The Adventures of Maddog Williams in the Dungeons of Duridian - Quick Review (MS-DOS, Amiga, Atari-ST game)

‘The Adventures of Maddog Williams in the Dungeons of Duridian’ was slightly behind the times at its time of release but is now a fantastic example of a text parser adventure game with a sly sense of humour and some really challenging gameplay. 

Developer: Game Crafters
Genre: Graphic adventure
Release date: 1992
Platforms: MS-DOS, Amiga and Atari-ST
ESRB: E - Everyone.  

The game was released in 1992 though it looks to be from a much earlier time due to not embracing the movement into a point and click interface that Sierra had started using. The game has been re-released as freeware so the original copy protection at the start of the game is now just for show, anybody can play the game for free. If you want to play it, you can pick it up from the developers web site here.

 

The story of ‘Maddog Williams’ is fairly standard of an adventure game; Maddog is an inventor and an antique’s shop owner who goes on a quest to rid the land of an evil wizard called Serik after stumbling along a kidnapped princess and saving her. If you’ve ever played any of the old 'King’s Quest' games by Sierra then you will feel right at home with this one and there are also plenty of humorous references to these older Sierra graphic adventure games.

The controls of the game take a little to get used to, especially the controls during combat as sword fighting is in real-time rather than being turn based. Maddog himself is moved about using the arrow keys and combat is dealt with by Maddog continually swinging his sword whilst you advance, retreat, spin and swipe by moving him about. Aside from this ‘Maddog Williams’ plays very much like a text adventure but with VGA graphics and the game revolves around the use of its text parser to interact with the game world. For those unfamiliar with these a text parser means that the player must type in commands in order to interact with things such as typing in ‘Look at drawers’ or ‘open drawers’ to see what’s inside them. Items that you pick up in the game can be used and combined together to form new ones and this is what constitutes a lot of the in-game puzzles.

There’s an instant charm with ‘Maddog Williams’ due to its vibrant appearance and interesting surroundings, the storyline is very easy to pick up and your surroundings feel open, flexible and detailed. There’s so many opportunities to die that it’s a little ridiculous and I remember, upon stumbling into some kind of cavern with a girl tied up on the table surrounded by hooded figures, that it would be a good idea to march on over to them. Unsurprisingly I didn’t live through that experience and I was treated to, in graphic detail, what happened to Maddog in text descriptions. I later realized there was a hidden passage within the wall that I was supposed to climb through. The complete lack of hand-holding is actually a breath of fresh air compared to many modern games however and it’s fairly standard to do a lot of saving and reloading with these early 90s games. 'Maddog Williams' felt very much like a point and click but with keyboard support and the puzzles, storyline and overall gameplay experience are all very enjoyable. It’s a shame the same cannot be said for the combat which is clunky, difficult to control and extremely deadly when you’re actually trying to face down an opponent. A very convenient ‘training’ option is available for you at all times to hone your sword fighting skills but I would have preferred turn based combat rather than awkwardly walking around backwards, swinging my sword. 
 

Another problem is that usually, in games that utilize text parsers typing, the game would be paused when you type. Unfortunately, in 'Maddog Williams' this is not the case so often you must type commands very quickly in certain situations where time is about to run out. It’s not unusual to have to reload the game multiple times so you already know what you’re supposed to be typing in unless you are extremely good at thinking, and typing, on your feet. The difficulty level of the game is very much set by your own personal skill in not just typing but controlling Maddog and solving puzzles but, with enough practice, these are problems that you can adjust to. Whilst the game’s graphics were by no means top-end at the time I found them pleasant, fairly detailed and very reflective of the overall feel and atmosphere of the game. The audio can be a little rough in places but the music is really quite lovely and, whilst the sound effects are in no way realistic, effort has been taken to make the game world come alive with many sights and sounds. Overall, you’ll get several hours of play out of this game depending on how versed you are with item combination focused puzzles so for hard-core point and click or retro Sierra game players this should be just the right level of challenging. 

The Good:

• Fairly challenging but not too frustrating
• MIDI music nicely ties in with the theme of the game 
• Alternate endings makes for a little replay value 
• Great humour, very likeable characters 
• Some very good puzzles

The Bad:

• Combat far too clunky with weird logic
• Quite a short game with not a lot of depth 
• Save game function can stop working, multiple saves recommended
• Lack of pausing when typing causes problems

The Score: 6/10

Last thoughts: It's a shame they never brought out a sequel, as a free game this is a really fun way of spending an evening and the humour and style is very likeable.  

