Now is the time to play the original Thief game if you haven't.

[Geosurface]

Why? Well, many reasons:

1.) Thief 4 is coming out, I guess that could be a reason.

2.) More importantly, the game is much more accessible and friendly with modern PCs now than it has been ever before. For the last several years, wrangling dark engine games (Thief 1 + 2, System Shock 2) on more modern hardware has had numerous pitfalls.

The best reason is that someone named Bentraxx has just finally released a Thief HD texture pack for Thief: Gold (the version of Thief 1 with a few added extra levels)

This HD texture pack is fantastic! Here's an example of what it does:

YouTube video comparing original textures to new HD ones

This game is really a classic. It has a fantastic story and fantastic atmosphere. I have been a gamer since the early 80's and I consider it one of my top 5 all time, and an absolute must play. Here is everything you'll need:

-Thief Gold itself ($4.99 at GOG.com) or at Steam for $2.79 until January 2nd on a sale. I recommend the GOG version I think it plays a little bit better with the mods I'm about to list.
-The HD texture mod (Download link)
-TFix 1.18a (Download link)
-Thief Enhancement Pack (Download link to thread which describes how to install this, it's very easy)

Just go through the readme with the HD Texture pack itself it describes how to get everything installed and what order to do them in.

 

[BFG10K]

Thanks for that, previously I'd been using 1.19 New Dark so I took this opportunity to reinstall both games to 1.21 and refresh their content packs.

This texture pack is stunning (especially the vegetation) - I hope they implement a version for Thief 2 as well.

 

[JasonCoder]

I recommend jacking the volume on your speakers so that when someone yells STOP THIEF you promptly shit yourself. Good times.

 

[Nebor]

I've never enjoyed sneaking games. I never liked the Thief series, the Vampire series and I gunned my way through all the Hitman games and Payday 2. I think my end score on the last hitman was -32,000,000, and since I got it at release, it was the lowest score on the boards.

Video games are for acting like I have more than one life.

 

[BSim500]

Great post. "Widescreen mod" and "ddfix" have been around for a while that allows +1080p native resolutions on all Dark Engine games (Thief 1&2 and System Shock 2). I think the latter even added configurable Bloom to Thief 2. This really makes the most of that.

Early Thief games were fantastic. Remember the sheer size / scale of "Life of the Party" (compared to "dumbed down for XBox's 64MB memory limit" Thief 3)? If any fellow Taffer is still unaware, Thief 2X is a whole free 13 Mission community mod that's well worth playing (needs Thief 2). I wonder how much of an "improvement" Thief 4 will end up making given some comments floating about the net... :'(

 

[JumBie]

Would love to install the HD Textures, however I am running the game on an older laptop with a GMA 950. The notes on the MODDB site says that "this mod requires lots of graphics and CPU POWER!" so I am guessing that if i did indeed install the HD textures that i would no longer be able to play it on the laptop. Any confirmation on how it runs on older pc's?

 

[BFG10K]

"Widescreen mod" and "ddfix" have been around for a while that allows +1080p native resolutions on all Dark Engine games (Thief 1&2 and System Shock 2).

These are both obsolete since the New Dark patch arrived. You shouldn't use them.

 

[Geosurface]

Would love to install the HD Textures, however I am running the game on an older laptop with a GMA 950. The notes on the MODDB site says that "this mod requires lots of graphics and CPU POWER!" so I am guessing that if i did indeed install the HD textures that i would no longer be able to play it on the laptop. Any confirmation on how it runs on older pc's?

I think you should still give it a try. I think "lots of graphics and CPU power" is relative and I think he may have written that with people who still use rather old PCs (there are such people in the Thief die hard community I think) in mind.

It's worth a shot.

 

[clamum]

I wonder how this would run on my laptop (Gateway NV55C):

Intel P6100 Dual core @ 2 GHz
3 GB RAM
Intel HD Graphics (not sure of specifics, beyond 128 MB RAM and DX 10. It sucks I know)

I've always heard that the Thief games were great but I haven't played any of them yet. I'm hoping it would run on this laptop since it's all I have until I get back home after the holiday. I'm not concerned about the HD texture pack, I'm sure the laptop would take a giant beefy shit if I tried that.

 

[Geosurface]

If you can do without the HD texture pack as you say clamum, I have no doubt you can run the base game, and most likely even with the other enhancements I linked.

I must point something out about this game though.

It is a game with a great potential to be immersive, but it must be played correctly. I've been playing through again with the HD pack on my gaming laptop, because I'm away from home for the holidays with only this, like you. But I've found myself a few times now hooking up to a monitor here to simulate a desktop experience.

My laptop monitor has a weird brightness to it... it almost makes the game look a bit milky. I believe this is common to most laptop screens.

Thief really deserves to be played with a large monitor, with crisp colors, and very importantly... with a pair of headphones, ideally good ones. Sound is HUGELY important in this game and it really conveys much better with headphones. Very immersive.

