If you’re into role playing games, either as a player or a DM, sometimes you just need a good map. Whether it is to give the players a fighting shot of surviving your dungeon, or simply because it saves you a lot of time and effort in describing locations, few people can deny their value. Creating them by hand, however, can be a hassle and next to impossible if, like me, you lack artistic skills beyond the creation of stick figures.

Spiderweb Software—creator of the Avernum and Geneforge turn-based RPG franchises—has turned 25-years old. As they put it, “Back then, small developers sold something called ‘shareware.’ The World Wide Web barely existed. People took photographs on ‘film.’ Cell phones were the size of loaves of bread. Also, dinosaurs ruled the Earth.” So, yeah, they’re embellishing a bit, but they’re not embellishing the 25% off sale on all collections of their games

The original Fallout—the award-winning RPG set in post-apocalyptic America—is now available to play for free on GameTap. Update: Unlike some of the games on GameTap, Fallout (and Fallout 2, which is also available), can only be played in Windows.

Set in a world where a few lucky survivors barricaded themselves in bomb shelters (known as Vaults), you play a character who is sent out of the cozy, 1950s world of Vault 13. Your mission: recover a vital piece of equipment from the blasted wasteland of mutants, rad scorpions, and slavers. Quickly growing beyond your initial goal, Fallout grows to a sprawling mission where your actions, good or evil, influence the future of what remains of humanity.

Editor’s Comments:

Bill and I are in agreement that Fallout is a fantastic game. We loved the original, and we loved the sequel, and we’re lucky in that we still have our copies of the Mac releases for both games. But, it’s disappointing that Mac gamers can’t take advantage of GameTap’s services with Fallout, especially considering that there is a Mac version out there. It’s complete, it’s ready to go, but GameTap isn’t offering it. Why?