Monkey Island 2 LeChuck's Revenge - Walkthrough and Achievement guide

This is not just a walkthrough, this is an achievement grabbing speed run walkthrough for the Special Edition version of Monkey Island 2, LeChuck's revenge. Of course it can be entirely used as a regular walkthrough where I've cut out paragraphs of text and just given you clear cut instructions on what to do and when to do it. This is written with a speed run in mind that will unlock the 'Speed Demon' Achievement which is worth 25G. To get this, you must complete the game in under three hours.

For a speed run it’s advised to skip through all dialogue by holding down ‘Y’ on the controller. You can finish the game in just over an hour by doing this, the achievement requires you to finish it in under 3 hours so it’s likely you can read the dialogue and still get the achievement, provided you know where you’re going and what you’re doing. Still, if you’ve played this game before I recommend skipping all dialogue and cutscenes to speed things up.

If you’re trying to get all the achievements you should not at any point during the game press ‘X’ or ‘LB’ as this will use object highlighting and hints which will void 'Monkey Master', 'Free Thinker' and 'Turning the Lights Out' worth 40G collectively.

If you’ve never played this game before then you should probably do a speed run on your second playthrough as the dialogue is fantastic and you won’t want to miss out on it. During a speed run, save frequently so if you take too long on something (i.e. you go idle for a bit) you can just reload and try it again, but faster. Please note all items are highlighted in typical fox-coloured orange so you can easily see where things are, so anyway, let's get to it.

 

Part  I: Largo Embargo

Scabb Island:
As the game loads up, press 'back' to get the 'Old School' achievement.

After talking to the pirates walk all the way to the left and onto the bridge.

After the cutscene, pick up the shovel from the sign.

Walk back to the right and go to the beach, pick up the stick by the entrance.

Go back to Woodtick and walk through the town then all the way North to Mad Marty’s Laundromat.

Pick up the bucket, say ‘Sorry is this your bucket?’ then take it after dialogue.

Enter the building directly right after exiting the Laundromat (Wally’s House) and take the paper .

Wait until Wally puts down his monocle then quickly pick it up.

Walk South towards the bar, locate the open window then use it.

Pick up knife and exit through the window.

Enter the bar through the hatch and talk to the bartender, ask him ‘How’s Business?’

Use the paper on Largo’s spit before leaving.

Go West and enter the Hotel, use the knife on the Alligator’s rope.

Pick up the contents of the food bowl to receive cheese squigglies.

Exit Woodtick by going back over the bridge to the main map.

Enter the swamp, use the bucket with the swamp to get a bucket o' mud.

Exit the swamp and walk to the cemetery.

Go to the back of the cemetery to the graves on the top of the hill.

Use the shovel on the western-most grave to get Marco Largo LaGrande's bone .

Go back to Woodtick and enter the Hotel, enter the room at the back.

Very quickly (otherwise Largo will catch you) close the door and put the bucket o' mud  at the top of the door.
Wait for Largo to arrive.

Pick up the toupee then leave.

Go to Mad Marty’s, Largo will be giving his dirty laundry to Marty.

After the cutscene go back to Largo’s room, close the door and take the laundry claim ticket.

Go back to Mad Marty and give him the laundry claim ticket to receive the pearly-white bra.

Exit Woodtick and return to the swamp, use the coffin

Paddle the coffin to the East and into the voodoo head.

Pick up the string and try to pick up the thin bottle on the bottom shelf, in the middle (Ash-2-Life).

Talk to the Voodoo lady, ask her: 'How is business', 'tell me about Largo', 'why don't you put a curse on largo' then finally 'what kind of ingredients do you need' before giving her all the Largo related items to receive the voodoo doll and pins.

Return to Mad Marty’s and use the stick with the box, then the string with the stick, then the cheese squigglies with the box.

Stand by the string and pull it when the rat starts eating the cheese squigglies to capture it

Open the box, pick up the captured rat.

Enter the restaurant via the window and put the rat in the soup pot.

Exit through the window and enter the restaurant through the hatch.

