Talk:Theme Hospital

Unused announcements?

I've ripped the sounds from the game, and there's a whole bunch of announcements that I've never heard in-game, including "We apologise for the...", a few "Doctor needed in..." announcements, several "Aliens exist" (along those lines anyway) announcements, and some "Staff is leaving" announcements, and a few random ones. Are any of these used in multiplayer? AdamP (talk) 22:43, 16 February 2018 (EST)

These were all present in the Playstation version, at least I know that. "Doctor required in" "standard diagnosis" "inflator room" "GP's office"

and... "We apologise for" "the Litter" --Marcram (talk) 11:39, 4 March 2018 (EST)

I should probably give the full list of announcements I'm talking about: (I have never heard any of these announcements in the PC version although they are present)

• "Another surgeon required in Operating Theatre".
• "Doctor required in training".
• "Researcher needed in research department".
• "Handyman, please repair diagnosis machine".
• "Warning!".
• "Epidemic emergency over".
• "Attention, earthquake on the way!"
• "Doctor is leaving!"
• "Doctor dismissed"
• "Doctor on the way out"
• "Nurse is leaving!"
• "Nurse is leaving now"
• "Sacked handyman on the way out"
• "Receptionist has been asked to leave"
• "Receptionist is leaving!"
• "Red alert! Alien attack!"
• "Aliens have landed! Help!"
• "Aliens do exist and are in the building!"
• "Aliens are requested not to disrupt the hospital too much!"
• "Aliens, please sign the visitors' book"
• "We apologise for the extreme cold" (actually, now I come to think of it, I may have heard this one, but I'm not sure...)
• "We're sorry for the excessive heat"
• "Apologies to patients, the radiators are malfunctioning"
• "Vomit warning! Mind your feet"
• "Maintenance, puke alert in the corridor!"
• "Cheat alert! Cheat alert!"
• "No smoking in the hospital please!"
• "Coughs and sneezes spread diseases!"
• "Quiet please! People are sick"
• "Warning! This is a warning"
• "Patients are asked to wait quietly"
• "Dropping litter is against the rules!"
• "Patients are kindly requested to groan quietly, thank you!"
• "I'm fed up with announcing, I want to go home"
• "Doctor Lecter report to security please, Doctor Lecter to security"

Has anyone heard these? AdamP (talk) 12:12, 4 March 2018 (EST)

I added most of the above, with ones I personally confirm definitely don't seem to be used. I'm not so sure on the later random comment ones, but I think you are right they are not used as well. I'm playing the game through again now so keeping an ear open for them. Of course if anyone else is sure they are not used then add them. Four years have passed now and this info is just going to get lost otherwise. Also for anyone who wants to look into it, open SOUND-0.DAT in Audacity using the Raw import type. The receptionist messages are at the end of the file and need it to be loaded as Unsigned 8-bit PCM and played at 22050 sample rate. The other sound-x.dat files are for other langauges, so if anyone fluent in them could take a look and see if there are any messages unique to these versions (or add the foreign language versions of the current list) that would be good too (Moburma (talk) 12:35, 13 March 2022 (UTC))

An easier way of checking the sounds is to use DKSound in the DKTools package. It's written with Dungeon Keeper in mind, but Theme Hospital's files are in the same format, so this tool works for them too. AdamP (talk) 16:35, 13 March 2022 (UTC)

Ahh, that tool is much better to use. Is it known if cheat2.wav ("Warning, a cheat is running the hospital!") is used? I know the first sample plays ("Hospital adminstrator is cheating!") if you cheat and press ctrl+C, but wasn't able to trigger the other two. (Moburma (talk) 16:54, 13 March 2022 (UTC))

Yes, "Warning, a cheat is running the hospital!" is most definitely used. I've heard it many times. AdamP (talk) 17:24, 13 March 2022 (UTC)

Unused sounds?

