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February 2, 2011

I was reading a submission on Reddit the other day about a screenshot of Roller Coaster Tycoon. That screenshot drew me into a Wikipedia wormhole that started with the article on Roller Coaster Tycoon and culminated in my visiting the page on Theme Hospital. In the article, it talks about various attempts to develop an open source game engine based on Theme Hospital using the old game assets. So, I found CorsixTH (which is in Beta), and wouldn't you know, it's just like Theme Hospital! I noticed a couple small bugs and the "Charts" menu isn't fleshed out, but it's just like the game I remember.

So, now you have to ask yourself three things:

Did you love Theme Hospital when it first came out?
Do you still have the original CD?*
Are you ready to rock like it's 1997?!?!!1!

If you answered at least two of those options in the affirmative, you owe it to yourself to give this game a try! You owe it to yourself even if you didn't! So, head over to the CorsixTH downloads page and get the version of the installer that you need (available for Windows, MacOS and Linux). Also, be sure to copy the "HOSP" directory from the CD over to your hard drive and link to it in-game after CorsixTH is installed*. The wiki for CorsixTH has additional instructions for installing the game as well as an FAQ if you have any additional questions.

* The wiki for CorsixTH says that you can use the demo files, but that it doesn't have all of the files necessary. Remember, you can always check on eBay for deals on used copies, as well.

Video Games