Ok, so got FO3, started reading these forums, and got intrigued about the earlier games. Managed to locate a copy of FO1 (friend of mine still had it stuck on his bookshelf, if you can believe it...that guy saves everything, lol), popped it in, installer comes up and...says it's not compatible with this version of windows. WTF? Is there a workaround for this? I've already installed FO2 on my laptop running XP, so that one is ok...but I'd like to play all of them, if I can.

Thanks for any tips.

hmmm if i remember correctly you just have to click setup to start it anyway or something?

Not really sure. It installed fine on my brand new pc with no problems. Win XP 32 pro SP3. Maybe just try running the installer anyway hehe.

I was able to install in normally by clicking "Setup".

However, I ran into a problem when I installed the official 1.1 patch. The game works normally unpatched, but after I install the patch the game doesn't work properly. When I enter combat, and an enemy makes an attack on me(so far I only got as far as being hit by rats and radscorpions) the screen will sometimes turn black. I can still hear the sound effects/music in the background, but I cannot do anything. This is NOT the blackout issue that other people have, so hitting the "I" or "C" key does nothing. I have tried both Win95 and Win98 emulation, and it happens in both.

Does anyone know what would be causing this? I downloaded the patch from two seperate locations and tried both, so it can't be from a corrupted patch file.

I'd suggest that you download the following unofficial fan-made patches:

http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1076
http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1075
http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1169

Also nice if you want better control over your in-party NPC's.
http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1135

I tried the 1.2 and 1.3 patch(it showed up on the main screen as 1.2), but the errors were still there. For example, if I hit the rat it will just show a small green square with the period at the end(so all the dialog associated with the hit is missing/corrupted. Also, when I tried to install the patch the first time, it said the Master.dat was missing, and that I was supposed to check to see if the CD was in the drive or if I was in the correct directory.

I have no idea how old my version of WinRAR is, but would that be a cause of my problems? I'm stumped.

If you don?t mind spending 6 bucks try www.gog.com

They offer FO1&2 in a rewritten setup which makes it possible to install & play without any problems on todays high-end rigs.

I got it figured out, thanks.

If you explore the CD and right click on the setup icon, there is an option to run it under Win95 emulation or something. Worked perfectly after that.

So which are the best patches for it? There are hi-res patches, right? And plenty of fan mades that fix a bunch of bugs, etc, I guess.

Thanks again.

And I believe both of them are on Gametap. I don't think you can mod them on there though....

www.GOG.com would be your best bet

Yep... I recently re-purchased both FO1 and FO2 from this service and they work absolutely perfectly, even on my Vista laptop.