I think Fallout it's a 32bit game (protected mode). It has both ms-dos and windows versions, so 16bit applications are out of the equation here. Keep trying.

problem is, i can't think of any more options to try 🙁

if there is anyone who got fallout running on 64bit verson of windows or could solve the perfomance problems with dosbox i'd be really greatful to get some tips.

I just tried the Windows version in Windows 2000 Pro, and saw no traces of the game executable being 16bit. Also, it worked fine without resorting to compability mode. So I find it a bit strage it won't work in Windows XP x64.

I made a minimal installation by following these instructions (taken from the now dead official site FAQ):

NT users can get around the installer by manually installing the game themselves. Note however that you must have at least NT 4. […]
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NT users can get around the installer by manually installing the game themselves. Note however that you must have at least NT 4.0 with Service Pack 3 in order to play the game. Also, Fallout should work fine but was not tested very much under NT.

NOTE: Installing under WinXP, right click the setup.exe and set the Compatibility mode to Win95/Win98 and it should install fine.

First, create a folder for your game called fallout (ie c:\games\fallout).

Copy (CDROM):\program\win\falloutw.___ to the folder you created and rename it to falloutw.exe.

Now you have four choices, depending on the installation size you want:
Small Installation: Do not copy anything else.

Medium Installation: Copy (CDROM):\master.dat (318MB) to your fallout folder (ie c:\games\fallout)

Big Installation: Copy Copy (CDROM):\master.dat (318MB) and (CDROM):\critter.dat (150MB) to your fallout folder (ie c:\games\fallout)

Humongous Installation: Copy Copy (CDROM):\master.dat (318MB), (CDROM):\critter.dat (150MB) and Copy the entire (CDROM):\data folder to your fallout folder (ie c:\games\fallout\data)

Create a text file in c:\games\fallout called fallout.cfg and add the following line to it, depending on your installation:
Small Installation:
[system]
master_dat=(CDROM):\master.dat
critter_dat=(CDROM):\critter.dat
[sound]
music_path2=(CDROM):\data\sound\music
free_space=0

Medium Installation:
[system]
master_dat=c:\games\fallout\master.dat
critter_dat=(CDROM):\critter.dat
[sound]
music_path2=(CDROM):\data\sound\music
free_space=0

Big Installation:
[system]
master_dat=c:\games\fallout\master.dat
critter_dat=c:\games\fallout\critter.dat
[sound]
music_path2=(CDROM):\data\sound\music
free_space=0

Humongous Installation:
[system]
master_dat=c:\games\fallout\master.dat
critter_dat=c:\games\fallout\critter.dat
[sound]
music_path2=c:\games\fallout\data\sound\music
free_space=0
To run Fallout 1 under XP, make a shortcut to the falloutw.exe file and right click the shortcut, and select "Properties->Compatibility" and select either Win95,98 and it should work fine..

German version:

I just got word from fr33l that if you have the german version you also need to add:
language=german
under the [System] tab..

I also tried the game in DOSBox, and it worked with sound if it was Sound Blaster Pro, Port 220, IRQ 7, DMA 1.

Can't say I noticed any performance difference between that and using no sound. But then, my comp is rather old now so it didn't run too well on either case with the normal core.

It may be so that the sound code of Fallout is the taxing part of the game, so it's faster without it.

Also, the readme says

The DOS version of Fallout requires:
Pentium(tm) computer
32 megs of RAM

So it would be good to change the default memsize=16 to memsize=32 in dosbox.conf.

Some older games crash if the memsize is higher than the default, which is probably why Qbix decided to set it where it is.

As for Windows Fallout, I don't know. Maybe try doing a full install of the game, which takes the CD-ROM out of the equation (the game has no CD check if you install everything, although you may need to tweak a few things or copy a few additional files). Make sure to install the latest patch as the both Fallout 1 & 2 are notoriously buggy.

The DOS version I would recommend only as a last resort. I'm not even sure if it can be patched as well as the Windows version. If you do decide to use it, try using a CVS build of DOSBox (see the development forum) as it may provide extra speed. Also, if you see that the game uses DOS4GW when you start it up, you might try using DOS32A, as it sometimes gives better performance.

