Theme Hospital
 |
|
| Developers | |
|---|---|
| Bullfrog Productions | |
| Publishers | |
| Electronic Arts | |
| Release dates | |
| DOS | March 28, 1997 |
| Windows | March 28, 1997 |
| Windows (DOSBox) | April 12, 2012 |
| macOS (OS X) (DOSBox) | October 18, 2012[1] |
| Taxonomy | |
| Modes | Singleplayer, Multiplayer |
| Pacing | Real-time |
| Perspectives | Bird's-eye view, Isometric |
| Controls | Point and select |
| Genres | Building, Simulation |
| Art styles | Cartoon |
| Themes | Comedy, Healthcare |
| Series | Theme Park |
 |
|
| Theme Park | |
|---|---|
| Theme Park | 1994 |
| Theme Hospital | 1997 |
| Shin Theme Park | 1997 |
| Theme Park World | 1999 |
| Theme Park Inc. | 2001 |
Warnings
- The macOS (OS X) version of this game needs a fix to work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later (see API for details).
Theme Hospital is a Building Simulator developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts in 1997 for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows compatible PCs in which players design and operate a privately owned hospital with the goal of curing patients of fictitious comical ailments.
The game is the thematic successor to Theme Park, also produced by Bullfrog, and the second instalment in their Theme series, and part of their Designer Series. The game is noted for its humour, and contains numerous references to pop culture. Peter Molyneux and James Leach came up with the idea of creating a Theme game based on a hospital, but Molyneux was not directly involved in development due to his work on Dungeon Keeper. Designers originally planned to include four distinct gameplay modes corresponding to historical time periods, but this was dropped due to time pressures on the team. Multiplayer support with up to four players was added in a patch. The game received a generally positive reception, with reviewers praising the graphics and humour in particular. Theme Hospital was a commercial success, selling over 4 million copies worldwide, and was ported to the PlayStation in 1998. A Sega Saturn version was in development, but cancelled.
The game was re-released on GOG.com in 2012 and Origin in 2015, and the PlayStation version was released on the PlayStation Network in Europe in 2008, Japan in 2009, and North America in 2010. Revival attempts have been made with the development of open-source remakes such as CorsixTH.
General information
Availability
| Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail | |
Native Windows version has compatibility problems. | |
|
| GOG.com | |
DOS version pre-packaged with DOSBox.[2] | |
|
| Origin | |
DOS version pre-packaged with DOSBox. | |
Essential improvements
CorsixTH
- CorsixTH is an open-source reimplementation of Theme Hospital. It features high resolution support, zooming, improved game logic, option to remove destroyed rooms for a fee, unlimited saving, and custom content support.
Patches
- Mouse Lag Patch
- This sets the CPU affinity to 3 instead of 1, though you may need to fiddle with this number. Save this file where your HOSP folder is and run it instead of Hospital.exe.
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
| System | Location |
|---|---|
| DOS | <path-to-game>\HOSPITAL.CFG |
| Windows | <path-to-game>\HOSPITAL.CFG[Note 1] |
| macOS (OS X) | <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 2] |
Save game data location
| System | Location |
|---|---|
| DOS | <path-to-game>\Save |
| Windows | <path-to-game>\Save[Note 1] |
| macOS (OS X) | <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 2] |
- Edit
HOSPITAL.CFGafter where it saysINSTALL PATH=to the installation folder, making sure to put a trailing backslash (\) at the end of the folder name. This tells the game where to save the save files.
Save game cloud syncing
| System | Native | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| GOG Galaxy | ||
| Origin |
Video
| Graphics feature | State | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Widescreen resolution | Use CorsixTH to enable widescreen mode | ||
| Multi-monitor | |||
| Ultra-widescreen | |||
| 4K Ultra HD | |||
| Field of view (FOV) | |||
| Windowed | For DOSBox toggle with Alt+↵ Enter (see the glossary page for other workarounds). | ||
| Borderless fullscreen windowed | Use CorsixTH to enable windowed mode. | ||
| Anisotropic filtering (AF) | |||
| Anti-aliasing (AA) | |||
| Vertical sync (Vsync) | For DOSBox use an unofficial build (see the glossary page for other workarounds). | ||
| 60 FPS and 120+ FPS | |||
Input
| Keyboard and mouse | State | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Remapping | For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds). | |
| Mouse acceleration | ||
| Mouse sensitivity | ||
| Mouse input in menus | ||
| Mouse Y-axis inversion | ||
| Controller | ||
| Controller support | For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds). |
| Controller types |
|---|
Audio
| Audio feature | State | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Separate volume controls | ||
| Surround sound | ||
| Subtitles | All speech is text-based. | |
| Closed captions | ||
| Mute on focus lost | For DOSBox change the priority background value in the DOSBox configuration file. |
Localizations
| Language | UI | Audio | Sub | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | ||||
| German | ||||
| Spanish | ||||
| French | ||||
| Italian | ||||
| Polish | Fan translation, download. | |||
| Russian | Unofficial translation, download | |||
| Swedish |
Network
Multiplayer types
| Type | Native | Players | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LAN play | 4 | Added in the last patch. | ||
| Online play | For DOSBox use DOSBox IPX/modem emulation. | |||
Connection types
| Type | Native | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Matchmaking | ||
| Peer-to-peer | ||
| Dedicated | ||
| Self-hosting | ||
| Direct IP |
Other information
API
| Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| DOS video modes | SVGA |
| Executable | 32-bit | 64-bit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows |
System requirements
| DOS | ||
|---|---|---|
| Minimum | ||
| Operating system (OS) | 6.2 | |
| Processor (CPU) | 66 MHz | |
| System memory (RAM) | 8 MB | |
| Hard disk drive (HDD) | 20 MB | |
| Video card (GPU) | SVGA | |
| Windows | ||
|---|---|---|
| Minimum | ||
| Operating system (OS) | 95 | |
| Processor (CPU) | Intel Pentium | |
| System memory (RAM) | 16 MB | |
| Hard disk drive (HDD) | ||
| Video card (GPU) | SVGA | |
| macOS (OS X) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Minimum | ||
| Operating system (OS) | 10.6.8 or later | |
| Processor (CPU) | Intel Core Duo 2 GHz+ | |
| System memory (RAM) | 1 GB | |
| Hard disk drive (HDD) | 200 MB | |
| Video card (GPU) | 64 MB of VRAM | |
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below
%PROGRAMFILES%,%PROGRAMDATA%, or%WINDIR%might be redirected to%LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStoreon Windows Vista and later (more details). - ↑ 2.0 2.1 File/folder structure within the installation folder reflects the path(s) listed for DOS game data. For the GOG.com release, file changes in DOSBox are redirected to
<path-to-game>/cloud_saves/even if GOG Galaxy is not used (this folder contains all redirected files, so some files in thecloud_savesfolder might be temporary files or other files that do not contain saves or settings).