Where can I find information of previous Fallout games in Fallout New Vegas?

Question

While I was doing the quest "G.I Blues" I took the option of passing a test with the missionary guy, and he asked me for the first president of NCR, the original town where the NCR was founded and the flag of the NCR. The last question is pretty obvious cause that flag is everywhere, however the first questions aren't.

I had no problem with this test cause I've played Fallout 1 and 2 and I know about the story and lore of the game. But if you have never played any of those games, not even Fallout 3, where can you find information in New Vegas about previous games? I'm asking this cause I have some friends who never played previous games before and they might not understand some things.

Maybe I haven't payed enough attention to notes or books in game, but the closest clue I got was while playing the mission where you have to beat an officer form Caesar's legion and the NCR officer says something like "We can't kill you due to former president Thandi's policies about war prisoners" Now that was a good hint, but there must be more information elsewhere. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Let's break it down. The questions are:

• Who is the most popular NCR President of all time?
• What was the original capital of the NCR?
• What animal is on the NCR Flag?

The answers are:

• President Tandi.

• Shady Sands.

• Two-Headed Bear.

Where would you find this information?

• The information about the president is hinted in a few places.

  • This president appears on NCR $100 bills, which you can see during loading screens.
  • Caesar mentions this president a few times.

    As a young man I was taught to venerate {mocking slightly}President Tandi of Shady Sands. "The Founding Mother of the New California Republic."
    ...
    Courier: President Tandi was voted into office each time.
    Caeser: Because the council didn't dare oppose her. She was too popular. She had the people's love.

  • Lieutenant Carrie Boyd, the commanding officer at Camp McCarran, also talks about this president. She says:

    "I like the way you think. Have I said that yet? Problem is that the NCR frowns on using that sort of tactic. There are some restrictions still in place from President Tandi's administration. But here's my favorite thing about you - you're not in the NCR. Plus, for all this guy knows, you're completely insane. That's a winning combination."

• Again, this is only hinted at. Caesar mentions this town when talking about the president (see quote above). There are also some other mentions. From the wikipedia page for the town itself and related towns:

  • Sandy Shades: Although it does not appear in Fallout: New Vegas, several NCR soldiers state that Shady Sands is their home town.

  • New California Republic (town): Although not seen in Fallout: New Vegas, several NCR soldiers mention that the city of New California Republic is their hometown. (Curiously, several other prominent NPCs actually refer to the city as "Shady Sands", suggesting that the city may have regained its old name once the NCR name came to refer to the nation-state as a whole as it grew.)

• As for the answer to the 3rd question, it is as you say. There are flags everywhere and it's easy enough to tell what animal is on them.

I can't find any references to any terminals that give this information. It doesn't seem like any characters give you this information any more explicitly than what I have typed out above. I suppose the developers expected you to take these hints and run with them. Since it's also not that hard to get around this test, it's possible this is just an easter egg for the people who played/know the original Fallout games.