The Sims 1

And to prove to all here that I am a complete geek, here is my playing guide to the Sims 1 Complete Collection.

(I think this obsession was a result of my being a tomboy growing up and never having a dollhouse.) So here goes:

My Sims Tips

Gameplay Tips:

After installing the sims run Windows defrag. My sims game takes about 5 minutes to load, with all the expansion packs and added stuff. Installing the game is a pain, and takes quite some time. It's a good idea to backup (Copy) your gamedata, downloads, and userdata folders to a CD or another directory, just in case you ever want to return anything to default. Always backup your lots before adding downloaded lots or houses. Save often when things are going well, and right before you do something risky. I always save right before doing magick, etc. I turned one sim into a monster using the Chemistry set. They rampaged around and broke all the major appliances. I then went back to the neighborhood, didn't save, and went back in and everything had reversed.

About Free Will:

I used to turn off free will until one day, someone came in to talk to me. When I looked back, my sim had just stayed standing in one place for days and was almost dead. After that I leave free will on so the sims will take care off themselves. With free will on they also do some pretty funny stuff. Yes, your sims can die. A sim that tries to repair something with no mechanical skills can electrocute themselves. A sim can die if they get into a pool with no exit ladder. Fire can kill them, also. I know there's more but I haven't had my sims die except for the ones I deliberately killed or the one accidental suicide.

Hit shift-ctrl-c. That is the cheat code input box. Type: "move_objects on". This allows you to move or delete ANYTHING, including your sims. (They'll come back when you click on their pic, with all bars green.) Guests and NPCs will not come back. (NPCs are the game's characters.) I tend to delete that annoying accordion player with the monkey in Old Town, or the Prude in downtown. They'll be back there next time. I sometimes just delete dirty dishes, floods, mice, flies, raccoons, bunnies, gopher holes, and trash that way. It also comes in handy in traffic jams. Sims will block each other off or corner each other for hours.

You can move, but do not delete your mailbox. It is best kept outside. The trash can can be moved inside, but I usually put it right by the front door. Do NOT move the mailbox in Magic Town. Also be careful not to delete or move the portals. They are invisible objects at the end of the sidewalks that when clicked on look like an end table. These allow and generate traffic on the lot.

If your sim won't do what you want and just stands there and shrugs, they can't get to whatever it is. You need to turn or move something or someone that is blocking them.

More $$- Hit shift-ctrl-c. Type: "rosebud" then Hit shift-ctrl-c again, and type "!;" for every additional $1000.

Free Fully Furnished home:

Let's say I move a new sim family into Lot 6, Neighborhood 2. The lot is empty when I move in my sims. I then save and exit the game. I go into the Userdata6\Houses folder and move House06.iff out to the desktop and copy in a downloaded House06.iff or a House06.iff from another neighborhood. When I load up the game again my new sim family now has a fully furnished home for free!! Be sure to NEVER load the game with a house.iff file missing. Also BE SURE to backup the original houses before replacing them. The House.iff files do not affect the families or the zoning. I've had many downloads that I have to copy out, then load the game, rezone and demolish the lot, exit the game, and replace the file with the original so the same house is there but zoned correctly.

Kitchens and Cooking:

I line my kitchens up as follows, using 4 tiles:

1. Fridge

2. Expensive counter with cheap food processor (hunger 3)

3. Stove with fire alarm

4. Expensive empty counter to place group meal on.

Any other counters nearby that a sim might place a group meal on need to be as expensive as possible.

Visitors to your lot usually like things in the following order:

1. Group meal

2. Dishwasher or sink

3. Toilet

4. Sink

5. Fun or social stuff.

Sims usually need to go to the bathroom right after eating, so it helps to have the bathrooms fairly close to the kitchen.

