History Trivia / Thief

** ''[[http://www.thedarkmod.com/main/ The Dark Mod]]'', a freeware FanRemake [[AdaptationDistillation of the style of gameplay and esthetics as seen in the entire original trilogy]]. Runs on the ''[[VideoGame/{{Doom}} Doom 3]]'' engine and comes with its own separate editor toolkit, Dark Radiant. Fan-developed missions and scenarios can be downloaded directly within the game, via a built-in utility. After spending years (since 2004) in continuous development and testing (during which players needed copies of ''Doom 3'' to run it), it was finally released for free, as a complete standalone, in October 2013. It won PC Gamer's [[http://www.pcgamer.com/mod-of-the-year-the-dark-mod/ 2013 "Mod of the Year" Award]]. The game is still in continuous development, adding improved gameplay, technical aspects and new assets through regular updates every few months. The game installer doubles as an updater for just this purpose. In spring 2017, the game successfully [[https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=858048394 got greenlit]] at Steam Greenlight.

* LawyerFriendlyCameo: In the aforementioned ''The Dark Mod'', this applies to names and details of concepts from the original series, due to the game being a freeware {{fan remake}}. While the names of the gadgets and equipment [[AvertedTrope don't have a problem with this]], the names of factions, creatures and some of the locales had to be modified a bit in order to avoid copyright issues/lawsuits. The changes go like this :

* [[DeletedScene Missing Scene]]: For some reason, PC versions of Thief II circulated after its original release (for example, a budget-priced reissue several years later) omit all the cutscenes, specifically those in which Garrett is briefed about the next mission. As such, the player often starts a mission with only basic instructions to follow and no context.
** Caused by the ancient version of Bink video bundled with the game being incompatible with modern versions of Windows. The original's a compatibility nightmare anyway, being targeted to one of the original iterations of MediaNotes/DirectX; websites with patched versions of the rendering libraries will normally have links to updated video libraries, too.

** Caused by the ancient version of Bink video bundled with the game being incompatible with modern versions of Windows. The original's a compatibility nightmare anyway, being targeted to one of the original iterations of UsefulNotes/DirectX; websites with patched versions of the rendering libraries will normally have links to updated video libraries, too.

* TheWikiRule: [[http://thief.wikia.com/wiki/Thief:_The_Dark_Wiki Thief: The Dark Wiki]] covers the original series. Another wiki covers the [[http://thiefgame.wikia.com/wiki/Thief_Wiki reboot]].

* TalkingToHimself:
** You'd never know it from just playing, but Garrett, Karras, Raoul the beggar, certain Hammerites and "Benny" the comedic guard are all voiced by Creator/StephenRussell. This happens a lot for many other characters, too.
** Done in a slightly more in-universe sense for the Children of Karras, the robots whose voices are simply ''Karras' voice recorded''.

** Josh Randall voices the Keeper instructor {{NPC}}s in the tutorial mission of ''The Dark Project''.

*** ''Dark Project : L'Ombra del Ladro'' ("Dark Project : The Shadow Thief")

!!The film
* BreakthroughHit: For Creator/MichaelMann.
* CreatorsFavoriteEpisode: After ''Film/TheGodfather'', this is Creator/JamesCaan's favorite film of his own. He has stated that his monologue in the diner is the scene of which he is most proud in his career.
* EnforcedMethodActing: In the hospital scene, Creator/JamesCaan decided to stare coldly at J. Jay Saunders, who played the doctor. This really frightened Saunders, and his reaction in the scene is genuine.
* GenrePopularizer: For the subgenre of "neon noir", inspiring such successors as ''Film/GoodTime'' and ''Film/{{Drive}}''.
* ThrowItIn: In the scene in Leo's house, Creator/JamesCaan improvised mispronouncing "elected" as "elected-ed" to show that Frank was an uneducated man who tried to project an air of sophistication.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Creator/JeffBridges was Creator/MichaelMann's choice to play Frank, but was rejected due to the fact he was young, and wasn't experienced enough to play a hardened criminal. Creator/AlPacino was also offered the role. Creator/GeneHackman and Creator/RoyScheider were also considered.
* WorkingTitle: ''Violent Streets'', which was the film's CompletelyDifferentTitle for overseas releases.


