A
video game developed by
Software Toolworks in the early
90s. The premise of the game is that you are an
intern at a county
hospital which has recently opened a new
neurosurgery wing. The
gameplay consists of taking
physicals, making a
diagnosis and prescribing
treatment. Taking a physical includes checking for
pupil reaction,
eye tracking,
slurred speech,
weakness in any
extremities,
reflex and response to
pain. You can also enlist
X-rays,
MRIs and
CT Scans to make a more acurate assessment. Once you have made your diagnosis, you can prescribe various treatments, from drug therapy to counseling to
surgery, which you will also perform. The surgery makes up the bulk of
time spent playing the game. There are three surgeries which you can perform:
subdural hematoma removal,
brain tumor removal, and
aneurism repair. The
hematoma is the easiest to operate on, because it only requires opening the
scalp and drilling one
hole into the skull. Subsequent surgeries make use of these skills and add complications like using microscopic
tools and
ultrasounds. Random changes in condition can happen during the
operation which require you to make certain decisions in order to save the
patient's
life.
This
game is a great play whicih requires a mix of
logic,
dexterity,
skill and
planning in order to be successful. Probably the best part is that there are no consequences for your actions in the long run (you can't be
fired) so if you feel like it you can take a
bone saw to the patient's
eyes when all they really need is some
physical therapy. Also, the scenes in the morgue of your fellow interns eating pizza from a
box sitting on top of the corpse that you are responsible for with captions like
"Looks like he forgot to irrigate again. This brain is so hot we didn't need to microwave the food!"