Fallout/Technical manual

This section of the guide covers patch versions, bugs, system requirements, and information for setting up Fallout on Linux/UNIX OS's and Windows NT and its derivative OS's.

Official Fallout releases (game versions)
Initial North American release. (Fallout 'Gold') Updated North American release. Corrects lots of bugs and removes the time limit. European release. I think it fixed some more bugs in version 1.1 (probably new ones were made in the process). Children are removed in the game, and possibly the violence and language filters are toned down.
 * Version 1.0
 * Version 1.1
 * Version 1.2

Patch info
First of all, do not patch version 1.2!


 * 1) Several speech bugs fixed.
 * 2) Radiation increasing your stats has been fixed.
 * 3) Once you return the water chip, there is no requirement for you to complete the quest to kill the Master and the blow up the Military Base in a certain amount of time. (Without the patch, it is 500 days if you didn't take the water caravan or 400 days with.) However, there is a 13 year time limit in the game engine.
 * 4) The NPC duplicating bug has been fixed.
 * 5) Increases the stability of the game.
 * 6) Increases save/load times.

However, some bugs aren't fixed. The Stealth Boy can turn into a motion sensor if you turn it on and save in combat...hasn't occurred to me. It could happen with Fallout v.1.0. Here are some bugs in Fallout v.1.1.


 * 1) You can barter and steal over your maximum weight limit. It's corrected in Fallout 2.
 * 2) Irwin's quest takes about 14 days. But on the Pip-Boy, it will only subtract two days until the deadline for the Vault to run out of water.
 * 3) Using Power Armor and drugs can get you perks that you were not entitled to getting.
 * 4) If you offered to scout out the northern area for Maxson, destroyed the Military base, told Maxson that the (imploded) base is crawling with mutants and were asked to go to the Elder meeting, this causes an endless conversation. After you enter the Elder meeting room, the elder on the bottom left will continue to congratulate you. Workaround: Right after the elder finishes talking, hit 'A' to go into combat mode and run away. This works. Alt-Tabbing during the conversation seems to make the problem go away.
 * 5) There are some Brotherhood of Steel and Shady Sands ending irregularities. Sometimes it seems quite strange when the Brotherhood takes over NCR when Shady Sands gets taken over by mutants (and doesn't start NCR).
 * 6) It's possible to gain two Luck from Chuck, the fortuneteller in Adytum if you choose the right conversation path.
 * 7) One of the FAQ readers told me that the bridge guard wouldn't move after you've told him even with version 1.1. The only workaround is to kill the Gun Runners and then take care of the Regulators by yourself (without the Blades assisting you). I personally haven't had this problem myself.
 * 8) There's no way to finish the Spy in the Followers quest. The quest was removed from the game sometime during the development of Fallout. The patch won't fix the issue.
 * 9) Whenever you fight the Master he summons Nightkin to come and attack you. You can save the game and load it, and then the Nightkin will be gone.

System requirements
Several issues have been brought about the system requirements. Many of my friends told me that I could not run Fallout on my Pentium 75 MHz. I played it on the 75, beat it, later upgraded to a 233 MHz IDT C6-2 chip, and have not noticed any performance gain (except for ending your turn/combat). So, to clarify things, here is the "real" requirements to run Fallout.

Windows requirements to run (actually)

 * HARDWARE
 * 32-bit x86 CPU with math co-processor (or 100% compatible)*
 * 16 megs of RAM
 * approx. 45 megs free hard drive space
 * 2 for binaries
 * 10 for saves
 * 32+ for swap file
 * 2x (Double-speed) CD-ROM drive for minimum install
 * 1x (Single-speed) CD-ROM drive for full install
 * PCI Local Bus graphics card, 1 megabyte of VRAM, must support 640x480 resolution with 256 colors, must be compatible with DirectX 3.0a or above.
 * Keyboard
 * Mouse
 * SOFTWARE
 * Win32 Kernel 4.00.950 (Windows 95)
 * DirectX 3.0a Run-Time Library (minimum...only install it if you're running Windows 95 or NT 4.0 with service pack 3)

