Fallout Source Code Rescued By One Dev’s Personal Quest

Turns out, the source code for Fallout and Fallout 2 wasn’t lost to time after all—it was sitting in someone’s personal archive. That “someone” just so happens to be Rebecca Heineman, co-founder of Interplay and low-key gaming history hero. While most of the original devs were ordered to wipe their hard drives back in the day, Heineman had other plans.

She didn’t just hold onto a few stray files—she archived everything. Source code, notes, prototypes, builds. All of it. On CD-ROMs, no less. Why? Because, in her words, she “made it a quest to snapshot everything.” Bless her inner archivist.

Interplay Told Them to Destroy It

In a recent video game news, Fallout creator Tim Cain shared the unfortunate truth: after leaving Black Isle Studios, Interplay told him to destroy all game materials under threat of legal action. That included early builds, design docs, and even concept art. All gone.

Worse? Interplay apparently “lost” the official archive shortly after (yeah, like we’ll actually believe that!). So yeah, they told the devs to delete everything—then misplaced the only backup. Iconic.

But because Heineman kept her own copies (despite being told not to), the full source code for both Fallout and Fallout 2 still exists today. Imagine if she hadn’t.

Now What?

Fallout 1 and 2’s source code isn’t lost after all, thanks to one hero programmer: ‘I made it a quest to snapshot everything’ | Rebecca Heineman, one of Interplay’s founders, kept the receipts.
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Here’s the catch—just because the code is safe doesn’t mean we’ll see it. Bethesda owns the rights to the Fallout series now, so any kind of public release would need to go through them. No pressure.

Still, this could open the door to proper remasters, fan projects, or even academic preservation down the line. The code is there. That alone changes everything.

Final Thoughts

One person made it their mission to preserve history—and succeeded. While publishers dropped the ball, Heineman quietly protected a major part of the RPG legacy. If the Fallout series ever gets the remaster treatment it deserves, we’ll know exactly who made it possible.

And yes, it was stored on CD-ROMs like a true ‘90s dev. Somehow, that makes it even better.