emulator: corsixth
type: standalone
core_classification: game_engine
source: "https://github.com/CorsixTH/CorsixTH"
upstream: ~
profiled_date: "2026-10-04"
source_commit: "2d4671e267cae25847432a2e7d4f814b44f91e35"
core_version: "0.70.1"
display_name: "Theme Hospital (CorsixTH)"
cores: [corsixth]
systems: [theme-hospital]
verification: existence

notes: |
  CorsixTH is a Lua + C++ reimplementation of Bullfrog's Theme Hospital
  engine. It reads graphics, sprites, levels and sounds from an
  untouched Theme Hospital install (full retail/GOG or the shareware
  demo).

  App:checkInstallFolder() in CorsixTH/Lua/app.lua:1450 drives the
  install discovery:
    1. config.theme_hospital_install (user override) is tried first
       (:1453). If unset or wrong, the loader scans a list of common
       paths (:1471-1489) looking for a folder that passes
       App:isThemeHospitalPath, which demands three subdirectories
       named data, levels and qdata (:1435-1447).
    2. Once a candidate is accepted, three sentinel files MUST exist
       (:1521-1523):
         DATA/VBlk-0.tab
         LEVELS/Level.L1
         QDATA/SPointer.dat
       Any missing file aborts init with "Invalid Theme Hospital
       folder specified in config file..." (:1526).
    3. DataM/Demo.dat (:1535) marks the shareware demo install; its
       presence switches a different corruption-size check on
       ANIMS/WINLEVEL.SMK (243188), LEVELS/LEVEL.L1 (163948) and
       DATA/BUTTON01.DAT (252811) at :1559-1561. Full installs instead
       get soft size checks on ANIMS/AREA01V.SMK, WINGAME.SMK,
       WINLEVEL.SMK, LOSE1.SMK and INTRO/INTRO.SM4 (:1563-1567).
    4. QData/Font00V.dat is read unconditionally (:1576) and its CRC32
       picks the charset (mik vs cp437).

  Only the four files the loader *reads unconditionally* are tracked
  below. The sound/music path uses the game's XMI tracks when a
  SoundFont is available (App:findSoundFont at :1589 probes
  GeneralUser-GS.sf2, FluidR3_GM.sf2, FluidR3.sf3 and three Linux
  system paths); the SoundFont is a user preference, not game data.

  Everything else (hundreds of SPR/TAB/DAT files, SMK movies, ADL /
  XMI music) is loaded on demand from the install directory and is
  not individually verified by the engine; a user who sets up the
  Theme Hospital folder once has them all.

exclusion_note: "Theme Hospital install is scanned folder-wide; the engine only hard-checks a handful of sentinel files"
files:
  - name: VBlk-0.tab
    path: corsixth/Data/VBlk-0.tab
    system: theme-hospital
    category: game_data
    required: true
    description: "Theme Hospital core sprite index; sentinel checked at startup"
    source_ref: "CorsixTH/Lua/app.lua:1521"

  - name: Level.L1
    path: corsixth/Levels/Level.L1
    system: theme-hospital
    category: game_data
    required: true
    description: "First Theme Hospital level file; sentinel checked at startup"
    source_ref: "CorsixTH/Lua/app.lua:1522"

  - name: SPointer.dat
    path: corsixth/QData/SPointer.dat
    system: theme-hospital
    category: game_data
    required: true
    description: "Sprite pointer table; sentinel checked at startup"
    source_ref: "CorsixTH/Lua/app.lua:1523"

  - name: Font00V.dat
    path: corsixth/QData/Font00V.dat
    system: theme-hospital
    category: game_data
    required: true
    description: "Theme Hospital font; CRC32 selects charset (mik vs cp437)"
    source_ref: "CorsixTH/Lua/app.lua:1576-1584"