Ask the bartender 'how's the stew tonight', then after the dramatic scene accept his job offer to receive 420 pieces of eight. Exit through the window.

Enter Largo’s room and quickly use the pins with the voodoo doll.

Leave the voodoo hut and swamp.

Walk to the peninsula and give Captain Dread the monocle .

Don’t skip his dialogue as it will reset itself, give him 20 pieces of eight.

Watch or skip cutscene with Largo and LeChuck.

End of Part 1.

Current time: Between 15 and 20 minutes, depending on dialogue. 

Part 2: Four Map Pieces

Dread’s Boat:

Pick up the parrot chow.

Talk to captain dread, skip dialogue if you want until you get to the map then select Phatt Island.  

Phatt Island:

After the cutscene, it doesn’t matter what you say, pick up the rock hard mattress.

Use the stick with the bone without picking it up.

Pick up the bone and give it to the dog.

Use the small key on the cell door without picking it up.

Open both the gorilla envelopes and the manilla envelope without picking them up

Exit the prison and walk to the north then enter the first alleyway.

After the scene in the casino follow the winning man into another alleyway.

Watch what he does, then when he leaves, knock on the door.

Ask what the next winning number will be then give him the password 3 times.

To do this, watch the number of his fingers he gives on the first show, ‘If this is…’ then just say what that number was when he asks again. I.e,: He holds up 2 fingers saying this is 4, holds up 5 fingers asking what it is, it is 2 because that is what he showed you first.
Say ‘What!  You don’t remember me?’ And remember what the winning number will be.
Return to the casino, bet on the winning number you were told and ask for the Invitation as your prize.

Enter the Library

Open the model lighthouse and take the lens.

Use the card catalogue and open ‘C-D’ and look for ‘Great Shipwrecks of our Century’ (card on the left at the back), then the P-Q-R drawer for ‘The Joy of Hex’(2^ndcolumn, 3^rd card from the front). Don't forget to memorize them both by clicking 'I'll have to remember that'

Talk to the Librarian and ask for a book, you have to get a library card.

After getting one, withdraw the two books you memorized earlier.
Go back onto the ship and go to Booty Island

Booty Island:
Buy the well-polished saw, then the ship’s horn from the Antique's shop directly on the left. 
Return to the ship and go to Scabb Island.

Scabb Island:
Enter the restaurant, buy a blue drink then a yellow drink using your new library card as ID.
Mix the two drinks together to make a green drink.
Put the banana on the metronome then pick up the distracted monkey.
Go to Mad Marty’s, use the saw on the pirate’s peg leg.
Go to the building beside Wally’s and pick up the hammer and nails.
Go back to the ship and head to Booty Island.

Booty Island: 

Enter the costume shop and give the invitation to the owner.

Pick up the dress. 

Enter Stan’s and talk to him until he gets in the coffin.

Use the hammer with the nails and Stan will give you a clean white hankie.

Quickly use the hammer with the nails again to lock Stan in the coffin. 

Take the crypt key from the back of the room then leave. 

Walk to the right until you get to a spitting tournament. 

Blow the ship’s horn then quickly pick up the flags to move them. 

Use the crazy straw with the green drink to drink some. 

Read '‘Great Shipwrecks of our Century’, memorize the co-ordinates he reads out. 

Save your game to lock the co-ordinates and so you can reload in case you fail at the competition.

Talk to the guy in charge and spit when the woman’s red sash flies to the right.
If timed correctly, you’ll win the competition and receive a spit plaque.
Leave and return to the Antique’s shop, buy the ‘Beware of Parrot’ sign.
Talk to the Antique’s dealer and sell him the spit plaque, skipping dialogue until he gives you 6000 pieces of eight.
Hang the parrot chow on the exposed hook where the sign was. 

Buy the mirror. 

Leave and talk to Kate (woman selling fliers).

Hire a boat ‘Could I have…’ ‘I’m interested…’ ‘Ok I’ll pay’ then ‘Yeah, let’s…’ 

Pick the co-ordinates from the ‘Great Shipwrecks of our Century’ book. 

Tell Kate you’ll jump in. 

Pick up the Mad Monkey Head then use the anchor. 

Sell the Mad Monkey Head to the Antique’s Dealer. 
Buy the first map piece.

Leave the town to the left and head to the main map. 

