Theme Hospital Multiplayer

nikebee · 2 May 2006 at 19:08

'lo all... been playing Theme Hospital a lot recently, just installed it onto the girlfriends pc on our LAN.

i'm running the latest (read: only) patch for the game, and can't get multiplayer to work at all...

there are three options
dplayipx, ipx, serial, modem

no idea what any of these do, the only two i can use are dplayipx and ipx because serial/modem say there is either a) no serial port or b) no modem present.
ipx doesn't seem to work for whatever reason.
and dplayipx does work on her machine, but just freezes on mine :eek:

its a longshot, but has anyone got a clue on how to get this one to work :confused:

MNuTz · 2 May 2006 at 19:12

XP doesnt support IPX for games does it? Thats why there was so many problems with Red Alert 2 multiplayer!

Either google IPX/XP or search the forums for RA2 multiplayer and see if there is something that will help you.

Wee · 2 May 2006 at 21:22

This is a complete stab in the dark, but try running it in compatibility mode for Win95.

But damn, you've got me wanting to play Theme Hospital now.

joilet · 2 May 2006 at 21:37

you can install the ipx protocol on your xp machine. that might be the reason it froze if it wasn't installed.

Under your network interface properties you can add protocols and services. Once in the list, go to microsoft and it will show ipx.

nikebee · 2 May 2006 at 21:38

haha cheers guys, will try the RA2 stuff later...

ironically i've just realised that i'm running Theme Hospital in windows 95 mode on my machine, and not on heres...

on my machine, it dies at the dplayipx bit... and on the girlfriends it doesn't
maybe that has something to do with it :confused:

oh and Wee, if you start playing again, be sure to get the patch for it... it adds multiplayer, easy and hard difficulties and fixes bugs of course

DJammyRasta · 3 May 2006 at 11:01

aye u will need to add all the old networking protocols like ipx to get the classics to work

i reinstall theme hospital at least every other year when i get bored of all the rubbish released these days

sniffy · 3 May 2006 at 14:36

Such a quality game. Wish my disc wasn't missing

locutus12 · 3 May 2006 at 17:35

sniffy said:
Such a quality game. Wish my disc wasn't missing

given you cant buy it new anymore and given bullfrog dont exist any more, the game may be available free via abandonware systems. its also available on that well known internet site named after a jungle that sells lots of books, for £1.30p

just a word of warning to all, the game has no restraint for cpu usage and was built with a 486/ p75 in mind. you may find on your modern computers that everything moves so damn quickly in the game that its hard to keep up

leezer3 · 3 May 2006 at 17:46

The certain high-street game retailer has it in the bargain bin £4-99 section

(Sold-Out publisher).
Anyone care to linky to the patch please?- Didn't know this was out there

-Leezer-

nikebee · 3 May 2006 at 21:14

leezer3 said:
Anyone care to linky to the patch please?- Didn't know this was out there

here you go mate

http://www.alt-tab.net/games/theme-hospital/downloads/

a few other things as well as the patch on that site.

multiplayer is a great blast... finally got it to work, but you HAVE to play at maximum speed :eek:

neither player can slow down the game.

just beat my Girlfriend

FeFiDoh · 3 May 2006 at 21:33

lan > properties > install > protocol > IPX i was playing with the mrs other day

nikebee · 3 May 2006 at 23:54

R5Rich said:
lan > properties > install > protocol > IPX i was playing with the mrs other day

indeed... already had done that (i did it when i installed XP on both machines)... but for some reason my machine just refused to go into the DplayIPX screen at all.

tried again today, girlfriend setup the game on her machine and i join on mine... worked a treat :confused:

bah either way we've got multiplayer working fine

Energize · 4 May 2006 at 20:40

Does anyone have the jittery mouse issue with this game? The mouse doesnt move anywhere near as well as it should.

Zico · 4 May 2006 at 22:27

Energize said:
Does anyone have the jittery mouse issue with this game? The mouse doesnt move anywhere near as well as it should.

Put this back on yesterday after coming across this thread and have had the same mouse problems.

Mouse is slightly scewed in movement and double clicks. I end up giving staff wage increases when I haven't even clicked to do so

.

Energize · 4 May 2006 at 22:51

Shame as its better than most new games are these days, I prefer theme hopsital over fear anyday.

nikebee · 4 May 2006 at 23:05

i had the mouse problem for a bit, but it seems to have gone
it is slower than usual in the game though...

i think maybe the patch fixed it? tried updating?

Zico · 4 May 2006 at 23:18

nikebee said:
i had the mouse problem for a bit, but it seems to have gone
it is slower than usual in the game though...

i think maybe the patch fixed it? tried updating?

I'm getting the problems with the patch. I didn't try the game before patching but I won't bother to re-install to find out.

Minstadave · 5 May 2006 at 00:12

R5Rich said:
lan > properties > install > protocol > IPX i was playing with the mrs other day

Works for Red Alert 2 on XP aswell

Energize · 5 May 2006 at 00:25

The patch doesnt fix it, when I bought the game in 98 it already had the patch integrated into the game install.

jim5000 · 6 May 2006 at 12:49

I hate the sick waves with a passion. You can be playing the game for about 5 hours, build up a massive well run hospital, but if you take your eye off a corner for a second, a sick wave can start which soon engulfs your entire hospital, and totally messing up the level and your hours of work

The epidemics are also sent from hell.....