Craig Weber

Having just finished the TV series of the same title, I figured it would be a good time to replay one of my favorite games from my teenage years: Fallout, but I don't own a Windows computer and the game was never released for macOS. Fortunately, the excellent Fallout Community Edition project faithfully reimplements the game, although the installation instructions for macOS are, for the moment, a mess. While those instructions are being ironed out in the issue tracker, I'm hoping this guide can help anyone who just wants to play the game on a Mac with minimal fuss.

NOTE: This guide still requires you to purchase the game. Presently it's going for $10 on Steam (and $2.99 on GOG, but I couldn't get the GOG artifacts working on macOS).

Instructions

1. Install the Steam macOS client

2. From the terminal, run Steam with the -console flag: /Applications/Steam.app/Contents/MacOS/steam_osx -console. This will give you a new CONSOLE tab at the top beside the STORE, LIBRARY, etc tabs.

   $ /Applications/Steam.app/Contents/MacOS/steam_osx -console
   src/vstdlib/osversion.cpp (393) : Assertion Failed: Unsupported macOS version 14.2.0
   src/vstdlib/osversion.cpp (393) : Assertion Failed: Unsupported macOS version 14.2.0
   [2024-04-28 14:12:23] Startup - updater built Mar 15 2022 17:15:24
   [2024-04-28 14:12:23] Startup - updater built Mar  6 2024 12:28:54
   [2024-04-28 14:12:23] Startup - Steam Client launched with: '/Users/weberc2/Library/Application Support/Steam/Steam.AppBundle/Steam/Contents/MacOS/steam_osx' '-console'
   found breakpad via in process memory: '/Users/weberc2/Library/Application Support/Steam/Steam.AppBundle/Steam/Contents/MacOS/Frameworks/Breakpad.framework/Versions/A/Resources'
   Installing breakpad crash handler
   [2024-04-28 14:12:23] Loading cached metrics from disk (/Users/weberc2/Library/Application Support/Steam/Steam.AppBundle/Steam/Contents/MacOS/package/steam_client_metrics.bin)
   [2024-04-28 14:12:23] Using the following download hosts for Public, Realm steamglobal
   [2024-04-28 14:12:23] 1. https://client-update.akamai.steamstatic.com, /, Realm 'steamglobal', weight was 1000, source = 'update_hosts_cached.vdf'
   [2024-04-28 14:12:23] 2. https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com, /client/, Realm 'steamglobal', weight was 1, source = 'update_hosts_cached.vdf'
   [2024-04-28 14:12:23] 3. https://cdn.steamstatic.com, /client/, Realm 'steamglobal', weight was 1, source = 'baked in'
   SteamID:  0, universe Public
   [2024-04-28 14:12:23] Verifying installation...
   [2024-04-28 14:12:24] Verification complete
   [2024-04-28 14:12:24] Not updating bootstrapper: No update necessary: current version 4.0, package version 4.0
   [2024-04-28 14:12:24] Shutdown
   

3. In the CONSOLE tab of the Steam client, run download_depot 38400 38409¹. After a moment, the console should report that the download has begun and when it completes, it will print the download path. Optionally move or copy the depot directory somewhere more accessible, like ~/Games/Fallout

4. Download the Fallout CE installer (the macOS .dmg file) from the Fallout CE releases page if you haven't already. Running the installer should open a Finder window with just the Fallout Community Edition app; drag that into your depot directory (e.g., ~/Games/Fallout).

5. Open your depot directory in a Finder window and double-click the Fallout Community Edition application to start the game.

If you find an issue with these instructions, consider opening an issue against my blog or submit a pull request. You can also try messaging me directly (see my contact info at the bottom of the page). You can also comment on this post generally on Mastodon

Attribution

I was able to piece this together thanks largely to this comment on r/macgaming. That's probably a good place to look for more general advice or help with playing games on macOS.