You mean GURPS :p.

I always think of Steven Jackson outside the gates of the Interplay building, ringing the doorbell and no one answering. There was a joke about something like that told many years ago, I think it was from Steven Jackson himself. There were good CRPG's that came out before Fallout. With full muscial scores and such too. Even better games than Fallout if you liked RPG stuff. It was just Diablo was out, and oh looky, here comes more bland action RPG's with no story that followed. But then Fallout came out, where you could make your own choices. "Shoot the dog or save the dog", your choice! And of course, combat was turn based! Not only that, but machine guns fired like machine guns in turn-based mode!

The only thing I see Fallout doing for the industry, was that it gave the "choice" mainstream appeal. So now you have lots of games today where you can have choice. Like Fallout 3, it's far from Fallout gameplay, but what remains is choice. (I didn't play fallout 3 new vegas, but you get the idea!). Other games like Knights of the old Republic, etc. Without Fallout breaking the way, none of those games would be around today.

It's how I see it anyway :D.

What scenes in Fallout do you feel best describe this simplistic good/evil approach?

Good CRPG's like.. ?
Genuine question, I'm not aware of any but then my history is on Mac side of things and therefore sketchy.

Yeah, modern games are much better!!!!
I can shoot people in chest in real-time!!!!!!!!!!
And the better, there's no story!!!one!!!one!!!!two

A small example, but not wholly unworthy:
Ultima 4

I liked that and even mentioned it (or the series) in the original post as one of the good oldies, but the midi *pling* *pling* *ploong* soundtrack wasnt really the kind of soundtrack I'm talking about, and the tile graphics weren't really the kind of painted backgrounds you have on infinity engine games. The plot was neat though, and the character creation with choices made between virtues the best ever.

But was there something, anything that'd have given comparable/in the ballpark/at least the same game -kind of experience? Graphics, sounds, story? Final Fantasies at some point maybe, but early on they were blocky and limited by storage size.

Unless I've lost a large number of them since my last inventory and have not recouped those losses through my random purchases in the intervening years, I should have over 100 distinct NES titles on my shelf.
MIDI should not be underestimated.

Nor should love lavished upon a graphically inferior medium.

Yes, verily doth the beauty, and to some extent the game's glorious whiskey-tango-foxtrottery, shine through in those elements.

So part of your trouble, I take it, is that games prior to Fallout had inferior graphics and sound, constrained by the technology of the time?
I assume I needn't say that Fallout didn't have the best graphics or music of its year. 1997 put out some beautiful work.
For example, this was the year of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. This game is not technologically unparalleled, but it still sets a high standard in its genre of platform adventure titles. Indeed, comparisons even in modern, 'prettier' games tend to be unfavorable because the artists spent so very much energy on the visuals, and the music is undoubtedly top notch despite being only slightly more advanced than MIDI.
MDK was visually a great deal more complicated, and had as much attention paid to its aesthetic as Fallout. Its atmosphere was more deliberately absurd, but nevertheless it was a PC game released months before Fallout and visually blew it out of the water.
Hexen II was a melee shooter released that year with larger amounts of destructible terrain and a few RPG elements to boot. Prettier games were introduced that year, but Hexen II was more immersive than most due to its physics engine.

Games prior to Fallout were limited by technology. Fallout did not even use its technology to full advantage when it was released. Its importance really doesn't lie in its graphics or sound in my opinion, but in the content of its other characteristics.

Pretty much yeah. FO elevated the CRPG genre in more ways than one. To *me*, the most important would be the story being more grown up. I remember how blown away I was by the freedom to do... almost anything.

But the outwards appearance was a big part of it also. Much like there was a whole lot of going *ooh* and *aaah* when KotOR came out, and the same later with Mass Effect. Both got a huge amount of attention by their fantastic graphics and animations. Now neither was (although this can be contested) really the best looking games so far, but they were still miles ahead of other RPG's at the time.

I'd suggest going from the tile graphics to painted backgrounds and from midi to orchestral soundtrack was a bigger jump than the one provided by either of those.

And that's not to downplay the old tunes either, I still have lots of fond memories of compositions by the likes of Rob Hubbard and Martin Galway.

I don't get the whole hate for Fallout 3 & NV. I mean, all Fallout games are great in their own way. Why repeat a formula for infinity. It would only lead to inferior games. Sometimes you have to take chances. I started with New Vegas in January and was hooked. Now i've got every Fallout game for Windows except those stupid New Vegas DLCs. If they were in a cheap bundle, i'd buy them though.