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The Brain follows the same premise as its predecessor Life & Death, wherein the player controls an up-and-coming surgeon who must perform simulated surgery on patients with varying problems. The sequel focuses on the brain, whereas the first game focused on the abdomen.
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Here is the video game “Life & Death II: The Brain”! Released in 1990 on DOS, it's still available and playable with some tinkering. It's a strategy and simulation game, set in a healthcare theme and it was released on FM Towns as well.
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- ライフ&デス ~ザ・ブレイン~
- 1 MB
- DOS
Life & Death II: The Brain is a game in which the player is a neurosurgery intern performing operations in a teaching hospital. [1] In this sequel to Life & Death, the player is a neurosurgeon. [2]
Dec 25, 2014 · The Brain follows the same premise as its predecessor Life & Death, wherein the player controls an up-and-coming surgeon who must perform simulated surgery on patients with varying problems. The sequel focuses on the brain, whereas the first game focused on the abdomen.
- Overview
- How to get it to work
- Playing the game
- Surgery
- Secrets, extras, and fun stuff
- Questions and answers
- How to kill your patients in Life and Death
Life and Death II: The Brain is a neurosurgery game. The best way to learn about it and what to do is to RTFM (Read The Manual), however, most people don't have TFM to R. If you are unfamiliar with the game and are reading out of curiosity, be warned: as one may expect, it is not for those who are easily grossed out by the sight of blood and such. However, the game's graphics are never particularly disturbing. For that, play the original Life and Death. ;)
Much of this information can be obtained from the game itself, and in fact much of the information in this FAQ has been obtained both directly from it and from our playing experiences. However, this FAQ will prevent some trial and error, and you can easily print it out, or parts of it, rather than writing down notes or memorizing things (though memorization should come naturally soon enough!) You will definitely need some form of notes the first time you do any given operation in the game, and may want to have them for subsequent times just to make sure you don't forget something.
This game is troublesome to run on modern PCs. It will only run properly in pure DOS mode, and it is best to use an emulator such as DosBox to play it. The game works fine on DosBox 0.74, but the audio will not sound good unless you install it with the PC speaker option. (On 0.74, voices and sound effects will sound very bad on AdLib and SoundBlaster, but sound perfect with PC Speaker. Don't worry, you will hear perfect speech and sound, not bleeps and bloops. Later versions of DosBox may fix AdLib and SoundBlaster audio.)
NOTE: There's a version of the game floating around on the web that, when you go into the Operating Room to operate on a patient, you skip straight to the doctor commending you for a virtuoso performance. This is possibly an attempt to get the game to run on earlier versions of DosBox without crashing. If you play the game and this happens when you try to operate, delete the game and try to find a different version: this one is a thorough waste of time. The people who cracked it to get it to work cracked the actual game part out.
If you haven't ever played before, when you first fire up the game, you'll be presented with a clipboard. Just type your name. You don't have to click anything, just type it. Surnames or full names work best, because if you enter, say, Jekyll, you will be called "Dr. Jekyll".
The interface is largely intuitive. You need not worry about saving the game: this is handled automatically (but be sure to exit the game properly rather than just switching the power off). The receptionist will answer most of your questions about where stuff is; of course, you can just click everywhere on the main map to find everything. It's not like you'll fall into a garbage compactor chute and die. :) This map is your map for the entire game, so you'll get used to it quickly.
Most areas of the game can be exited by clicking somewhere where there is nothing. Some others have a big EXIT button, in which case, that's what you should click. ;) (But don't click the one in the Operating Room when you're operating!) To leave the game, click the top of the screen (the parking lot) on the main map.
When a box pops up telling you to do something, that's what you gotta do to progress. You don't have to do it immediately. For instance, if you're going into the operating room, you may do well to go back to your office and select the assistants you need. You don't want to try a brain tumor operation with somebody who specializes in aneurysms, because that person can offer no help.
Preparing for surgery
You might want to look into the cafeteria beforehand if you need a bit of comic relief. Unless you're 100% certain of who your assistants are (for instance, if you just began the game, it's Schmidt and Helprin, an excellent team for subdural hematoma operations), it's best to check if you have the right people for the job. Or if your assistants got into a fight last time, you'll definitely want to review who you choose this time! Other than review your notes, there's not much you can do but brace yourself.
