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Technical Problems with Fallout 1? Check here!

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Kipi
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Technical Problems with Fallout 1? Check here!

Post by Kipi »

I've noticed that some questions consering to Fallout 1 not working has risen again and again.
So, I decided to collect most common (and not so common) problems and suggestions and solutions how to get past them.
I'll include all of them in one post, so this may be very long one. If anybody knows another way to solve a problem you may want to post it here. Also, I'll update the list at times, collecting problems and solutions that may have risen lately.

First, all the patches can be found from http://www.nma-fallout.com so every patch I'm going to refer can be found there.
Basically, due the complexity of computers, some strange things may happen. Some of the basic things you can do is follows
-Reboot the computer and try again
-Download newest patch and try again
-Reinstall the game (maybe even more than once) and try again
-If you are playing under Win XP:
*Try to change the compatibility mode to something different (Win 95 or 98 are usually good ideas)
*If you have SP 2 installed, remove it and try again

Problem: No cd error
Solution:
There is patch that should correct this problem

Problem: Screen Blacks-out
Solution:
-The reason can also be in video-card, so try to install newer drivers. Also, it may be that newer drivers aren't compatible with old games, so also installing older drivers may help
-Try to change you computers resolution to lower
-If playing under Win XP with several users, it seems that the game may not work but with one user
-It may also be that there is other program running at background, messing things up. But it's hard to say what the program is.

-Azurial found out new way to fix this problem (Thanx!! :) )
[QUOTE=Azurial]
Fix:
Right click your desktop, and select properties. From that click on Settings, select 16bit as the color quality. Change the resolution to 800x600 - not everyone will need to change the resolution. Apply the changes and exit out of the program.

Right click the Fallout icon, and select properties. Click on the Compatibility tab, and check the Compatibility mode box. Under the section where it says Display settings check the "Run in 256 colors" and "Run in 640 x 480 screen resolution" boxes. Next click Apply then Ok to apply the changes, and exit out of the program.

Next click start, and the click run. Type in msconfig and hit enter. At the top there are several tabs. Click the right-most one marked "Startup". There is a buttom marked "Disable All" located on the bottom-right just above the button marked "Help". Click on "Disable All" then "Apply" and "Ok". You will need to restart your computer.
[/QUOTE]

Problem: The effect sounds are not working
Solution:
-This problem seems to have something to do with Sound Blaster Live soundcard. If you are using it, then the it may be the cause for this.


Problem: During install, getting error that the game is not compatible with the version of Windows
Solution:
-The only known way to solve this is to copy the cd in HD and then changing the compatibility mode of install -file.


Problem: The game crashes while trying to enter <insert the name of the place here>
Solution:
This one seems to be more like bug, so patching and those could help. Also it's said that if you enter the desert, enter the city/place again and then try to enter the place you want, it works. It may need more than one entering the desert before working


Here are the ones I have found from the forum, I'll update it as soons as something new arises.
"As we all know, holy men were born during Christmas...
Like mr. Holopainen over there!"
- Marco Hietala, the bass player of Nightwish
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ScarletSprinter
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Post by ScarletSprinter »

Graphics/Install Issues

I don't know what to try but on install everything came up but at the install screen It showed a bunch of funny psychedelic colors. I could still make out labels and buttons but just barely and i could read text as well. Also i have a substantial amount of harddrive space left but it said i didn't have enough space to install. The only install i could make is the small and normal installs. :confused:

P.S. I would rather not do something as drastic as uninstalling SP 2 that would just cause a list of other issues.
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chaosisgod
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Post by chaosisgod »

trouble :(

hi!

i've just installed fallout on vista x64
install went fine, no errors (any time .. i reinstalled it like 10 times since)
but whatever i do the game quits shortly after i start it
the PLEASE STAND BY screen shows for about 2 seconds then it quits and i'm back @ windblows with no error message whatsoever. please help me :(
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GawainBS
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Post by GawainBS »

