Open source Theme Hospital game engine CorsixTH v0.67 gets a first Beta

Oh goodie, goodbye again free time. Remember the classic Theme Hospital? CorsixTH is a free, open source and cross-platform game engine to keep it looking good on modern systems and a new release is getting close.

It's already in a good state with pretty much the whole game playable and version 0.67 (Beta) is progress towards getting it more complete. There's a few new features, changes and plenty of bug fixes to make it a better experience.

New Features:

• The backend code for MIDI playback has been changed on Windows and real pause logic has been re-enabled. Please be aware that things such as application volume and audio quality may change depending on your configuration from ≤0.66.
• The original demo gameplay video now plays when the CorsixTH main menu is idle (this can be disabled in the configuration file).
• File browser menus now have an OK button (at last!).
• Selecting an existing file in the Save Game/Map browsers will now update the text input box to that file name.

Changes:

• Handymen now always stay in their assigned plots, except when going to rest.
• Staff members now have a maximum salary, which can be configured in custom levels.
• The game will now always use the GP's choice of next diagnosis room for the patient, if available.
• Queuing patients are now shown when hovering a door.
• Epidemics can no longer fail because an infected patient left before the epidemic was revealed.
• Balance changes to drug improvement research.
• Check for updates can now be disabled in Settings.
• "Pause" now shows up when the "Build while paused" setting is on and the game is paused.
• The gamelog file now includes a timestamp.
• Many, many, refactors of the code to make it better to understand for future developers.
• Contact methods to reach the CorsixTH Team have been updated.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an instance where objects could disappear from the map.
• Fixed a bug where the empty action queue message was prevented from happening.
• Fixed a bug where dying patients became undead and would have a habit of ruining everything.
• Fixed broken dynamic info during epidemics.
• Handymen will no longer try to repair machinery while a patient is using it.
• Psychiatrist couch has less chance of causing blocked paths.
• Roujin's challenge is now properly applied (read: harder).
• Serious Radiation is no longer contagious.
• Room blueprints can no longer go beyond external walls.
• Fixed incorrect button sounds in the Staff Management window.
• Fixed back button behaviour in Font Picker.
• Fixed a bug where word-wrapping text on dialogs could crash the game.
• Fixed a rare case where the next VIP date may be scheduled in the past.
• Fixed a rare case where awarded research points could be negative.
• Fixed a rare case of the balance sheet being victim of a green highlighter.

Find out more about CorsixTH on the GitHub. It requires that you provide the original data files which you can buy on GOG.com.

Projects like this really make me love the open source community. There's so many classic games that have some sort of game engine reimplementation, to make sure they keep working on modern platforms. Theme Hospital is an absolute classic too, fully deserves to be enjoyed by more players.