Version 4.02
- Fixed a bug which prevented DarkLoader from restoring the original saves.
- Fixed some minor bugs.
- Added finnish translation of the interface (thanks to Zenmaster).
- Some minor changes.
Version 4.01
- Fixed a bug which sometimes caused an uncountable number of error messages.
- Changed mission identification from name+CRC to name+filesize to improve speed (especially when using huge archives).
Version 4.0
- Changed the quest list into a table with sortable and hideable columns and added the following information:
- Game type
- Title
- Path
- Size
- Last played
- Added support for FMs with MP3 compressed files.
This software uses EldoS Sounds package to convert MP3 files into WAV files.
EldoS Sounds is a free package, and you can find it on http://www.eldos.org.
EldoS Sounds project manager is Eugene Mayevski, Mayevski@eldos.org.
- Added russian translation of the interface and the documentation (thanks to Talen).
- Removed the vote button because Tels voting site doesn't exist anymore.
- Exchanged the "alien" image on the play button with a "thief" image (thanks to EmperorSteele).
- Some minor changes.
Version 3.08
- Added french translation of the interface (thanks to Patrice Bousquet).
- Fixed a problem with mission filenames containing a ']'.
Version 3.07
- DarkLoader will now show the name of an invalid archive.
- Mission titles with german umlauts (ä,ö,ü etc) will now be displayed correctly.
- Added swedish translation of the interface (thanks to Robin Karlsson).
- Some minor changes.
Version 3.06
- The new ZipMaster version introduced a bug which caused DarkLoader to extract into random directories. Therefore I switched back to the previous ZipMaster version.
- Some minor changes.
Version 3.05
- Fixed a problem with the version detection algorithm which prevented stripped Thief 2 missions to be recognized correctly.
- Improved multi language interface of DarkLoader and added norwegian translation (thanks to Jarod_24).
- The ZipMaster's garbage warnings are now suppressed.
- DarkLoader now uses the latest version of the ZipMaster VCL and DLLs.
- Internal error messages are now completely english.
- Some minor changes.
Version 3.02
- Added window options to the setup.
- Fixed a problem with mission archives which contains duplicate files.
Version 3.01
- Fixed an EInOutError which occured when trying to use a read-only flagged mission.
- Fixed a warning display in the "notes" section.
Version 3.0
- Added setup dialog for easy configuration of DarkLoader (dirlist.txt is not used anymore).
- Now, you only need one installation of DarkLoader for both Thief versions and it can be placed in any directory you want.
- DarkLoader recognizes if a mission is for Thief1 or for Thief2 and will automatically start Thief1 for Thief1 missions and Thief2 for Thief2 missions. When you don't have installed the right thief version it will display a warning under "notes" when you select the mission.
- Saved games will only be compressed again when they have been changed since last compression which makes things much faster.
- You can now mark a mission you've played as "finished" and you will easily see which missions you've already played and which not.
- When starting DromEd with the button in DarkLoader it will now automatically load the selected mission.
- When DarkLoader is active it will suppress the CD autorun and you can change your Thief CDs without always getting into the autorun menu.
- Added "Vote!" button which brings you directly to Tels great voting site.
- Quest info will now show the mission title (if available).
- Added "custom gamesys" to the quest info table.
- Now, only "real" mission archives (which contain a *.mis file) will be displayed in the quest list.
- Missions without a "missflag.str" can now be played directly with Thief by automatically creating this file. Therefore, I've removed the unnecessary "Will run from Thief" box from the quest info table.
- Fixed a major bug which sometimes caused a harmless "Zugriffsverletzung".
- Fixed a bug in the ZipMaster VCL (many thanks to Chris Vleghert for his help).
- Some minor changes.
Version 2.3
- Foreign language missions will be automatically fixed (if the level designer uses for example the "english" subdirectories you normaly can't play it with a german or french version). If there is more than one foreign language you can choose your prefered language.
- *.exe and *.dll files will not be extracted anymore to avoid viruses or trojan horses in the mission archive.
- Revised statusbar display.
- Added german documentation.
- Some minor changes.
