Like the title says I played the original Fallout today...and was killed by a rat after trying to exterminate all the rats in the cave out of revenge for killing the vault dweller who's skeleton now lies by the vault door. How do you die from a rat a RAT!Not even a very big rat either. Anyways, what's your guys first experience with this game like? Or any Fallout game for that matter.

I wasn't even able to figure out how combat worked in that game and got killed by a mole rat after leaving the vault. I know how you feel.

I had figured out how the combat works, when I finally had my aha moment and I realized I figured it out I decided to kill all the rats. Next thing I know I have 2 HP and I'm in the middle of combat. So then I end up scrambling to see if I have Stimpaks. When I found them I couldn;t figure out how to use them and I ended up dying. Also, is there any valuable loot in the first cave? I feel like there is.

Steal when you can  and scavenge like there's no tomorrow. ;-)
and Barter with everyone.

Did some googling and consulted my memory  :  For stimpacks : in combat, open the inventory. If you have some stimpacks (they look like little syringes), you can right click your mouse (so that it's an arrow). Then you need to click-hold on your stim pack, highlight the "open hand" sign, and release your click. You can use this same method to use anything in your inventory. or you can also put stmipaks in one of your "weapon" slots.... then just switch between them (click on the little red button) to use them without using the AP to open your inventory.

Fallout's antiquity can be hard to conquer, I had a very similar experience my first time

My first Fallout experience was a demo of the original game. It put you in a modified Junktown with some basic equipment and a well-built default character; I think it's based on the Max premade. It wasn't terribly difficult given that they gave you basic instruction and put you in a group of NPCs to take a side in a gang war.

I fell in love with the game, and soon afterwards picked up the game proper. It was way too long ago to remember, but I'm 90% sure the rats in the beginning killed me too.

Have you the played not tried playing the elder scrolls: arena or daggerfall? I can't play with those kind of controls!

No, I tried downloading Daggerfall once but that didn't really work out. But I don't really have much incentive, I've heard that they're no where as near as good as the other 3 TES games.

My earliest memories from Fallout 1 were completing the tutorial feeling eager to get out of that dead end tribal village so I could explore the wastes, only to be immediately mauled by a pack of radscorpions a few minutes out the door.  The beginning is probably the hardest part.  But once you got some basic gear and a few levels, the difficulty seemed to even out a bit.

On another note, I loved Daggerfall.  Was it a buggy mess at times? Sure.  But it carried a lot of design choices I wish would have been carried over to future titles.

When creating character in the earlier fallouts agility is much more important since it gives you more action points and allows you to do more things in combat. and you use a stimpak you have to have it set in you inventory slots if I recall correctly and your best friend early on is a shotgun

I remember my first time playing fallout was fallout 3. My friend had said to put sunglasses on before I left the vault to protect my characters eyes from the sun since he's never seen it. I at first believed this and later realized if I didn't wear the glasses when I left my guy would not go blind haha. I also recall being terrified of running into enemy's so to get to rivit city I hugged the bottom of the map all the way from tempeny towers and in doing so skipped the entire part of the main quest where you meet three dog.

Also ironically if I'm remembering correctly I am pretty sure while I was in the vault escaping I tried to help officer Lopez against the mole rats and died because the mr gusty bot flamed me and the rats.

My first Fallout game was Fallout 2 in 1999 and it was awesome, for me something like Witcher 3 is today. It was greatest game back then in 1998, world was so big, so many places, black humor, cultural references,even today is good memory.

I never get beyond Temple of trials, because this other guy was to good in unarmed

For a second I thought the first post would be "Fallout 1 is shtoopid!" phew...
And relax...most people fell prey to the atomic giant rodents of oversized death.
Yours truly as well. And then I got the hang of it and stitched the rats together into a mace and conquered the heretic wasteland! J/K
But yeah, games in the ye olde times tested us so much more than games now.

The game is such hit or miss with alot of people. I personally couldn't stand it my first like 3 tries. I tried it a while back and like sucked it up and loved it. The story was so good!

I found it very hard to play the older Fallouts. I just wasn't used to it I suppose. Same with the original XCOMs. Shame really, I've heard so many good things. Although I did enjoy Fallout Tactics.