Fallout 2

Fallout
Fallout	1997
Fallout 2	1998
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel	2001
Fallout 3	2008
Fallout: New Vegas	2010
Fallout 4	2015
Fallout Shelter	2016
Fallout 4 VR	2017
Fallout 76	2018

Warnings

The Mac OS X version of this game does not work on Mac OS X Lion (version 10.7) or later due to the removal of support for PowerPC apps.

Key points

The game has two major fan-made patches and it is highly recommended to install one of them (but NOT both). The Unofficial Fallout 2 Patch fixes large number of bugs remaining in the game even after official patches. Fallout 2 Restoration Project combines these fixes with major modifications and additions and is closer to mod than patch.

The majority of veterans recommend Restoration Project only after playing through the vanilla game at least once, so the unofficial patch may be a better choice for beginners.

General information

The Vault - A huge wiki for the series

No Mutants Allowed - General Fallout Discussion

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		US - uncensored, EU - censored.
Amazon.com
Bethesda.net
GamersGate
GOG.com		Censored. Previous Interplay-published version supported OS X as well. Comes configured with the Fallout 2 High Resolution Patch and sfall. Wrong folder structure.
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Steam		Same as GOG version.

Fallout Classic Collection includes Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel.

The digital release of the Mac version is actually a DOS version which uses DOSBox in order to play it, though the retail version was a true native port.

Essential improvements

Patches

Patch v1.02 updates the game to the latest version.

Unofficial Fallout 2 patch fixes over 1000 bugs with the game past the last official 1.02 patch.^[1]

Fallout 2 Restoration Project 2.3.3 (Unofficial Expansion)

Be careful with the full install of this package. The ammo mods change combat engine damage calculations and can increase the combat difficulty unreasonably.

Contains:

A large amount of restored content.
Unofficial Fallout 2 patch.
Fallout 2 High Resolution Patch.

Vault-Tec Labs Wiki - additional installation information.

Fallout 2 High Resolution Patch

Modifies the game exe file to allow higher resolutions, windowed mode, and various other enhancements

Included with the GOG.com and Steam releases

Fallout Et Tu

Port of Fallout 1 into Fallout 2 that can be played from start to finish

Requires an installation of Fallout 2 and Fallout 1's MASTER.DAT

Patches lots of bugs, has all the quality of life of Fallout 2 and associated Sfall version as well as the FO2 hi-res patch

Has optional INI tweaks, including a motorcycle similar to the Highwayman, restoration of invasion timers, and more

Game data

In-game general settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\^{[Note 1]}
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/38410/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\data\SAVEGAME^{[Note 1]}
macOS (OS X)	~/Library/Application Support/Fallout 2/saves/ ~/Library/Application Support/GOG.com/Fallout 2/saves/
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/38410/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save games can be transferred between Windows and OS X installations of the game.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud		Syncs up to 953.67 MB of game data (maximum 1000 files).

Video

In-game video settings (GOG.com version).

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Use Fallout 2 High Resolution Patch. Pre-installed with GOG.com and Steam.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD		Small size of interface. Use Fallout 2 High Resolution Patch. Pre-installed with GOG.com and Steam.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed	Use Fallout 2 High Resolution Patch or see Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)	To minimize screen tearing, disable fullscreen optimizations on the executable of the game.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS	Locked at a low frame rate. Mouse movement not clamped to engine frame rate.
High dynamic range display (HDR)	See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Windowed

Edit config file^{[citation needed]}
Go to the installation folder. Edit `ddraw.ini`. Under `[Graphics]`, set `Mode` to `5`

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Controller types

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Italian				Check here for the retail and GOG.com versions, and here for the Steam release.
Polish				Local retail version only.
Russian				Local retail version only. By 1C-Softclub
Russian				Unofficial localization by «Левая корпорация» and «Fargus Multimedia»

Issues fixed

Color Fixes For Older Games

See Rainbow color problems in older games for other solutions.

ddraw.ini mode^{[citation needed]}

Only works in a limited number of cases.

Open ddraw.ini.
Find the [Graphics] header.
Change mode=0 to:

mode=4 for fullscreen dx9 mode or mode=5 for windowed dx9 mode.

Install the High Resolution Patch^{[citation needed]}
Install the Fallout 2 High Resolution Patch.

Error Initializing Video Mode 640x480

Custom Resolution^[2]
Create a custom resolution of 640x480 with 60Hz refresh rate and 8 bits per pixel. In the Nvidia Control Panel under Display > Manage. For AMD users, this can be done in the AMD VISION Engine Control Center.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9	Requires the Fallout 2 High Resolution Patch or sfall.
DirectDraw	3.0a, 7	DirectDraw 7 support requires the Fallout 2 High Resolution Patch.
OpenGL		OS X only.

Executable	PPC	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Mods

MIB88 Megamod

Extensions to Restoration project:

Standalone or Restoration Project:

Weapons Redone
Vintage Firearms - compatibility requires skipping the install of included item.lst file inside \Data\Proto, use Restoration Project's version instead.
Home Sweet Home
Condensed Temple - Restoration Project version here, standalone here.

System requirements

Steam

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 90 MHz
System memory (RAM)	16 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	565 MB
Video card (GPU)	SVGA
Sound (audio device)	DirectSound or SoundBlaster Compatible

Disc Version

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	95, 98, NT
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 90 MHz
System memory (RAM)	16 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	600 MB
Video card (GPU)	DirectX 3.0a compatible

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1
Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
- File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
- Games with Steam Cloud support may also store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/38410/.
- Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
- The app ID (38410) may differ in some cases.
- Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
- See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

References

[gamedir-2] 1.0 ^1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

[Proton_path_note-3] 2.0 ^2.1 Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
Games with Steam Cloud support may also store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/38410/.
Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
The app ID (38410) may differ in some cases.
Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

[3] File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.

[4] Games with Steam Cloud support may also store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/38410/.

[5] Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.

[6] The app ID (38410) may differ in some cases.

[7] Treat backslashes as forward slashes.

[8] See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

[1] Full list of unofficial patch corrections

[4] Support for Fallout 2 - GOG.com

[5] Fallout 2 Savegame Editor - No Mutants Allowed Forum

[1]

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[2]

[3]

Developers

	Black Isle Studios
macOS (OS X)	The Omni Group
Publishers
	Interplay Entertainment
OS X	MacPlay
Digital, post-2015	Bethesda Softworks
Engines
	Fallout Engine
Release dates
Windows	October 29, 1998
macOS (OS X)	August 24, 2002
Reception
Metacritic	86
Taxonomy
Series	Fallout