Talk to the guard until you’re let into the party. 

Go back out to the map then click on Governor’s mansion (saves time walking). 

Walk around the back of the mansion and push the trash can. 

The chef will come out and chase you, walk around the mansion to the left, all the way around, and enter the back area from the right. 

Enter the kitchen, pick up the fish and then return to the front of the mansion. 

Enter the mansion, pick up the map piece from the wall.

Leave, and then compliment and be nice to Elaine four times.

After the scene, go back into Elaine’s room and pick up the oar

Go outside, pick up the dog then keep trying to pick up the map piece.

Return to the map and head to the Big Tree.

Step onto the plank and put the oar in the hole next to it.

Step onto the oar to trigger a cutscene.

Pick up the broken oar and leave the area.

Go to Scabb Island.

Scabb Island:

Go to the woodsmith and give him the broken oar to receive a reinforced oar.

Leave and go to Phatt Island.

Phatt Island:

Use Kate’s leaflet with the wanted poster then head to the pier where the fisherman is.

Challenge the fisherman to a fishing contest by boasting, accept the wager.

Give the fish to the fisherman, skip his dialogue to get his fishing pole.

Leave and go to Booty Island.

Booty Island:

Go to the main map and head to the cliff.

Look down the cliff face and use the fishing pole on the map piece.

Go back to the Big Tree and climb up the tree using the plank and reinforced oar.

Inside the hut, use the dog on the pile of maps to retrieve the second map piece.

Outside the hut, pick up the telescope at the Northern end of the area.

Leave and go to Phatt Island, skipping cutscene of LeChuck’s fortress.

Phatt Island:
Go into the prison and open the vanilla envelope to receive a bottle of near grog.
Leave the prison and exit the map (right side is faster) then go to the mansion.
Go inside and talk to the guard, tell him there's a fire in the kitchen.
Go upstairs, swap the book on Govenor Phatt with the 'Big Whoop' book. Do not use 'The Joy of Hex'. 
Leave the mansion and go back onto the map, go to the waterfall.
Head to the top of the waterfall then use Jojo the monkey on the pump.
Go back down and enter the newly revealed cave.
Leave back the way you came as soon as you enter then, on the map, click on the cottage. 
Open the shutters of the cottage then head inside. 
Put the mirror on the wall after accepting the drinking contest.
When Rogers gets your grog, use it with the plant (no need to pick it up).
Use the near grog with the empty mug.
After the drinking contest go outside and use the telescope with the statue.
Read the 'Pirate Quotes' book and remember which quote is Rapp's.
The quote and the chosen brick will be randomized and you should save the game to lock the quote and brick to stop it from changing.
Reload the save then press the correct brick.

Pick up the third map piece then leave the area.

Go back to Scabb island.

Scabb Island:

Go to the map then to the cemetery.
Use the crypt key on the crypt to your right.
Find the casket that has the quote matching Rapp's from earlier, you can only open it after looking at it.
Pick up the ashes inside then leave.
Go to the swamp and talk to the Voodoo Lady (only after looking at the Ash-2-Life earlier)
Go back to Rapp's crypt and use the Ash-2-Life directly on the casket.
Select options "You WERE killed, Rapp." then anything until, "I'll check the gas for you, Rapp." to get the key to the Steamin' Weenie'.
Leave and go to the beach then use the key on the Steamin' Weenie hut in the background.
Once inside, turn the knob to turn the gas stove off.
Go back to Rapp and tell him he was right to receive the fourth map piece. 
Leave the cemetary and go to Wally's house. 
Give Wally the model lighthouse lens then any map piece.
After talking to him, go to the swamp then to the Voodoo Lady's hut.Tell her that Wally sent you to receive the Juju bag.
Open the Juju bag then leave.
Row back to shore then use the crate.
Hold Y to skip all the dialogue and scenes if you'd like.

End of Part 2.

Current time: 50 - 65 minutes.

Part 3: LeChuck's Fortress

Look at the spit encrusted paper for the randomized bone combinations.
Go to the right, up the stairs, through the passageway then to the back tunnel that is to the right of the wall signs, middle of the screen.
Push the bone combination that matches the first line of the verse on the paper, you may have to keep walking to find the right one. When you go through, find the ugly bone thing that matches the second line of the verse and so on until all four are done.
Use the huge door then walk to the doggie door.
Pick up the voodoo key hanging beside the throne.
Pick any responses until LeChuck leaves
Save your game, wait five minutes until the achievement 'Five minutes later...' unlocks.
Reload your game.  
Use the crazy straw with the green drink. 
Spit the shield to the right of Guybrush four times.
Use the matches.

