Theme Hospital

Overview

Theme Hospital is a simulation management game developed by Bullfrog in which the player creates and manages the running of a hospital in a number of different scenarios. The player is required to build a hospital from the ground up and hire staff in order to treat patients with comical illnesses ranging from "Bloaty Head Disease" to "Invisibility". To progress to the next level players are required to meet certain criteria e.g. 500 lives saved, 200 deaths. During the course of a level you may deal with; epidemics in which you need to keep under wraps from the health authorities; emergency patients who require immediate attention; impressing the hospital inspector and discovering treatment for a number of different illnesses.

The PC version of the game contained a number of funky music trackswhich were left out of the PlayStation version. The PlayStation version of Theme Hospital has also been released on the PlayStation Network to download and play on the PlayStation 3 and the PSP.

Building

Building rooms in Theme Hospital is very simple, all you have to do is navigate through a simple menu to find the room you need. The menus allow you to select from a range of different rooms for different needs. More rooms unlock as you progress through the game and will help you cure more illnesses, the rooms have different types of machinery to cure the illnesses. Each room requires a doctor or nurse with a certain qualification to operate it. The player is able to choose the size of the room as well as place doors, windows and various props inside the room to satisfy patients and staff. However, the bigger the room and the more props placed inside it the more expensive it will be and it will come out of your current budget. It is also possible to place staff rooms for employees to rest in and entertain themselves as well as toilets for patients to refresh themselves. Rooms will become dirty and fill with litter unless you employ a handyman to clean up all the mess.

Often the player won't have enough space to fit all rooms that they need so they will have to buy more land which contains a separate building to place more rooms in, they will often find they have to buy 2 or 3 more buildings to have the required rooms.

Apart from rooms and buildings it is also possible to buy props to make your hospital a more comfortable place to be. Firstly the player can buy a reception desk which is very important and they can also buy plants to make the hospital look nicer, radiators to make sure staff and patients don't get too cold, fire extinguishers to put out possible fires, benches for patients to sit on while they wait to see a doctor and vending machines for patients to buy a snack when they get hungry or thirsty.

Rooms

Diagnosis Rooms

GP's Office

• Requires a doctor
• Minimum Size is 4x4

General Diagnosis

• Requires a doctor
• Minimum Size is 5x5

Cardiogram

• Requires a doctor
• Minimum size is 5x4
• Requires Handyman for repair

Scanner

• Requires a doctor
• Minimum size is 5x5
• Requires Handyman for repair

Ultrascan

• Requires a doctor
• Minimum size is 5x5
• Requires a Handyman for repair

Blood Machine

• Requires a doctor
• Minimum size is 4x4
• Requires a handyman for repair

X-Ray

• Requires a doctor
• Minimum size is 7x7
• Requires a handyman for repair

Psychiatric

• Requires a psychiatrist
• Minimum size is 5x5
• Also a treatment room

Ward

• Requires a nurse
• Minimum size is 6x6
• Also a treatment room
• Multiple patients may us at same time

Treatment Rooms

Pharmacy

• Requires Nurse
• Minimum size is 4x4

Psychiatric

• Requires a psychiatrist
• Minimum size is 5x5
• Also a diagnosis room

Ward

• Requires a nurse
• Minimum size is 6x6
• Also a diagnosis room
• Multiple patients may us at same time

Operating Theater

• Requires two surgeons
• Minimum size is 7x6
• Requires a handyman to repair
• Requires a ward

Clinics

Inflation

• Requires a doctor
• Minimum size is 5x4
• Requires a handyman to repair

DNA Fixer

• Requires a researcher
• Minimum size is 6x5

Hair Restoration

• Requires a doctor
• Minimum size is 4x4
• Requires a handyman to repair

Slack Tongue Clinic

• Requires a doctor
• Minimum size is 4x4
• Requires a handyman to repair

Fracture Clinic

• Requires a nurse
• Minimum size is 4x4
• Requires a handyman to repair

Electrolysis

• Requires a nurse
• Minimum size is 5x5
• Requires a handyman to repair

Jelly Vat

• Requires a doctor
• Minimum size is 4x4
• Requires a handyman to repair

Decontamination

• Requires a doctor
• Minimum size is 5x5
• Requires a handyman to repair

Facilities

Staff Room

• Minimum size is 4x4

Research Department

• Requires 1 researcher
• Minimum size is 5x5
• One researcher per desk in room

Toilets

• Minimum size is 4x4

Training

• Requires a consultant
• Minimum size is 4x4
• One student per desk in room

Staff

The player must employ a variety of staff to keep their hospital running. Different medical rooms require a doctor who has a certain degree. The degrees they have qualify them to be a researcher, surgeon or psychiatrist. Some doctors have all three and some may have none at all meaning they are limited to where they can work. Apart from doctors the player can also employ nurses, cleaners (called Handyman in-game) and a receptionist. Nurses work in pharmacies and wards, handymen clean the hospital as well as repairing broken equipment and receptionists work at the reception desks. More expensive employees will be more friendly to patients and will be more willing to work. However, less expensive employees will become tired more quickly and will be rude to patients.

System Requirements

Minimum System Requirements:

• OS: Windows 95
• Processor: 486/66 MHz
• Memory: 8 MB
• Hard Drive: 25 MB Free
• Video Memory: 1 MB, SVGA
• Sound Card: SoundBlaster Compatible
• Keyboard & Mouse
• CD/DVD Rom Drive

Cheat Codes

To use these cheats you first need to wait for a fax to arrive, then enter 24328 into the fax machine, followed by the green button. A telephone ring will sound if done correctly.

Effect Code

Open Source Versions

A number of modernized open sourced versions of Theme Hospital have been created over the last few years, as a means for people to keep playing the game on newer versions of Windows, or even Linux or MacOS. The game was reverse engineered by a man named Alexander Gitter, who created a Format Specification Wiki with the intention of allowing the game to be fully recreated in open source.

OpenTH

The first of these was known as OpenTH. No longer in active development it attempted to rebuild the original Theme Hospital game in C++ and Lua with the intention of rebuilding it from the ground up with intentions to release it within GNU GPL. As of 2011 there have been no formal updates and no current version of it to Download.

CorsixTH

Another open source version of the game, CorsixTH is still currently in active development. However, it requires the original files of the game as a base in order to be played. However it is fully functioning and still in Beta, to accommodate further features. Updates on a bi-monthly basis it is a faithful recreation of the game, using the original visual style and music. The current stable version, 0.01 is available here.