CorsixTH: Open-source clone of Theme Hospital
github.com
github.com
Give it a try, this is one of the few ones that I have played and enjoyed.
I played TPH and liked it.
Is the university game already released?
Oh well.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/535930/Two_Point_Hospital...
I have extremely fond memories of playing Theme Hospital back on my PS1 but it does have some rough edges.
The negative side of course is that they have not really added that much in terms of new gameplay mechanics in Two Point Hospital compared to the original, and a bunch of the levels are DLC so are extra money. But hey it is fun.
A little over 11 years ago, I setup this game, CorsixTH, for a friend who was undergoing chemo for leukemia and a bone marrow transplant. They had played the original game as a kid and I guess nostalgia and their then-current circumstances got them interested again. I was impressed by this port's functionality, back then.
My friend didn't make it, several months later. The marrow transplant didn't take well enough, and they eventually caught a lung infection they didn't survive. Needless to say, this had a profound impact on my outlook.
So it's bittersweet to see it pop up again. But I will repeat my original assessment: it's an impressively functional port!
I must say: in general it hasn't held up very well. There are so many mechanics that are extremely poorly explained that are fundamental to the game. E.g. epidemics and earthquake/machine strength. Trying to micromanage all of the gameplay systems that are quite annoying to begin with doesn't end up being .. fun.
As a child I'm sure I liked it because it was goofy and approachable, but playing through it now I doubt I ever got through the levels where managing epidemics is important.
about a year ago I got most of the way through CorsixTH before realising a few things didn't behave as they did in the original, namely epidemics
I went back and completed the original instead
Epidemics is a pretty bad gameplay system. Especially considering patients going between buildings automatically fails it; which makes it almost completely broken. On some maps buying some particular buildings is a complete foot-gun due to this.
For our own protection we do not reverse engineer though so the goal is similar to what can be observed and fun to play.
I feel like I speak with a British twinge on my voice for days after a few hours of listening to the PA secretary audio -- that applies to both TH and all the new Campus bullfrog games, too.
( I love Bullfrog, but I still like the original TH and Corsix remake more than any of the new stuff. Probably just nostalgia. )
Many thanks!
Those damned earthquakes destroying different equipment (usually the slack tongue slicer) annoy me, but it’s all good fun though.
I tried to play the reboot, but I prefer Theme Hospital.
On the mend.mid is my favourite piece of music from the series.
I've been messing with the game engine, Dry the successor to Urho3D on my blog lately
I keep seeing Lua popup in random places, like home automation or this game. I've never really looked at it into details, what makes one chose Lua over something more standard?
* Define your functions * Define your lua binding * load lua code * run it. * Profit.
Only takes ~10 minutes to do: https://stackoverflow.com/a/5127294
Will have to give this a try!
I suppose I can answer a few questions about the history.
Peter Crawley (Corsix) built the original versions of CorsixTH back in 2009. I made my first significant contribution in 2012 when I added movies. Now I am the oldest active contributor and Windows packager. I primarily work on the engine and leave the scripting to others.
Lewri joined in 2020 and brought a lot of energy back to the project, improving community outreach, bug triaging, patching and keeping everyone talking.
Alan runs the distinct but parallel Android port which was recently started again after a long hiatus.
A number of other developers are currently active and can be found in our discord/matrix channel.
Can't wait to try this.