Fallout (the original) - a Jolt Country Playthrough

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I've had a Fallout (the original Fallout) save kicking around for years.



One problem with CRPGs is that without a proper journal or quest log, it can be easy to "forget" where you are and what your mission is. This is definitely a problem for some games of mine - actually, maybe all of them. It's something I am fixing for Cyberganked, but if you played half of Cryptozookeeper and took a year off or, like I did with Fallout, about 25 years off, it can mess with you.

One of the happiest memories of my life in Rochester was living in the townhouse with Jethro Q. Walrustitty in 1997. I had my own room which I had growing up and had for the three months I lived at Da King's house, but still - after college I moved back home. I remember having Thanksgiving with my parents, brother, aunt and uncle and when I drove back from Olean I went to the place where I lived which was separate from where I grew up. I think it was the first Thanksgiving I ever spent at my own place because I have a memory of coming home for Thanksgiving each year in college.

Fallout was new and had come out October of 1997 so it makes sense that I would be playing it. I don't remember how far I got, I just remember stopping play like I did all games I loved back then. But I have distinct memories of Thanksgiving of 1997 thinking... hey, I had moved out, I'm playing new computer games, this is ... this is pleasant. I think I am making it. I think I am gonna make it as a person. I will admit I look back upon my, ah, bachelor years with fondness sometimes and that is one of those memories.

I had been tinkering with it this Christmas/New Year's break and found a walk through that gave me a decent recap of where I am. (I am in "Junktown" and I am firmly within the first 1/5th of the game.) I wanted to get an "Iguana on a Stick" - a food item - so I could find and entice Dogmeat (the game's dog NPC) to join me. I went into a General Store that I had no memory of.

Two things:

1) You can talk to the shop owner. And the voice acting for this guy is pretty great. You can choose to say the following to him at one point, regardless if you've bought anything: "You just know everything around here, don't you?" And when doing that he FROWNS in subsequent conversations. Is this thing tracking attitude? But this is top notch voice acting and possibly attitude tracking.

2) After talking to him the first time a thug will burst into the store and say, "This is from Gizmo!!" and try to kill the shop owner. What the fuck! That's amazing! I have no idea who Gizmo is in Fallout, but I decide to take the shop owner's side in this, because this is a pretty obvious hit attempt. I don't kill the thug (one of the shopkeep's guards do) but both myself and an NPC named Ian that I grabbed somewhere in the last two decades do get some attacks in. And... it's amazing. Unlike ATOM:RPG, which again, I am not really criticizing, I had a completely unexpected encounter, I got to make a role-playing choice on which side to take and I got to grab a shotgun off the corpse of the thug afterwards. Wheee! It really hits home that BioWare were professionals here. This little exchange holds up better than anything else I've played recently. You can see his dead body in the screenshot above.

No promises. I've never solved Fallout. But damn, this is making me really want to.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I would like to do an analysis of one of the first "puzzles" I am seeing on this playthrough. This involves getting the NPC of Dogmeat - a dog - to join you. I did not take decent screenshots here, but here is a screenshot.

... Ok, I just realized I took a screenshot in the same place as above. Nnnngh.

There is a dog stopping a couple from entering their home. Funnily enough, the husband tries to get into the house every few seconds and the dog goes berserk to chase him away, and we see the animation of the guy being chased away. The classic text adventure trope of "give a dog a bone" didn't register with me because I was not aware of where there were bones, although I have certainly killed a few people. There should be bones.

There's two ways to get Dogmeat to join you.

The first is that a dialogue piece from the wife states that Dogmeat was traveling with someone who was essentially Max Rockatansky from The Road Warrior played by, of course, Mel Gibson. We are told that the Road Warrior, who is not around, was wearing a leather jacket. Hey! I have a leather jacket! We are meant to think that if we wear the same kind of outfit that the dog will follow us. That's video game logic! Not real logic! (Also, I had leather *armor*, not a leather jacket and I could not get the dog to follow me.)

