Another fantastic free and open source game engine reimplementation just had a new release. This time it's CorsixTH 0.65 for playing Theme Hospital on modern systems.
The problem with Theme Hospital, like a lot of older games, is that it didn't stand the test of time too well. The idea and the gameplay is great but it really does show its age. CorsixTH totally revitalises it with full HD support, zooming, custom levels and campaigns, improved game logic and more.
CorsixTH 0.65 New Features:
- CorsixTH is now available as a Flatpak!
- On MacOS DMG files are now supported as disk images for Theme Hospital data
- Hospital policies will now carry over to your next level in the campaign
- You can now remove destroyed rooms for a fee (config option)
- The information dialogs that appear when a room is first built can be disabled in the configuration file
- Fire extinguishers in rooms now have a chance to save a smoking machine from exploding
- Advisor has more advice
- Additional trophy of the original game is implemented
- Windows and room size now impact staff happiness
- Roujin's challenge cheat is back
- Experimental direct_zoom config option, for more efficient zoom. Fixes zoom on some hardware. Defaults
Other improvements:
- Emergencies with unknown diseases will no longer occur
- The VIP system has been overhauled to provide more balanced ratings
- Overpriced/Underpriced treatments now scale with difficulty
- Placing a receptionist on a desk will now call her to the desk
- Boiler breakdowns now depend on handymen
- Faxes can no longer be opened while paused (unless editing while paused is enabled)
- Improvements to receptionist announcement frequency and behaviour
- The game will now check common locations for Theme Hospital on startup if it has not been configured
- Games compiled without movie/audio can no longer access these settings
- Update check now occurs over TLS for better security
- English names are now shown in a tooltip when hovering over a language option
- Improved TTF font rendering
There's also translation updates and a good lot of bug fixes too.
Did anyone else spent masses of their younger days playing the original? I sure did. Starting off with the likes of Theme Park and gradually moving to newer games, Theme Hospital with its quirky comedy was fantastic at the time.
Find out more about CorsixTH on the GitHub. It requires you the original data files which you can buy on GOG.com.
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