DOS requirements to run

 * HARDWARE
 * 32-bit x86 CPU with math co-processor (or 100% compatible)*
 * 32 megs of RAM with approx. 500k free conventional memory
 * approx. 12 megs free hard drive space
 * 2 for binaries
 * 10 for saves
 * 2x (Double-speed) CD-ROM drive
 * PCI or VLB graphics card, 1024k VRAM, must support 640x480 resolution with 256 colors, must be compatible with VESA 1.2 through hardware. NOTE: Fallout tends to have some problems running on Pentium clones, such as Cyrix, IDT Centaur, and (maybe) AMD K5 CPU's. It is recommended that Fallout be run on an Intel (Pentium and above) or AMD (K6 and above) processor. (For my story, please see CRASHES.)
 * Keyboard
 * Mouse
 * SOFTWARE
 * MS-DOS version 5.0
 * If your card doesn't support VESA 1.2 through hardware, get the Scitech Display Doctor for support through software.
 * CD-ROM drivers, Mouse drivers

Some people have reported success with running Fallout on a 486 class processor. You might need a fast video card or more memory to run it on the lower CPU class. If you do plan to run it on a 486, make sure it is either an Intel 80486/DX or AMD Am486-DX processor; the minimum recommended speed is 66 MHz.

Windows versus DOS
DOS vs. Win32 or DOS running in Win32 DOS Shell :


 * DOS 5.x
 * Much slower load times
 * Memory hog (even with 64+ megs of RAM, possibly due to the lack of the swap file.)
 * Requires fast (8-speed +) CD-ROM drive to play movies at 30 fps (otherwise they stutter). Sometimes they don't work at all.
 * Faster gameplay with fast CPU and/or graphics chip, up to 60 frames per second (fps).
 * Requires VESA 1.2 directly in hardware support (or through SciTech display doctor)


 * Win32
 * Much faster load times
 * Not much RAM required, 16 megs should run it well
 * Slightly slower gameplay, limited to about 30 fps (VSYNC enabled?)
 * Requires DirectX 3.0a

Installing Fallout on Windows NT-based OS'S (post Windows-2000)
Well, the requirements are the same for the Win32 version, except for the fact that you'll need 24 megabytes minimum memory and Service Pack 3. Service Pack 6 is available at Microsoft's website at www.microsoft.com. (Note that the information listed previously applies to Windows NT only.) It should run on Windows 2000 and XP without service packs and possibly on their respective beta builds.

Shown below are the instructions. Here, the CD-ROM drive will be shown as drive D. These are in addition to the requirements for the Win32 version. You should update Windows NT and 2000 to their updated service releases for maximum compatibility, performance, etc. Also, make sure that programs can run under the 8-bit 640x480 display in Windows XP. 1) Copy the file d:\program\win\falloutw.___ to c:\fallout\falloutw.exe. 2) Create a text file in the Fallout directory, and save it as  fallout.cfg. This is the Fallout configuration file. 3) Open the file with Notepad (or a text editor) and insert the line:  [system]
 * Requirements:
 * 24 megs of RAM for Windows NT 4.0
 * 32 megs of RAM for Windows 2000
 * 64 megs of RAM for Windows XP
 * Service Pack 3 for Windows NT 4.0
 * Setup instructions

You now have different options depending on what files you want to  copy.

- If you want to copy the Master Data File (master.dat, 318 megs) on    your hard disk, go ahead and do so.

Or, if you don't, then add this:

master_dat=d:\master.dat

- If you want to copy the Critter Animations (critter.dat, 150 megs), go ahead.

Otherwise, add this:

critter_dat=d:\critter.dat

- Add this to the line:   (This line is for NT-specific issues)

freespace=0  (zero)

- Create a new block (sound) and add this:

[sound] music_path2=d:\data\sound\music

4) This is how your configuration file should look:  (NOTE: This is an example file with all of the data on the CD)

[system] master_dat=d:\master.dat critter_dat=d:\critter.dat freespace=0 [sound] music_path2=d:\data\sound\music

5) This is it! Run Fallout, and if it works, get the Windows 1.1  patch from Interplay. (Latter applies to North American version only.)

