I've never been able to quite understand the reluctance of some players to embrace great mods for their games. It's always been a headscratcher, because there is no truth at all to the concept that bare-bones games, as they originally shipped, are something sacred and holy--and that no one should "disturb" the natural occurrence of the thousands of unresolved bugs and show-stoppers that were, unfortunately, never fixed before the publisher declared any further official work on the game *finished*...;) There's this latent "fear" some have that something wonderful--something incredible--will be immediately sacrificed should one consent to "mod" his games after purchase...;) Trust me when I say that quite often the opposite result is the Gospel truth--if you don't mod--with at least the better mods available--then you may be very disillusioned to discover that many "older" games hardly run at all without attendant mods! Indeed, for many games, the quality mods available for them are almost the only way to play these games today and get anything close to resembling the concepts the original game devs had in mind! One such game is ToEE--no question at all!
"Mod" is simply "a modification" to the original base code of a game. For instance, a *patch* issued by a game dev in order to correct a number of otherwise show-stopper bugs, is a "mod." Mods are nothing to fear--ever. Occasionally you will run across a really *bad* game mod--but most of the time this never happens because such mods are quickly retired from public availability, etc., as the public warnings of such (rare) mods are legion.
Most of the time, "mods" are either bug fixes ignored by the game's original developers, or they are big improvements to the original gameplay! Every aspect of gameplay! So mods are not things to be feared in the dead of night as lightning stabs the starry skies and thunder booms and shakes the countryside!...;) But it's very strange how some people regard mods--usually because they are afraid of some aspect of installing the mods and/or using the mods--and almost always such fears are ridiculous. Basically, no badge of honor is handed out just because someone refuses to install a good mod into his game...;) There is no reward for being fearful of modding, etc.
But the reward for installing quality mods is often large...;) So I encourage people to become accustomed to modding their games--that takes all of the "mystery" of the straightforward process away. Modding is usually no different from applying a game patch, etc.
To answer the original OP's query, I would highly recommend install the GOG version of the game, immediately followed by the Co8 8.1 mod, followed by the Temple+ mod--and away you go. More or less, ToEE is virtually unplayable in its virgin state. Installing those mods simply allows the player to play the game as originally envisioned by Troika, the original devs, before Atari decided to cut development time to shreds and to rush the game to get something that would at least boot and run the startup screen, if nothing else. Bug, bugs, and more bugs, was the original state of the game--Co8 and then Temple + allow you to enjoy the game to a depth and degree simply impossible with the shipping version of the game. The GOG version fixes some things by applying mods to the base game--but the only way to play, imo, is GOG install, Co8 8.1 followed by Temple+ config.
My game--GOG install + Co8 81. + Temple +--is, I think, as good as it gets for ToEE. Thanks to those mods--encompassing years of work. Runs great under Windows10x64, and in a wide variety of resolutions. I use no compatibility modes at all! Just mod--and if you for whatever reason don't care for improving your games in noticeable respects--then don't....;) But the last thing anyone should do is be afraid of modding his games, imo.
