Theme Hospital - References To Other Works

References To Other Works

The opposing hospitals in the game are almost all names of well-known computers from fiction and real-life:

• "Akira" means "bright" in Japanese, and is the name of a powerful psychic in the manga and anime Akira.
• Colossus refers to the British supercomputers used to break German codes during World War II.
• Deep Thought is from Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
• HAL is from Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
• Holly is the computer in the British sitcom Red Dwarf.
• Multivac is from a number of Isaac Asimov's works.
• Zen and Orac are both from the BBC television series Blake's 7.

Also, the doctor is seen playing Dungeon Keeper in the intro video, and several Dungeon Keeper characters appear in the hospital waiting room, along with a character from an earlier Bullfrog title, Syndicate.