Sinks can be used in lieu of a dishwasher, but keep in mind you may want to put sinks outside the bathroom and dishwashers outside the kitchen to move traffic out of these rooms. I've had sims hang out in the bathroom blocking others because the last thing they did was wash their hands. Most my sims' houses have no sinks in the bathrooms or kitchens, and no dishwashers. I usually just place 3-4 pretty pedestal sinks in the living room. This moves the sims out of the kitchens and bathrooms and near the fun items and each other.

Things that affect the meal quality:

1. Type of refrigerator

2. Cost of counters

3. Cooking skills of chef - Sims with no cooking skills can and WILL set fire to the stove.

4. Food processor - increases the meal as well as speeds up the cooking time.

5. Hunger rating of stove

The better a meal is, the more the guest sims will like the cook as well.

Safety:

Put smoke alarms over all fireplaces, stoves, and bakers' ovens! Do not place objects close to fireplaces. Also, be sure to have burglar alarms by all entry doors. It won't stop a burglar from coming in, but the cops will come and you'll get your $$ back for items taken, plus a reward.

Room score is affected by lighting, and expensive decor. My sims only spend real money on kitchen counters and artwork. All other objects I use are re-priced downloads. Refrigerators have hunger ratings, and chairs, sofas, and beds have comfort ratings. I use cheap recolored objects with high ratings for refrigerators, food processors, electronics, plumbing, tables, seating, and build mode items. These items will depreciate as if they are regularly priced, so you can buy a sofa at $2, then sell it the day after for $2,000. Your bills are generated by your worth, so you will pay higher bills with re-priced stuff just like as if you bought it full price.

Things that adversely affect room scores are puddles, trash, flies, dog poop, etc. Hiring a maid or getting a servo can be a necessity, as they will clean up things you can't see yourself, or repair stuff you didn't know was broken. Dog poop, for example, is VERY hard to see, so you can't find the thing that's bringing down your room score. Poop is pretty rare, though. Puddles are not. I delete these using move_objects on. Outside, trees and shrubs are better than flowers and plants that have to be watered.

Marriage and babies:

Hacked motive maxers are wonderful for relationships and babies. Otherwise it can be quite a pain. For dating try placing the blue espresso machine the public lot. People who come up and drink it max the needs of everyone on the lot. This is also good for treasure hunting on Vacation Island or doing hard-core shopping in Old Town.

Sims must be friends to sleep in the same bed. Also, if your sims have a computer, don't be surprised if your sims' guests play on it. I find that rather annoying when I'm trying to make my sim friends.

Diamond rings are a great gift when looking for a mate. Although expensive, giving a sim 8-9 diamond rings can bring up their relationship from 0 to a red heart in one day.

A couple trips to Downtown for a full 3 course meal does the relationship well, provided they talk about common topics and do lots of romantic kisses.

Make sure your date's needs are met, or their response to your sims' advances will not be taken well. This is why I usually max out everyone before or during the date. You must have both sims have a red heart, and good moods to kiss passionately. If a sim can kiss a date passionately at home, then a proposal will usually be accepted.

Babies are generated randomly by passionate kisses once the sims are living together.

When you get a baby, have your sims miss alternate days at work to not get fired. "Feed, Feed, Sing." has always worked well for me. I usually have to use a mood cheat to have my sims take care of the baby well. I'll have my sim stay maxed and paint or do something close by so they can stop and care for the baby when it cries. When the baby finally turns into a child after three days, you must keep the child's grades up or the social worker will take the child away.

Entire families, including children and pets, can go to Old Town, Vacation Island, and Magic Town, only when a cab is called.

Sims can only go to Studio Town, Downtown, and Magic Town alone.

In person, on a home lot, sims can invite others as guests to Old Town and Downtown.

Sims can call and invite guests to Old Town, Downtown, and Vacation Island.

More Neighborhoods:

COPY a userdata folder out onto the desktop matching a neighborhood you'd like to copy. Rename it to the next available neighborhood number, starting with 9 if your game has 8 neighborhoods to begin with. For example, I demolished and cleaned up every lot so I had a completely empty neighborhood. That was neighborhood 6. I COPIED, (DON'T MOVE!!) the folder out to my desktop, renamed it userdata9, then MOVED it back into the Sims directory. This gave me an extra blank neighborhood 9 when I only used to have 8 neighborhoods.