The second thing we can do is use some of the food in the game. Ah-ha! I did not have any. I could not figure out how to buy any. The food we are looking for is "iguana-on-a-stick." What I did do is rent a room at the hotel and in renting the hotel, you get rights to the fridge in the hotel. (The gal running the register for the hotel will attack you if you go through the refrigerator without renting a room.) So I rented a room. I saved. I rested to get to full health. I opened the refrigerator and got the "iguana-on-a-stick." Then I put it in my quick slot and clicked on it from the main UI. It let me target something - I targeted Dogmeat and gave him the food.

Dogmeat is now my second NPC along with Ian.

That's not bad - the food coming from a fridge is great and the fridge being something you get clean access to if you rent a room is awesome. (I don't believe the woman running the register tells you that you have fridge rights if you rent, but if not that is how I would improve this puzzle.) But the other thing is that I had a long break from Fallout and this reminded me of the game's GRAMMAR.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

By "the game's grammar" I just mean this - in putting items into the quick slot and then clicking on them and having a target, we now effectively get "use item x on y." It's a little awkward and I don't recall if the manual specifically calls this out (it should) but "use item on object" is the main way we interact with adventure games. Fallout is sort of an adventure game now!

The screenshot at the top of this post shows our perks - and we effectively have 8 additional verbs we can use. I tried to "use science on Dogmeat" and nothing happened. But this brings us to the next optional quest that I decided to do...

When we entered the general store, a hitman from a guy named GIZMO came in to try to kill the store's owner. OK, we took that guy out. The store's owner (named Killian) asked if we wanted to get evidence that Gizmo was behind it. I mean, the would-be assassin that we rubbed out said, "Gizmo sends his regards" and this is effectively the wild west, but sure, let's get evidence. (The area we are in - Junktown - does have a jail!) I take the quest and I am given a tape recorder and a bug and told to go find Gizmo and talk to him and see if I can get him to confess.

Flack recently watched an episode of "Canned Beer Cases" where Cash Rashmussen was tasked with getting a murderer to confess, so he knows how difficult a thing can be.

I did find Gizmo's place because it was the major building one screen up from where I was. I go into his lair and there are plenty of roulette tables there. You are told by the game that the games of chance in Gizmo's casino are rigged. I mean, he needs killing for that. I play one game of roulette for 5 caps and I won, doubling my money. I guess that is how they get you. I enter Gizmo's office...

... and I see a bookcase! Perfect I have the tape recorder on me. I have the bug in my inventory. I put the bug VERY OBVIOUSLY in the bookcase, using the "search" command. (Another verb - we can search containers and dead bodies in Fallout.) I expect to get attacked because the animation for adding an object via search is very obvious. But nothing. Gizmo has a guard and they just let me do this. In a text adventure, we'd throw a line in about them being busy or something I guess?

I do talk to Gizmo and he does more or less confess to trying to have Killian murdered. I have the tape recorder on me and I have the bug in the bookshelf. I figure that is good and consult a walk through to be sure - as it turns out, you need to use the "steal" command to plant the bug on Gizmo. Or you can just get him to confess while the tape recorder is on you. The tape recorder does not need to be specifically turned on. Hmm.

So I didn't need to put the bug in the bookshelf. I do wish that worked. I know that if you fail a steal in Fallout, even a reverse steal, you get attacked, so I saved and tried to plant the bug on Gizmo. It failed! We got into a fight but Gizmo is a big giant fat guy shooting a gun from a desk badly. And it is one grown man (Ian), woman (my character) and insane, crazed dog (Dogmeat) against Gizmo and his guard so we are able to win that fight. Subconsciously I wonder if I was inspired by Gizmo when I put the character Bruce played, Igor Cytserz in Cryptozookeeper.

