Yup, I'm having a difficult time making the transition from Fallout 3 to the original Fallout.

No, it's not the turn-based combat system. It's not the isometric view either, the semi-quirky store menu ("wait? You mean I have to "buy" the caps if I want to sell something?!?") either. It's not the relative difficulty of the game, or the non-automatic reload.

Nope. It's none of those. It's... the movement speed and camera movement. I'm finding that I'm getting bored trying to get from point A to point B in Junktown since my guy feels like walking everywhere, without a run option. Also, if the camera was either a: stuck so that the main guy is always in center, b: allowed freedom of movement across the entire map, or c: only shifted when the main guy went to the "edge" of the camera window, I would find it MUCH more tolerable! Instead, the camera is free-floating, not following the guy, and can only move so far from the guy before stopping, which is pretty annoying.

Any ideas on how I can overcome these two annoyances? Fallout is otherwise currently living up to the expectations I've been hearing from it.

Your character can run if you hold Shift down, when you click where you want him to go.

Its the funniest thing, but when NWN had the camera stuck on the PC, that was the most annoying thing in the game for me, and I loved the fact that in Fallout and Baldur's Gate, it was unlocked. There is a technical reason you'd want the camera stuck (for rendering purposes), but its not a requirement, and Dawn of War had it unlocked as well and was just the kind of camera that I prefer.

About the Stores:
The store menu is a table. You bring what you want to trade to the table... Caps are the equalizer.
In Fallout you drag what he has that you want, and what you have to trade for it ~including caps if that's what you want to trade for.

The only requirement is that what you offer, must equal or exceed the value of what you are asking for.

I can certainly see how it being unconventional and (to some) clunky, can throw players that are more accustomed to TES or Diablo (list & grid), but I always took the Fallout UI as a deliberate period piece, and part of (and product of) the setting.
I love it, always have, and never had a problem with it myself.

BTW... Some merchants have entirely different inventory for trade on different tables in their shop... So in some cases clicking on the table itself will bring up the merchant with new stuff.

I got tired of the constant "Hiya! It's me, Dogmeat".

That's Imoen.

Yeah, what everyone else has said.

There's also a hot-key (can't remember what it was, but it might be in the F1 help menu,) that centers the camera back onto the PC. (Probably Home, but I can't remember.) There's also a mod I had fun with (again, can't remember the name of it,) that gave you an option to unbind the camera from the PC, so that you could scroll across the whole map regardless of where your PC was (which I really, really liked.)

Other than that - it's not for everyone. And by today's standards, there are a number of outdated conventions - being a ten-year-old game, and all. After a point, if you can't get into the game - it just might not be your kind of game...

The shift key trick should certainly help with playability... and I'll do some web-searching for that camera unbinding mod (they just HAD to give the camera some leeway, eh?)

Thanks for the help!

Go into preferences and turn always run on, then.

Allright. Any of you guys got a link to a FO/FO2 mod site other than Rapidshare? Or the name of the Fallout Mod that allows the camera to pan across the map?

There are lots of Fallout 1 and 2 mods at No Mutants Allowed.