Fallout 1
Recently, Fallout developer Tim Kane announced the loss of the game’s original materials, but the source code of Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 turned out to be intact.
Not only was it not lost, but it was in copies kept for decades by programmer and Interplay co-founder Rebecca Heineman. It was she who saved not only the legendary RPGs, but also a bunch of other games she worked on in the 1990s. Previously, Tim Kane said He was ordered to destroy his copies of all development files and even notes from meetings when he left Interplay. Along with the source code, the unique clay models for Fallout’s 3D character animations seemed to be lost forever. But as it turned out, not everyone in the studio did the same.
Back in 1993, Heinemann put together an anthology of classic Interplay games on CD by herself, using her backup copies of the code. One day she asked for the source code Wasteland and saw that the box looked like it had been run over by a truck. And it contained only a part of the necessary code, so she requested copies from Electronic Arts. When the programmer saw how the company treated backups, she decided to take matters into her own hands.
«I made it a quest to snapshot everything and archive it on CD-ROMs. When I left Interplay in 1995, I had copies of every game we did. No exceptions. When I did MacPlay, which existed beyond my tenure at Interplay, every game we ported, I snapshotted. It included Fallout 1 and 2», — said Rebecca Heinemann.
That is, she saved Fallout 1 and 2 among the files she copied for MacPlay, Interplay’s port division. Her archives cover both games she developed directly and those she was involved with as a programmer. For example, with Doom for 3DO, everything was easier than with Wasteland. She didn’t have to run around asking for the code because she wrote the port herself. That’s why she later posted its code on GitHub with the permission of id Software.
It is not yet known what Rebecca Heineman will do with the Fallout source code. She can apply to Bethesda for permission to publish it, but she hasn’t done so yet. In case, Bethesda agrees — fans will be able to look under the hood of two cult RPGs. And if Todd Howard sees this as an opportunity to sell us a game that is far from its first decade again, then maybe there will be remastered.
Source: VideoGamer