Wine Guide: Thief Gold

Published on 2021-06-04

First we will create a 32bit wineprefix and then install a few things with winetricks:

WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX="/home/user/.local/share/wine-thief" winetricks vcrun2008 vcrun2010 winxp

Please change the WINEPREFIX directory to suit you, I've suggested the hidden .local/share folder to keep your home tidy!

Next you should install "TFix", specifically the "Lite" version. I suggest the lite version as the regular TFix adds out-of-place hi-res textures, and changes how you play on some levels.

Installing the lite version must be done manually. It just requires you to unzip, and then copy and paste over the "Thief Gold" game files folder (found inside the WINEPREFIX folder, under "drive_c").

I will also install DXVK, since the NewDark engine bundled with TFix supports DirectX 9. Though it is not required, you can gain a performance boost.

Now for some reason you have to start Thief using the start sub-command rather then just running it with wine directly. That will look something like this:

WINEPREFIX="/home/user/.local/share/wine-thief" wine start /unix "/home/user/.local/share/wine-thief/drive_c/GOG Games/Thief Gold/Launch Thief Gold.lnk"

Updated 2021-08-31: Minor clarifications