Trying to run Fallout1 on my netbook - Samsung NC110 Win7Starter

From a regular install, the game loads and looks fine, but is incredibly slow.
If I delete/rename ddraw.dll it runs well, but looks awful - colours all messed up.
I tried a hacked DDraw DLL which fixed the colours, but was slow once again.
Tried 'Disable display scaling...' in compatibility properties... no change.

Been messing with this for four hours and still no joy :(

edit: Tried hires patch, but the included DLL makes everything slow again.
Also tried a batch file to close explorer when the game runs, but game gives a no-cd error message.

I had the same issues just now trying to start up under windows 7 on my laptop.

Through another post here I found a trick of a sorts that, strangely, actually works for this.

First, rename or remove the ddraw.dll file as advised.

Second, right click on your desktop, go to 'screen resolution'. Once there, go to 'advanced settings'. Open the 'monitor' tab.

Leave it open just like that (No need to change anything), and start the game.

For some unfathomable reason this actually fixes the colours problem.

Glad it worked for you, but didn't fix the colour problems for me. I have yet to find any way to make this run acceptably on Windows 7 - very disappointed as it claims to be compatible on the purchase page :(

Just to say thanks, worked great for me.

*cries*

any other suggestions?

At long last, sorted it.

A taskbar utility called 'PalleteStealerSuspender' allows the game to run properly (you still have to delete ddraw.dll)

So happy I can finally play :)

@GOG - this really ought to be added to the game guides, or included in the download. Either that or remove Win7 from the compatibility chart.

Please could someone mark this post as the solution so that others may find it? Thanks :)

Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics run just fine on my Win7 32-bit system. Maybe your problem is related to hardware or drivers.

No, its a 64 bit system issue with direct draw. Lots of games that use direct draw have display issues with 64 bit systems.

Fallout FIXT is probably the best way to go to fix the display issues without having to edit the ddraw.dll files or do anything crazy, just use Falllout FIXT and leave the monitor display tab open and that should take care of display issues.

My system isn't 64-bit, and Fallout Fixt did nothing to help.

I'm pretty sure the problem is due to windows explorer stealing the palette - since Palettestealersuspender disables explorer whilst running selected games.

I would imagine different graphics cards handle palette information differently, thus explaining why this problem doesn't occur for all win7 users. I certainly don't have outdated drivers - I'm incredibly anal about having an up-to-date machine.

In this instance I'm using an integrated GMA card - since I'm playing on a Samsung Netbook. A friend let me borrow his Win7 Acer netbook and the same problem & fix presented themselves.

At any rate, the problem is now solved and I'm happily enjoying Fallout for the first time :)

edit: Just FYI, the website I downloaded [PSS] from noted that this issue occurs on a variety of hardware on several games - including age of empires, fallout and worms. The creator of the program seems to think it's Win7-specific.

Please note also that the palette issue only occurs when using the system's ddraw.dll (rather than the one included in the fallout game folder) - that's probably why you didn't experience the issue, gnarbrag.

Just wanted to chime in and thank you for mentioning the Palettestealersuspender. I don't currently have this issue, but I'll keep it in mind, because I'm running quite a few old games regularly. Well at least you seem to have gotten it working, which is more than I can say.

I've found [PSS] incredibly useful, today I used it to run the original Carmageddon - great stuff ;) Seems to work with any game that has palette issues, though occasionally they crash on exit.

Still, can't have everything!

Just tried your reg fix, but when I launch the file I get an error message:

"The specified file is not a registry script blah blah blah"

Any ideas?

edit: Found a tool online called 'Directdraw compatibility tool 1.1' which allows you to browse for an exe and auto-create and apply a reg file to do the same thing. This worked :) Claims to work for all pre-DX8 games.

Still not sure why manually created regfile didn't work, but hey - we now have a better solution than using palettestealersuspender.

Big-Up NPL :)

double edit: Is there any way we could cook up an 'undo' for these reg changes, for people that like to be able to revert such things?

yet another edit: This registry trick has another perk - you can alt-tab in and out of the game to check wikis etc. Lifesaver! When you toggle back to the game, you may have a corrupt screen. Simply hit F1 to open the help, this will refresh the game renderer and fix it.

NPL is my hero :)

Thanks...that utility is da bomb.

I would highly recommend using 'Directdraw compatibility tool 1.1' instead (mentioned further down in this thread) - it's 100% stable and doesn't compromise critical system threads to operate. PSS is more of a 'bodge' - and anything that works with one method should work with the other as well.

In short, DCT1.1 is MUCH better.