!!The game series

** Creator/LookingGlassStudios has one dedicated to its legacy in game development history. It includes interviews with the ''{{VideoGame/Thief}}'''s and ''VideoGame/SystemShock''s creators. They can be found [[http://gambit.mit.edu/updates/audio/looking_glass_studios_podcast/ here]].

** The infamous [[http://thief.wikia.com/wiki/Bow_Upgrade Bow Upgrade]] that was supposedly hidden somewhere in the first game. This is an old RunningGag that became HilariousInHindsight when newly released screenshots and footage of ''Thief IV'' came out, showing a more steampunkish compound bow, rather than the simpler one that Garrett used in the previous games. As many fans have noted, Garrett seems to have finally found that long sought-after upgrade !
** Some players reported that, in ''Deadly Shadows'' a disturbing hint about [[CreepyChild little Gamall]]'s true nature occassionally appears when you sneak up on her NPC in the Keeper Library. Ultimately, this rumour proved ''[[FridgeHorror true]]'', as seen in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QueVzr8aA-c this video]]. On a less disturbing note, it's an NPC height glitch (as Gamall is the only child-height NPC in the game), not something the developers intended on purpose. Either way, a rather spooky sight...

*** A small ShoutOut to ''{{VideoGame/Thief}}''s peculiar beginnings is the name of the LevelEditor for the first two games : [=DromEd=]. The reference [[PunnyName being a pun on]] "Camelot". "Camel(ot)" = "'''Dromed'''ary Camel", get it ?

** Prior to ''VideoGame/ThiefDeadlyShadows'', Creator/LookingGlassStudios was going to make ''Thief III''.

* WorkingTitle: ''Violent Streets''.

** Several overheard conversations were removed from the final releases, but probably the most interesting is one that actually describes what [[YouKeepUsingThatWord "taffer"]] means, at least in the Thiefverse. [[http://thief.wikia.com/wiki/TG_resources_conversations#Unused35 Apparently]], it's [[IHaveManyNames yet another name for the Trickster]] that entered the common parlance [[GetTheeToANunnery without people realizing it.]]

* UrbanLegendsOfZelda:

* RetroactiveRecognition: Dennis Farina was a Chicago PD detective at the time who served as a consultant on the film and made his acting debut as one of Leo's silent henchmen. Farina became a familiar and busy actor for the rest of his life, following this film with roles in Mann's ''Film/{{Manhunter}}'' and ''Series/CrimeStory''.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Dennis Farina was a former Chicago PD detective who was a consultant on the film and making his acting debut as one of Leo's silent henchmen. Farina became a familiar and busy actor for the rest of his life, following this film with roles in Mann's ''Film/{{Manhunter}}'' and ''Series/CrimeStory''.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Dennis Farina was one of the former Chicago policemen who did consulting on the film, making his acting debut as one of Leo's silent henchmen. Farina became a familiar and busy actor for the rest of his life, following this film with roles in Mann's ''Film/{{Manhunter}}'' and ''Series/CrimeStory''.

* OneOfUs: The late, great Creator/TerryPratchett [[https://web.archive.org/web/20141202200502/http://www.computerandvideogames.com/143656/interviews/terry-pratchett/ has admitted]] to being a fan of this particular game series, often even playing many of the fan-made missions.

** ''[[http://www.thedarkmod.com/main/ The Dark Mod]]'', a freeware FanRemake [[AdaptationDistillation of the style of gameplay and esthetics as seen in the entire original trilogy]]. Runs on the ''[[VideoGame/{{Doom}} Doom 3]]'' engine and comes with its own separate editor toolkit, Dark Radiant. Fan-developed missions and scenarios can be downloaded directly within the game, via a built-in utility. After spending years (since 2004) in continuous development and testing (during which players needed copies of ''Doom 3'' to run it), it was finally released for free, as a complete standalone, in October 2013. It won PC Gamer's [[http://www.pcgamer.com/mod-of-the-year-the-dark-mod/ 2013 "Mod of the Year" Award]]. The game is still in continuous development, adding improved gameplay, technical aspects and new assets through regular updates every few months. The game installer doubles as an updater for just this purpose.

** Caused by the ancient version of Bink video bundled with the game being incompatible with modern versions of Windows. The original's a compatibility nightmare anyway, being targeted to one of the original iterations of DirectX; websites with patched versions of the rendering libraries will normally have links to updated video libraries, too.