Version 2.2
- Finally, removed the "beta" status.
- DarkLoader now uses the latest version of the ZipMaster VCL and DLLs.
- Usage of streams instead of files for some operations.
- Removed an unnecessary dialog.
- Archive changes are now detected by checksum and handled correctly.
- Added support for multilingual interfaces. DarkLoader trys to use the same language like your Thief installation. At this time english and german are supported. If you want to make a french or spanish translation you can make a copy of "darkloader_english.dat", rename it to "darkloader_french.dat" (or "darkloader_spanish.dat") and translate the contents. If you make such a translation, please sent me a copy for including it into future versions.
- Added detection for foreign language problems. This version will only show a message if there is such a problem. The next version (2.3) will fix it.
Version 2.1 (beta)
- USERS OF OLDER VERSIONS NEED TO RESET TO ORIGINAL BEFORE SWITCHING TO THIS NEW VERSION !!!
- Backing up of subdirectories didn't worked very well. So I changed the method from storing in ThiefLoaderBackup directory to compressing into darkloader_backup.zip. Now really EVERY file will be backed up and restored.
- DarkLoader will now make a log of all installed files to provide 100% cleanup even if you delete the mission or change the archive contents. The temporary copy in the mission folder isn't required any more.
- Readonly files in the mission archive are no problem any more.
- Realigned all visible objects to allow resizing.
- DarkLoader will now use the full screensize by default.
- Added "custom objects" and "custom creatures" to the quest info table.
- Added some code for future implementation of multilanguage support.
- Added some code for future fixing of foreign language missions.
- Added checksum for future detection of archive changes.
- Some minor changes.
Version 2.01 (beta)
- Removed optimization dialog for Thief 2.
- Changed compression level from 9 to 5. This makes compressing 5 to 8 times faster and only needs 4% more diskspace.
- Added automap display to the quest info table.
Version 2.0 (beta)
- First beta release of DarkLoader.
- Some changes to support Thief 2.
- Starting with "Original" instead of "NONE" to avoid problems with disapearing save games.
- DarkLoader can be forced to search in additional directories by adding the path(s) to "dirlist.txt". DarkLoader will make a temporary copy of the mission archive to ensure that it can be deinstalled. This is especially usefull if you want to burn FMs on CD.
- Overwritten files in subdirectories will now be backed up like the files in the main directory.
- DarkLoader now makes only datasets of "*.sav"-files. The bindings (*.bnd) will stay were they are.
- Save games (*.sav) will now be compressed and stored into a new folder called "allsaves" to reduce consumption of diskspace.
- Some other changes and bugfixes.
>>>Additional History (of ThiefLoader)<<<
Version 1.5
- Optimisation / Compatibility with Thief GOLD.
Version 1.2
- Checks for convict.osm on startup, if not found a warning is displayed.
- If any files are going to be overwritten (ie dark.gam) the original will be backed up first and then restored on cleanup. This means ThiefLoader will correctly support levels with a modified dark.gam file.
- Searches first for a text file with the same name as the zip file. If it can't find one it takes the first txt file it finds. If there are no txt files it clears the display (it used to leave the last one there).
- Proper installation - distributed as an exe.
- Displays how many missions there are available.
- If "Original" is the currently selected level when TL exists, when it next starts it will default to that (didn't work with Original before).
Version 1.01
- 'Install Only' button added.
- 'Custom Sounds' info added.
- Quest List is sorted.
- Demo mission Bed1.zip improved a little.
Version 1.0
- Will Seperate saved games for each quest automatically backup current saved games.
- Added Quest Info panel.
- Added "Smarts" to see if the necessary files are present for things to work.
- Supports 'roller' and other DromEd only missions.
- Will correctly read quest text file (case insensative).
- ThiefLoader does not exit when Thief is run.
- Window always appears in the center of the screen.
- Buttons are nice and flat looking.
- Quest List font is smaller (to fit more missions in).
- Clicking the "DromEd" button will also unpack the current mission and run DromEd.
- List will default to current quest.
Version 0.01 (beta)
- First beta release of ThiefLoader.