You should try googling it. I got my Fallout working on XP that way.
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chaosisgod
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Post by chaosisgod »

i tried google'ing it .. that's how i ended up here and on another forum. but most ppl say it's working out of the box on their x64 vista so i suspect the incompatibility is not directly related to vista.
also it's quite old a game so lots of hits i get for fallout is half-life or vista related and not connected to this game at all :(
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GawainBS
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Post by GawainBS »

Since I'm quite sceptical about new OS's, I still run WinXP. I'm afraid I can't help you. Maybe some last ditch effort: try putting your desktop in 256 colours, 640*480 resolution before running Fallout?
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chaosisgod
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Post by chaosisgod »

well .. i'm open to any suggestions at this point
i created a new user just for testing options for fallout and i've set the screen resolution to 800x600 with 16bit color - the lowest vista allowed. i turned antivirus/firewall off (vista is a NAT box behind a linux so those are just to easy my paranoia anyway) killed everything from task manager except for system processes .. still it quits after the initial screen (please stand by)
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GawainBS
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Post by GawainBS »

Well, you could try running it via DosBox, or via MS Virtual PC.
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chaosisgod
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Post by chaosisgod »

gonna try that next .. just need dosbox or virtual pc :)
or preferably vmware
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Tieranus
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Post by Tieranus »

I'm having the same problems as chaosisgod, except i'm running XP. Initially, I got the "Fallout requires at least 20 mb to start" error, but bypassed it by setting compatibility to 95, and when I start it now, it just shows me the "Please Stand By" screen for a couple seconds, then the programs crashes.

I also figured out a different solution from someone else for the 20 mb error, in case someone else stumbles upon this problem. If you edit your fallout.cfg file in notepad, find "free_space= X", and change X (Being whatever number is there) to 0.

Much obliged!
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Pedro3
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Post by Pedro3 »

i gone through the all talks but i cudnt find any info abt extention of ram in order to enhance effeciency of the game ,,can any one tell me...
smith langer
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Burak
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Post by Burak »

solution

chaosisgod and Tieranus,I might have the answer for you.I had the exact same problem,I had installed the game manually by copying files to directory as told by some guy in nma.I wasn't able to install it properly because of some stupid error due to os(vista) but the result was exactly as you described.From some forum I found a solution and it works now.Before you install the game you should set compatibility of "setupd.exe" in the cd to win98-me,then run the setup from "setupd.exe".When I did it like this I was able to install properly and had no problems.Even if you can already install it properly(not manually I mean) I would give it a shot.It worked for me,hope it helps you too.
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nekouken
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Post by nekouken »

bump

I've just installed the original Fallout (actually the Fallout Classic Collection) on a new Windows 7 machine. When I fired it up for the first time, I got the badly-matched 8-bit graphics on the opening FMV. A quick poke around showed me how to edit the ddraw.ini file, and I was able to adjust that to the right colors, but slow-moving objects (the frame of the TV set, the eyebrows of the guy at the start of the game) left this weird blur in their wake. I did a little more looking, and found the official patch. I installed that, and now the opening FMVs all look like this:

Video Glitch | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Anybody have any ideas?
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DatMatgam
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Post by DatMatgam »

For a while I had problems with older 16bit games on my 64bit win7 laptop and i found that all the problems were coming from the graphics card and not the processor. The graphics card in my computer is an "AMD HD Radeon 6770" and the processor is an "intel core i5". I don't know about other graphics cards but AMD introduced a "switchable graphics" option allowing the user to switch between using just the processor (or a low power integrated chipset) and the graphics card (high performance) to just using the processor for operation (power saving) (the graphics processing units vary from PC to PC). I found that switching to power saving GPU on my PC allows me to play older games like Age Of Empires 1&2 and fallout 1, 2 and tactics without any visual distortion. however i got a bit of odd discolouration but that was able to be fixed by playing around with the compatability options. (this was without any patches or mods)

To access the switchable graphics option just right-click on your desktop and it should be an option that says "Configure Switchable Graphics"

PS: Just remember that PCs vary and what works for me may not work for everyone but at least give it a go if you have the switchable graphics option. let me know if this helps.
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