It had to happen. After getting the original Fallout and Morrowind running as a holotape on Fallout 4's Pip-Boy and terminals, the same modder has now made Skyrim playable within the game about a frozen snack finding their son and being nagged about settlements. I can only assume Fallout 4 becoming playable in Fallout 4 is mere days away.
Modder RPGKing117 released their latest work - 'Skyrim Pip-Boy Edition' - over the weekend, having gotten a test build up and running late last week. It works much like their previous Pip-Boy ports have, with Skyrim being streamed live into your Pip-Boy or terminal screen via "a custom-modified build of SKSE [the Skyrim script extender] — bridged directly into the game engine via shared memory and a dedicated F4SE [the Fallout 4 script extender] plugin" once you insert the Skyrim holotape the mod adds to Fallout 4.
"Skyrim runs in a hidden window, which gets downscaled to 1024×1024 and streams its framebuffer directly into Fallout 4's Pip-Boy display in real time," RPGKing117 explained. "A custom F4SE plugin handles the holotape trigger, the shared-memory bridge, and input passthrough so keyboard controls reach Skyrim while you're in-game."
The result's Skyrim running in condensed black-and-white fashion, like you're watching it on an old telly. That fits Fallout perfectly, but does rather dull the sensation of being an adventurer in vibrant nature-filled Tamriel. Meanwhile, the soundtrack and ambient tree-rustling comes through full bore as it would if you were playing Skyrim normally, which is fine, but also makes it a bit out of whack with the visuals. Though, just being able to run around Skyrim interacting with NPCs and picking up items is impressive enough.
As with RPGKing117's Morrowind Pip-Boy port, it looks like at least some Skyrim mods should be compatible with the game being played like this. The modder specifically mentions ones which get the Pip-Boy screen running in full colour and stop your character moving their arm about from time to time as worth grabbing. The former would rectify my moaning about the grayscale getting the way of taking in Skyrim's vistas, assuming it works as intended here.
Regardless of whether you grab those, you'll need Steam copies of Fallout 4 and Skyrim's Legendary Edition (an older version than the Skyrim Special Edition, which is the only version currently that currently appears in Steam searches for the game) to run it, as well as the Fallout 4 Script Extender, the Skyrim Script Extender and a 64-bit version of Windows 10 or 11. It's also worth noting that the Skyrim in Fallout 4 mod isn't compatible with RPGKing117's Morrowind one, so you'll have to choose between classic or modern Elders to Scroll via your Pip-Boy.
Anyway, if you'll excuse me, this Nord bloke keeps trying to interrupt my enjoyment of a chill cart ride by babbling about Imperials and juniper berry mead.