End of Part 3.

Current time: 60 - 75 minutes.

Part 4: Dinky Island

Beach:  
Click anywhere to wake Guybrush.
Pick up the bottle then use it with the nearby rock.
Pick up the martini glass and use it with the ocean then the still.
Pick up the crowbar.
Walk to the left and into the jungle.

Jungle:
Go west and use the broken bottle with the bag.
Use the distilled water with the cracker box that falls to receive 2 crackers.
Go east to the dynamite box, pick up the rope.
Use the crowbar with the box and pick up the dynamite.
Save your game.
Walk through the jungle randomly until coming to a call box, use it, and say they've been helpful to unlock the 'Call 9-1-1 1/1' achievement.
If takes forever, reload your game.
Walk back to the beach where the parrot is.

Beach:
Open the barrel under the parrot to receive a cracker.
Give the parrot all 3 crackers.
Walk back to the jungle.

Jungle:
Go through the top right path, then middle right path, then top right path, then upper middle path (dinosaur topiary), then upper middle path again (dolphin topiary), then middle right path (pile of rocks left of the area). 
Use your shovel on the big X sign. 
Use the matches with the dynamite.
Use lit dynamiate with the hole in the ground.
Use the crowbar with the rope.
Use the crowbar n' rope with the twisted metal rods.
Save your game (this next bit is randomized so may take a very long time if you're unlucky.)

Tunnels: 
Use the lightswitch (middle-right of the screen)
Pick any responses until you are teleported to a random room.
This is where things are going to get awkward as where you'll turn up is completely random, LeChuck will also periodically turn up and teleport you somewhere else so you'll want to do things as quickly as possible. If you find yourself in a particular room, check the guide for that room below. In order of importance here'o what you need to do:

Infirmary: (Room all the way to the right)
Open the bin and take out the latex gloves.
Open the drawer behind the desk and take the hypodermic syringe.
Take the skull from the right hand skeleton.

Storage room: (Has a 'First Aid >>>' sign next to it)
Open the leftmost and take out a balloon.
Open the rightmost box for a voodoo kewpie doll.

Vending room machine:
Use the coin release on the machine to release a coin onto the floor.
Use the gloves and balloon on the helium tank.
Wait patiently for LeChuck to turn up.
Quickly! When he bends over pull his underwear.
If you have time, give him the clean white hankie, you can do this anywhere you meet him.

Elevator:
Push the call button and step inside.
Wait for LeChuck and when he appears use the lever quickly to trap his beard then pick up the crispy beard bits. This may take several attempts.
Push the lever. 
Use the helium balloon for the achievement 'Helium Inhaler'. 

Combine the following in the Juju bag: Crispy beard bits, used hankie, skull, underwear and voodoo kewpie doll.
Wait for LeChuck, when he appears, use the hypodermic syringe with the voodoo doll
Follow him then tear the leg off the doll.
Say 'Oh all right I'm coming over'.
Continue picking responses until the game ends to unlock:

A True Pirate, Speed Demon, Monkey Master, Free Thinker and Turning The Lights Out.

Time to complete: Approximately 1 hour 40 minutes.

And there you have it! Well done for completing Monkey Island 2, LeChuck's Revenge Special Edition and for using this guide. I hope you enjoyed yourself and found this useful, if you did don't forget to +1 and comment so I know whether I should continue writing these or not :)

Theme Hospital - Full Review (PC and PS1 game)

Theme Hospital is a comical and witty game that is quite arguably one of the best simulation games of all time and most certainly the best hospital simulator ever created. A successor to the deeply enjoyable ‘Theme Park’, Theme Hospital takes the boring job of hospital management and turns it into something incredibly addictive and with bucket loads of playability.

