Fallout: The Problems
 

Issues, I have them... with Fallout, I mean. :worried:

I managed to get a copy of the Fallout Radioactive collection, and I wanted to play them but sadly I can't.

1. Fallout (1) won't install under XP, saying that it's not compatible with my windows version. However, I managed to install the windows version by tweaking the compatibility options of the installer. The windows versions starts up okay, but then the whole screen goes black after the intro on the title screen. When I move the mouse the pointer is on the screen wading through the blackness like snow to reveal the main menu underneath, but after a while, it goes black again and have to move the mouse accross the screen to "clean" it from the blackness. Does this in-game too, so it's pretty unplayable.
2. I installed the DOS version too, and tried to run it in DosBox 0.72, and all was looking fine until I got to the level transition on the side of the map. But instead of transitioning, the game got all messed up, I stayed on the map and textures started repeating as I tried to move around and nothing seemed to happen, had to quit. I tried saving the game in this state, but then I was unable to load it.

I tried to install Fallout 2 too, but when clicked the install button, the launcher froze, and the install won't continue. I never even tried to install Tactics after this.

A little help here? Please?:worried:

First off, you pretty much have to install Fallout via this method on new operating systems.

http://www.nma-fallout.com/article.php?id=1593

I do this with each new install of the game.
As for the black screen thing, that's a common problem, although it shouldn't be happening consistently, bringing up your PipBoy (to rest, etc.) should fix the problem by clearing the screen. This happens to me a lot as well, but only within hours of gaming, not every few minutes as you're making it sound.

You might want to check this out.

http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5061

Read a bit in the first post to correct the problem, it was never severe with me so I always just stuck to refreshing the screen by opening up my PipBoy.

Checked out the links, but it turns out I already did that. Installing with the compatibility mode is the same as installing it manually. I checked the cfg file too, it looks okay. But the blackouts are not appearing in minutes, they appear in mere seconds.

I decided to try to run it in VM with win98. I post if something happens.

What? You said Fallout 2 will not install because the installer freezes the instant it boots up. I said that always happens on new OSes, that install method works for both FO1 and FO2 you have to install FO2 via that method.

Tactics was released in 2001 and works fine on XP/Vista/Whatever.

Also, make sure you patch the games right after install, especially number 2. There are a few gamebreaking bugs in there, and saved games from the unpatched version won't work in the patched version. If you've got a European version you'll also want the children patch, or a handful of quests won't work, alongside a few other game problems associated with there being invisible children running around.

You should be able to get both from NMA or a quick google search.

You might as well get Killap's unofficial patch for Fallout 2, it fixes tons of problems but doesn't actually add anything.

Eww, Why would you wanna play Tactics? That was a bad Fallout game...

I think Kilaps is the like....good....one...yes...That sounded.....no...it didn't sound intellegiant.....Damnit!

Kilaps is a really good patch man, I like, pretty much stopped experiencing problems with FO2 after i got it

I managed to find a solution. As I said, I installed that MS Virtual Machine and installed my dusty win98 on it, installed Fallout, patched... everything works fine now. Well, I had some problems since I installed Virtual Machine Additions to the w98 system, but minor things.

So... the ultimate solution for every problem was this virtual machine. Oh, and thanks for the tips peoples ;)

it's "ultimate" but slow

Slow? Well, not really, at least I don't see any impairment in speed as of yet. Sure, the VM need some extra resources, but if you have 2 gigs of RAM and some gigs of HDD space to spare, it's quite alright.

You know what is slow? DosBox is slow.