Thief: The Dark Project Gold (v1.37)
FAQ v15.2 by Taffer
July 22, 2000
"Ye shall not rob from the house I have built, or commit any theft or unrighteousness, lest ye be struck down and driven into the earth forthwith, and the land of the heathen consume you."
— The Book of the Stone"The paths of thief and god are worn as one in the earth."
"Thief wanted for the theft of the gems of Sarnoth."
"Woe be to him that defies the tree, for he shall be cast out into the world through the veils of pain and fire."
The Latest From Taffer
This release of the FAQ has absolutely no new content about the game. But, I have a new ICQ number and a new email address, so I decided to put out another release to keep this information up to date. I also included some information regarding the demise of Looking Glass Studios.
My new email address is taffer-six@home.com and my new ICQ number is 82595656.
By now, everyone probably has heard the news that Looking Glass Studios has closed its doors permanently. I now have a link with a very thorough, in-depth and unbiased explanation of what happened. For the story, go to: http://www.ttlg.com/articles/lgsclosing1.asp.
"Through The Looking Glass", the friends of taffers everywhere, has a petition online to try to get one of Looking Glass Studios' nearly-finished projects finished. "Jane's Attack Squadron" has had about 2-and-a-half years work put into it and is nearly finished. My theory is this...if enough people sign, perhaps they will get to be able to finish it. And if they can finish it, then who knows what else may be possible. Other projects that got shelved may be able to be finished. I realize its a very small chance, but I believe in miracles.
The petitions appears to still be up and active. When I went & checked earlier, they had 5,278 signatures. Way to go!
To sign the petition, go to: http://www.ttlg.com/jas/default.asp.
There will be at least one more release of this FAQ. I intend to go over the entire document to clean up any grammar and spelling mistakes, do a bit of tweaking here and there, and just generally tidy things up a bit, as well as go through several old emails and files that were sent in with information that as yet has not been added. A few of the sections will probably disappear in the final release (such as the sections regarding the mailing list, since it will no longer be required), and one or two may be added (such as a section pointing to the Thief II FAQ, which will probably have its first release before this one has its next release). This "final" release (is a FAQ ever truly finished?) will most likely be smaller in size than this one, due to the sections that are going to be removed.
Small Tribute To Looking Glass Studios
A little self-indulgence on my part here. Bear with me.
PvP, an online comic strip that did a small run of Thief related comics about mid-June 2000, set aside about 75% of their usual strip one day to pay tribute to Looking Glass Studios. In the final "tribute panel", they quoted from Lewis Carroll (who wrote "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", and "Through The Looking Glass", which was the namesake of Looking Glass Studios). I would like to do the same myself, with a few quotations from sources close to my heart, which I feel aptly describe both the company that gave us these wonderful games, and how we feel about both the company and their games. Firstly though, here's the quotation that PvP used (from the first Alice book, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"), which is quite lovely and fitting:
"Oh, I've had such a curious dream!" said Alice. And she told her sister, as well as she could remember them...and, when she had finished, her sister kissed her, and said, "It was a curious dream, dear, certainly; but now run in to your tea: it's getting late." So Alice got up and ran off, thinking while she ran, as well as she might, what a wonderful dream it had been.
The original PvP comic which contained this quote can be located at: http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2000/06/10/sat-jun-10.
The first quotation I would like to cite is a different Alice quotation, from the second Alice book, "Through The Looking Glass":
"How would you like to live in Looking-glass House, Kitty?...but oh, Kitty! now we come to the passage. You can just see a little peep of the passage in Looking-glass House, if you leave the door of our drawing-room wide open: and it's very like our passage as far as you can see, only you know it may be quite different on beyond. Oh, Kitty, how nice it would be if we could only get through into Looking-glass House! I'm sure it's got, oh! such beautiful things in it! Let's pretend there's a way of getting through into it, somehow, Kitty. Let's pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so that we can get through. Why, it's turning into a sort of mist now, I declare! It'll be easy enough to get through —"...In another moment Alice was through the looking glass....
Such it was with the games produced by Looking Glass Studios. They opened up their worlds to us, and they were filled with oh! such beautiful things! And for a little while, we were able to pretend we were a part of that world.
Another quotation, this one from the final episode of the longest-running science-fiction television series of all time, and one of my favourites as well, Doctor Who. The episode was, ironically enough, called "Survival", and these are the final words spoken:
"There are worlds out there where the sky is burning. Where the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke, and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger...somewhere there's injustice...and somewhere else the tea's getting cold! Come on Ace, we've got work to do!"
A fitting description, I think...worlds filled with wonder, yet dangerous, and with a touch of whimsy to take the edge of when needed. And a hero who "has work to do"...you, the player.
Finally, the last quotation, which I think really says it all. It's paraphrased from memory, from my favourite original Star Trek episode, "Balance of Terror", said by my favourite character, Doctor McCoy:
"They say that in this galaxy, there is a mathematical probability of three million Earth-type planets. And in all the universe, three million MILLION galaxies like our own. And in all that, and perhaps more, only one of each of us."
Here's to you, Looking Glass Studios. In an industry that constantly puts out trash and dross, you shone through and provided us with our few small nuggets of gold. You were truly one of a kind, and I fear that, as Shakespeare's Hamlet felt about his recently deceased father, I shall never look upon your like again. :(
Contacting the Author
You can contact me either through email, or through ICQ.
Contact Through Email
My email address is: taffer-six@home.com.
Please note the new email address. It was changed early morning on July 9th, 2000. My apologies to anyone who has attempted to email me at the previous address since then.
Why taffer-six? Well, first of all, underscores are not allowed on my server (can you believe that?). And "taffer" was already taken. I didn't want to simply move to the next logical handle (taffer2), and changing to something like "garrett" or "taffer-garrett" seemed somehow inappropriate. I finally decided on "taffer-six" as a sort of homage to a great television show from the late sixties called "The Prisoner", starring Patrick McGoohan. A man who once worked as a spy of some sort is kidnapped by forces unknown and then placed in a surreal community, called simply "The Village". He spends episode after episode trying to either escape, or to find the person in charge of things. The main character was only referred to as "Number Six". It was a fantastic show that sadly lasted only about seventeen episodes. I love it and wish I had the episodes on tape. :(
I have received several emails since posting this FAQ...thank you for your kind words and your input, everyone! I do read all your emails, and I try to reply to every one of them. Sometimes I am unable to reply, simply due to the great number I receive, time constraints, and any number of other. However, any questions sent to me that are already answered in this FAQ will be ignored.
Contact Through ICQ
If you want to contact me through ICQ (all single ladies welcome!
Note that the same rules for email apply to ICQ as well. Also, if you have a lengthy amount of information to send me, I would appreciate it if you would do so using email.
Please Note: I do not use the "Chat" mode on ICQ. I only use the messaging feature. My ICQ settings are currently set up to automatically decline any chat requests.
Unauthorized Adding on ICQ
This refers to people who add me to their contact list using some sort of a hack or crack program, without receiving my authorization first.
WARNING! Do not, I repeat, DO NOT add me to your contact list WITHOUT receiving my authorization first! Several people appear to think it's a real laugh to do this. Well, the first time someone did that to me, they erased my hard drive. So consider this your first and only warning: Do NOT add me in this manner...request authorization like everyone else. ANYONE who adds me without requesting my authorization will IMMEDIATELY get placed on my ignore list. I will not even bother reading any messages that person may have sent. (This may seem harsh...but if you had had YOUR hard drive erased, I'm sure you would understand completely.)