Okay! So I reload because I want to play a role and we got him to confess after all. I go back to Killian and he agrees that we have the proof we need. He tells me to go find a man named LARS and together we can all strike back against Gizmo. We do and this time the fight is even easier because it's now four of us (and I think Killian was there too) against Gizmo and his guard. Sorry, Gizmo and his guard.

We are teleported to and from the fight. I am curious as to what is going to happen if I go back to Gizmo's office now that he is dead. I wonder if other guards will attack me? If so, how did we get out? The teleporting to and from the fight was, dare I say it, a little lazy but I can understand why they did it because otherwise you can go anywhere on any map in Fallout.

This remains an extremely good game. I don't know why I stopped playing it in 1998. I also have 127 days left to find the water chip. I can't keep screwing around with these grudges in towns outside my vault.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Also! The CRPG Addict is years away from getting to Fallout and he said he is going to play it when it comes up in *his* queue. And he never played it when it was new. And I think the Digital Antiquarian is also far away. I am sure there are 100 playthrough / game analysis threads about Fallout on the internet, but the two biggest names in this haven't done it, so I feel like I am actually writing about games in a meaningful way. I will break this thread out if I keep at Fallout. I've had many similar times in life where I thought I would finish one of the big RPGs that I love but have not finished (Ultima 7, Ultima 7, the original Deus Ex, Anachronox, Wasteland, the first Wizardry, the 7th Wizardry, Might & Magic II and Might & Magic III. But maybe because it is a new year and because I owe it to you guys to actually drive content here... maybe this will work.)

[Flack]

There is no reason why you couldn't become the next CRPG Addict or Digital Antiquarian!

[Flack]

the first Wizardry

I frequently dream about revisiting this one. I know that the dungeon consists of 10 levels at at some point they just started filling them with dark rooms, spinners, and tiles that teleport you around. It's tough to jump into something knowing that's coming.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

the first Wizardry

I frequently dream about revisiting this one. I know that the dungeon consists of 10 levels at at some point they just started filling them with dark rooms, spinners, and tiles that teleport you around. It's tough to jump into something knowing that's coming.

About 5 or 6 years ago I started it back up and yeah, it gets relentless at level 5 of that dungeon. Even with the safety net of me copying the directory to a different directory to have a backup, each step was dangerous. Great game that I'd love to solve some day.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

A fight broke out, but I didn't get my screenshots nor my save game in order. Hold please.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

A few things happened and I will try to get better about taking screenshots when they do.

In Junktown, I was running out of things to do, but I tried one of the dialogue options where you mouth off to people. I mouthed off to a gal who was getting protection from the "Skulz." Well, I had Tycho with me at that point. There's four of us now, the Vault Dweller (me), Ian, Dogmeat and Tycho. The Skulz "started it" but we killed them all. I got a lot of equipment out of them, but I am coming up against the inventory limit because I chose "3" for strength for my gal. Ngggh!

You can use your NPCs to carry stuff, but if you want it back you have to trade them for it. I think. Trying to find if there is a way to get them to either talk to shop keepers directly or what. Pistols were going for around $800, so the pistols I took off the Skulz made me a rich person!

I ended up going to "The Hub" next. I have about 120 days to find the water chip. I think I am in good shape there. There was a weapons dealer that sold me metal armor and an SMG. This will allow me to have "burst" mode, which is what I was looking for. I am being told I am not strong enough to use the weapon properly. I hope there is a way to increase my strength.

We signed ourselves up for caravan guards. The first caravan we tried to guard was "Necropolis." There were all manner of ghouls and shit. We got team killed immediately. I reloaded.

We tried a caravan back to Junktown. This had a random fight with raiders on both sides. At this point, it is the amount of enemies when it comes to raiders - I swear there were frigging 12 of them at one point when I was doing the save / reload cycle to try to find a number I could beat.

