Thief gets a mini-remaster ahead of its actual Nightdive remaster, courtesy of the GOG Preservation Program

Exciting news: it is officially Garrett summer. Just recently, Nightdive announced it's been cooking a Thief remaster at the PC Gaming Show, bringing modern resolutions, controller support, and myriad other modcons to the venerable 1998 stealth game. But if that's not enough for you—or you just believe the sacred brooks no improvement—the original game is getting some love too: GOG is inducting Thief Gold into its Preservation Program.

The Preservation Program is GOG's name for its expanding roster of games that the storefront is committed to keeping running from here until the heat death of the universe (or a catastrophe of similar scale, like the store going under). From Windows 11 to Windows 8,000, GOG is pledging to sell you a copy of Thief that you can simply boot and play on modern systems, with GOG offering technical support in the event it doesn't work.

GOG's pushing the boat out on this one a little. Where some games that get folded into the Preservation Program get little more than a kick of the tyres and a statement of ongoing support, Thief is getting some extra goodies as part of its induction. GOG's adding "German, French, and Polish localizations, updated graphics and audio defaults, improved UI scaling, optimized controls, and the latest NewDark 1.27 engine update". GOG's also bundling in the game's original, pre-Gold version, The Dark Project, should you want to play that.

Details

Even more dramatically—if, like me, you are old and haggard and like playing videogames on your television—is the addition of gamepad support. "We’ve integrated the Gamepad Mod into the game and paired it with the GOG Input Wrapper," says GOG, "bringing full support for modern controllers—including radial menus, customizable controls, rumble, and compatibility with PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Logitech, and Amazon Luna controllers." Oh, and as ever, no need to buy the game again to get this stuff if you already own it on GOG.

I'm rather impressed. It's like Thief got a mini-remaster ahead of Nightdive's full-fat remaster. I suppose GOG felt like it needed to put some welly into this one: not only is Thief a classic, but this is the first game to get added to its Preservation Program as a result of GOG Patron voting. That's the system whereby those who sign up to chuck GOG $5 a month (a little walkin' around money) get to vote on which games get added to the Preservation library.

The voting on the next game to get the Thief treatment is already live. Patrons can choose between Nox, Lands of Lore 1 & 2, Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honour, Silver, and Albion.