* OneOfUs: Creator/TerryPratchett [[https://web.archive.org/web/20141202200502/http://www.computerandvideogames.com/143656/interviews/terry-pratchett/ has admitted]] to being a fan of this particular game series, often even playing many of the fan-made missions.

* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: ''VideoGame/ThiefIITheMetalAge'' provides a peculiar example in its German (and only German) localization. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVawf1l5zc0 credits video]] for the game and a few ambients in certain in-game locations [[https://youtu.be/M6sDJ5fDadI?t=61 use]] the song "Accingite Vos", by the German band Subway to Sally. Weirdly, all other versions of the game ''don't'' include it, to the point that even in the English language version, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1bdfx4fP24 there is]] ''no background music in the credits video''. The lenghth of the credits video and how well it syncs with the song seems to indicate it was originally planned to be released as part of the non-German versions too (including the original English language one), but some last-minute copyright issue probably prevented that. Some surviving [[http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123254 online news releases]] from the time of the game's development indicate this might have been the case, as there was no mention of the band contributing music only to the German language version of the game.

* OneOfUs: Creator/TerryPratchett [[http://www.computerandvideogames.com/143656/interviews/terry-pratchett/ has admitted]] to being a fan of this particular game series, often even playing many of the fan-made missions.

* DescendedCreator: Many of characters in the series were voiced by the developers themselves, something that was a tradition in several other Creator/LookingGlassStudios games or games LGS employees had worked on. (See also, HeyItsThatVoice.)

* HeyItsThatVoice: Combined frequently with DescendedCreator, as several voice actors among Looking Glass Studios and Ion Storm developers voiced several of the main and minor characters.
** Creator/StephenRussell [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=883hEJ7Xowo voices]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=a2kf6r5NxfM#t=30s Garrett]], Benny the Dumb Guard, one particular type of cranky old Hammerite, the homeless former opera house manager Raoul, many of the commoner {{NPC}}s... ''[[ManOfAThousandVoices but also]]'' Karras and his robots. Outside of ''Thief'', Russell has also voiced the likes of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGWEnaZamBo XERXES]], captain William Diego and some of The Many in ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2'', [[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Harold Harold]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lycipb0J5Sw the mutated tree guy]] in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', and Mercer Frey, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUoMqrFXKBM Cynric Endell]], Barbas, Belethor and many others in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim''. In [[ShoutOut a nod]] [[ActorAllusion to Russell's roles]] in ''Thief'', Mercer and Cynric from ''Skyrim'' are members of the Thieves Guild, and Harold from ''Fallout 3'' has [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130925090140/http://images.wikia.com/fallout/images/6/60/Herbert_nice_person.ogg an accent very reminescent]] to the signature accent Russell used for Benny the Dumb Guard.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwRpr-pZYuQ Terri Brosius]] voices [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx2ThtxvG9Q&feature=related Viktoria]]. Even more famously, she voices [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iZMD_eCpEo&feature=related SHODAN]] in the CD version of ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' and reprises her role in ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2''. L-l-look at you, troper. Now you know who voices one of gaming's most famous villains.
** Besides Russell and Brosius, ''[[{{VideoGame/ThiefTheDarkProject}} The Dark Project]]'' and ''[[{{VideoGame/ThiefIITheMetalAge}} The Metal Age]]'' shared several other voice actors with ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2'', since they were hired by (or working at) Looking Glass Studios at the time. Some examples:
*** [[VideoGame/SystemShock Dr. Marc Miller]] (Bill Farquhar) is also a guard {{NPC}} in ''[[{{VideoGame/ThiefIITheMetalAge}} The Metal Age]]''.
*** Fred Galpern voices some of the mages in ''[[{{VideoGame/ThiefTheDarkProject}} Thief Gold]]'' and Malone and the Hacker in ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2''.
*** Translator Caduca from ''[[{{VideoGame/ThiefIITheMetalAge}} The Metal Age]]'' (Esra Gaffin) is also none other than Janice Polito, Erin Bloome, Rebecca Siddons and a few other female (Midwife) and alien characters (The Many) in ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2''.
*** Jennivere (Karen Saltus) from ''[[{{VideoGame/ThiefIITheMetalAge}} The Metal Age]]'' is also ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2'''s Angela Loesser, Constance Sanger and the OSA Recruiter.
*** [[VideoGame/SystemShock Taz Amanpour]] (Josh Randall) is also the voice of the Keeper Instructors in ''[[{{VideoGame/ThiefTheDarkProject}} The Dark Project]]''.
*** Brother Murus (Randy Smith) from ''[[{{VideoGame/ThiefTheDarkProject}} The Dark Project]]'' is Croker in ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2''.

