Fallout demo

The Fallout demo is a freely downloadable and playable demonstration of the gameplay of Fallout. It was released on April 22, 1997.

Gameplay
While it uses the Junktown area map from the retail version of the game (the map is called "JUNKDEMO" in the demo file) instead of a separate one, it has completely different characters (except for Dogmeat and Phil, who tries to get rid of the dog just as in the actual game), and a different plot.

The demo takes places in Scrapheap, a small town dominated by two competing gangs: the Crypts, who rule the city's power generator, are large in numbers, and wear leather armor; and the Fools (led by a woman named Baka), who are fewer in number and less formidable opponents because of their armor. They are waiting only for one more member before engaging in war with the Crypts.

One can only play as Max Stone in the demo, while his stats and biography are the same as in the retail version of the game, his traits are different. He starts the demo with a fairly decent inventory of weapons and items.

Walkthrough
There are several ways one can complete the demo. The player can help the Crypts maintain control of the generator by helping them wipe out the Fools, help the Fools wipe out the Crypts and let them rule the town, join one gang and wait for them to wipe themselves (or the other gang) out before finishing any gang survivors off, ridding the town of all crime altogether and leaving the power generator in the hands of the people, or doom everyone in town by destroying the generator.

Cut content
In the game files, many unused Vault Boy images can be found, that were primary intended to illustrate the GURPS stats, and but when Interplay make the decision to drop GURPS on February 12, 1997, they were kept in the demo for future use in the final version of Fallout (presumed for new perks and traits). However, they were not included and those Vault Boy images are only present in the Fallout demo files.



Note

 * The Sex Appeal Vault Boy of the Fallout demo is used for Strength in-game.
 * The Toughness Vault Boy is used for Endurance in-game.
 * Statistics that didn't have a specific Vault Boy picture used the one for Level.

Bugs

 * The demo will fail to run on newer versions of Windows (including Windows XP), instead producing a black screen with an hourglass cursor, which will never finish loading. The best way to fix this is to right-click on the application (FALLDEMO.EXE), then go to Properties, Compatibility, and then under the "Compatibility mode" header, check the box to run it in compatibility mode for Windows 95. Finally, under the "Display settings" header, check the boxes to run it in 256 colors and 640 x 480 screen resolution. This will allow it to run just fine.