A helpful glitch in the "Create-a-Sim" screen:

Create your sim as a child first, then go out and back and edit them to make them an adult. They will have some random skills already when placed in the game. They will also have a phantom ‘school’ job until they get another.

Play your own music:

Go to C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\Music\Stations. Pick a station folder, (I use Rock) and copy your favorite mp3 songs in there. Then when your sims play the radio or jukebox on that station you'll hear your favorite songs!

Essential Hacked Objects:

Patches to remove flies, roaches, and the censor ‘blur’ on nude sims. Upgrades to the quality of food from vendors.

Most these objects I have categorized to show up in the Miscellaneous - Magic category. Some are in Decorative, and some in other places.

Downtown, Old Town, etc. Controllers. Also called buy/build mode enablers. They allow you to go into build or buy mode on public lots. Essential for clearing up traffic jams. Also, if you're short on cash while out, try selling some objects in the public lot. Jewelry displays and sculptures can fill your sim's pockets instantly! The changes are never saved. The items will be there upon return to that lot. You'll get object selections from the home catalog, not Community. Keep in mind that some home objects will not work on public lots.

Fruit of Knowledge- Gives you $10,000 simoleons when placed, then can be eaten or cleaned. With move_objects on you can pile a bunch of them on one table, then delete the table. (If you delete them directly it takes the $$ away.) This way the sims don't have to eat or clean up each one. I have many tables with piles of fruit on open lots, so they are affordable to the newly created sim that only has $20,000.

Paintings- The yellow smiley face maxes one need at a time, only for the sim doing the looking. The colorful smiley painting can max everyone's needs on a lot or just everyone's hunger, bladder, etc. Very handy for parties. The $15,000 Zodiac painting will max everyone's' motives without having the sim walk to it. DO NOT leave the Zodiac painting in the house with your sims, though. The "lightning" option will kill your sim instantly. I use it to off unwanted sims. I have had sims inadvertently commit suicide with the Zodiac painting when left in the house.

Free The Magic - can refresh all, max skills, personality, interests, get magic items, magicoins, crystal skills, and CASH! This is the first hacked object I give any new sim.

$1,000 Spell Book- Gives your sims all spells and components, 10 at a time. Sims also do not have to walk to it to use it. This is the second objects I give my sims.

Magic Mirror- can make friends with family or selected families.

Move Plants and Teleporter Bush- These are awesome! I turned all the strays into humans in one of my neighborhoods. I used the Move In Fern to move the stray in, then had my sims cast a spell to make them human. If they turned into a nasty looking sim I used the Zodiac painting to kill them. If I liked the look of the sim I used the Fern to move them back into the unhoused stray family.

C&Cs Gardening stands and flower plots- Allows your sim to grow roses and tulips at home, and buy gardening and cooking supplies in bulk. The garden plots increase fun and skills, and gophers will not ruin the crops.

Re-priced home items with high scores- Allows you to fully furnish a house under $30.

No Pet Door- I use this for pets or dragons. The unleashed strays will have no problem coming into your sim's house and messing on the floor. They cannot pass through the pet door. It can also be used for keeping pets out of the master bedroom or keeping dragons in a contained yard.

Privacy Door- restricts entry only to sims that reside on the lot. If you have many guests and your sim crashes before they leave, the guests will come into the bedroom and wake your sim up at 1 AM to say goodbye. The privacy door stops them from getting in the bedroom in the first place so they just leave, allowing your sim to sleep. I have seen guest sims pace in front of it for hours, though, if there’s a bathroom or fun object there he wants to use.

