Hmm, that's a shame. I was hoping it would help, not least because I am out of ideas. Not knowing your setup first-hand, it's difficult to diagnose exactly what's going wrong. Hopefully somebody will read this thread (ideally somebody with HP Presario knowledge) who may have more advice.

Install DirectX 9c. Most old games need it and it does not come preinstalled in Windows Vista or newer.

If that wont help install sfall if you don''t have Killap's Unofficial patch or restoration project installed (as those two comes with it). Just extract 'ddraw.dll' and 'ddraw.ini' to fallout's base directory. (i.e. the one that contains fallout2.exe.)

OK, well thanks for all the help, Appreciate it mate.
If I install DirectX 9c will that remove DirectX11 and cause more problems with other games I own? I am thinking of just installing the patch to see if that helps. I really want to play this game again.

I downloaded DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer, and after I run the installer I get the message "DirectX setup has determined that a new or equivalent version of DirectX has been installed already. No installation is necessary."

Did I install the right one?

I just installed the latest version of sfall, extracted 'ddraw.dll' and 'ddraw.ini' into the base folder and the game boots up fine up untill the first cutscene, I now see a green rectangle on the screen when the game freezes.

If you used the link I provided, then yes. Message probably mean some game already installed it (lot of bigger and most retail games come with nessesary libraries) so that part is probably ok. You can try the redistributable version if you wish but it should not make any difference.

One more thing you could try is change the ddraw.ini [Graphics] setting from Mode=0 to Mode=4 or Mode=5. If that does not work you might as well try Fallout 2 Unofficial Patch or Restoration Project from http://killap.net/. As others have said you should not need to but if all else fail, I see no harm trying it.

If even that does not work I suggest contacting GOG support as your problem is really uncommon (did not find ANY mention in various places I looked). Descripe the problem to them, provide your system specs and link to this topic so they can see what has already been tried. If they can't help you, probably no one can.

I've read that the "rainbow color"issue is pretty common in some Fallout 2 era games when running them in Vista or newer operating system but I've never heard it preventing running of game (it makes the game unplayable ofcource due to messed up colors). Because I've never witnessed it, I've never had to resort to the workarounds for the issue nor seen wether or not they work. One workaround is "just right click on the desktop and chose "screen resolution" and let that window be open then start the game." It won't help game freezing at startup.

Sorry I could not be of any more help but after the above you've have tried pretty much every workaround/fix I know for this game.

This is weird. I have actually never seen anyone have problems with a fresh install of Fallout 2.

OP, maybe you could try installing the game, deleting the gog launcher and the shortcuts, copying it to either an external HDD or a flash drive, and running it off that?

I'm not sure what could be the problem.

THIS WILL SOUND MIND BLOWINGLY STUPID

I was having the same 'failed to launch Fallout 2' message

I found this thread and flipped thru it

Thought for a few minutes

Went and added 'run as administrator' to the GOGLAUNCHER.EXE

And guess what, no errors or messed up colors or freezing.

The only problem was that UAC does not allow a non-admin program to sideload another program with admin privileges. I have had the same problem before with old camera interface software and certain other programs with called libs or linked executables.

This is a five second patch for GoG, their installer just needs to set the admin bit for the GOGLAUNCHER and then it will have the requisite privileges to sideload fallout2.exe


I surely hope that this works for you too.

EDIT: I had the same problem. I tried some of the solutions here, and i found one that worked. I did what Petrell said, edit the graphics setting in ddraw from 0 to 4.

The problem before i got it working was that when i clicked the Fallout 2 icon on my desktop, i got the error saying: Fallout2.exe cannot be started. If i ran the game as an administrator, i got rainbow colors.

Now i can finally play this. Kudos to you Petrell!

I was having the same problem as well. The Launch Fallout 2 shortcut was giving the error fallout2.exe cannot be started but when launching with the fallout2.exe it would run but with distorted colors.

Changing the setting in the ddraw.ini fixed the color issue.

i bought fallout2 today and when i press the setup thing it starts loading and then it stops and nothing happens HELP!?