I reckon there could be some unused sounds too. In particular, appear.wav, alienshp.wav, vgm003.wav, vgm004.wav, vgm005.wav, vgmend.wav are ones I don't recall ever hearing in the game. Has anyone else heard them? AdamP (talk) 22:56, 13 March 2022 (UTC)

I think you're right with the above, I'm not 100% on VGM003.wav but the rest don't seem to be used (the arcade game sounds are mostly the first two samples spammed together). As an aside, they're bizarrely all sound effects/music from the Commodore 64 version of Head Over Heels! I would assume the alienshp.wav was part of the cut alien invasion disaster (and is apparently taken from Gene Wars). Appear.wav has a comment saying it's for the invisible patients becoming visible, which is silent in the final game. Is UZIBRST.wav actually used anywhere? I'm pretty sure a filtered version of this same sound is used in the Playstation version of Syndicate Wars.(Moburma (talk) 11:52, 14 March 2022 (UTC))

UZIBRST.wav is used in the rat shooting levels for a special gun. Is auction.wav used? There's no auction anywhere in the game. Is it a leftover from Theme Park? Another one I'm not 100 per cent sure about is morph.wav. AdamP (talk) 16:48, 14 March 2022 (UTC)

I'm not sure on auction, it sounds like it's not used, but maybe it's a handyman sound? Unlikely. I think you're right on morph.wav, never heard that. How about rocket.wav? Even stranger, that file is clearly meant to go with ROCKEXP.WAV (the impact explosion sound), but that's not even in the English version of the game. (Moburma (talk) 22:27, 14 March 2022 (UTC))

Turns out Auction.wav IS used. If you play multiplayer, then when you get a chance to expand your hospitals you have to outbid the other player in the auction to get more land. This is where that sound is used.(Moburma (talk) 18:23, 15 March 2022 (UTC))

There are a huge number of samples included with the French sounds that are not in the English version. It looks like these are from an earlier version of the game, as lots of them have comments saying they are rough versions or "experiments". There are around 30 of these! These include ST_MOAN.WAV which is the crying baby sound when staff want a pay rise noted in the main article, GULP2.WAV and RELIEF2.WAV that were intended to play if the player chose to cover up and epidemic and if they actually got away with it, respectively. There are also many different machine sounds (the english version only has one), a different helicopter sound effect, and at least 12 seemingly unused outdoors sound effects of birds twittering and dogs barking, etc. I'll have a play with the French version and see if any of these are actually used in that version this evening. Also amusingly the rocket firing and explosion sound effects from UFO: Enemy Unknown are in there too. Not even looked at the other languages yet..(Moburma (talk) 12:56, 14 March 2022 (UTC))

Interesting. If they're used, then there's plenty of stuff to put in the regional differences section. I was only aware of the pay rise/quitting crying. AdamP (talk) 16:50, 14 March 2022 (UTC)

Checking in more detail, there are 376 sounds in the English version file. All the foreign language ones however, have a different set of 388 sounds. It actually looks to me like they are based on a slightly older version of the game, and the English one has many of these unfinished experimental effects removed as part of final clean up for release (e.g. the English one has chopper2.wav instead of chopper.wav). I came up with this preliminary list of samples in the French file that are not in the English one (there are a couple that are not in the French version that are in the English one):

• BIRDIES.WAV
• BOMBEXP.WAV
• CHOPPER.WAV
• GULP2.WAV
• INUSE001.WAV
• INUSE002.WAV
• INUSE003.WAV
• INUSE004.WAV
• INUSE005.WAV
• OPAMB.WAV
• OSPOT001.WAV
• OSPOT002.WAV
• OSPOT003.WAV
• OSPOT004.WAV
• OSPOT005.WAV
• OSPOT006.WAV
• OSPOT007.WAV
• OSPOT008.WAV
• OSPOT009.WAV
• OSPOT010.WAV
• QUAKE.WAV
• RAND038.WAV
• RAND039.WAV
• RELIEF2.WAV
• ROCKEXP.WAV
• RSRCHBEL.WAV
• ST_MOAN.WAV
• UHOH2.WAV

Random038/9 seem to be Receptionist comments for the multiplayer Litter Bombs (can anyone with better foreign langauge skills confirm?), so it's weird they were cut from the English version. The "ospot" files are outside ambient sound effects. OPAMB.WAV is a beeping heart monitor operating theatre ambient sound. INUSE001-5.WAV are various wacky machine noises for the medical machines, only INUSE006.WAV is included in the english version. RSRCHBEL.wav is a bell sound effect that is supposed to tell you when a piece of research is finished. I'll try and play in another language later to test if these are all actually used, most of the intentions for them are explained in the wav file comments. EDIT: also the English version has twice as many "spot" random background sound effects than the foreign language ones (people coughing etc) (Moburma (talk) 18:12, 14 March 2022 (UTC))

