Original Fallout source code survived thanks to “rogue” Interplay co-founder

Whew: A week after Fallout co-creator Tim Cain revealed that Interplay had ordered him to destroy the source code for the game and its sequel in the late 1990s, new information has surfaced showing that the code survived. Rebecca Heineman, a veteran programmer and co-founder of Interplay, had quietly preserved it decades ago, safeguarding an important piece of gaming history.

Heineman made personal backups of Fallout and Fallout 2 while working on Mac ports of the games. Her habit of creating archival CD-ROMs stemmed from an earlier failed attempt to recover the source code for Wasteland – the 1988 Interplay pre-cursor to Fallout. This experience taught her the importance of preservation, and her decision to keep backups of all her work ensured that nothing of value would be lost.

“I made it a quest to snapshot everything I worked on just in case this very situation happened,” Heineman said. “When I left Interplay in 1995, I had copies of every game we did. No exceptions. When I did MacPlay, which existed beyond my tenure at Interplay, every game we ported, I snapshotted. It included Fallout 1 and 2.”

Heineman still possesses the source code and other development materials for multiple Interplay titles, including the Fallout games. She’s now considering asking Bethesda – the current rights holder to the series – for permission to release the code publicly. Until that happens, the files remain securely stored in her archive, away from public eyes but not forgotten.

This recent revelation contrasts sharply with Tim Cain’s earlier account. In a recent video, Cain revealed that when he left Interplay in 1998, the company had instructed him to delete all Fallout-related content, including design documents and source code. Years later, Interplay itself reached out to Cain because it had lost the code in the shuffle – an unfortunate mistake that has long been a source of regret for the company.

As far as Cain knew, the loss was permanent. He recalled Interplay contacting other former team members after misplacing its archives, only to come up empty. The company seemingly failed to ask Heineman, who wasn’t part of the core PC development team. So when she heard Cain’s story last week, she came forward with a surprise revelation: the code had never been lost after all. She still had it.

Key Innovations

• Fallout’s original source code was responsible for introducing the SPECIAL system, which provides players with a set of unique attributes and skills.
• Fallout 2 further built upon this system, introducing new perks, skills, and traits, to provide an even more engaging and dynamic RPG experience.

Technical Specifications

• Fallout – Released in 1997, the game was built on the GURPS engine and offered a top-down perspective with turn-based combat.
• Fallout 2 – Released in 1998, the game also used the GURPS engine and was optimized for performance and compatibility improvements.

Industry Impact

The discovery that Fallout’s original code was never truly gone highlights how individual efforts often fill the gaps left by studios and publishers. If Bethesda approves a release, it could offer unprecedented insight into the development of one of the most iconic role-playing games of the 1990s – and could even become a rare win for video game preservation, a field often overshadowed by commercial interests.

These key innovations and technical specifications helped establish the Fallout series as a benchmark for RPG design and laid the groundwork for the role-playing genre as a whole. By preserving the original source code, future generations can study, learn, and draw inspiration from these classic games, keeping the spirit of Fallout alive for years to come.