Play Theme Hospital in Your Browser

About Theme Hospital

Theme Hospital is a business simulation game from Bullfrog Productions, published by Electronic Arts on 28 March 1997 for MS-DOS and Windows PCs. You design and operate a privately owned hospital, and the aim is to cure patients of made-up, comical ailments. Mark Webley designed and produced the game, and Russell Shaw and Adrian Moore wrote the music.

It is the thematic successor to Theme Park, which Bullfrog also produced, and the second game in the studio’s Theme series, as well as part of its Designer Series. The game is known for its humor and is full of references to pop culture. It has single-player and multiplayer modes. Krisalis Software later made a PlayStation version, which came out in Europe in February 1998, in North America on 16 April 1998 and in Japan on 18 June 1998. Electronic Arts holds the rights today.

How it runs in your browser

When you press Play, dos.zone opens the game’s page in a new tab. The original PC version runs there inside js-dos, DOS.Zone’s open-source take on DOSBox for the browser, which stands in for an old PC. You don’t install the game or bring your own files, because DOS.Zone serves them, and there’s no account to make and no ads on the site.

The listing has a rating of 5 from 21 player reviews and is tagged under management, economic strategy and real-time strategy. Its description talks about building and managing a chaotic hospital, curing bizarre illnesses such as Bloaty Head, juggling staff and battling outbreaks. It doesn’t say whether your hospital is kept between visits, and there’s no multiplayer room for this listing, so check the host’s page before you plan a long run of levels.

Controls and devices

Theme Hospital was made for a keyboard and mouse. DOS.Zone doesn’t list its controls, so the game’s own menus are the place to learn them. After it loads, click in the game window so the emulator receives your input.

DOS.Zone offers virtual on-screen controls on phones, but a game built around a mouse and keyboard is a better fit for a computer. We haven’t checked Chromebooks.

Tips

Read the host’s description as a short list of what you’ll be juggling: the building, the staff, the patients with their odd illnesses and the outbreaks you have to deal with. The game is noted for its jokes, so it’s worth reading the names of the ailments rather than clicking past them. If you remember Theme Park, this is the same studio’s follow-up in a new setting.

For more from Bullfrog, Dungeon Keeper followed three months later in 1997, again published by Electronic Arts and again with music by Russell Shaw, and it hands you a dungeon to run instead of a hospital. For another management game, RollerCoaster Tycoon runs in the browser too.