Note: With thee doors, however, your pet or human sims can pace in front of them for days if there is something beyond them that they want. I had to delete a door once to allow my dragon to play on the C&C child and pet gym. I moved the gym into the dragon's house's lawn after that. At parties I've had human sims pace in front of a privacy door because they wanted to play on the computer inside the bedroom or use the master bathroom instead of the bathrooms they can get to. The remedy to this is to allow them to get to that specific object or delete or move the object from the restricted area.

Hacked computers- There is the home shopping computer that is awesome, the suicide computer (the Zodiac painting works better), and the Simstitution Super Computer that your alone sims can use to check e-mail and get their social up, as well as many other fabulous hacks. I don't usually keep computers in my sim's houses since the guests go straight to them, but they have a great fun rating and are wonderful hacked objects.

Pile of clothes: Works as a dresser and can be placed on tables. Also allows your sim to get new bathing suits, swimsuits, etc. at home for free. They do have to walk up to it and only one can use it at a time.

Instant dresser: Allows your sim to change without walking up to it. You can have the entire family change clothes at once before going out.

Liugnofridge: Outstanding meal quality, group meals only allowed by default. No more messy snacks! They have to cook meals. It also includes buyable ready-to-eat meals in the ‘Appliances’ Category. Single is 5 and group 10.

Electronut 7k: (Blue Espresso Machine) Maxes everyone's needs on lot, works on all public lots. I usually put one on all public lots but use other things at home.

A La Carte Fridges: Really cool ready meals and meals to cook.

c - ready to eat - group

ci - ready to eat - individual

All others are group meals to prepare

Traffic Buster Flamingo: Essential for public lots or busy families. No more traffic jams!

$1 Walls, floors, and objects. Cheap replacements for all expensive objects EXCEPT for Decoration and cooking counters. Cheap high-quality beds, sofas, chairs, build objects, and appliances are a MUST!

About Pets:

(See also the "No Pet Door" section above.) The most annoying thing I found with Unleashed was the "puddles" by the lot's portals left by the strays all the time lowering the room score. I found only a few things that help with this:

1. A doggie tree placed on the grass right by each portal. (You'll need move_objects on to place anything outside the borders of your lot.)

2. Feeding the strays from the bowl hacked to increase their skills. This does save and work.

3. Turn all the strays human. (See above in Move Plants description)

4. Use move_objects on and delete the first 2-3 tiles of sidewalk on the ends of your lot. Puddles are only created on floor, not grass.

Pets will "snuggle" to produce young. Like the sim people, they have to be friends. Pet baths are only needed for dogs.

If your sim ignores a pet or dragon, it can run away. If you have a dog, watch him chase the mail delivery boy. It's pretty funny.

Dragon Info-

Dragons will sleep in their nest, so don't delete it while you still have the dragon. I have never seen dragons mate. I don't think they can. No Pet Doors will contain dragons. I'll usually build a little house and yard for my dragons with only a pet door leading out to the rest of the lot. I place many smoke alarms around, since they WILL set fire to things around them. Giving your dragon the dragon toy reduces fires. The red dragon (Burnie) is the worst about fires, so be sure to pay attention to your dragon egg often so you'll get a gold or purple one.

Red - Burnie - Less than 6 interactions with egg

Gold - Pyritie- 6-14 interactions

Purple - Torch- 14+ interactions

They eat trash, toads, toadstools, dragon treats, but mainly yellow Daffodils. (You'll have to replace them.)

The pet door will confine dragons.

Various Notes:

Objects that generate guests are:

Birthday Cake, Party Balloons, and the Thanksgiving Turkey. Also don't forget teleporters, and calling to ‘Throw a party’.

Things you can make at home and sell are:

·Paintings $166 (With Forger's Easel $2,250)

·Butter $166

·Golden Thread $166

·Nectar - One yield gives 5 bottles - $100 each

·Garden Gnome $100

·Gargoyle $100

·Beeswax $60

·Honey $60 (From every 3 beeswax harvests you'll get honey)

·Preserves $60

·Carrots must be replanted after harvest. One yield gives 10. $70 for all

·Lettuce must be replanted after harvest. One yield gives 9. $54 for all

·Green beans - One yield gives 5. $20 for all

·Tomatoes - One yield gives 5. $20 for all

·Grapes & Elderberries can be harvested twice a day. One yield gives 6. $66 for all

·Roses can be harvested twice a day. - One yield gives 1. $50 each.