So perhaps you should wait til you're home, and use the desktop and maybe get the HD pack.

However, if you think this is the only time you have spare time to play, it is certainly better than nothing and I hope you'll try it out!

 

[Ventanni]

Loaded up and installed it. Not all textures are replaced, so it's pretty obvious which ones are old, but the no textures are amazing. I don't think I have the lighting part working though. Hmm...

 

[Northern Lawn]

I bought the game off steam and extracted that HDMOD to the theif folder. I still only have 800x600x16 res. I did read the instructions but they don't make sense to me, any suggestions?


(I decided to try out this game when I read that looking glass studios also created system shock II, my all time single player favourite game)

 

[SNJ]

I never understood the thief game. I can understand sneaking through castles and stealing stuff, but the whole magical objects(potions, magical arrows etc.) bored me.

 

[Geosurface]

I bought the game off steam and extracted that HDMOD to the theif folder. I still only have 800x600x16 res. I did read the instructions but they don't make sense to me, any suggestions?

To get the higher resolutions you may need to get the other items in particular Tfix 1.18a which I linked to. Did you try that yet?

There is much which may help you in here if that doesn't.

 

[Sulaco]

I never understood the thief game. I can understand sneaking through castles and stealing stuff, but the whole magical objects(potions, magical arrows etc.) bored me.

Well that's...part of the world they created. It's sort of "steam punk" fantasy.

It's fantastically more atmospheric and engaging than the Assassin's Creed games could ever hope to be. There's really nothing else like them.

 

[ejjpi]

I've always wanted to play the original thief but I never got the time, perhaps now it's the time!
thanks for the links

 

[Ventanni]

Thief: The Dark Project and Thief 2: The Metal Age are probably some of the best games you'll ever play. If you do decide to play them though, you definitely need to get the latest patches (Tfix 1.18a for Thief1/Gold and T2fix 1.21 for Thief 2). These update the engine to be more compatible with newer hardware. They also make the game look a lot nicer.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

I played all the Thief games when they first came out. Might try a replay with enhancements.

 

[bononos]

Is there a fix for the bug where the guards would always home in on you while you are hiding?

 

[Northern Lawn]

To get the higher resolutions you may need to get the other items in particular Tfix 1.18a which I linked to. Did you try that yet?

That link doesn't work for me, I did google it, went to ttlg forum and I still can't find it, wtf.

 

[HeXen]

I beat all 3 earlier this year. Thief 3 was my favorite. If you like thief, you would probably really like Dishonored, I loved that game and nice how many different paths and options you had, it reminded me a lot of Thief.

Oh, I made a thief theme pack for Windows 7/8 a while back if you're a fan.Contains 32 wallpapers, mostly made from thief 3 and cursors but you can change those back if you don't like them. Thought I'd share. File is only good for 7 days.
http://www.fileconvoy.com/dfl.php?id=g0a71f933b59125559994357040be341a3bee2a5dc

 

[ibex333]

Why? Well, many reasons:

1.) Thief 4 is coming out, I guess that could be a reason.

2.) More importantly, the game is much more accessible and friendly with modern PCs now than it has been ever before. For the last several years, wrangling dark engine games (Thief 1 + 2, System Shock 2) on more modern hardware has had numerous pitfalls.

The best reason is that someone named Bentraxx has just finally released a Thief HD texture pack for Thief: Gold (the version of Thief 1 with a few added extra levels)

This HD texture pack is fantastic! Here's an example of what it does:

YouTube video comparing original textures to new HD ones

This game is really a classic. It has a fantastic story and fantastic atmosphere. I have been a gamer since the early 80's and I consider it one of my top 5 all time, and an absolute must play. Here is everything you'll need:

-Thief Gold itself ($4.99 at GOG.com) or at Steam for $2.79 until January 2nd on a sale. I recommend the GOG version I think it plays a little bit better with the mods I'm about to list.
-The HD texture mod (Download link)
-TFix 1.18a (Download link)
-Thief Enhancement Pack (Download link to thread which describes how to install this, it's very easy)

Just go through the readme with the HD Texture pack itself it describes how to get everything installed and what order to do them in.

Nice! Been looking for an excuse to replay the original thief games!


Must say. Thief is a very very creepy game. I was creeped out just watching that you tube video. Especially in the end, then that small dinosaur like thing strolls by in the tunnel... And the zombies.... The zombies...

 

[Geosurface]

That link doesn't work for me, I did google it, went to ttlg forum and I still can't find it, wtf.

Looks like they've updated to 1.18c

This is the link

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Thief + A3D = heaven

 

[Northern Lawn]

Looks like they've updated to 1.18c

This is the link

thank i get it working now do you have any advice about the set up? I mean should q be run or walk forward? I don't see how to have both, the speed adjustment shift key doesn't do much.