I'm a PC and Thief noob - HELP PLEASE!

System-Psychosis on 3/1/2010 at 16:14

Well, I love stealth games, and will have no hesitation buying Thief: GOLD for my laptop or PC, I don't know if my laptop will run this, but I'm sure my PC could be able to handle it. My PC is XP and my laptop is Vista which I know has been causing problems. If any body here remotely thinks my systems will be able to handle Thief then please write back to me.

However, that is only one part of the puzzle as my PC has some trouble with sound, as apparently my sound card is broken.

Again if anyone can help me, I can post up my specs for my laptop and PC and see if you can work your magic, as I have next to no experience with PC gaming. I posted this on this forum as everyone here seems to help each other out with problems, so I thought I may aswell try my luck here.

Good gaming everyone and a happy new year!

Goldmoon Dawn on 3/1/2010 at 17:13

Yes, Thief will play on both of those systems. It is always best to post *all* pertinent information right away! System specs are a given. If your sound card is broken, then, um... get a new one? Sound is critical to the Thief experience. Im glad you are choosing Thief: Gold as your first Thief experience. You will *not* regret it! Welcome to TTLG and Thief. There is a good chance you will run into any number of problems getting this monster rolling, but you have come to the right place. Come back with any problems you may have.

System-Psychosis on 3/1/2010 at 19:08

My laptop isn't a high range piece of kit as you can see:
I am not very informed in what typical specs are on a standard system so I am just assuming:

System:
Laptop: Acer Aspire (I know pretty low end system.)
Processor: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 550 @ 2.00GHz, ~2.0GHz
Memory: 1014MB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
-----
Display:
Name: Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family
DAC Type: Internal
Approx. Total Memory: 250MB

DirectX Features:
DirectDraw Acceleration: Enabled
""3D "" : ""
AGP Texture Acceleration: ""

Drivers:
Main Driver: igdumd32.dll
Version: 7.14.0010.1409 (English)
DDI Version: 9Ex
-----
Sound:
Drivers:
Name: RTKVHDA.sys
Version: 6.00.0001.5477 (English)
-----
As you can see I do not know much about PC gaming and specs required for games to run at a high rate, so I detailed the specs in a wealth of detail so if you know if my laptop could run all 3 Thiefs' then please inform me please!

Good gaming everyone!

jtr7 on 3/1/2010 at 19:44

Thanks! Just so you know, there are no "typical" specs, which is why we ask for them every time.:)

Your sound card is a major issue as Thief uses sound like no other game, winning awards for how its used, so that would be something to rectify when you can. Aside from important sound cues to help you navigate through the world safely, there are important instructions and information that are told verbally, and not all is available in the mission objectives and texts. Just for the awesome full and vital gaming experience, I honestly would not wish you to play Thief without full stereo sound the first time through.

The system should run the software, but there are issues that almost everybody has since Thief Gold was not made for XP or later OSs, nor for multi-core processors and other tech, but there are several wonderful and effective fixes and tweaks to get Thief running just fine, even better than when Thief was new.:)

Other than the sound card, we should be able to get you up and running.:cool:

System-Psychosis on 3/1/2010 at 20:40

Thanks a lot!

Are you talking about my missing soundcard on my home PC, or my current soundcard on my laptop?

I was planning on using my home PC as a last resort, as I really can not be bothered replacing sound cards etc. and may as well have stuck with the trusty PlayStation 3.

BUT if you say my laptop is capable of running Thief, then I'll do all I can to play it.

Also, would I be able to play Thief 3: Deadly Shadows as on a thread about the required specs the game needs, apparently it does not support laptops?

If I could get Thief 3 running on a steady framerate, then I'm sure I'd be able to play NOLF 1&2, and Deus Ex, amongst others like System Shock and F.E.A.R, without suffering the poor ports to PS2, (Deus Ex was fine on PS2, but NOLF was a joke, no quicksave?!).

Again thanks for the support people.
Many thanks and good gaming.

jtr7 on 3/1/2010 at 21:29

You can only try to install it and go through the fixes to see if it will work for you or not. Sorry, but it's really a gamble what will or won't work for each and every system. Fortunately you can buy all three games in one cheap package on one DVD.:thumb:

System-Psychosis on 3/1/2010 at 21:41

Wow, thanks, the trilogy is only £5.49 which is pretty cheap for a trilogy!

By the way is Thief: Dark Project, Thief Gold in the trilogy, or is it just the regular edition?

I'll purchase the pack and get back to you most definitely.

Brian The Dog on 6/1/2010 at 09:24

(http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thief-Complete-Collection-PC-DVD/dp/B002LVUKIS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1262769156&sr=1-1) Thief: The Complete Collection has Thief Gold in it.
(http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thief-Collection-Dvd-Video-Game/dp/B00172HK58/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1262769156&sr=1-4) Thief Collection has Thief: The Dark Project on it.
The similarity in names between the two packages has led to some confusion.

By the way, you may find Thief 1 and 2 work well on your laptop as it's a single-core Celeron processor with Intel integrated graphics. Thief 3 WILL play on laptops, it's just not supported (i.e. you can't ring Eidos up and complain that it doesn't work). Yours might struggle though as it needs a dedicated graphics card. Give it a go and see how things fare.

baeuchlein on 7/1/2010 at 23:56

And if one does not want to buy any of the Thief games before knowing whether they will run on a particular computer, one can download the demos and try these.

The Thief 3 demo played exactly like the game on my computer years ago, and the Thief 1 demos (Bafford's, Assassins and Thieves Guild) were close to the game as well, as far as I know.

The Thief 2 demo appears to be based on a version of the Thief engine somewhere between Thief 1 and Thief 2 and may not be comparable to the game itself. But maybe trying the demo of System Shock 2, which seems to use a version of the Dark engine very similar to the one Thief 2 uses, can yield some useful results as well.

I think most of these demos might be available at Thief - The Circle and maybe Cheap Thief Mission Downloads, but I don't have the time to check it out right now.