About
CorsixTH is an open-source reimplementation of Bullfrog Productions' 1997 hospital management simulation Theme Hospital. Players manage increasingly complex hospitals, hiring doctors, nurses, and handymen; laying out rooms; researching treatments for absurd fictional illnesses (Bloaty Head, Slack Tongue, Broken Heart); and balancing profit against patient welfare under time pressure. CorsixTH rebuilds the game engine to run natively on modern operating systems with higher resolutions, widescreen support, and no DOSBox dependency, while remaining fully compatible with the original 1997 game data files available from GOG. The project has been in active development since 2011 and is widely considered the definitive way to play Theme Hospital on modern hardware.
Identity
Launch
- Binary
- corsixth
- Needs files
-
- Theme Hospital game data files (cheap on GOG)
Runtime
- Runs as
- Native Linux
- Proton
- not needed
⚙ Setup notes
Engine: CorsixTH is an open-source reimplementation of Bullfrog Productions' Theme Hospital, the 1997 hospital management simulation originally published by Electronic Arts. The project name comes from its original author, Corsix ("Corsix's Theme Hospital" → CorsixTH), and the engine has been in active community development for years; recent releases (e.g. 0.69.2, Jan 2026) continue to improve UI, resolution, and input handling.
Install: The easiest path on Deck is the official Flatpak from Flathub (app id com.corsixth.corsixth). Native Linux release builds are also available from the official site corsixth.com (download page). Install in Desktop Mode.
Game data: CorsixTH requires the original Theme Hospital game data files (it does not include them). They are available cheaply on GOG; on Deck, GOG via Heroic Games Launcher is the recommended purchase and download path. A free demo data set is also offered on corsixth.com for a limited trial, but the full GOG data is needed for the complete game.
Setup: Once installed, launch CorsixTH and point it at the directory containing your Theme Hospital data files on first run.
No DOSBox: CorsixTH runs the original game data through its own modern engine — no DOSBox installation is needed at any point, unlike many other classic DOS game re-releases.
Modernization: The engine adds higher resolutions, widescreen support, modern OS compatibility, and a range of bug fixes for issues that existed in the original 1997 release. Active development continues with ongoing improvements to the UI and input handling.
Deck: Add as a non-Steam shortcut to access from Game Mode.
The one thing to know
Supply your own copy: Requires Theme Hospital data files (not bundled) — GOG is the recommended source; use Heroic Games Launcher on Deck to purchase and download from GOG. A free demo data set from corsixth.com works for a trial but the full GOG data is needed for the complete game.
No DOSBox: CorsixTH runs the data through its own native engine.
Flatpak data access: If installed via Flatpak, you may need to grant it read access to your game data, e.g. flatpak override com.corsixth.corsixth --filesystem=/path/to/data:ro.
Controller: CorsixTH is a mouse-driven point-and-click game with no native gamepad scheme — on Deck use Steam Input (right trackpad as mouse, a button mapped to left-click) for comfortable play.
Community guides
Write-ups and threads from people who got this (or a similar) game running. deckport links to them — it doesn't reproduce them.
Get the artwork
deckport never hosts game images. Open this game on SteamGridDB, pick
the cover / hero / logo / icon you like, and drop them into the
game folder under .deckport-art/ before you push it to the
Deck. The importer files them under the right names automatically.
Run it on your Deck
Two files: the one-time importer (deckport.py) in your
Deck's home folder, and this game's install helper. Copy the game
into ~/Games and run the helper with Steam closed — it
writes the recipe (binary, launch options)
and registers the shortcut with artwork.