·Tulips must be replanted after harvest. One yield gives 2 $35 each.

·Urns or tombstones $3-5 (Not a good living)

Note: Prices are according to sims with maxed skills. Skills affect the selling price!

Your sim has to go to Old Town to sell crops and flowers. The rest can be sold directly from the maker object instead of adding to inventory.

Spells: (For the Wand Charger)

Toadification:

1 butter, 1 toadstools, 1 toadsweat

Relationship Boost:

2 honeys, 1 pixie dust

Enchant:

1 butter, 1 toadstools, 1 pixie dust

Get Happy:

1 honey, 1 grapes, 1 pixie dust

Smiley Face:

1 honey, 1 garlic, 1 toadsweat

Banish:

1 butter, 1 snake venom, 1 garlic

Lovestruck:

1 honey, 1 dragon tears, 1 pixie dust

Hypnotize:

1 butter, 1 toadsweat, 1 clown confetti

The Big ?:

1 honey, 1 clown confetti, 1 wizard eyelashes

A Friend Indeed:

1 butter, 1 pet treat, 1 clown confetti

Charms: (For the Charm Maker)

Beauty or Beast: 3 beeswax

Dish Wish: 2 golden threads, 1 llama spit

Horn Of Plenty: 1 golden thread, 2 magic beans

Rain Of Riches: 1 beeswax, 1 rubber chicken, 1 diamond dust

Shed your skin: 2 beeswax, 1 sands of time

Polar Attraction: 1 beeswax, 1 dragon scales, 1 llama spit

Clone Drone: 1 beeswax, 1 sands of time, 1 Pegasus feather

Perfect Garden: 1 golden thread, 1 magic bean, 1 four leaf clover

Magic Mood: 1 beeswax, 1 magic bean, 1 glacial glass

Of House and Home: 1 golden thread, 1 glacial glass, 1 Pegasus feather

Price of Fame: 1 beeswax, 1 diamond dust, 1 black rose

Children Spells: (All for the Children's Magical Newt)

Age Of Instant:1 toadstool, 2 dragon tears

Beauty or Beast Jr.: 3 toadstools

Get Happy Jr.:

1 toadstool, 1 dragon scales, 1 faerie dust

Enchant: 2 faerie dust, 1 dragon tears

No More Puddles: 2 toadstools, 1 dragon tears

Make Cakes: 2 toadstools, 1 faerie dust

Smiley Face Jr.: 2 dragon tears, 1 faerie dust

Invisible Friend: 2 faerie dust, 1 toadstool

Clone Drone Jr.: 1 toadstool, 2 dragon scales

How to win the magic duels:

Blue Tornado beats: Black Blizzard & Yellow Brimstone

Black Blizzard beats: White Lightning & Yellow Brimstone

White Lightning beats: Blue Tornado & Red Wave

Red Wave beats: Blue Tornado & Black Blizzard

Yellow Brimstone beats: White Lightning & Red Wave

Gardening:

Lettuce, Carrots, and C&C Tulips have to be replanted after harvesting.

You'll need to place a Bogo Cart, a C&C seeds stand (Blue), a C&C Berry Display (White), and C&C Flower Stand on one of your Shopping Lots. (Some NPCs are generated by the objects they are attached to, like store clerks are attached to the registers.) The Bogo guy and the Florist lady are in love, so you may want to place them close to each other so they don't run off. I have had to delete one of them during play to be able to buy from the other because they ignored my sims and just kissed all the time. They will be there again when you return to the lot. You can get the gardening plots in the Build mode plants section. The C&C Flowers will go into the vases you'll find in the Buy mode Plants section. The flowers can also be sold back to the Florist or given as gifts. I have found nothing to stop the bunnies and gophers. The only thing I can do is delete them using the move_objects on cheat. You can get seeds from the seeds display in Old Town for the Unleashed garden plots. You can get grape and elderberry sprigs in Magic Town from the berry display stand. You can get tulip bulbs and rose sprigs from the C&C florist stand. I usually make a mini-mart in Magic Town with all the gardening supplies. That way the sim can get everything they need without having the entire family accompany them to Old Town. You sell your yields back to the cart vendors by clicking on the vendor carts. The veggie cart dude buys crops, and the C&C florist lady buys flowers.