** Creator/StephenRussell [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=883hEJ7Xowo voices]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=a2kf6r5NxfM#t=30s Garrett]], Benny the Dumb Guard, one particular type of cranky old Hammerite, the homeless former opera house manager Raoul, many of the commoner {{NPC}}s... ''[[ManOfAThousandVoices but also]]'' Karras and his robots. Outside of ''Thief'', Russell has also voiced the likes of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGWEnaZamBo XERXES]], captain William Diego and some of The Many in ''SystemShock 2'', [[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Harold Harold]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lycipb0J5Sw the mutated tree guy]] in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', and Mercer Frey, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUoMqrFXKBM Cynric Endell]], Barbas, Belethor and many others in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim''. In [[ShoutOut a nod]] [[ActorAllusion to Russell's roles]] in ''Thief'', Mercer and Cynric from ''Skyrim'' are members of the Thieves Guild, and Harold from ''Fallout 3'' has [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130925090140/http://images.wikia.com/fallout/images/6/60/Herbert_nice_person.ogg an accent very reminescent]] to the signature accent Russell used for Benny the Dumb Guard.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwRpr-pZYuQ Terri Brosius]] voices [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx2ThtxvG9Q&feature=related Viktoria]]. Even more famously, she voices [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iZMD_eCpEo&feature=related SHODAN]] in the CD version of ''SystemShock'' and reprises her role in ''SystemShock 2''. L-l-look at you, troper. Now you know who voices one of gaming's most famous villains.
** Besides Russell and Brosius, ''[[{{VideoGame/ThiefTheDarkProject}} The Dark Project]]'' and ''[[{{VideoGame/ThiefIITheMetalAge}} The Metal Age]]'' shared several other voice actors with ''SystemShock 2'', since they were hired by (or working at) Looking Glass Studios at the time. Some examples:
*** [[SystemShock Dr. Marc Miller]] (Bill Farquhar) is also a guard {{NPC}} in ''[[{{VideoGame/ThiefIITheMetalAge}} The Metal Age]]''.
*** Fred Galpern voices some of the mages in ''[[{{VideoGame/ThiefTheDarkProject}} Thief Gold]]'' and Malone and the Hacker in ''SystemShock 2''.
*** Translator Caduca from ''[[{{VideoGame/ThiefIITheMetalAge}} The Metal Age]]'' (Esra Gaffin) is also none other than Janice Polito, Erin Bloome, Rebecca Siddons and a few other female (Midwife) and alien characters (The Many) in ''SystemShock 2''.
*** Jennivere (Karen Saltus) from ''[[{{VideoGame/ThiefIITheMetalAge}} The Metal Age]]'' is also ''SystemShock 2'''s Angela Loesser, Constance Sanger and the OSA Recruiter.
*** [[SystemShock Taz Amanpour]] (Josh Randall) is also the voice of the Keeper Instructors in ''[[{{VideoGame/ThiefTheDarkProject}} The Dark Project]]''.
*** Brother Murus (Randy Smith) from ''[[{{VideoGame/ThiefTheDarkProject}} The Dark Project]]'' is Croker in ''SystemShock 2''.

** Creator/LookingGlassStudios has one dedicated to its legacy in game development history. It includes interviews with the ''{{VideoGame/Thief}}'''s and ''SystemShock''s creators. They can be found [[http://gambit.mit.edu/updates/audio/looking_glass_studios_podcast/ here]].
** Since the early history of Creator/IrrationalGames is linked with Looking Glass Studios, the [[http://irrationalgames.com/insider/irrational-behavior/introducing-irrational-behavior/ first episode]] of IG's podcast Irrational Behaviour was dedicated to the role some of the LGS/IG developers played in the making of the earlier ''SystemShock'' game and the making of the ''{{VideoGame/Thief}}'' series. For the particular bit of the episode that discusses ''{{VideoGame/Thief}}'', go [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYdIVAfLNnA here]].