Some testing en français: RSRCHBEL.wav is actually used in French mode. It plays constantly I think once you've exhausted a research type to prompt you to go the research screen to reallocate your funds. Actually a good feature. RELIEF2.WAV and GULP2.WAV (and presumably also UHOH2.WAV) do not seem to be used. If you get an epidemic alert none of them play in the situations the comments suggest they should. None of the outdoor sounds seem to play, not sure how to possibly trigger these other than just leaving the screen over a garden area. OPAMB.WAV does not seem to play in operating theatres. (Moburma (talk) 22:27, 14 March 2022 (UTC))

One final note for the day - the Playstation version seems to have all the receptionist recordings they ever did in English, including the cut Litter bomb messages, ones where she screams at seeing a rat, lots of berating patients to use the toilets, and more that are not in the PC version (they appear to be unused the PS1 version as well but are there). (Moburma (talk) 00:18, 15 March 2022 (UTC))

Interesting. I wonder whether the CorsixTH people are aware of this? I have the PlayStation version, but have no idea how to extract any of its content. AdamP (talk) 02:36, 15 March 2022 (UTC)

I don't know about CorsixTH, probably not! The Playstation version uses a multitrack .XA stream, I could play and rip it using the old utility PSMPlay. converted WAV files are here: https://ufile.io/glowt6yc To be honest I doubt I will personally bother trying to see if they are used in the PS1 version, it doesn't even have mouse support like Syndicate Wars PS1 did, not my idea of fun!(Moburma (talk) 09:47, 15 March 2022 (UTC))

My French is rather rusty, but it sounds to me too as if rand38 and 39 are about litter bombs. AdamP (talk) 02:43, 15 March 2022 (UTC)

I'd never played multiplayer before, but actually nearly everything to do with Litter Bombs is cut; the other language files do not use the receptionist lines for them, and they are silent when they explode, even though there is a bomb sound effect in the non-english versions. Also if you use DKTools to put the research bell and baby crying sounds back into their old slots in the English version, they will play in-game like the foreign language versions. (Moburma (talk) 18:23, 15 March 2022 (UTC))

Updating PA Announcments section

I intend to redo this to include the sample names like the other sections and possibly re-up the samples using the proper extracted sources from DK Tools. It also needs the other sounds you found added. I did a lot of experimenting with multiplayer and it seems the final remaining litter bomb sample in English is not actually used as far as I can tell, I placed a huge number of bombs and never had the PA comment on them. Maybe these lines were removed to make it sneakier to use the bombs on your opponent? Also weirdly out of nowhere I had it play the "aliens, please sign the guest book" line very early on in a MP game when there was not an alien to be seen. This seems to be a bug. (Moburma (talk) 23:54, 15 March 2022 (UTC))

If you mean "Litter bomb warning!", the game plays that randomly during a game, even when there is no Litter Bomb in the hospital. Is this a bug too? AdamP (talk) 02:27, 16 March 2022 (UTC)

Yes, that's the one. I think the announcements are bugged in general, the game sometimes just plays inappropriate messages that have nothing to do with what is going on. One thing I seem to always get is "maintenance required in hair restorer" in the early stages of a level when one's not built yet. It causes a bit of a problem as I've heard a few phrases that are clearly cut from their intended use (litter bomb, aliens sign guest book) but technically it IS still possible for the player to hear them.(Moburma (talk) 09:38, 16 March 2022 (UTC))

I put that on the bugs page, and am fairly sure that each machine is linked to the wrong speech, but don't know which ones are linked to which. AdamP (talk) 05:15, 17 March 2022 (UTC)

Unknown Medical Machine and Ripping Graphics

Isn't that the Research Department's Atom Analyser? AdamP (talk) 20:19, 17 March 2022 (UTC)

Urgh, you're right, I'd never unlocked that before, it is very much used... (Moburma (talk) 22:45, 17 March 2022 (UTC))

I wonder why there's only one view though? By the way, how did you extract the graphics? I tried using an extractor for dat and their corresponding tab files, but I'm either doing something wrong, or it doesn't work with Theme Hospital's files (the tool's meant for Dungeon Keeper). AdamP (talk) 05:26, 18 March 2022 (UTC)