Developer: Bullfrog Productions (PC) and Krisalis Software (PS)
Genre: Hospital management
Release date: February 4, 1997 (PC), February 1998 (PS1)
Platforms: PS1 and PC (MS-DOS and Windows)
ESRB: E - Everyone

The game was released for the PC and PlayStation 1 though aside from some minor differences like graphical quality and no background music for the PS1 version they are exactly the same game. You’ll play across twelve different hospitals with the task of designing and managing them to success whilst fending off patients with all sorts of strange illnesses and complaints. Theme Hospital is by no means a serious game and in fact it’s a highly original game that doesn’t take itself too seriously. To get you started, here’s the intro to the game.

 

Gameplay and game content

There are twelve hospitals that you will take charge of where you are given nothing but an empty floor plan and the money to start building rooms and hiring staff. You’re given a short amount of time to build the basics of your hospital such as a reception desk and diagnosis rooms like a GPs office and a hospital ward before the time runs out, the hospital opens and patients start visiting. The staff you need to hire consist of doctors, nurses, caretakers and one or two receptionists all of whom will have a short bio such as ‘heckles poor comedians, smells faintly of cabbage, possible liability’ along with their level of skill represented by a green bar. Doctors can have specializations and as you progress through the game you’ll need additional rooms and the doctors with the skill to work in those rooms such as surgeons, researchers and psychiatrists. Consultant doctors can also train their junior counterparts to have their specializations as well as increasing their overall level of skill. Depending on how good they are, their personality and the quality of their room including its size and contents staff may move faster or slower and perform worse and better than their colleagues. 

The game starts out simple and you won’t need many different clinics or rooms as the patients that will be visiting you will only have one of a handful of illnesses though it’s when the patients start showing up that you notice the humour of the game. ‘King Complex’ patients dressed as Elvis are in desperate need of a psychiatrist, patients ailing from ‘The Squits’ from eating pizza found under the oven are sent hurrying over to the pharmacy whilst patients with elongated tongues drooping comically from their mouths are pointed in the direction of a Slack Tongue Clinic; a glorified guillotine crossed with a clothes press. Each new condition or illness you encounter will pop up at the bottom of the screen, along with any other alerts, containing a description of the cause of the illness, the symptoms and the cure and these fact sheets always make me genuinely laugh. The conditions get more and more ludicrous and obscure as time goes by and soon you’ll have patients suffering from hair all over their bodies, radiating a garish and toxic looking green glow and aliens who were once humans and who need a trip to the ‘DNA converter’. 

Your success in this game largely depends a lot on how well you can design your hospital and micro-manage your staff as in later levels you will be absolutely flooded with patients who all require immediate attention. At first the game is quite simplistic and to win the level you simply need to meet certain criteria including number of patients cured, the overall worth of the hospital, a certain bank balance, reputation of the hospital and having to treat a variable percentage of the number of visitors to your hospital. You’ll frequently encounter ‘emergencies’ where a lot of patients with the same condition will all be flown via a helicopter to your hospital and if you don’t cure them by the time the time limit runs out, they all die. This can be fairly simple to manage if it’s something like a quick visit to a pharmacy but when you’ve got eight or nine patients all requiring major surgery you’re going to have a tough time squeezing them all in before their time runs out. Then there’s epidemics to contend with where you can either admit your hospital is infected, pay a fine and take a reputation hit or try to cover it up and cure them all before anybody discovers what’s happened. If you manage to cure them all and cover up the epidemic you’ll get a comfortable compensation bonus for the ‘wrongful’ accusations. There’s always this underlying sense that the hospitals you’re running aren’t exactly trustworthy as there are many unusual methods at dealing with patients and, even more disturbing, an ‘auto-autopsy’ machine in the research department where you can send patients whose condition you don’t understand due to lack of research. The thing is, once the patient is slid into the machine, CAT scan style, don’t ever seem to come back out again, hmm… 

For every new level there’s new challenges and new problems to deal with from earthquakes to vomit waves and the constant changing up of what’s going on in the hospital adds for some really interesting gameplay. A problem with the game is the unpredictable AI of your staff who sometimes struggle to go where they’re supposed to be going, leaving handymen ignoring overflowing bins and puddles of vomit and doctors wandering the corridors whilst a queue of sick patients stacks up outside the GPs office. You really do need to keep an eye on everybody at all times by dragging your doctors, nurses and handymen to where they need to be. Fail to keep on top of things and alongside a dirty hospital you’ll have your patients deteriorating health to worry about. A face above each patient’s head as they get more and more unhappy gradually deteriorates into a ghastly skull which means they’re about to drop dead on the hospital floor only to then float to heaven or be ushered into Hell by Mr Death himself. Thankfully the AI is not always frustrating and usually staff will be on their way to where they’re needed before the announcement woman calls out that a doctor or nurse is required in whichever room. 

