The Sims (Windows)

The Sims
Also known as: SimPeople (JP) Developer: Maxis Publisher: Electronic Arts Platform: Windows Released in US: Feburary 4, 2000 Released in EU: March 30, 2000 This game has unused animations. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has a prerelease article

The Sims is nothing but the Game of Life, and somehow managed to become one of the best selling PC games of all time.

To do: There's a load of images from Shared/Sys/ (within the .far in the UIGraphics folder) which they all appear to be for a debug menu(?) of some sorts, can someone upload them please?

Sub-Pages

Unused Animations See Sims move as you've never seen them move before!

Unused Sounds It's all just a bunch of Simlish!

Unused Graphics

To do: Rip the rest of the images, there's still more... AND, for the objects, don't forget to capture all their 4 different positions

Unused Object Sprites

Found in Objects.FAR. Although they can no longer be seen as part of the original objects they were initially meant to be a sprite of, the sole presence of the sprites suggest plenty of scrapped behaviors and some primitive aesthetics from earlier versions of the game.

Sprite	Found In...	Notes
	NPCController.IFF/phonecall.IFF	An older design of the dollhouse object. This graphic can be found in various controller objects (which not only do not draw a sprite resource in the final game but also are usually placed out of world). The shading style is different and slightly more dramatic and the roof of the dollhouse is a dark red color as well as being more pointy and gothic.
	CarPortal.IFF	The car controller object (which determines where in the lots the vehicles will be placed once it is the right time for them to appear), in spite of being invisible, contains a graphic of an unusually small and rudimentary dining table. In the final (base) game, the smallest used tables do occupy 4 floor tiles, as this one only does fill 1. It was only once seen during gameplay — more precisely, in a pre-release screenshot.
	PedPortal.IFF	Unused end table sprite, specifically designed to be of the same style the also-unused coffee table has. While the object itself no longer can be found within the game's object database, its sprites are still found in PedPortal.IFF, invisible objects responsible for the occasional summoning of random neighbor and worker NPCs to a Sim's lot.
	PhoneLine.IFF	PhoneLine.IFF, the object that no phone can ring without, contains sprites of a very rudimentary nightstand, only seen in game 1998's builds.
	Shutters.IFF	In the base game, none of the available window objects contain shutters that could fit this type of layout, then the idea of using it was most likely quickly discarded.
	trashpile.IFF	In an pre-release image, it is possible to spot a green gift box, similar from the one given between Sims via the Give Gift social interaction, placed on the floor. That, and whole set of gift stomping animations and voice samples stored within the game's database, suggest that Sims' relationship and mood algorithms were once meant to cause a negative response to the mentioned gifting interaction which, until proven contrary, is impossible to happen; the final product of it would, then, be this gift box sprite placed on the floor, ready to be taken to the trash bin.
	Cursors.IFF	Segmented as a tile cursor, it was originally intended to be used in the situations it is impossible to place an object onto a tile.

Unused Icon Sprites

Naturally, stored within Sprites.IFF as .BIN files, unveil a fair deal of subjects and feelings that didn't see the light of the final version's day.

Sprite	SPR#	Name	Notes
	213	miconEnvironment	Meant to be called when one Sim's Room mood levels are dangerously low, for they call for the player's attention whenever their mood bars need to be taken care of but, for some reason, it is never used, even when their Room bar is 100% red.
	436	Babies2	Babies is one of the 3 unused conversation interests. It was allegedly meant to be a child-exclusive interest as its placement in Sprites.IFF is next to the other subjects that only child Sims talk about (Toys, Aliens, Pets and School) and there is a large amount of talk audio samples from the kids that, unlike what happens to adult Sims, are simply ignored only to have 3 repeatedly played lines for all the spoken subjects.
	437	Babies3
	438	Babies4
	439	Babies5
	440	Beauty1	Beauty; unused interest. It was allegedly meant to be a child-exclusive interest as its placement in Sprites.IFF is next to the other subjects that only child Sims talk about (Toys, Aliens, Pets and School) and there is a large amount of talk audio samples from the kids that, unlike what happens to adult Sims, are simply ignored only to have 3 repeatedly played lines for all the spoken subjects.
	441	Beauty2
	442	Beauty3
	443	Beauty4
	444	Beauty5
	445	Spooky1	Spooky Stuff; unused interest. It was allegedly meant to be a child-exclusive interest as its placement in Sprites.IFF is next to the other subjects that only child Sims talk about (Toys, Aliens, Pets and School) and there is a large amount of talk audio samples from the kids that, unlike what happens to adult Sims, are simply ignored only to have 3 repeatedly played lines for all the spoken subjects.
	446	Spooky2
	447	Spooky3
	448	Spooky4
	449	Spooky5
	601	Hug	It is possible that, at some point during development, Sims would call different specific speech balloon icons for every social interaction.
	602	Gift
	603	Back Rub
	604	Cheer Up
	605	Entertain
	606	Tickle
	607	Brag
	608	Slap
	609	Scare
	610	Tease
	611	Attack
	619	Pizza	Old screenshots from the game indicate that this icon was once used as a Sim called for pizza. In the final version, a generated thumbnail of the pizza delivering man NPC's face is used instead.
	624	Can't find room	Placeholder icons as older indicators of something blocking one Sim's way.
	625	Can't sit down
	626	Can't Stand Up
	627	Destination occupied
	628	Dest chair occupied
	629	Wall in the way
	629	Alts dont match
	500	hdlineHate	This one went unused as Sims do not call a specific icon that symbolizes enmity.
	501	hdlineStress	In the final game, icons are not normally used to represent emotional/psychological conditions except when it comes to the mood alerts in the thought balloons.
	502	hdlineSurprise
	503	hdlineIdea	Potentially meant to be used when a Sim improves one skill.
	504	hdlineLove	Usage concept is self-explanatory. Do not to mistake with the used Love (as a relationship status) icons, represented by single hearts.
	505	hdlineDrunk	Interestingly, it is impossible to make (base game's) final version Sims to get drunk.
	506	hdlineHurt	If we do not consider the Attack social interaction, the only time the Sims can experience light, non-lethal physical hurting is when a non-experienced Sim prepares a meal as they at times cut their fingers.
	507	hdlineSmell	Naturally meant to be used on Sims with embarrassingly low Hygiene levels. Do not mistake the one with the flies sprites, commonly associated with dirty dishes/ambients.

