CorsixTH Beta6 24.03.2011 [open source Theme Hospital clone]

[Roujin]

I thought I might post that here because people interested in Transport Tycoon might also be interested in other old games and open source projects aiming to recreate them.. I hope it's okay to post this here and not regarded as illicit promotion. Especially since I happen to be a contributer of that project.


Theme Hospital is a game by Bullfrog, released in 1997. In the game, you build and manage a hospital from a 2d isometric view, treating patients with funny diseases such as "Bloaty Head", "Transparency", "Spare Ribs", "Hairyitis" etc. etc. Have a look at its wikipedia page for more information.

CorsixTH is a project which aims to recreate the gameplay of the original and improve some aspects dearly missed in the original, such as the ability to run natively on modern systems (windows xp/vista/7, linux, mac osx), higher resolution, fixes to various bugs, etc. CorsixTH is coded from ground up in a mixture of C++ and Lua, but requires (similar to OpenTTD prior to the graphics/sound replacement) the original game data of Theme Hospital to run.

Current release is Beta 6.
YouTube video of Beta 6
The rest of this post is obsolete

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Today, as a little christmas present to all fans of Theme Hospital / classic games in general, and also to celebrate 5 months of development, "playable beta1" was released. Binaries are available for windows (32bit / 64bit), users running different systems currently have to compile themselves (see HowToCompile on the wiki).

The game is currently in a minimal playable state, you can already build a number of rooms, hire staff, watch some patients getting diagnosed and treated, either happily leaving the hospital again (with of course a few bucks less in their pocket), or sometimes, if the doctor or nurse messed up, kick the bucket. Of course, many things are still missing, but I think it's already worth a shot, especially if you know and liked the original game, Theme Hospital.


Links:
Project Page
"Getting Started" wiki page
YouTube video of playable beta1

[Redirect Left]

Meh, doesn't seem that good really, OpenTH (http://www.mobstar.biz/openTH/) seems more promising overall.

[Born Acorn]

Are there really two projects that are trying to achieve the same goal?

Pool your resources! One big team is better than two segregated ones.

[Roujin]

@Born Acorn: To some degree, yes - the two projects both have the aim to recreate Theme Hospital. But there are differences. Some of the reasons why corsix started an own project instead of joining OpenTH are found in this forum post. It's a little bit like TTDPatch and OpenTTD (although the emphasis lies on "little" ).
I agree that it's a good idea to "pool your ressources", however I can understand that neither of the project founders easily wants to abandon his project and join the other one. Maybe at some point the two projects are indeed merged, but currently, they live side-by-side, as have TTDPatch and OpenTTD for a long time..

@Jolteon: can you elaborate why you think so?

[Redirect Left]

@Jolteon: can you elaborate why you think so?

They're hoping to use custom graphics that mimic originals, so you do not need the real TH. (I mean, how many of us seriously have our original CDs, and such?)

[Roujin]

It's not out of the question that CorsixTH will one day also support custom graphics, replacing the old ones. It's just that the focus of CorsixTH lies on creating a complete game close to the original game first (using the original game data). Later, there might well be graphics (and sound) replacements, to remove the requirement of original game data - similar to OpenTTD.

As far as I can tell, the mood between the founders of the two projects is rather good, so collaboration is likely. Replacement graphics created for OpenTH might well be used in CorsixTH. On the other hand, if OpenTH picks up and is developed to a playable state as well, it might benefit from people attracted now by a playable beta of CorsixTH.
Anyway, I'd suggest giving CorsixTH a shot despite your disfavor. At least you've got something to play around with there - "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush".
According to the (main) project site of CorsixTH, you can run CorsixTH with only the data files of the demo of Theme Hospital.

[Redirect Left]

I just did, it runtime crashed.

Which is amusing, as the old one, which is 'incompatible' with modern systems doesn't.

[Corsix]

They're hoping to use custom graphics that mimic originals, so you do not need the real TH. (I mean, how many of us seriously have our original CDs, and such?)

OpenTH also uses the original data files, with one of the first lines of it's Main.cpp being:

Code: Select all

Resources::LoadTHData("../../original-full/data/");

So in that regard, OpenTH is the same as CorsixTH, the only difference being that OpenTH isn't so forward about it.

[Hyronymus]

[...] So in that regard, OpenTH is the same as CorsixTH, the only difference being that OpenTH isn't so forward about it.

Ahum...

[...] Yes, that’s right; this could be awesome. A group of people have, as of September last year, started development on a remake of the original, using all the original graphics, sounds and music. They’re making tremendous progress, as can be seen from these screenshots. [...]

[Redirect Left]

They're hoping to use custom graphics that mimic originals, so you do not need the real TH. (I mean, how many of us seriously have our original CDs, and such?)

