Gingerious: I know this topic is a little old, but I just downloaded this after the DRM sale and ran into this exact problem. Here's how i fixed it (running windows 7):

1. Right click fallout 2 launch icon and select properties.
2. Click Advanced... button.
3. Select Run As Adminstrator checkbox and click OK.
4. Click OK to close Fallout 2 Properties window.

That seemed to do the trick for me. No mods required, although I'd still recommend them!

Gingerious: I know this topic is a little old, but I just downloaded this after the DRM sale and ran into this exact problem. Here's how i fixed it (running windows 7):

1. Right click fallout 2 launch icon and select properties.
2. Click Advanced... button.
3. Select Run As Adminstrator checkbox and click OK.
4. Click OK to close Fallout 2 Properties window.

That seemed to do the trick for me. No mods required, although I'd still recommend them!

TiuLeitero: I was having the same color issue with the game and running as admin wasn't working, but i was able to fix it by changing the graphics from 8 bit fullscreen to dx9 fullscreen, just go to ddraw.ini under graphics there's "mode=0"
replace the 0 with 4, this completely fixed it for me.

Gingerious: I know this topic is a little old, but I just downloaded this after the DRM sale and ran into this exact problem. Here's how i fixed it (running windows 7):

1. Right click fallout 2 launch icon and select properties.
2. Click Advanced... button.
3. Select Run As Adminstrator checkbox and click OK.
4. Click OK to close Fallout 2 Properties window.

That seemed to do the trick for me. No mods required, although I'd still recommend them!

sebu123: Fixed it. go to ddraw in the installation map and change the mode=0 to 4.
worked for me.

Lillesort131: Starting directly from the executable did the trick for me.

gavbloodworth: I installed Fallout 2 for the first time today and also had this problem. Making it run as Administrator as per the above also fixed the problem for me. I think the admins should make a sticky post about this for Fallout 2. Or update the GOG version so it always runs as administrator on default after install, like many other GOG games are configured.