Theme Hospital

Moby ID: 674
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

Theme Hospital is a level-based hospital management simulation where players have to start on an empty building, and then assemble rooms with all kinds of material, from desks and file cabinets for the general diagnosis to the expensive ultra-scanners and X-rays to diagnose such bizarre diseases as Bloaty Head, Slack Songue or Alien DNA, and treat them with even more bizarre machines like an Head Inflator or a DNA fixer. There are several additional rooms, such as a staff room for your employees to rest, a toilet so that patients don't have to relieve themselves in the corridors, a research department to get the most advanced diagnostic and treatment technologies and a training room where consultants can teach a thing or two to rookies, making them capable doctors. The size and layout of each room can be set by the player, according to the available space. In addition to rooms, the player must provide radiators, seating for patients and drink machines.

However, rooms don't run by themselves. Most diagnostic and clinics can work with regular doctors, but others like the operating theater and the research room require specialized staff while the ward, pharmacy and the fracture clinic require an attending nurse. At the same time, the hospital can't run without handymen cruising around the hospital to water up dry plants, clean up litter and vomit (after all, people go there because they are sick) and fix machines, while receptionists direct patients to the proper rooms.

As levels advance, the player faces increasingly harder situations: VIP visits, emergencies, epidemics and earthquakes, which can either take a toll on reputation or on the bank account. On the other hand, as more and more equipment is required, additional plots of land are available for purchase in later maps.

Spellings

  • Частная ΠΊΠ»ΠΈΠ½ΠΈΠΊΠ° - Russian spelling
  • δΈ»ι’˜εŒ»ι™’ - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (DOS version)

101 People (95 developers, 6 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 80% (based on 39 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 162 ratings with 9 reviews)

This one is a great game.

The Good
A lot. First, it's from Bullfrog - so I can't help but love it. The other reasons are a bit more serious, so let's go on:

  • The graphics. Truly great graphics, quite detailed and extremely humourous (or insane, if you'd rather have it this way :-))
  • Great music, diverse and actually likeable (though you'd probably want a wavetable card to play this, get an AWE32).
  • Reasonably accurate simulation, not like in the half-assed, should-have-never-been-made Theme Park. If you do things right you do them right, and if you screw up you're screwed. That's the way things should be.
  • Excellent gameplay and replayability value, with funny rooms and characters, "interesting" (to say the least) cinematic sequences.



The Bad
It's repetitive, definitely repetitive. Also, occasionally you'll find yourself earning profit, running an excellent hospital and still not moving to the next level - only to be promoted half an hour later. Go figure.

The Bottom Line
A really excellent simulation game I really love, however it's completely an issue of taste.

Windows · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 2000

One of the best management sims out there

The Good
This game is really well balanced to be just challenging enough. It's a great casual game. I've reinstalled and restarted this game several times over the last decade and never quite put in the hours to make it to the very end before the end of the life of that particular PC, but its lasting appeal always has me coming back for another go.

The Bad
There are a few glitches. There's little more frustrating than nearing the end of a level to have the whole thing crash out because a little person has merged with a door. Doesn't happen often though, what with all these fangled modern patches.

The Bottom Line
A cheeky, tightly designed and extremely well executed management sim. I'm not mad on this genre but this one, though a little dated, stands the test of time in replay value.

Well worth five quid... though due to mine being plenty played over the years, I think I'm onto my third copy now.

Windows · by Mike Hanson (311) · 2009

well, what can you say really?

The Good
Absolutely everything. This game is a masterpiece and stands out in my games collection as one of my top 10 of all time. It's in the top 5 even.

You are given an empty building, and build a hospital. Starts off small, with a few doctors, general diagnostic, reception, pharmacy and a few other necessities. Then you get up in the levels and wow - that becomes one huge hospital. You buy more land and buildings and before you know it, you own a hospital empire.

I liked the challenge of this game, it wasn't just what it appeared to be - building hospitals. It was much more, as you had to research illnesses, keep the hospital clean, plants alive, patients happy, staff happy and the bank manager too.



The Bad
Not much really. It was excellent. I think it was probably that I had no manual and took a while to get used to it. But once you learn about everything you need, you can pretty much own it - easier said than done ;)

The Bottom Line
Such an original idea, a totally classic game - I adore it. Playing it on the 19' screen with a Playstation is another added bonus.

Get your hands on this game, its addictive and you'll love it.

DOS · by Michelle (176) · 2002

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Free on Origin Rwolf (22739) Mar 4, 2015
Theme Hospital Classic Indra was here (20756) Jul 26, 2007

Trivia

Cheats

Like Theme Park, if a player cheats the game makes a point on telling everyone that, but instead of just displaying a pop-up box, the announcer can be heard saying "Warning: a cheat is running the hospital" and "Hospital administrator is cheating", among others.

Custom music

It's possible to play custom midi files in Theme Hospital's jukebox using the executable sound\midi\hospmidi.exe under the installation directory. Look for more information in the readme file located in the same directory.

Diseases

According to producer Mark Webley, originally the game was going to use real ailments and diseases. However, it was pointed out that this would mean dealing with a serious subject, with the potential to offend someone, so the design switched to include the comical diseases.

References

In the intro, some characters from other Bullfrog games can be spotted; a Horned Reaper from Dungeon Keeper and a Eurocorp Agent from the Syndicate series. A doctor can also be seen playing Dungeon Keeper on his PC.

If these Bullfrog product tie-ins aren't enough, the arcade cabinet placed at the staff room plays no other than Hi-Octane.

Information also contributed by Accatone, Luis Silva, Yeah No, and Zovni

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by robotriot.

PS Vita added by Fred VT. PSP, PlayStation 3 added by karttu. PlayStation added by Kartanym. Macintosh added by Sciere.

Additional contributors: Accatone, Andrew Hartnett, Klaster_1, CaesarZX, Cantillon.

Game added January 5, 2000. Last modified March 19, 2024.