Life & Death
DOS - 1988
Also available on: Mac - Amiga - Apple IIgs - Atari ST - FM Towns - Sharp X68000
Description of Life & Death
Arguable the best doctor games ever produced for the PC (well, Theme Hospital comes close, but that is more of a management game), Life & Death 1 and 2 put you in the role of surgeon who specializes in digestive systems in the first game, and brain surgery in the second. Diagnose patients correctly and perform increasingly difficult more advanced procedures to get promoted.
The games are much celebrated for their strong emphasis on realism (not surprisingly, since their designer is a real doctor). The games also boast high educational value as well, since every time you make mistakes you'll be sent to a classroom to learn what you did wrong. And yes, there IS an end to each of these games-- it just takes a lot of patience, dozens of successful surgeries, and steady hands :) Thumbs up!
Review By HOTUD
External links
Captures and Snapshots
Comments and reviews
Ark333 2024-08-16 0 point DOS version
CGA version was way ahead of every other game, to the point it resembles EGA. It's amazing what the developers were able to do with only 4 colors
NOWHERE WOMAN 2023-08-09 0 point
I love this game so much :3 it is much easier than the brain one. I wish there were more games like them on this site! I highly recommend Operation: Frog too, it is available on this site and is super entertaining and educational!
Steven Pavelish 2023-05-15 0 point
This game still gives me nightmares. It's still very addicting to play! It even beats out the Trauma Center series made by Atlus!
brandy 2022-05-25 4 points
i played this game without a manual... a lot of patients died so i could learn how to do surgery.
Dark Night 2022-01-16 1 point DOS version
There are some issues in the game. During startup, it will report something failed. When entering the OR room, sometimes the game could not successfully load up the OR room and returned to the splash screen
Tom 2020-11-21 1 point
The game here is amazingly easy, once you know what you are doing. I got this game when it first hit store shelves in the 80's. It came with latex gloves and a surgical mask.
Anyway, at that time I could never figure out "patient's upper right to lower left" I always thought, as a kid, that meant upper right of screen to lower left of screen. When I got older and figured it out, I was able to get rid of those "you didn't use a mcburneys cut" messages in class. So basically you cut from the upper left corner of screen, to lower right. Don't cut the blue drape. When you open the third skin layer, the pixels are going from upper right to lower left, so cut WITH the grain (the direction of the pixels) and when you get to the white layer, in the upper left corner of that area, place forceps, then at the tip of the forceps, double click the mouse with the scalpel and you should get a black dot. Remove the forceps and make a cut using scissors from that black dot to lower right. That part was always a pain for me.
I think my best score ever is 9/10. Very rarely do you get the first patient as an operation, but if you can get your very first patient as an operation in the appendix, and then the next patient as an operation on the aorta, and you complete both of those successfully, your score would be 2/2, since the game ends after completing the aorta operation lol.
Hulsie 2015-05-02 0 point DOS version
Every single patient of mine always dies. I'm not a very good doctor.
Paulo José 2014-11-25 0 point DOS version
the good game the medic prof.. fune and education game ...
Jett 2014-10-11 0 point DOS version
LOL Ow!! Ouch OW!!!! ahhaah The surgeries were funny!!! I actually panicked!
Smiley 2013-08-28 0 point DOS version
Yeah, I remember how about a third of the time it would be gas pain, so you could medicate it instead of surgery. Those would be the only survivors in my games. :]
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DOS Version
Game Extras
Various files to help you run Life & Death, apply patches, fixes, maps or miscellaneous utilities.
Mac Version
- Year: 1988
- Publisher: Software Toolworks, Inc., The
- Developer: Software Toolworks, Inc., The
Amiga ROM
- Year: 1991
- Publisher: Mindscape International Ltd.
- Developer: Software Toolworks, Inc., The
Apple IIgs Version
- Year: 1989
- Publisher: Software Toolworks, Inc., The
- Developer: Software Toolworks, Inc., The
Atari ST ROM
- Year: 1991
- Publisher: Mindscape, Inc.
- Developer: Software Toolworks, Inc., The
FM Towns Version
- Year: 1992
- Publisher: Ving Co., Ltd.
- Developer: Software Toolworks, Inc., The
Sharp X68000 Version
- Year: 1992
- Publisher: Brother Industries, Ltd.
- Developer: Software Toolworks, Inc., The
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