You may also try looking and asking around on Fallout fan sites, as it has quite a cult following.

got it working finally

ok its working with dosbox now - little sluggish but playable and the sound is ok. takes about 80% load but thats fine with me and i'm sure there will be improvements in efficiency in future releases. the problem was the gus-sound emulation. it seems the 64bit nvidia-drivers are inefficient as hell. combined with some problems in gravis ultra sound emulation in dosbox this causes serious problems. i now use sb1-emulation with 220 / 5 / 1. it fails the test in fallout but works anyway, quite low volume output and therefor always accompanied by some 'white noise' though.

also tried the windows install as describet a few posts above - didn't work. when starting the game the screen goes black for about 5 seconds and then the windows-screen reappears - thats it. no error message anywhere to be found (i'm rather a linux guy so i don't exactly know where to search for them, maybe i overlooked it). tried to start the game from command-shell in order to get at least something to stdout but not even there is any message why the execution fails. i reckon it's a driver problem here as well. maybe this will solve itself in the future - i will keep trying.

thanks a lot for the tips - without the post saying fallout was running with soundblaster i would have trusted the soundtest and never started the application with this settings.

Hot damn, is the DOS version of Fallout included with the Windows one? I have to dig out my CD when I get home, because when I tried it under XP, I got horrible video bugs (mouse cursor oddness and black screens) and I couldn't run it in a window, which made it look like utter crap on my TFT display (which is locked to 1280x1024).

eobet: Yes, both DOS and Win9x versions of Fallout are included on the CD.

as for fallout I - there is a dos version included - just execute install.exe instead of setup.exe and you get the dos-version installed

as for fallout II - only windows version is supplied - no way to get this running under dosbox - at least no way i know of ... (problem on my side is just as with fallout I it won't start on my 64bit system ... will have to wait for better driver or a version of virtual pc that runs on windows 64)

Might want to try DosBox with the Smartscreen patch. Should work great with Fallout.

the search-function here gives me 1400+ results for "Smartscreen patch" ... do you have a link for me? would save me half a weekend *g*

edit:

nevermind just found it in the *tata* patch-forum ... what a coincidence 😁

Here's a CVS build with it included: http://ykhwong.x-y.net/page.htm

Try with it enable/disable and report back if it helps.

Anyone tried Vmware under 64bit Windows? Looking at the Vmware installation files and documentation it say's it supports 64bit. Can't really help ya with VPC since I stopped using it since the Connectix->Microsoft switch. Currently working on getting the games that work in VPC to work in Vmware 5/Qemu so I can get rid of VPC. (Vmware/Qemu more crossplatform...more features....and no MS! 😁 )

hi dosfreak

vmware runs fine under windows 64 ... but fallout won't. i've written it already in the initial post, fallout won't show video-scenes at all (black screen). the rest of the game runs smoothly though. i think its the video-driver supplied by vmware, which is noch capable of showing resolutions below 800x600 and color-depth below 16bit.

i integrated the smartscreen-patch (it's not that hard after all 😉 ) works fine but didn't improve matters noticeably.

i would rather not use virtual-pc myself but as i only want to use a platform i can run fallout (and eventually other games i can't get running on windows 64 or dosbox properly) vm-ware is not suitable for me. it just doesn't do the trick.

i've already thought of another way around the problem - a pretty crazy one ... no, actually it's downright nuts:

i will try vmware installing linux (suse in this case as it's verry desktop oriented) and on it wine ... can u spell resource-wasting? 😁

i will let u know how things develope

Gonna break out my copy of Fallout today and see what makes the movies not work.

So is Fallout running well under DosBox? (Asking since you probably have had more time to play with it since your last post.)

DosFreak wrote:

Gonna break out my copy of Fallout today and see what it uses for video codecs for the video.

None, really.

They are .MVE files, a custom format used for many Interplay games back then. The playback code is in the game executable, and doesn't rely on any video codecs.

There is a MVE2AVI program floating around on the net, though.

I'm surprised that the movies aren't Bink or Smacker. I guess Interplay/Black Isle didn't start using it until later?

If you do believe it's because the movies are 8bit then you could try going here:

http://www.teamx.ru/eng/files/utils/index.shtml

Convert MVE to AVI.
Convert AVI to 16bit using virtualdub.
Convert to MVE (Can MVE do 16bit?)
Incorporate back into .DAT

Actually, I'm almost positive that both games only use 8 bit color for everything, including movies.

I'll see if I can get to a machine sometime this week and load vmware 5. It won't be 64bit but that shouldn't matter. It's probably some Vmware video compatibility problem as mentioned above. No since haxoring the game when the DOS ver works.