OpenTH also uses the original data files, with one of the first lines of it's Main.cpp being:

Code: Select all

Resources::LoadTHData("../../original-full/data/");

So in that regard, OpenTH is the same as CorsixTH, the only difference being that OpenTH isn't so forward about it.

OpenTH are currently not using custom graphics, but if you took the time to see it, they intend to have it released with their first playable release.

[Born Acorn]

Luckily Theme Hospital is still published and sold under the Sold Out Software brand by Mastertronic. I bought one a few years ago when my original disc stopped working, so even if you have misplaced your discs, you can just get another!

[DeletedUser21]

(I mean, how many of us seriously have our original CDs, and such?)

I do!
However, installing the program is a b*tch on Win7.

An opensource clone is a good endavour still in my hublest opinion it seems only logical to join forces.

[Redirect Left]

Luckily Theme Hospital is still published and sold under the Sold Out Software brand by Mastertronic. I bought one a few years ago when my original disc stopped working, so even if you have misplaced your discs, you can just get another!

Indeed, I have a Sold Out Software version, although I do have an original 'big box' version, that says Windows 95 compatible on it!

[brainball]

They're hoping to use custom graphics that mimic originals, so you do not need the real TH. (I mean, how many of us seriously have our original CDs, and such?)

OpenTH also uses the original data files, with one of the first lines of it's Main.cpp being:

Code: Select all

Resources::LoadTHData("../../original-full/data/");

So in that regard, OpenTH is the same as CorsixTH, the only difference being that OpenTH isn't so forward about it.

OpenTH are currently not using custom graphics, but if you took the time to see it, they intend to have it released with their first playable release.

There you have found the sore spot of OpenTH, its progress. Lately it seems that the development has stalled somewhat due to that just a one or two people are willing to work with the current code base. One of the devs was scheduled to pick up the work again over the christmas holidays but has indicated other projects are hindering him in this. CorsixTH on the other hand has folks still working on it. I think both projects keep a keen eye on each other, as the matter of fact, CorsixTH was graciously offered a place on the OpenTH forums. Heck OpenTH even posted the release of the beta on their blog.

[Roujin]

I think it's sad that people are already starting fights along the lines of "which project is better". Especially at this time of the year..
Wasn't it the same with TTDPatch and OpenTTD? I never understood why people were fighting about these two, either. Why can't we just get along?

[caveatemptor]

Yeah I have to say I find the whole "but why would you possibly want two different projects" thing pretty funny considering we have OpenTTD and TTDpatch.

I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to find TH data files on the net if they are needed (not that I condone such a thing).

Good luck with the game, I will definitely download it when it is later on in development (more things added) as I used to like TH. I'll also spread the word as I know a few people who used to love it.

[jonty-comp]

Excellent! Brilliant stupendous wonderful! I've been waiting a long time for something like this to come along. Having to play TH in VirtualBox can get quite awkward sometimes.

Thank you, and good luck with the project!

[Redirect Left]

Excellent! Brilliant stupendous wonderful! I've been waiting a long time for something like this to come along. Having to play TH in VirtualBox can get quite awkward sometimes.

Theme Hospital has always worked for me with a bit of tweaking, from 98SE up to Vista (Never had 7 to try), I've even had it running in Crossover on Linux, never needed dosbox, or virtualbox, etc..

[Roujin]

That's great for you - however, not everyone seems to be so lucky. I for one did also manage to run Theme Hospital (on WinXP, without DosBox), but it crashed so often to desktop that at some point I lost my patience to play it through like this. Which is why I originally looked around on the internet and found Corsix (and Open)TH.

Other than simply making theme hospital playable again on modern computers (for less lucky people who only barely or not at all manage to run the original), a lot of improvements on the original can be imagined, and will surely be implemented at a later date. Look at what a range of features TTDPatch and OpenTTD offer today - if you go back to plain TTD, you'll notice what a range of improvements can be made to a game that was already a great, fun game back in its days.

[jonty-comp]

Excellent! Brilliant stupendous wonderful! I've been waiting a long time for something like this to come along. Having to play TH in VirtualBox can get quite awkward sometimes.

Theme Hospital has always worked for me with a bit of tweaking, from 98SE up to Vista (Never had 7 to try), I've even had it running in Crossover on Linux, never needed dosbox, or virtualbox, etc..

I don't care whether it runs in XP/Vista/7 - it runs at 640x480, which is quite horrible on today's screens. Not only is it stretched like hell, it moves all my icons and windows around! It's much easier to play it in XP in VirtualBox, or in DOSBox (but that crashes quite a lot). Hopefully, and looking at the video on the front page, this version supports whatever resolution you want.