A good CRPG will have you reconsider tactics if you are getting your ass kicked but doing damage to foes. I realized that since my character, the Vault Dweller, can't shoot guns that well, I decided to just make her heal the other characters. Ian (pistols), Tycho (shotguns) and Dogmeat (biting; he just fuckin' bites people) are doing plenty of damage, so I am ran around using my First Aid skill and stimpacks on them, and we got through it. The caravan fights give you three extra people to help - we are not the only guards. Two of them look exactly like Ian. And that is a problem. I mean, frigging give the other guys purple pants. Anything!

There is one caravan guy in the back, always, with a shotgun. I thought he was on the side of the raiders. Because there is friendly fire, he shot me and combat ends in Fallout when the player says it does. I accidentally slashed him to death with a knife. To the game's credit, when I attacked him intentionally (he shot me accidentally) it let the fight continue and he kept attacking me. But I could not understand why the rest of my group wasn't helping! Now I get it, it was because he was on our side. Whoops.

Right now I want to meet with the water merchants in The Hub. I also kind of want to upgrade weapons and armor and my character's attributes.

One last thing. People are saying the game is "short." I played all day. My wife had friends over, so I was able to stay downstairs and play while they spent time together. How is this short? Steam says I am at 24 hours. I left the game on accidentally for 8. I must be slow playing these things.

[Jizaboz]

I started and gave up so many times with Fallout 1-2. Perhaps it's because the first FO game I played was Fallout 3.. via Wine in Linux. Complete with random spinning heads and such. It made for a very surreal experience.

In FO 1-2 I remember recreating my dude so many times. "Well, shit. I guess I'll be stupid but strong ahh fuck dead again." Thank you very much for this detailed experience, perhaps it will help me deal with these games better the next stab. I did finish Ultima VII though (heh). Also, "short" my ass. Every time I approached that game I knew I was in for hours of fail lol. It's kind of funny too how anyone could complain about any Fallout game being "cruel" after fallout 2. Dying over and over without a hell of a lot of consequence starting out while slowly leveling is not cruel. That dynamic seemed impossible in FO 1-2. Grind what? How?

I do want to finish these games eventually though, and perhaps even the "original" Fallout 3 (the non 1st person one). I gave up on Wasteland 3 recently because the battles just seemed too broken without a way to grind up.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I played about another 8 hours since the last update and a lot of stuff happened and I did a bad job coming here and reporting back. So please excuse the shoddy nature of my playthrough:



I got to the area where there was supposed to be a water chip. However, if I take it then all the ghouls, who are sentient and in some cases good people, would die of the thirst. But! I can repair their other water solution.

To do this, you have to pass by super mutants. I will make a dividing line for a play experience I did not end up keeping:

-----THIS NEVER HAPPENED-----



I failed to charm a super mutant named, I think, Henry. He took me to a very cruel super mutant up above.

In game terms, the super mutant there kept beating me, asking me to reveal where my vault was. This is very much like how, in Ultima 5, you are asked by the antagonist for information and if you don't give it, one of your NPC companions will be executed (something I was inspired by for Cryptozookeeper).

I didn't give the location of the vault 3 times when asked, but was then taken to a jail cell. I was able to break out of the cell and then a different super mutant killed me with a laser gatling gun. Huh.

------ RESTORE!------

I played through the part where Henry the Super Mutant captured me, tried some different dialogue and was able to sneak past. I got the water working in the alternate manner for the ghouls (the way that lets me take the chip) and then grabbed the water chip.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I bring the water chip home and I am a hero! Back to Vault 13. It has been over 20 years in real life since I was in Vault 13. Probably 25?

The Overseer is pretty happy to have the water chip. He does not comment on the dog and two companions I brought to the Vault (Ian does make a comment when he first enters, but that is it.) After a brief discussion, he asks me to upload everything I learned into the Vault's computer and then he says, hey, can you go back out there and deal with the mutant threat? Sure.

This is where the game went a little off the rails for me.

