About:

DarkLoader enables you to quickly and easily play thief fan mission archives.

DarkLoader is tested with the 1.33 patched version of Thief, the 1.37 version of Thief Gold and the 1.18 patched version of Thief 2.

DarkLoader is an enhancement of the ThiefLoader (v1.5) created by Andrew Bednarz and provides compatibility to existing ThiefLoader installations.

USERS OF OLDER VERSIONS (THIEFLOADER, DARKLOADER 2.0x) NEED TO RESET TO ORIGINAL BEFORE SWITCHING TO THIS NEW VERSION !!!

While it has been tested extensivily and works 100% on my machine, I take no responsibilty for any damage it may cause.

Installation:

Before you install DarkLoader make sure that your Thief installation is set up to run the original missions (ie no files overriding any crfs).

Once DarkLoader is installed it will take care of any files and it expects a clean original Thief.

You only have to unzip the contents of the DarkLoader.zip in any directory. When you first start DarkLoader it will open the setup and lets you make your settings.

DarkLoader will automatically backup your saved games and will create a new set of saved games for each mission.

The following files must be present to run DarkLoader:

• DarkLoader.exe
• DarkLoader.dat
• UnzDll.dll
• ZipDll.dll

How to use:

DarkLoader is very simple to use. Run the program, select the mission you want to play and press the "PLAY!" button.

New missions:

New missions are available from http:\\www.thief-thecircle.com . Simply download the mission zip file and place it into one of your mission directories. DarkLoader will make the new mission available when it is next run.

Trouble shooting:

If a new mission does not work properly try getting "convict.osm" from TEG. If this still does not work try and get the whole DromEd installation.

Thief mission zip format:

Thief missions are normal ZIP files.

The zip file should contain the mission file, starting at mission 19 or later (miss1-miss18 are already used by Thief Gold and Thief 2).

An "intrface" directory with another directory underneath with your mission name (as set in DromEd). In this directory should be "goals.str" and any map pics you use. A "strings" directory should be included with a "missflag.str" and "titles.str". A "movies" directory will contain any briefings or cutscenes. The zip files should also contain a text file with the same name as the zip file which contains the information as set out by the TEG.