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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?

Our e-mails to GameTap haven’t yet been answered, so we don’t have an official explanation. I did some research, however, and a June 4, 2008 article from Inside Mac Games offered this comment from GameTap:

Since many of the newer games on GameTap are PC games, it’s extremely challenging to convert these into a Mac experience.

What? I’m guessing they mean that they’re not going to port PC games to the Mac just for use on GameTap, but that doesn’t explain why games already available for the Mac aren’t available at GameTap. Games like those from the Tomb Raider series, for instance; the PC versions can be played at GameTap, while the Mac versions cannot.

I chalk this up to two things: laziness and (more importantly) bottom line. They’re too lazy at GameTap to make the Mac versions available, and there’s not enough financial incentive to get the moving on it. I’m not sure what the PC/Mac user ratio is at GameTap, but I’ll bet the Mac side is in the single digits.

So be it. Unless things change, and there’s no reason to believe they will, Mac gamers will have to dig a bit deeper to find the titles they missed or want to try again. Ebay, torrents and such are often productive when it comes to finding out-of-print or long lost titles. And, of course, there’s always your Intel Mac and Boot Camp or a PC emulator (all Windows games will play in PC emulation on the Mac).

What’s your favorite method for playing old Mac games? Is it worth it to spend the money on emulators, would you rather hunt down a legit or bootleg copy, or just buy something new that’s readily available? Let us know your sources!