- I knew on my map that I had a spot where I could talk to the Brotherhood of Steel. I went there because this is a video game and I had not gone there yet.
- They had an initiation quest for me, to go to a place called "The Glow" and get proof I was there.
- The Glow is a giant crater. A nuke went off maybe? To get to where you need to go, you need a rope, so I had to go to a General Store in "The Hub" and buy a rope. The Fallout / Wasteland games have these normal items and you can "use" them, but you sometimes just use them once a game. I don't know how I feel about that. Not sure I would have gotten it if I didn't get stuck and then look up what to do.

You travel down six levels (I think) in the installation in "The Glow." You turn power on and come back up and then have to fight all the robots that were previously deactivated. You do get a lot of great equipment.

From a combat standpoint, not being able to control the other NPCs is a problem. I replayed many fights because all the tactics I learned through hours of X-COM just don't come into play here. Sometimes Dogmeat goes for the "wrong" robot when I want to chuck a grenade. Ian and Tycho are constantly accidentally shooting each other. I had to reload at one point because I tried shooting a robot with an energy pistol and disintegrated Tycho.

At one point I picked up a pulse grenade. I think they only do damage to robots. I like that a lot - Dogmeat did, on the playthrough I "kept," run right into 4 robots, but I chucked a pulse grenade and it did not negatively affect him.

So, I soaked up a lot of radiation. And when I was finished with The Glow, I tried leaving and instantly died. I had to look up what was going on - I did not take either "Radaway" or "Rad-X" properly - you are supposed to take two of whichever one gives you radiation resistance. I couldn't find enough. So I did not and I had like 8,000 points of radiation damage. The game does not kill you right away. What I learned is:

- I needed a save game editor to give myself enough RadAway to get my levels down
- I needed a save game editor to give myself enough buffout and mentats to RAISE my stats.
- If you have taken radiation damage and try to leave, your stats will go down, thus the buffout and mentats.
- Then I figured out that I could just make my radiation score 0 instead of 8,000 in the editor
- But that did not work
- So I set my stats to all be 99
- That did work.

It sucks. I did not want to use a save game editor, but I am not replaying The Glow - that was my entire weekend. I am lucky there are editors, hopefully nothing got corrupted. There are things to learn here for Cyberganked:

1) There won't be a save game editor for it, so I cannot fuck the player and make them a literal "dead man walking" like Fallout did here
2) Sooooo many sites have smug players going, "Yep, you fucked yourself! Gotta replay the whole game, hope you had saves!" Well, it's 2022, we are not doing that.
3) The game should have done a better job communicating that I was screwing myself with the radiation and also - LET ME BUY THE CHEMS!!!! Let me buy a bunch of RadAway and RadX for Christ's sake. It was not at any store in decent quantities.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I was able to talk to some people within the Brotherhood of Steel. They are kind of a cult. In the Fallout game I have spent the most time with before now - Fallout 3 - they were juuuuuuuuuust culty enough where I don't want to spend too much time with them. I was able to get power armor though.

I was given a mission to find a recruit of theirs from The Hub. I want to sell a bunch of equipment, so sure, since I am going there anyway, why not?

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

One other note. On the first level of "The Glow," I was walking on a corridor. Ian and Tycho were ahead of me a d Dog eat behind. I was stuck! Fallout 2 has a "shove" command. These guys WOULD NOT MOVE. Advantage: blobbers.

I will admit this is all making me really want to give Fallout 2 a go.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I should finish this but the glow level left a horrible taste in my mouth. You get radiation poisoning and can get into a dead man walking state.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I should still finish it.

Jimmy was three years away from Fallout. He posted his article on Thursday.

https://www.filfre.net/2025/01/the-crpg ... 1-fallout/

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I started it up again. I guess I healed the radiation damage from The Glow using that character editor.

This is the guide I am using. I am at the Brotherhood of Steel area.

Right after - https://lemmings19.github.io/fallout-1- ... ough/#glow