Have tested this several times without loading any mods. After looking at his dialogue in the geck
it seems that the info SetStage VMS09 10 or something to that effect is missing. Not sure what
was the case before 1.3 patch because hadn't had issues till now. Talking to Festus still gives
the quest.

I fixed this in 10 minutes with a mod and he now gives the quest properly but would like hear
from others on this issue.

I started a new game after the patch and have met him a short time after leaving Goodsprings.
He talked to me about the Star Caps, the treasure and Festus.

This seems right to me, or should he also give out the "Legend of the Star" quest?
I'm not at home right now so I cannot check if he did.

Edit: According to the Wiki he is not giving any quests.

What is happening is he will find you and talk about the stars but you no longer get The
Legend of the Star quest from him. I'm not dreaming this up because in the geck
stage 10 of the quest is something like "Locate Festus......etc....."
In the past he always gave me that quest.

Ok, checked it and while he told me all about it, he didn't give me the quest.

Wiki says the http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/The_Legend_of_the_Star is given by Festus, but I checked http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Malcolm_Holmes again and it indeed is mentioned that he's giving the quest, too.

Hm, strange that they have touched that quest. It doesn't matter too much, as you know about the caps and Festus after meeting him, but still it would probably be nice too see an quest entry.

Thanks for confirming this. Agree that it's not that significant an issue. Maybe it was done purposely?

I think this was broken for the 1.2 patch - I have vague memories of getting it when I first played FONV. But at least for my 1.2 run I actually was keeping careful notes of quests and I did not get this quest when Malcolm gave me his story.