If Fallout won't work, then install the DOS version and play it on the DOS shell.

Installing Fallout on Linux
I'm not a big fan of Linux, much less UNIX (or any OS other than Mac or Windows). But for those who want "Penguin Fallout", here is a FAQ on the requirements for Wine. DOS emulation is not possible due to the fact that DOSEMU in Linux does not have support for protected mode DOS extenders (DOS/4GW), and Wine says it can emulate DOS, but it cannot as far as I can tell.


 * Requirements:
 * Latest build of Wine, available at wwww.winehq.com* (I've heard that it runs on build 990613)
 * 5th-generation x86 CPU (runs too slow otherwise)
 * 32 megs of RAM with 63 meg swap partition, 64+ megs recommended
 * 5 megs of hard drive space
 * PCI Local Bus video card with 1 megabyte of VRAM
 * Latest Kernel versions and XFree86 versions are recommended.
 * Kernel v.2.x.x ''This is recommended for older computer models (less than 32 megs of RAM); faster computers with 64 megs of RAM and 300+ MHz CPU's should try out the latest versions of the 2.4.x kernel.
 * X-Server A good X-Server to use is XFree86 3.3.6 or 4.(1+).x. Use the latter only if you have a newer computer model, as it requires a bit more memory.
 * Fallout will run on Wine with the X-settings set to 640x480 resolution at 8-bit color depth. The display settings must be set. The exact procedure is different for each Linux distribution (Caldera uses COAS, Mandrake uses HardDrake, etc.)

Configure wine (the /etc/wine.conf file), and in the console, type the following in: wine --winver win95 file:/mnt/cdrom/install.exe (If this does not work, change into the CD-ROM directory and type in 'wine --winver win95 install.exe')
 * Setup instructions


 * 'Note: Changing win95 to nt40 might be better, I don't know.
 * Note: The exact command parameters are different for the many versions of Wine. This is what you would type if you were running Linux-Mandrake v.7.1 with Wine from the Mandrake 7.1 disc.

Wine should run, and then install the program. Check your root C: drive for the Fallout directory. If the installer won't install the program correctly, do a manual install (see the manual install for NT above). You'll have to change directories, like the example below: copy file:/mnt/cdrom/master.dat to file:/win32/fallout/master.dat, and on the config file, change it to c:\fallout\master.dat, etc. In the console, change into the Falllout directory, and execute Wine again. wine --winver nt40 file:/win32/fallout/fallout.exe On some Linux distributions (such as Mandrake 7.1), some of the config info might be incorrect. Check out file:/etc/wine.con and look where the C: drive and the Windows directories are set. Create the Windows and the Windows/System directories as shown below, as according to the Wine.conf file. You might need to login as the 'root' user to modify or view the Wine.conf file. Windows directory      (e.g.  file:/win32/windows) System sub-directory   (e.g.  file:/win32/windows/system)
 * Example:

I've also seen these variations: - file:/mnt/hdb1/windows file:/mnt/hdb1/windows/system (these will show up if you have a slaved FAT hard disc drive loaded in  the kernel)

- file:/root/windows file:/root/windows/system (sometimes Wine.conf will point to the home user's directory) NOTE: I personally have not tried this method, but some Win32 applications that I tried worked perfectly. (such as SESS.net's Cokehead) But yes, it does work, and I've seen instructions that parallel mine.

You should log on as the root user while running Wine.

You should also know that Wine is beta software and therefore you should expect many, many anomalities while running Fallout on Linux.

Crashes and incompatibilities
On some Intel/AMD clone processors (like Cyrix, IDT Centaur, Rise MP6, etc.), Fallout can (and probably will) crash on systems utilizing these CPU's. It can happen when you are talking to an NPC with speech. There is no workaround that I know of.

Also, sometimes Fallout randomly crashes upon completing something. This is more common on systems without enough memory or with a slow processor. It will not bring your entire system down, and Fallout can be safely restarted. The crash might not even occur again.