The Fallout 1 and 2 Source Code Was Not Lost, Despite Being Ordered to Destroy It
It turns out that the source code for Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 was not lost, even though it was once ordered to be destroyed. Tim Cain, the creator of both games, had previously stated that, to the best of his knowledge, the code had been destroyed. However, Rebecca Heineman, one of the founders of Interplay Productions (the publisher of the games), has clarified the situation. She confirmed that she had actually saved the source code.
Heineman’s Role in Saving the Code
Heineman explained that after working on the “10 Year Anthology: Classic Collection”—a compilation of Interplay games from 1983 to 1993—she began saving the source code of the company’s games. While working on the Wasteland project, which was the predecessor to Fallout, she saw how poor video game preservation was at the time. This led her to take responsibility for saving backup copies of all the games she worked on.
“I have the source to all my projects, so most games I got running on the CD without issue,” Heineman said. She also shared an interesting story about Wasteland and how she had to go to Interplay’s COO to get a box of floppy disks containing part of the source code. She later contacted her friends at Electronic Arts to get a proper copy of the source code.
Fallout Source Code Was Preserved
After this, Heineman made sure to create an instant snapshot of every version of the games she worked on, including the MacOS conversions of both Fallout games. These snapshots were stored safely on CD-ROM.
Heineman’s mission was clear: Create snapshots of everything and archive them on CD-ROM. When she left Interplay in 1995, she had copies of all the games she had worked on, including Fallout 1 and Fallout 2.
Heineman confirmed that she still has the source code for both games. While she doesn’t have Tim Cain’s notes or other related files, the core source code is safe and was never lost, even though she had been instructed to destroy it when she left the company.
Heineman also shared that Interplay had a reputation for threatening legal action against former employees who took company resources when leaving. But according to Heineman, there were no legal grounds to pursue a lawsuit, which is why no one was ever sued.
