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Proto:The Sims (Windows)/HomeCrafter

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This page details one or more prototype versions of The Sims (Windows).

TS1 homemaster Icon1.png

""Now go have some fun refurbishing that old, neglected home of your's.
Pretty soon you will be able to see your terra cotta tile and chartreuse wallpaper come to life in The Sims!!""

- Description

Throughout 1999, as The Sims was still in development, the game's engineers cemented the first foundations for the game's ever growing participatory culture by consistently releasing (and updating) stand-alone tools that allowed the players to create personalized user-made content prior to when it was possible to actually test them out in game. A wonderful marketing strategy, isn't it?

Because they're based off earlier builds of the game, one could suppose they sport pre-release quirks that the final build has no remnants of. FloorMaster 1.0, the earliest first creativity tool effort (not Link's anthropomorphic hand!) becomes in no time a buffed up Hyper HomeMaster 5000DX Mach3 (July 28, 1999) — adding up support to a providential wallpaper tool — and, the cherry on the cake, a more intricate HomeMaster 4.0 (December 1, 1999).

Download.png Download Hyper HomeMaster 5000DX_Mach3
File: Hyper_HomeMaster_5000DX_Mach3.zip (2 MB) (info)
Current version: 2.0
Download.png Download HomeMaster
File: HomeMaster 4.0.zip (2.4 MB) (info)
Current version: 4.0


(Source: LUCPIX)

Miscellaneous Differences

Splash Screen

HomeMaster HomeCrafter
Jul 1999 Dec 1999 Jan 2000 (Final)
TS1 HOMEMASTERSPLASH1.png TS1 HOMEMASTERSPLASH2.png TS1 HOMEMASTERSPLASH3.png

Control Panel

HomeMaster HomeCrafter
Jul 1999 Dec 1999 Jan 2000 (Final)
TS1 HOMEMASTER1.png TS1 HOMEMASTER2.png TS1 HOMEMASTER3.png

Leftover Dialogs

  • 100 Seen in the latest iteration: HomeCrafter. None of the known versions of the tool see a native access to the executable's existing string tables, rendering all their About windows inaccessible. Here, the program is named as Super FloorCrafter, indicating how old this leftover is.

  • 100 Seen in Hyper HomeMaster 5000DX Mach3. Same as previous, except the attributions line reads 1999, and you'll find the tool facing another name change: Super FloorMaster 4000. Is choosing a definitive name for a standalone utility that difficult?

  • 244 Remnant of a rather vintage setting that allowed fans to share their creations at TheSims.com before the game even saw a first release ("vintage", at least, for The Sims custom content sharing standards!).

  • 242 A glare of a resource for a mesh/texture editing facility — a fancy one, considering that is not quite what HomeCrafter is for.

UI Differences

EXIT.BMP

First (and last) observed as the Exit button icon on a pre-release Neighborhood Menu.

The early EXIT.BMP is consistent to what it used to be in old versions of the game. Later on, however, it gained an extra outline stroke and shading, all in trade of no inner bright.

09-03-99 09-29-99
Early Final
TS1 HM EXIT1.png TS1 HM EXIT2.png TS1 EXIT1 FINAL.PNG TS1 EXIT2 FINAL.png

THUMBTEMPLATE.BMP

One of the countless samples of pre-release media displaying THUMBTEMPLATE.BMP (upper-left corner).

In the same fashion as the "Go Here" interaction queue icon, the Buy/Build Mode catalogue icons were of a tanner hue. Given the final iteration's Last Modified date (and through observation of the whole body of earlier media on the game), it was clearly a last-minute change.

09-03-99 12-13-99
Early Final
TS1 HM OBJECTBKG1.png TS1 HM THUMBTEMPLATE.png TS1 HM OBJECTBKG2.png TS1 Final ThumbTemplate1Frame.png TS1 Final ThumbTemplate.png

Early Resources

Wall Demos

HomeMaster includes four .JPG files with the recommended proportion for the walls that the program can handle. Despite how they likely show consistence to the walls existent in the build of the game that this tool is based off, only GrayExterior is natively present in the final game, save a couple of remnant thumbnails hidden away Wall.iff's supply of .BMP thumbnails.

  • BlueExterior.bmp

  • BrownStone.bmp

  • GrayExterior.bmp

  • GreenStucco.bmp

Floor Demos

None of these made their way to The Sims' final build:

  • Blacktile.bmp

  • Diamondtile.bmp

  • DiamondWood.bmp

  • Green.bmp

  • Hardwood.bmp

Painting Demos

Earlier iterations of HomeMaster contained a very rudimentary tool that generated custom wall paintings, ready to be imported into The Sims UserObjects folder. It did not take too long until the behavior of these objects became somewhat outdated in comparison to the decorative objects added to the game later in development, then it was entirely removed from HomeMaster 4.0 onward. Also, the unappealing low-quality image importation, and how the program limited the user to one frame choice only, led the developers to reprogram the tool entirely as a new The Sims Art Studio, not too long later.

If anything, the tool comes with unique demo JPG mugshots of some of the core members of The Sims' development:


If the HomeMaster-generated paintings are imported to the final game, the characters tend to struggle a little in finding the correct resources in order to execute the interaction smoothly.
File Sample Note
Bobo.jpg TS1 Bobo.jpg Eric Bowman, Graphics Engineer
Don.jpg TS1 Don.jpg Don Hopkins, Engineer
Jamie.jpg TS1 Jamie.jpg Jamie Doornbos, Simulation Engineer
Jeff.jpg TS1 Jeff.jpg Jeff Charvat, Development Director
Patrick.jpg TS1 Patrick.jpg Patrick J. Barrett III, Engineer
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