Choosing your assistants
Your eyes and ears are your best assistants in surgery, especially in Nightmare Mode, when you'll probably see things are wrong before your assistants do if you're paying enough attention. Regardless, you should pick your assistants carefully, just in case your attentiveness slips, or if you become so focused on what you're doing that you neglect the patient's health. Having the right assistants can sometimes mean the difference between getting a helpful response, or just getting "Something is not right here, doctor...", although the latter can still be helpful if you can quickly see what's wrong. Regardless, never, ever rely on your assistants: they won't see everything every time before it's too late. •Norah Griffin: Specializes in aneurysms; dislikes Schmidt. For an aneurysm operation, it's a tossup between her and Schmidt. I'd take Griffin if you're not used to aneurysm operations; Schmidt once they become routine for you. •Emil Kahn: Monitors respiration and blood pressure; dislikes Brandt. A general-purpose guy. He's useful if you don't need Brandt. Helprin might be better if you don't use the two together. •Heidi Schmidt: Monitors EKG and respiration; dislikes Griffin. Schmidt is a must-have (unless you need Griffin) if you're playing without sound and can't hear the EKG. You should try to watch it as much as possible and not rely on her to catch what's wrong, but you can never be too careful. Her value is somewhat reduced if you actually have sound; Kahn might help you out more in that situation. It's your call. •Craig Helprin: General-purpose. This guy's good to have: he'll keep an eye on things. Sometimes others will yell at him, but only because he's so concerned for the safety of the patient (not to mention the staff). Usually, this should not be a problem. •Jim Slade: General-purpose; has trouble with women (Griffin, Schmidt, Brandt). He specializes in typical operating procedures such as incision, retraction, and drilling. Every operation requires incision and drilling, giving him some consideration for all operations, but he won't get along well with either Griffin or Brandt, your aneurysm and tumor specialists accordingly, so don't take him for those until you're used to such operations and don't need Griffin or Brandt. •Elizabeth Brandt: Specializes in brain tumors; dislikes Kahn. Got a brain tumor and don't know what to do? Call in Brandt. Otherwise, you're just wasting her—and your own—time. If you're lazy, here's some general guidelines. Good teams in general: •Schmidt and Helprin •Kahn and Helprin •Kahn and Slade •Helprin and Slade Good teams for brain tumors: •Schmidt and Brandt •Helprin and Brandt Good teams for aneurysms: •Griffin and Kahn •Griffin and Helprin Bad teams: •Griffin and Schmidt (conflict) •Griffin and Brandt (specialize in different operations) •Kahn and Brandt (conflict) •Griffin and Slade (conflict) •Schmidt and Slade (conflict) •Slade and Brandt (conflict)
Surgical tools
This is intended as a reference, and to increase the bulk of the FAQ to make it look better than it is. ;) It's not too necessary to print out: you can figure out what most things are by right-clicking them. But at least read it if you're not an experienced neurosurgeon, and if you are, you wouldn't be reading this unless you're bored anyway. :) Some tools are not available in the subdural hematoma operation, but you won't need them.
There's an ELIZA program you can find hidden in the game. ELIZA was a computer program simulating a psychotheraptist that basically faked its way through demonstrating that it had AI. It would never pass the Turing test, that is, it wasn't so good that it would reliably be mistaken for a human. However, it did appear to demonstrate complex behavior, though it was all smoke and mirrors, so to speak.
ELIZA was designed by Joseph Weizenbaum, and the program simulated a psychotherapist. It would interact with the user mainly by recognizing patterns in the user's statements, and rephrasing them as questions, and similar tricks.
You, too, can play with such a program: go to your desk in your office, then click the computer monitor. There you go! When you get bored, just click the monitor's POWER button to go back to your desk.
SECRET: You can type "DEBUG" to the computer and get a useless list of numbers. This seems to have been used for tech support, but may have been used only by the programmers.
SECRET: You can type "CREDITS" to the computer to see the credits to the game!
There's another semi-secret regarding computers: look at the one on Dr. Skelton's desk. (Dr. Skelton's office is to next to yours, to the left.) The monitor will have a message that appears either to be a typed note or an e-mail (yes, they had e-mail back then), the body of which shows what he thinks about your progress.
Q: Will the game run too fast on my PC?
A: No. However, if you're playing the game with an emulator, the emulator may run it too fast; consult your emulator documentation.
Q: When does the game end?
A: We don't yet know.
Q: Who is Dr. Skelton?
A: Doctor Ryan T. Skelton is the chief neurosurgeon. He's the bearded guy.
Ways to kill your patients with misdiagnosing
•By not referring the patient to a psychiatrist when the patient is addicted to morphine •By not performing surgery on patients who have a subdural hematoma, a brain tumor, or an aneurysm
Killing patients with imaging equipment
•By putting patients in the MRI machine when they have a pacemaker •By putting patients in the CAT scanner when the patient has allergies
Killing patients before incising the patient
•By injecting lidocaine or atropine when it isn't needed •By mixing nitroprusside and dopamine
The Brain follows the same premise as its predecessor Life & Death, wherein the player controls an up-and-coming surgeon who must perform simulated surgery on patients with varying problems. The sequel focuses on the brain, whereas the first game focused on the abdomen.
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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 ...
