Theme Hospital
by elimirksOriginal Post
Accepted Solution
Re: Theme Hospital - Free on Origin with On the House
Theme Hospital is currently free with On the House! Here are 5 tips to get you started
What will you do when your hospital is overrun with vomiting, big-headed patients scrambling to spend their hard-earned money on medical support? What about when a bunch of people show up dressed like Elvis Presley and need psychological help? If you answered "hire more doctors", you're already mentally prepared for the insanity that is Theme Hospital, Bullfrog Productions' 1997 classic.
Good news! The game is available for free with Origin On the House, so you can download it and start playing immediately without spending a dime. Just add it to your Origin Game Library and you can play it whenever you want.
Because it was released nearly 20 years ago, Theme Hospital is a product of its era – it's a strategic dream come true, and it's not going to hold your hand as your simulated hospital is subjected to epidemics, earthquakes, and all manner of insane problems. If you want to just dive in and figure it out for yourself, more power to you; stick with it, and you're in for a treat. For those who want a little primer, we've put together a few quick tips that should help make your transition from gamer to hospital owner a more seamless one.
Slow down the game speed immediately. One major thing differentiates Theme Hospital from other simulation games: it's level-based, not a sandbox, so you're going to rebuild your hospital several times to deal with new issues. And the beginning of each level can be the difficult, as you spend time trying to learn the mechanics and figure out exactly what you're supposed to be doing. The best way to learn is to slow things down – you can either do that with the number keys or the top menu, giving you time to become acquainted with the mechanics before facing medical drama.
Pay attention to all of the games' alerts. As you're getting into Theme Hospital you might notice little icons on windows, or tiny squares popping up at different places on the screen. Check them out! Hover over them! Click them! The game gives you a ton of information on how to best optimize your hospital, so be sure to pay attention to those alerts. And don't ignore the loudspeaker, which often provides clues as to which areas of your hospital are currently in need of additional support.
Keep your hospital staffed. Obviously you're going to hire a receptionist and a doctor when you start a hospital. That's like, the first thing you'd think to do. But don't be frugal – bring on a nurse when you can, and nab a janitor as soon as possible. Why? If you don't, your hallways are going to be full of trash and vomit before you can say "flat-line". Gross? Maybe, but such is the life of a hospital owner.
Play with the panels. At the bottom right of the game's screen there are a number of panels that are jam-packed with additional options. They're all super important, and you should make use of them as soon as you're able. The Policy panel lets you change the hospital's rules, which you should totally start changing as soon as you understand how the game works. There's also a Research panel that lets you know when you can research new medicines and treatments. Those, as you might expect, can be pretty important when you're trying to build a state-of-the-art hospital (by 1997 standards, anyway).
Keep your equipment repaired. Picture this: someone with a massive, hanging tongue walks into your hospital and requests help. Turns out, that person has Slack Tongue, a disorder that can only be cured by way of a Slicer Machine (ouch). But after the procedure, your Slicer Machine breaks. What do you do? If you answered "fix it", you're WRONG! If it's broken, you're already too late. In Theme Hospital, a broken machine means a broken room, so you'll need to build a new room entirely with a totally new Slicer Machine. Be sure to check your machines regularly and pay for repairs (or replace them entirely) whenever it looks like they might be on the fritz.
So, ready to turn cures into cash? Grab Theme Hospital for free with Origin On the House!
All Replies
- last edited on by
EA_Spectre
@elimirks wrote:
Hello, EA staff.
I am inquiring about the usage of the data from the game "Theme Hospital" by Bullfrog. There is an open source project of cloning the game (corsix), but at the moment, you need to have the game data to play (the creators are worried about legal issues of hosting the game data for free, included in the game).
I was wondering if we could get permission to use the game data.
Thanks.
For this kind of question, please contact permissionrequests@ea.com.
This is our contact for the use of our material for any marketing, commercial or other reason.
I hope that helps 