Your ability to manage your hospital is fine-tuned to the smallest details and you can place everything where you want to be including radiators, plants, drinks machines and benches in the corridors as well as items and machinary in the hospital rooms themselves such as the desks, bookcases and bins. You can manage your bank account by taking out a loan, paying interest of course, and even decide how much to spend on the heating of your hospital and whether or not to give your staff a raise or a monetary bonus. Not only this, you can decide how much patients pay for each treatment or diagnosis attempt such as a stay in the hospital ward or a visit to the ‘Hair Restoration’ clinic. Despite this fine-tuned managing of the books everything is very simple to use and easy to understand and it won’t take much clicking around and reading of the in-game material to figure out how to do everything. As one of those people who doesn’t like reading a whole load of facts, figures and percentages I tend to bypass the many charts in the game and still can get through it quite happily. 

Graphics and audio

Graphically the PC edition of this game is superior to the PlayStation 1 port but that’s not to say either game looks bad. The screenshots used here are from the PC version but below you can see a screenshot of the PS1 edition, just for comparison's sake. Overall the graphics are really quite decent and very clear cut. Everything is colourful, very well detailed and a bit quirky with its own sense of identity in the whole design of the game. It’s a huge step up from the slightly blurry, fuzzy graphical appearance of ‘Theme Park’ and for a 90s game it really is impressive. The voice acting mostly consisting of a female announcement voice which is both funny and good quality as she apologizes to the patients about the amount of litter and chides ‘mad patients’ for being too loud in the corridors. Staff and patients don’t ever talk and tend to communicate with you through alerts at the bottom of the screen and symbols above their head, for example if they’re confused or if they’ve just discovered a new illness or researched/improved a new piece of equipment. Everything is very clearly communicated to you via the graphics however and the camera is very flexible and not at all awkward to use.

For the PC version the music is fantastic; nostalgic and catchy it has upbeat tunes that change track as you play the game so it doesn’t become irritating after a long period of time. Whenever a patient is cured you’ll hear a cheer from an unseen crowd and boo’ing when a patient dies, leaves the hospital or is sent home which adds to the light-hearted and interactive feel of the whole game. 

Overall

This is one of my childhood games that is still so addictive, challenging and fun to play now and, even after completing it, there’s still great satisfaction in starting all over again and pouring hours upon hours of my time into it. It’s just the right level of challenging and even if you find it too easy there’s three levels of difficulty so you can always crank it up a notch and struggle with the demands of the hardest ‘Consultant’ difficulty level. I love the humour in this game and it’s not an overpowering attempt to be funny, it’s just witty here and there from the diseases, to the announcements to the weird things you find becoming commonplace like excessively decorated staff rooms and questionable healthcare practices. The customization options are brilliant, it looks and sounds fantastic and overall it’s just so playable and so memorable that I can’t help but rank this as one of my favourite PC games.

The Good:

• Witty, intelligent humour that also borders on the silly
• Hours upon hours of gameplay
• Addictive, almost worryingly fun
• Nice level of difficulty and can be very challenging
• Lots of different rooms and illnesses keeps things interesting
• Very defined appearance makes it instantly recognizeable
• Memorable music that's really upbeat and not at all annoying

The Bad:

• Patients are always freezing.
• Staff AI can be a little dodgy
• More hospitals would have been good, but only because I want to continue playing

The Score: 9/10 

Last thoughts: "So addictive, even now in 2014 this is so much fun to play and is one of the few micro-management games I play religiously."
Note: If you’re interested I have a list of cheats and codes that will allow you to do extra things like play whichever level you want to play, for both PS1 and PC editions, and some extra bits for the PC edition such as unlocking all research and getting extra money. You can find my cheat guide here.

Playing Theme Hospital on new OS systems:

The PlayStation 1 version of the game is very easily obtained on sites such as Ebay and Amazon but the PC version will give you more trouble on newer systems, that said, it’s not impossible. By using an emulator such as DOSbox you can happily play the game as intended or, alternatively, you can use an open source ‘clone of the game called CorsixTH. This clone still requires you to purchase the original disk but it allows you to play the game on OS’s such as Vista and Windows 7. You can download CorsixTH here. 

