I bought the white label pack recently which included FO1, 2 and Tactics.

I started playing the first one, but the box came with no instructions so I WTFed through the cave from Vault 13 not knowing how to kill a damn rat.

Can someone give me a lowdown? I'd really like to play it properly. D:

Also I've looked online for the original manual and found it, but it was practically a gouvernment document on how to survive a nuclear war.

The game comes with a manual, it is just an adobe file. I will et someone with far more skills explain. Here is a good source though. It is very enlightening, the wiki is your friend:

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout This is a brief overview.
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/The_Nearly_Ultimate_Fallout_Guide Detailed guide, the beginning stuff is really helpful

The manual is on the DVD, as a PDF.

And yes, it is written as if it were a Vault-Tec document, but it does have lots of gameplay information as well.

Yeah, you're best bet is to make sure you're familiar with the manual before getting into the game. This was before in-game tutorials were terribly common; so the game assumes you've already up on how to play it.

A helpful button is F1, which will give you a screen that will show you all the keyboard shortcuts. Make sure you keep an eye out for stuff that might show up on the little text window at the bottom left corner. The combat is turn-based, so you get so many AP points to spend per turn. Every action, even moving or accessing inventory, costs points. You can have two items equipped at once, and clicking the button next to the icon on your screen will switch between your "hands." When you go into a town, it's considered hostile to walk around with a weapon drawn, so keep that in mind.

You can change the type of attack you're making by clicking the weapon's icon. This will cycle through things like aimed and regular attacks, etc. And it will tell you how many AP each attack costs. (Generally, an aimed shot costs one or two more AP to make - so make sure you have a chance of making the shot - otherwise you're usually better early on without it. But they do have a higher chance of critical hits, for crippling limbs, doing extra damage and such.)

If it's your first time through the game (and especially if you're not used to this sort of RPG) you should probably stick with the pre-made characters. At the very least, I'd encourage you to pick one as a base and modify things from there. Your first time out, don't bring any attributes below 3 at the max. Really, you're probably going to want pretty much everything above 5 until you know what you're doing. (Or again - just go with what the pre-made characters give you. They were created for beginning players getting the hang of the game, and cover the three basic strategies of getting through the game.)

But in short - yeah, read through the manual. Like Ausir said - it's written in a sort of witty manner, but once you get into it, it will tell you how to play the game in sufficient detail.

Never tried them, hear they are nice though.

A friend of mine kind of obsesses about them... http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showuser=86523

use your eyes (fallout's interface is quite organized),
use your hands (try to click on things and see what they do),
press F1 to get the basic controls & shortcuts help ....
and finally use your brain to combine these, it's simple as that

and / or read the manual, it's quite fun... :read:

The interface is a bit of a hassle for new players. The #1 thing to figure out is how all the different cursors operate. You can cycle through them with the right mouse button. The arrow is used for interacting with objects and people (for example, to talk to people or to investigate a device), the red hexagon is for moving around, the red crosshair is to attack, and a yellow crosshair indicates that you are using one of your skills (such as lockpicking, repair, or theft) on an object. You can use the Skilldex button on the bottom of the screen to select from these skills, or use the number keys to quick select. Remaining action points are indicated by the green lights at the top of of the interface. It's best to memorize how many you have, though, and count them down for yourself.

To attack a creature, access your inventory with the INV button on the bottom or with the "I" key. From here you can use the Arrow Cursor to investigate your items, use stimpacks, load your guns, or equip armor and weapons. Drag your weapon of choice to one of the two boxes (or leave at least one of them empty if you wish to pummel your enemies with your bare fists). You can do all of these things in combat by opening the inventory but it costs 3 action points to do so!
Note: You do not need to equip stimpacks to use them! It took me until the end of the game to realize this! Doh!

Back inside the game, you can click on the big red button to switch between your two equipped weapons. Right click on the weapon box to select between different attacks, each with different effects and action point cost. You can also reload your weapon without having to go to the inventory screen. If your weapon box has a target icon in it, your attack will be a Targeted Shot. This is similar to VATS in Fallout 3. For a few extra action points you can target specific body parts with seperate hit chances. Attacks to the arms may cripple them, leaving your target unable to use certain weapons (or any weapons!), crippling the legs will affect movement speed, and crippling the head and eyes will affect your enemy's accuracy (not to mention hurt a LOT more!). Unlike Fallout 3 you can also target the Groin which, obviously, hurts men a lot more than women! Targeted shots are difficult to pull off at a low skill level.

After you've selected your means to attack, left click on the weapon box and your cursor will change into a red crosshair. As you hover over your enemies you will see your percent chance to hit. If you like what you see, go for it! If not, getting closer will make your shots easier.
If you're outclassed, RUN! If you get far enough away from the enemy you might just be able to end combat and get away. This is much easier to pull of on animals than it is on people, though. It is also VERY dependant on a high Agility rating.

Hints:
-The easiest build for a new player is to have high Agility (more action points), high Intelligence, and to tag Small Guns and Speech. The "Gifted" trait is also good-- even though your skills suffer, it increases everything in your SPECIAL by 1 point which is a huge plus. Skills can always be raised later by levelling up. SPECIAL, not so much.
-Keep in mind that even though it doesn't always seem like it, for the most part there are multiple paths to take for each quest and you should try to choose the one that compliments your skills the best.
-You can hire multiple followers (the amount is dependant on your Charisma) This is mostly beneficial to non-combat oriented players, but any extra firepower is good (though they have a tendency to acidentally hit you!) In the first town, Shady Sands, you can hire Ian. He's good with a pistol and will get you through many of the opening quests. In Junktown you can find the amazing Dogmeat. Solve the puzzle to get him to follow you and you've got a friend for life (or as long as you can keep him alive).
-SAVE OFTEN. IN SEPERATE SAVE SLOTS
-Fallout isn't a game that tells you where to go. You can ask around for oftentimes vague, possibly suspect information or you can stumble upon your goals by pure luck. If you fly through the game without caring to look for the story, you won't find one. This is a major way in which Fallout is different from Fallout 3-- no compass or quest arrow. They tell you to find the water chip and by God you've got to find it. That said, there is a general "main path" to take through the game, though it's entirely optional as to whether or not you follow it.

Wow thanks for all the help guys! I did notice some extra files with the discs, mostly concept art and pre-production which I looked through for a while before starting the game, I had no idea there was a digital manual in there too.

Thanks again, really appreciate it!

The FO1 manual is actually worth reading even if you know how to play. It's a great example of the art of writing a manual which unfortunately becomes rarer.
It even has cooking recipes in!! -- I wonder if someone actually made the 'Mushroom Clouds' they look nice!

I highly recommend playing these games, they are a big departure from Fallout 3's playstyle but are REALLY fun and have as much playability as Fallout 3 and are great for a backstory too.

It's Fallout 3 that's the departure, not the other way around.