Which is great because both those games are hobbled on modern platforms. For example, if you want to play Oblivion with analog sticks you'd have an easier time emulating the 360 version than adding them to the PC version.

This! I'm all the more frustrated by the claim (seemingly validated by the grandparent about Oblivion/Fallout compatibility) that Bethesda just kinda gives the old engine a new coat of paint then merrily releases a new generation of videogame. You'd think that there'd be fan-spearheaded attempts to tear out and replace some of the wonkier components. And, after reading about all of this, I guess there are.

I feel curious if this is going to let me play Fallout 3 on my TV-attached Raspberry Pi 4 using a BlueTooth gamepad.

I don't think a Pi 4 would be fast enough to provide a enjoyable experience. I just tested OpenMW on a Pinebook Pro (RK3399 SOC, should be slightly faster than a PI 4) and I do get like ~30-40 fps with lowest draw distance in Morrowind. Fallout 3 should be even slower due to far more and more detailed objects.

edit: Rendered at a meager 800x600 px

https://youtu.be/Fb1UUesbNlY shows a Pi 4 running OpenMW not badly at 720p with medium draw distance.

Still looks pretty bad, I think I'd rather run the Android port of OpenMW with an HDMI adapter I think.

Maybe I'm used too much to playing with 60+ fps, but I would call a highly unstable framerate with dips below 20fps bad.

How comes the Android port is supposed to be faster? Isn't Raspberry PI 4 similar to a good Android smartphone in hardware?

I would have characterized it more as a midrange phone from half a decade ago.

Half a decade is not much. My phone is a flagship from more than a half a decade ago and everything (except the GPS module - it usually takes minutes of standing still to hit enough satellites and knocks out the whole new battery in under half an hour) works perfectly fast.

Half a decade in mobile CPU time is massive. The A15 is, at minimum, literally 5x faster than the A10.

I played Fallout 3 on a Core 2 Duo with Intel graphics. I used the lowest graphics settings possible (the display's native resolution though - 1440x900, not the minimum) but enjoyed. Is Raspberry Pi 4 supposed to be even slower?

Wow, that would be amazing.

I haven't tried OpenMW in a year or more but I was really impressed with what they had managed, it was the first time I had ever played MW with a decent frame rate.. that original engine seemed to run poorly on any configuration of hardware I had over the years.