...but I have a Mac.
I love the concept of the site, but I can't relive all of these great games (especially Fallout) because they're all for windows...
I could run Boot Camp, but that would mean having to shell out $90 for windows, which would kind of defeat the purpose of coming here for such cheap, great games.

Err, if you ever want to play games on computers, then PC is the way to go.
But Fallout doesn't require much. You have to be able to find a person from your school/work who is about to trash a 5 year old PC or something. You could always nab one, reformat the HDDs, then enjoy your game.
Okay, actually, the probability of that happening isn't too high, but that is probably your best bet aside from making your own $300 Fallout PC.

Yeah... bear in mind that Fallout was released in 1997... So literally any computer from the last 10 years ought to be able to play it. Ask some tech guys you know... they probably have old computers laying around, especially if you tell them you need one from 1997 on up.

I'm certain you could find a fairly acceptable windows 98 machine at the good will. I've even spotted some os9's and windows ME laptops.

The other option is Linux and WINE. LInux is freely availabel for downlaod in so many falvours it's liek baskin robin's. I've never used it but I hear Unbuntu(sp?) would be a good option for the linux beginner.

Thanks for all of the advice guys, I'll look into finding an old computer for use.
Much appreciated!

Nah, you don't need a new computer. if you're on a Mac you could also use Darwine. It's something like a Windows simulation (not technically spoken) and allows to run a lot of old applications and games (and even many new ones) while you're in your reglur desktop.

Hmm... so I'm looking into Darwine, but I'm not exactly sure what I should be doing? I don't want to start downloading anything before I know the setup...
Do I need to partition my hard drive, like with Windows or Linux? Or is it a simple download and install type deal?

Nah, you don't need to partition your drive. Check http://www.kronenberg.org/darwine/ for the latest release and google for Darwine and probably WINE (which is the same software but for Linux - Darwine is in fact a port of WINE). You should get any help you need. :-)

Thanks! I'll post how things go later.

Under Windows, the default file location is Program Files-GOG-Fallout. It's weird that you're getting a CD error on a version of the game that was meant to be a download.
I'm not sure if this is related to your problem, but there is a post about fixing the "MD5 Checksum". Apparently, this can get corrupted during download or something. If you edit the number to the one posted on the forum, it fixes the problem. I don't know if this is your problem or not, but it's worth looking at.

Hmm... I tried the MD5 Checksum and the numbers matched up, but it didn't do anything. I tried reinstalling the game directly to the applications folder under Darwine, but when I try to run it I get the same error...
Hmm... does it have anything to to with MASTER.DAT? Since it says it's missing the master datafile I wasn't sure...
I'll try re-downloading the whole setup to see if that helps.

You could also try CrossOver, which allows you to play windows games on intel macs. From what I can see from their list of games Fallout should install and run on CrossOver.
Here's a link to their site.
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxgames/
CrossOver is another Windows emulator. Unfortunately it is not completely free. However, you can download a trial version or register as a tester to get a free copy of it.

Heheh,
I have a warning that says I need to run win95 *or* win NT4 with directx 3.0a
Last time I checked cedega does at least directx 7.
Edit (Actually I want to reply...):
Forget about cedega.
wine works.