Fallout Tactics Patch

UPDATE:

It seems that since Bethesda has fully taken control of the Fallout franchise, they have updated the three original fallout games to make them compatible with modern operating systems which really does now render this patch obsolete. I will leave this page up for people who may need them, but for Steam users this patch shouldn’t be needed any more.

As many people may have experienced, running older DOS or Windows games on modern systems can be a fun experience. Recently, digital distribution service Steam put the original Fallout games on special, so I thought I would grab them while on special. While I had already acquired the GOG.com copies and had my existing boxed copies when originally released, I thought I would add them to my steam library as I use the Steam platform more. As expected, getting these games to run has required a few “tweaks” in order to run at their best.

While the first few titles are quite easy to patch, the third title Fallout Tactics is a little bit harder. Normally to get these games running, you need to install each respective games original patch and copy the files to the game directory before  you can install the Hi-Res graphics patch for each game.

Fallout tactics on the other hand, is a little harder. In order to install the original game patch, there is a requirement to manually extract the patch files from the CAB file as the original installation patch installer doesn’t work too well on modern computers. After reading some difficulties others appear to be having in manually extracting the original patch files on the steam forums, I have decided to create a .zip file with those required files included so people who aren’t too sure of how to extract .CAB files can complete the Hi-Res upgrade.

Full instructions for completing the installation of the Hi-Res patch can be found on the steam forum I have linked earlier, but I have included it below for easier reference.

Fallout Tactics
This one is a pain. Grab the high-res patch here. Of course it won’t work on Steam’s version so download the 1.27 NA/UK patch from Interplay (16.4 MB). It’s some nasty InstallShield installer that will fail because it doesn’t recognize Steam’s version of the game. So instead of running it, open fotpatch1.27.exe with winrar and extract the files in the archive (if you have shell extensions installed then you can right-click on fotpatch1.27.exe and select “Extract files…”). Now the data we want is in data1.cab, but it’s stored in a proprietary InstallShield cab format. Download i5comp (find it elsewhere if you want, but this one was clean) and extract it into C:\Windows (or somewhere else in your PATH). Open the DOS prompt, cd to the folder where you extracted data1.cab and the other files from fotpatch1.27.exe, and runi5comp x data1.cab

It’ll drop a bunch of files in that folder – these are the files that the 1.27 patch would have applied. So just drop them all (BOS.exe, FT Tools.exe, Mss32.dll, core, miles) into your steamapps\common\fallout tactics folder. Then run the high-res patcher (FOT_HiRes_Patch.exe) and if you want also run the FTTools patcher if you want to use the map editor in high-res. It’ll recognize the 1.27 BOS.exe and patch it successfully. We’re still not done, however! Unlike the steam version, 1.27 checks for a CD in the drive. Go ahead, try it. Unfortunately, we can’t use a no-cd exe because then we lose the highres patch. So we need a binary patch to remove the CD protection (you own the game!).. go to gamecopyworld (I doubt I’m allowed to link to it) and find the fallout tactics page. You want the 1.27 English no-cd patch #2 by Red. Drop it in your fallout tactics folder and run it. Apparently the patch was made in haste and doesn’t even check that you have the right exe for patching (which is exactly what we want!). A command prompt window will flash briefly, and then when you run the game it won’t block you out for not having the CD in the drive. And now you can set your resolution settings

Hopefully this extracted archive I have created will help people who aren’t too sure on how to extract the files and will allow people to bypass the i5comp section of this update. I have also included the NoCD patch that will be required again thanks to the patching process. Once this archive is downloaded, extract this archive to your [Program Files\Steam\Steamapps\common\fallout tactics] folder. Once completed you can then install the Hi-Res patch which is mentioned in the steam forum and also above. I hope this helps.

Roger.

Click here to download the .zip file

PLEASE NOTE: You are advised to take all necessary steps to ensure your computer has an active, working anti-virus program. While I’ve have taken due care in making sure the above file is virus free, I can accept no responsibility or liability for any loss or damage sustained as a consequence of the above file transfer across the internet. By downloading the above zip file, you are accepting these conditions.