Howdy folks,
After slogging through Fallout 2 for getting on for probably upwards of 100 hours over several months, I defeated Mr H last night, sat back to enjoy the end sequence, it plays the intial sailing away bit, then as it tries to move into the Perlman narrated bit, it errors, every single time.
It's crushing after all that effort, that I can't quite make it to the end credits. A similar thing happened in Fallout 1, although most of the ending would play, it just skipped a lot of the town endings (showed the picture for a sec, no sound then skipped to the next).
Fallout 2 just crashes the game.
I've tried a fix that I googled that said I needed to disable the sound acceleration in DXDIAG but it hasn't made a difference.
Wondering if anyone could offer any possible advice?
Many thanks.

I found a post at NMA that stated that disabling both graphics and sound acceleration from would help with ending narration skipping in Fallout 1.
Do you use unnofficial patch or any other mods?

It's a standard install, no mods at all.
It's version 1.02d, has children in etc.
I'll just try and disable graphics accel now...
[EDIT] Still the same, error box says the following;
"The instruction at 0048941c referenced memory at 00000069
The memory could not be read from"
I'm clueless as to what that means.

Only other thing I can think might help is sfall. It has some graphics options you can play with. It's simple to use, just extract it into your fallout 2 directory and you're good to go. If just 'installing' it does not help, enable the DirectX9 mode in sfall.ini.
I can't think of anything else right now. Oh btw, what OS you're using?

Its windows XP SP2.
Thanks for all your help so far, your time is appreciated.
I will give that sfall a try later on hopefully.

Tried a fresh fallout 2 install, getting the same ending movie crashes as before.
I installed sfall, and when you copy the files over to fallout directory, fallout 2 doesnt even run, stating "d3dx9_42.dll was not found". The Sfall FAQ does make mention of;
"This can be caused by the windows explorer hang problem, so check if that applies to you.
If you're using graphics mode 4 or 5, then make sure your DirectX 9 installation is up to date. If you're on vista/win 7 and have DirectX 10/11 then it doesn't automatically mean that you have the latest version of DirectX9, so install it. Specifically, when using mode 4 or 5 sfall requires D3DX9_30.dll."
My direct X 9 is the latest version, and i've no idea what that .dll file is or where to find it, or what mode 4 or 5 means.
I also get a second error with sfall installed when I try to run fallout 2 that says I need windows 95 with direct x 3 etc etc.
If I delete the 2 sfall files then the game will run as normal.
No idea where to go from here, just glad I finished the game.
If anybody has any more thoughts i'd be grateful.

Even if you have the latest DX9 there are chances that some files are missing (they aren't included with the standard DX9 install for some reason). The best way to find out/fix this is to download the DX 9 web installer, it will search your system for missing files (including the ones that sfall is complaining about) and download & register them w/ windows.

Actually having DirextX9c does not mean you have the latest version. Microsoft often releases updates to DirectX without updating the version number or letter so be sure to install the latest release even if your version is technically the same. Latest version seems to be from august 2009. You can find it from microsoft site (Full installer / Web installer)
As for what the modes 4 and 5 are:
Mode 4 is directx9 fullscreen (original FO2 uses dx8.1 or something)
Mode 5 is directx9 in windowed mode
Here is the part you can change it in ddraw.ini
[Graphics]
;Set to 0 for 8 bit fullscreen
;Set to 4 for dx9 fullscreen
;Set to 5 for dx9 windowed
;A dx9 mode is required for any graphics related script extender functions to work (i.e. fullscreen shaders)
;Modes 1, 2 and 3 are no longer supported
Mode=0
It's obviosly possible that your save have become corrupt. Fallout 2 has well known bug that may corrupt the save and cause game to crash when you try to return already visited area.
"In brief, if you collect too many items (e.g. if you aim at hoarding every quest item in the game in the trunk), this will corrupt save files and make the game crash.
Symptoms of this bugs are: buttons on the game display replaced by black squares and becoming unusable: the skilldex button on the main screen, and the sleep button in the Pipboy."

Thanks for the directx 9 links, thats sorted the problem with sfall not working. I've played around with some options but none are fixing the issue, although being able to run in a window is cool :-)
Here is a link to my saved game,
If anyone fancies loading it up and seeing if they can get it to run ok, that might be useful. Just walk out the door to the North, and the end sequence should run, mine crashes the game after the boat sequence.
http://www.megafileupload.com/en/file/190212/SLOT04-zip.html

Unfortunately it crashes on my system as well :( I tried everything I could think of and nothing worked. The save game is most likely corrupted beyond repair unfortunately. Strangely enough tt did not seem to be bugged with too many items or holotapes bugs either.
Only suggestion I can give is trying from earlier save but it's possible it's already corruted too and evidently only affects end game squence.
Edit: I actually noticed that you can't save the game either. Have per change saved durring combat sequences as this is another bug known to cause problems.

Thanks a lot for booting it up and taking a look. :-)
Damnit. This is one cruel game.
I suppose the relative complexity and variables in the game, makes the amount of bugs that have emerged over the years acceptable but grrrr.
I may have possibly saved during a combat sequence, but not at all often.
Are you saying you can corrupt a game at any point during a playthrough and it might not manifest itself until the end?
The only time I have from memory was in the Wanamingo mine, as the fight was proving to be a tough one, though there may well have been others.
What happens after the end sequence runs, anything I am missing out on? Do you go back into the gameworld, or do the end credits roll and go back to the start screen?

Well there certainly is many bugs and clithces in FO2 but it's entirely possible to play game thru without encountering or noticing any. Also Killap's patch fixes many remaining bugs and restores several endings that are unreachable in 1.02d version.
Well I can't claim to understand the underlying mechanics but I suppose it's certainly possiple but usually the corruption shows it self sooner. However for example the too many items bug corrupts the maps and game crashes if you ever try to return to them. As for saving in combat corrupting saves, I only remember it only remember it happening if you reload the save you made in combat and try to save afterwards.
I don't remember the specifics (It's 2 years since I last completed the game and that was with killap's restoration project) but you can continue playing afterwards so you probably can complete any subquests left undone and roam the wastes until 13 year time limit runs out. There might be new dialog in some places but someone who played more recently would have to fill you up on those. The end sequence it self is the most interesting part as it describes the fate of all the locations in the game. Most places have several and it all depends on your actions (or inactions).

I can never play evil char, too much of a goody two shoes :P but having the choise makes big difference.
Just remember to use Drog's patches if you play arcanum. Like killap's patch in addition to fixing bugs it restores several endings and other content.
Also Killap's been working on 1.3 version of his restoration project for long time and he hopes to complete it this year so you may want to wait for that before another playthru (it's supposed to be biggest content restoration yet)

Several years after, i was playing fallout2 again and after about 94 hours of playing, after finishing the game i got crashes when leaving map areas through the green grids. Well, after reading several forums and other site, installing the latest killaps, unnoficcial patches, i've found a site with the archive "TooManyItemsBug.rar" (download it with firefox because google chrome blocks it thinking it's a threat) You have just to run it in your fallout2 folder and then execute the program. It fixed all my saved files and the crashes were gone.

Bye!