Vault 84

The Macintosh Fallout Home Page

These pages are dedicated to providing some general information about the Macintosh version of the Interplay / MacPlay game Fallout .

What's New?

October 6, 1998

Jewel of Arabia: Dreamers has been released. It is a new Mac RPG from Quarter Note Software. The download is about 8.5MB for a single StuffIt'd and binhex'ed file.

August 3, 1998

The author of the Fallout Character Editor, has discontinued the product. Out of respect for the author's wishes, I have removed all other references to the editor from the Vault. Please do not e-mail him (if you have his e-mail handy) or me asking for a copy of the editor, as it has been completely removed from circulation.

As a side note, the author has reported receiving some nasty e-mails about his decision to discontinue the editor. This ranks very low on the Cool Things To Do To Other People meter.

There is a new RPG named Jewel of Arabia: Dreamers, coming out soon from ,Quarter Note Software. Release date suggests a September, 1998, release time frame.

In addition, Cyberflix's Redjack: Revenge of the Bretheren and Reality Bytes' Dark Vengeance are coming soon for those with the horsepower to run them. I'm eagerly looking forward to both.

June 10, 1998

I wish I could update the site with good news. There's a new web page up at MacPlay's web site explaining why MacPlay/Interplay doesn't want to make any more Mac games.

For those seeking violent depression, Interplay has a new Fallout 2 web site and news about the title is making the rounds in the various PC game magazines. I'm not providing links.

For those seeking your RPG thrills elsewhere, there are a number of RPG projects that are released or coming down the pike for the Macintosh. They are, in no particular order:

COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS

Diablo by Blizzard Entertainment. Out now. More of an action game than a "true" RPG, but still tremendously fun and addictive.
Clan Lord by Delta Tao Software. Aiming to be what Ultima Online should have been.
Quest for Glory V by Sierra. If you're wondering what happened to QfG I-IV, they were only released for that other platform, but they are all available on a single CD from Sierra that should be playable on a reasonably fast Mac with Virtual PC or SoftWindows/RealPC. A playable demo of QfG V is available on the latest Inside Mac Games CD, and it looks VERY sweet (even if it crashes on my Mac a whole lot). It's also on the latest MacAddict magazine CD, for the issue with the iMac as the cover story.

SHAREWARE PRODUCTS

Fantasoft, makers/marketers of the Realmz and Exile series of games. I never really got into these, but lots of other Mac RPG'ers swear by 'em.
Cythera by Ambrosia Software.
Grimoire by Central Dynamics. Being ported by Elysium Digital, makers of Cobra Gunship.
L*NCE by the Alchemists Guild. Watch out for that annoying pop-up window that's gonna appear, courtesy of Tripod.
The Minstrel's Song by Johnathan Hayward.
Sickle by Gaz Software.

While not directly Fallout related, the gonzo E3 expo just wrapped up in Atlanta. You can check out some of the new and rising titles coming soon to your Macintosh at the Mac-centric Mac Gamer's Ledge/Tikkabik and Inside Mac Games Magazine E3 wrapup pages. Both sites are a part of my daily web surf.

What's New?
Mac Installation Tips, Tricks, and Troubleshooting: Boils down to "Let the game install Game Sprockets."
Benchmarks and Performance Tips: Not sure how Fallout will run on your box? Here's where you can find how other people have done, as well as suggestions on how to make the game run faster on your machine.
Did Ya Notice (DYN): Easter Eggs and undocumented features to make gameplay easier.
The Complete Cheapskate's Guide to the Wasteland: Containing as close as I can get to a complete list of stuff in the game. SPOILERS HERE
Fallout 2 Page: A not-so-comprehensive look at sequel news, and anything new to report on a Mac version of it.
Links: Other cool Fallout and game-related pages.

Page Color Key

Nothing ticks me off quite as much as pages that change the default colors of visited and unvisited links and don't tell you which is which. So, since this is the first page I've ever done that doesn't use white or "Netscape Gray" as the background color....

Text in WHITE is plain ol' text.
Text in GREEN is an unvisited hyperlink.
Text in GOLD is a visited hyperlink.

They seem to show up best on the black background without causing undue eyestrain. If you really, truly find these colors horrible, please let me know.

Also, the following icons have special meaning throughout the site:

Fallout Boy points out generally cool or amusing stuff.

The Radiation Trefoil indicates something you should be careful of.

A Radscorpion indicates a bug or quirk that probably shouldn't be there.

Why a Mac Fallout page?

There are plenty of other Fallout pages out on the web, which provide almost everything I want to know about the game. The game is cross-platform enough that most of the PC-oriented pages are useful to Mac users, but there is some Mac-specific information which tends to get dropped on the wayside (e.g., system requirements and performance on many of the review pages). I've also heard disturbing statements that work on Fallout 2 has begun and a Mac version does not figure into the plan. This page exists to (in this order):

Fill in holes I've seen in some other people's web sites (e.g., the "Did Ya Notice?" page).
Serve as an information resource geared specifically for Mac users of Fallout, in the form of troubleshooting and performance tips, and a Mac Fallout Character Editor.
Demonstrate that there is a Macintosh audience for Fallout and any sequels that may come out of Interplay / MacPlay . (Note to any Interplay reps reading this page -- that's a subtle hint =8^).

Besides, it gives me a chance to stretch my HTML legs and see if I can really put together a decent-looking, informative web site. And if I'm very cool, I'll be able to rework an image of a sledgehammer-wielding Fallout woman into the woman from the famous Apple "1984" commercial. So watch this space.

I will not be providing walkthroughs, weapon/item statistics, screenshots (unless they fit in with the other goals above), or walkthroughs on this page. Those are covered more than amply by many of the other pages dedicated to Fallout.

I hope that this site will serve the Fallout-playing community first, and the Macintosh sub-section of that community second. If you have comments or suggestions, please contact me and let me know. Please don't bother if all you've got to add is some tremendously witty comment like, "Macs suck!".

If you encounter any problems with this viewing this page on your browser of choice, or you have information you wish to add, please feel free to contact me.

Edward C. Liu
edwick@macconnect.com

Fallout is Copyright 1997 Interplay Productions. Fallout is a trademark of Interplay Productions. All Rights Reserved. All images except for the "Made with Mac" and "Best Viewed With" badges were all taken from the Fallout home page.

This is my page. These are my opinions, but you're welcome to borrow any of them to make your own.

Since November 20, 1997, there have been visitors to this site.