Tomatoes, green beans, and lettuce are only good for selling. Carrots can be used for baking carrot cake with the MM baker's oven. Elderberries and grapes can be made into nectar using the MM press. Flowers can be sold, given as gifts, or placed in the vase for a pretty display and better room score. You can get grape or elderberry sprigs at a time using the home shopper computer. You can get one of each seed, sprig, or flower bulbs from the C&C seeds display, berry stand, and carts. Organic fertilizer used on cops can produce giant crops that sell for $310. Sell by clicking on the farmer cart dude. Anything grown from sprigs may need to be watered twice a day.

Baking:

Freshly Baked Bread: 3 baking mixes

Homemade Cake: 1 butter, 1 sugar, 1 baking mix

Carrot Cake: 1 butter, 1 baking mix, 1 carrot

Elderberry Pie: 1 sugar, 1 elderberry, 1 baking mix

Magic Tart: 1 pixie dust, 1 butter, 1 baking mix

The Press:

Grape Nectar: 2 grapes, 1 sugar

Elderberry Nectar: 1 sugar, 2 elderberries

Honey Nectar: 1 honey, 1 grape, 1 sugar

Magic Potion: 2 grapes, 1 toadsweat

Magic Crystals, SunPowered Flowers, Roots of the Problem, and Beanstalks will grow on your lot depending on how often you cast spells. On regular lots, after you cast 15 spells, you will get a magical growth. On Magic Town Residential Lots, you need to cast only 10 spells to get a magical growth.

DO NOT move your mailbox when you move to Magic Town! You won't be able to get visitors, mail, or newspapers

Magic Food:

Magic nectar:

the press- add toad sweat, toad grapes and grapes

Magic tart:

the oven- add pixie dust, butter, baking mix

Genie Bottle:

Earth- New plants or plants watered

Air- Dozen Pink Flamingoes

Fire- Max Comfort and Social

Water- Fountain

Friends- Brings random new friend

Family- + Relationship points

Money- Pot of gold

Love- Brings random love

Work- + Skills

Leisure- Electronic item

Crystal colors and abilities:

Red: Hot Foot

Black: Extinguish

White: Levitate

Blue: Shock

Green: Spook

Purple: Teleport

Yellow: Magic Trick

A child with a Magic Wand can use the yellow, purple, and red crystal.

Magazines

The Avarix - Money, Politics, Technology

Livin' Large - 60's, Music, Parties

MaxSimum - Exercise, Outdoors, Travel

Victor's Digest - Food, Sports, Weather

WhooNoo - Hollywood, Romance, Style

Game trouble:

The only trouble I've had with the Sims is it will all-the-sudden quit and you're dumped back to the Windows desktop. This happens because of memory, after playing for a while in different houses, or because there is a downloaded object the game doesn't like. If the game crashes after clicking on a specific object or downloaded lot, you may need to remove the .iff file from the game. (Houses and objects are stored as .iff files.) If my game crashes once, I'll start it again and do the same thing. If it crashed a second time at the same point I'll go and remove the object or lot that caused the crash. You'll know it's an object if the game consistently crashes when you click on a lot or specific object. You will need to replace a house.iff file if you move a bad one out. I always back up the house files before installing lots. Be sure to save often. Also don't forget that if something terrible happens, just go out to the neighborhood and don't save. When you go back into the lot it will have moved back in time to your last save.