There's only one view because it just rotates the same graphic in memory for the other angle you can place it at in-game. It only needs more graphics if it is allowed to be placed at other angles (so e.g. you can see the back of an object). I ripped the graphics using CorsixTH. This has a great tool that's part of the code called Animview. Annoyingly this doesn't come with the download package anymore, so you have to compile it yourself. I recommend not doing this as I wasted an entire evening attempting this and the vpckg dependencies seem out of date/broken and it never worked. However, older versions of Corsixth (I think the newest that still has it is 4.0) contain it still, so just get that. It has an export feature that rips all graphics to png and even builds the frames of the animations for you. However, it only does this for the high res graphics - and the most interesting stuff is in the low res graphics (M prefix at start of files). You can fool it to do this by renaming the M files to V and moving them, but this still didn't get what I wanted, it seemed to be deliberately skipping the unused stuff! I'm not sure if the .tab data for these is missing or something (doubtful as the sprite viewer knows the sizes), or if it is curated to skip non-essential/non-existant images in the high res graphics (the point of it is for making graphics replacements for CorsixTH, not what we are doing).

The other way is via the Debug mode in CorsixTH. If this is enabled in its config file you get a debug menu with a sprite viewer. This works great and handles the palettes properly unlike the crappy animview sprite viewer mode. This is how I got the low res stuff, but the problem there is you need to screenshot and rip them in Photoshop etc, and it's difficult as the background is black which can screw up getting clean rips. I had to get the UFO this way. Examples of stuff I have yet to cleanly rip and upload:

https://ibb.co/NSjSRsq - A small table that I think is the low res version of the one seen in wards in the pre-release pictures

https://ibb.co/71CVdnx - some kind of table with a stripy cloth and all kinds of stuff on it that I can't work out what it is. EDIT: it's this, isn't it!

I think there are also unused floors and outdoors plants that animview can rip, but I need to sit down and methodically work out which ones are actually at some point. Oh and the above works on the demo too, that has the old "curved" UI still in it, as well as some odd hand annotated versions of the same that seem to be for some debug mode with heat maps of the hospital in. (Moburma (talk) 08:34, 18 March 2022 (UTC))

Oh, and another interesting graphic I can't really do much with at the moment: https://ibb.co/6HhpL4k - this seems to be a low res animation for the cut folded up screens visible in the pre-release ward screenshots (and as an aside I only just realised they are actually still visible in the very late screenshots in the press pack, so must have been cut late on in development). It seems they would fold out into a full 3 piece screen for the patients to change behind. Maybe cut because it slowed down patients getting in and out of the beds? This would be perfect for AnimView as it should be able to build the actual final frames, but as above it doesn't seem to handle the low res files correctly... (Moburma (talk) 09:26, 18 March 2022 (UTC))

"some kind of table with a stripy cloth and all kinds of stuff on it that I can't work out what it is" Yeah, that looks like it (Edit: no broom though....). Come to think of it, I think Bullfrog Bulletin might be the only place I've seen that. I too spent several hours trying to get the animation viewer to build, to no avail, so I had to download an old version. I used CorsixTH's sprite viewer to skim through the graphics, but I don't recall seeing that. I did see an angle for the General Diagnosis crash trolley that I'm not sure is used (animation 1132). The wrong palette seems to be used for some of the files when I look at them in the sprite viewer. AdamP (talk) 02:23, 19 March 2022 (UTC)

Regarding Pregnancy

Has nobody here heard of a cesarean section? Just because a pregnant woman goes to surgery, doesn't mean she's getting an abortion. Sure, if they got a hoover out or something, then fine, but they operate, and she buggers off, if it needed custom graphics, then she was obviously supposed to come in "Showing" so why could she not leave with a bundle in her arms?

Current edit seems to be deliberately going for controversy when it's unlikely to be needed.

Ok, I made it less controversial. (Moburma (talk) 23:52, 18 March 2022 (UTC))

Wasn't the pregnancy stuff added in a patch? Edit: I see the patch is unofficial.... AdamP (talk) 02:26, 19 March 2022 (UTC)

"We apologise for the extreme cold"

Are you sure this one's unused? I think I might have heard it randomly (it's been a few years since I've properly played Theme Hospital); it definitely rings a bell for me. AdamP (talk) 02:40, 19 March 2022 (UTC)

It might be SORRY1.WAV ("We apologise for the amount of litter") that I'm thinking of.... AdamP (talk) 02:48, 19 March 2022 (UTC)

Both are used. "Extreme Cold" sounds when the boiler breaks down and the Hospital becomes cold.