I might as well have been announcing to the world "this is important. Attack this!" I didn't want to attract the attention of groups like the Great Khans or the Brotherhood of Steel. Alas, the real threat was closer to home."
(Robert House's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "Where do you think Benny's gone?"
Robert House: "His destination is hardly a mystery. It's a near certainty that he's making his way for Caesar's camp, at Fortification Hill. It's one of just two places on Earth that have the hardware necessary to read the Platinum Chip - the Lucky 38 is the other, of course."
(Robert House's dialogue) - ↑ 7.0 7.1 The Courier: "Benny stole a Platinum Chip from me. Do you know what it's for?"
Yes Man: "Sure! Benny had me look at it a bunch of times! It's a data storage device, kind of like a holotape, but a lot more advanced! As for what's on it, well... Some of Mr. House's data transmissions made it sound like the Chip could upgrade his defenses somehow! That's just a guess, though! The Chip's a proprietary format! You'd need special hardware to read the data on it! There are two locations with non-standard hardware on the network - the Lucky 38 and an underground facility at Fortification Hill. I'd look there!"
(Yes Man's dialogue) - ↑ 8.0 8.1 Robert House: "The Platinum Chip is a data-storage device. I need you to manually upload the data from the Chip to the facility's primary computer. There's a terminal at the other end of this facility. There's a complication. While I can broadcast to this screen, I can't control any of the facility's systems. That means I can't deactivate its security bots... most of which appear to be active, according to the status board I'm looking at. "
(Robert House's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "What preparations did you make to save Las Vegas?"
Robert House: "On the day of the Great War, 77 atomic warheads targeted Las Vegas and its surrounding areas. My networked mainframes were able to predict and force-transmit disarm code subsets to 59 warheads, neutralizing them before impact. Laser cannons mounted on the roof of the Lucky 38 destroyed another 9 warheads. The rest got through, though none hit the city itself. A sub-optimal performance, admittedly. If only the Platinum Chip had arrived a day sooner..."
(Robert House's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "How's the Chip work?"
Benny: "It's some kind of data storage device, dig? So it's the data on the Chip that's platinum, not the Chip itself. Trouble is, the Chip don't fit any computer I've found. Must require special hardware."
(Benny's dialogue) - ↑ JESawyer @ Formspring