Disney's Hercules: Action Game - Quick Review (PS1 and PC game)

Unless you are an extreme fan of the Hercules Disney film or Disney video games in general I wouldn’t recommend you add this game to your collection any time soon. It breaks my heart a little to say that as this game holds a great deal of nostalgia for me and, at the time, Disney's Hercules: Action Game was one of my PS1 gaming staples. 

Developer: Eurocom
Genre: Platformer

Release date: November 1997

Platforms: PS1 and PC  

ESRB: E - Everyone

When I first played this game I did find it genuinely fun and, on my second playthrough as an adult, I admit it has its charms but only on account of the nostalgia. When judging it based on its merits it’s hard to see beyond the boring and linear gameplay, annoying film clips and rehashed soundbites taken directly from the film. Overall, it’s an extremely short game and has very few levels that look better than they play, and they don’t look particularly exceptional.

The game is almost entirely in 2D though there are times when you have to walk backwards or forwards into an additional layer of the environment, before continuing with the regular side scrolling that the game exists on. There are ten levels overall but the last two, in the Underworld and the Vortex of Souls, are only available if you’re playing the game on either medium or hard difficulty though their addition does help to bulk the game out a little. There are a couple of levels in the game where you are unable to fight and instead must continually run forward, slowing or speeding up, whilst avoiding obstacles. One of the earlier levels features this rush type gameplay where you must avoid Phil’s hero training obstacles such as sharks, sword wielding dummies and giant stone fists that violently drop from above. This is, admittedly, quite fun to play through on the first attempt especially on the higher difficulty levels since it’s such an iconic scene from the film that you kind of enjoy playing through it, even if it is just for kicks.  

There are plenty of power ups and collectibles to collect during the levels. Your energy bar can be increased by picking up Hercules action figure dolls whereas your health can be replenished by drinking ‘Herculade’ that you probably remember from the film. Generally, you’re stuck with a regular old sword but you can also pick up power ups for it to give it magical abilities. I’m not sure where they got this idea from but I guess they can add a little creative embellishment in an attempt to make things more fun. These weapons are called ‘Gifts from the Gods’ which basically adds on stuff like a long stream of lightning that you can move about, fire balls that shoot off in any which direction and a sort of sonic blade that sends out a dangerous circular sonic blast, killing anything nearby. Finally, you can grab an invincibility helmet that makes you impervious to damage from a few seconds. There are two forms of collectibles in the game, for starters there are the letters of the name ‘HERCULES’ which are hidden throughout the level in admittedly really good hiding spots ( I haven’t actually found them all yet). Lastly, there are four vases that when found will give you the password to that level so you can replay it. 

Even when trying to find all these collectibles you’ll probably be able to complete this game in just a few hours, and it won’t necessarily be a fun few hours either. Though the game has its quirky moments that are fun for a bit it’s not really a substantial amount of enjoyment and it’s unlikely you’ll ever want to play the game again. Graphically, the game is reasonable and it has some really nice levels such as the early training levels and the dangerous jaunt through the city called ‘The Big Olive’ which has a few moments where you smile and go, ‘oh yeah’ as you remember the context from the film. The audio is a little irritating and the music is very repetitive, but good quality. The inclusion of low quality clips from the film to help explain the storyline can thankfully be skipped as they’re quite frequent and juts feel like a bulking agent to make the game last longer. Overall, there’s nothing particularly offensive about the game, it basically stands as a good little game for children or for those who enjoy knocking out a couple of hours on an old 90s Disney game without high expectations.

The Good:

• Iconic scenes from film fun to engage in.
• Decent levels, nice variety and very detailed.
• Well animated enemies
• Collectibles for the purists is always a good thing.
• Powerups mean you can cleave through enemies quickly. 
  

The Bad:

• Often you're just running to the side of the screen, continuously. 
• Repetative audio and music.
• Quite a bland experience.
• Very short.
• Lack of analog sticks means your fingers will hurt because of stubborn controls. 
  

The Score: 5/10

If you want to play this you can check out my passwords for all levels in all difficulties here.