First off, welcome to a new edition to blogging. I call it "Games of Past". In other words, my favorite classics. I share these with you to hopefully encourage you to engage in fantastic gameplay and clever design of past experiences. Some of which are being re-marketed today as shiny new products! So gander at the randomness blog of Games of Past! Now, onto the first game...



Back when I was a rat, starting middle school, I received one of many free PC Gamer magazines, one with a game disc with so many dear and classic games (some which will be mentioned in future editions of "Games of Past"). The second game I installed was Theme Hospital, by Bullfrog Productions. Bullfrog created many creative titles for their time, until the Beast, or Electronic Arts, decided to buy them out and then shut them down. This little ditty was much like Theme Park, another popular title, but replaced roller coasters with inflated head poppers and friendly lines to the roller coasters with friendly lines to the crapper.

Theme Hospital is about making money and not killing too many people, much like real hospitals. You start as the head cheese of a small clinic, building convenient soda machines and benches outside of a check up room, hiring and firing doctors, nurses, receptionist, and janitors. Basically, you build rooms according to the customers... I mean, patience you receive . For instance, some patients suffer from inflated heads (drinking beer and sniffing cheese can do that to ya), so the best room for him would be the room where they pop inflated heads. Hopefully, your equipment isn't crap and your doctor isn't a little fed up with his pay, otherwise this bighead is toast. But it's not all work and money your over payed doctors want: you also need to manage a terrific break room. It's fun watching patients kill over in the restroom while the doctor he was waiting on was watching his favorite soap.

Seriously thought, Theme Hospital is an amazing game. It was my first tycoon game that I actually went from demo to purchase, and it was because it was so complex for it's time. Recently, with the release of Xfire's patch to support Theme Hospital, I loaded the old game back up and wow, what a blast. The graphics held up nicely, being an old DOS/Windows game. The gameplay is still a blast, and the game is very much difficult in later levels. There's even some multiplayer, which is still fun, if you can find someone that still plays great older games. Also, console friends need not to worry. PlayStation also released the game back in the day, and from what I've heard, if you live in the UK, you can download the game for your PlayStation 3 and PSP using the PlayStation Store. Lucky devils! I'd download it, if they'd let me. I hope you enjoyed a blast from the past, but I leave you with the games official trailer!



-dryvby, 24 years old soon.