Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 source code isn’t actually lost, reveals former Interplay founder, despite orders to destroy all assets

Earlier this week, we released a story that the source code and in-development assets for both Fallout and Fallout 2 were lost. According to series creator Tim Cain, and as far as he knew, the source codes for both of the original games were destroyed. However, that’s not the case.

Speaking to VideoGamer, Interplay Productions founder and game designer Rebecca Heineman revealed that she not kept the source code for both of the original Fallout games, but a slew of other Interplay releases as well.

Fallout and Fallout 2 source code is safe

After reaching out to VideoGamer, Heineman explained that started preserving the source code of games at the company after working on Interplay’s 10 Year Anthology: Classic Collection, a compilation of the company’s games form 1983 to 1993.

At the time, the programmer needed the source code for a number of titles, including Fallout’s predecessor Wasteland, but after seeing first-hand how poor the preservation of games was back then, she made sure to keep everything backed up.

“I have the source to all my projects, so most games I got running on the CD without issue,” the programmer told VideoGamer. “Wasteland, was ported to PC by someone else, so I asked for the source and was given a blank stare. I went to the COO’s office and he gave me a cardboard box that looked like it was run over by a truck and it had some of the source on floppies. I ended up contacting friends at Electronic Arts to get a copy of the source we sent them when Wasteland shipped.”

After this event, Heineman “snapshotted” every release she worked on, including the MacOS ports of both original Fallout games. As she needed the games’ original source code for the ports, both games are properly preserved “up to M-Disc Blu-Rays for long term storage”.

“I made it a quest to snapshot everything and archive it on CD-Roms,” Heineman explained. “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”

Now, Cain’s comments on why the source code was assumed lost were not without merit at all. Heineman explained that Interplay management did order the destruction of property for anyone who left the company, including Cain.

“Interplay had issues with people leaving the firm, and if you quit, they got… testy,” she explained. “I was a founder, so when I left, I kept EVERYTHING. Now, on Fallout, I did the Mac port for my company, MacPlay. So I have everything, including the source code to Fallout 1 and 2. Now, I don’t have Tim’s notes or other work in progress files. But the source code is not lost.”

“Interplay had a reputation of threatening ex-employees with litigation if they were ‘poached’, and if they had assets taken home,” they continued. “However, they had no legal leg to stand on which was why a suit was never filed on anyone. [If] they did have a legal leg to stand on, I would have been sued into last week.”

Releasing Fallout’s source code

The Fallout and Fallout 2 source code is still kept privately by Heineman, but there is a desire to release them. As the programmer explained, she can’t simply release the games’ source codes to the wild as they are actively sold products protected under copyright. In the past, the programmer publicly released her port of DOOM to the 3DO on GitHub, but Fallout is a little more complicated.

“Art Data was totally defunct. I wrote the code, so I gave myself permission, and I asked id Software and they said, ‘Sure!’ Fallout would require permission from Bethesda. I hadn’t gotten around to asking them. They are on my list,” they explained.

“I need expressed permission to release, despite the source code being pretty much obsolete,” Heineman replied when we asked why the games’ source code hasn’t been uploaded to the internet.

The return of MacPlay

As for why that conversation with Bethesda hasn’t taken place, the simple answer is “time”. Heineman is currently in the midst of bringing MacPlay back, working to bring “native ports” of “casual and AAA games to the Mac”, just like she did back in the 90s.

“The opportunity dropped in my lap a few years back, and it took a long time to negotiate the deal,” the programmer said. “I’m one of the people at Interplay who championed the creation of MacPlay in the first place, so it has meaning to me. Also, there is a dearth of games on the Mac, and I’m a Mac programmer, so it’s a great match.”

As for Heineman’s penchant for games preservation, the programmer has kept a tonne of titles safe with plans to release titles that are appropriate.

“I have over 1,000 games in my archives,” the programmer told us. “I create ‘makeprojects’ in python to help organize and modernize them. Look for releases this and every year moving forward.”

Hopefully, Bethesda will allow the source code for Fallout and Fallout 2 to live online which, in turn, would give fans more freedom to bring the games to other systems. On the other hand, maybe Bethesda could do something else with the games, such as a proper remaster that runs well on modern systems.

Sadly, Fallout creator Tim Cain’s other worries about the games’ in-development assets being scrapped are still true. While Heineman’s work on MacPlay allowed her to backup the games’ source code, she wasn’t involved in the games’ early development to backup a tonne of assets, but maybe someone else has those backed up somewhere?