Unused UI Graphics

There are some unused graphics in UIGraphics.far, which contains the game's UI images and other content.

An image called Nbhd\DesignCharSkinsBtn.bmp. What's interesting is that this image shows a sim in an outfit not available in the final game. However, It is present and used for the The Sims Steering Committee pre-release build of the game two years before the game officially came out.

Listed under the names Nbhd\DesignFamCancel.bmp and Nbhd\DesignFamDone.bmp. Both of these images seem to be placeholder buttons for the family creation screen. The buttons used in-game are empty, with text rendered over the button graphic.

An image called Nbhd\Marquee.bmp. It is unknown what this could be used for. However, Marquees are also used with signs, so it could have been for the credits sign at one point.

This image, labeled Nbhd\NScreen Loc.bmp, seems to be an early version of the neighborhood screen. The roads are darker, lack sidewalks and street markings, look slimmer, and are placed in different areas. Trees have been moved around as well. This is, however, very similar to the neighborhood screen which is used in non-US locales. This can be seen in the North American release if you set your language to anything other than US-English either by changing the registry or using a program such as EliSims.

This image is simply called Nbhd\SimEstates.bmp It's unknown what this was intended for either.

The icon, oddly glitched and appearing.

This icon, called Nbhd\Smiley.bmp, is most likely a placeholder for the Friend Count icon where the budget is, since the final game has a file with this same name and a smiley face. It's unknown who the person is in the picture, maybe a developer.

Only present in the Deluxe Edition and later expansions and bundles is a setup placeholder under the name Other\setup_placeholder.bmp. The "Gold" subtitle can be assumed to be an early name for the Deluxe Edition. If one checks the credits for The Sims Vacation/On Holiday, The Sims Gold is mentioned.

This unused graphic labeled cpanel\CatalogUnknown.bmp was most likely a placeholder for objects in the buy menu with no icon. Later revisions of the game engine automatically generate the buy thumbnails from the sprite resources when they aren't explicitly defined in the object data. This means most players have never and will never see this in the buy catalog, although it can be seen in later versions of the game if an invention object's thumbnail can not be loaded.

This cpanel\People\UnknownRel.bmp file only gets used if a sim's portrait is missing or can't be loaded in the Relationship panel or in a speech bubble when one sim speaks about another. Some NPCs have this in their stored data, unused. The game will generate a thumbnail if it is missing so most players should not encounter this graphic. This can be seen if a thumbnail can not be generated or if a thumbnail is corrupt on generation which can happen with malformed skin files.

cpanel\People\UnknownThumbnail.bmp's purpose is pretty obvious, but this is never used. In earlier game versions a thumbnail of this size was generated but went unused. Later game revisions stopped generating this thumbnail under most circumstances.

cpanel\Buttons\UnknownFace.bmp is only used if a sim's portrait doesn't exist or can't be loaded. What's interesting that unlike the other 'Unknown' images, this one's a clickable button, which means it's used in Live Mode. Another fact is that there's emotions on the lady's face, neutral, happy, and sad, which corresponds with the sim's mood. In the final release, the plumbob shows the mood of the sim.

cpanel\Build\popuproofpattern.bmp was meant for the pop-up when choosing the roof pattern, much like the one for the roof pitch.

An old check button, which appears to may have been used in a debugging menu and/or the options menu.

A sheet for testing the button effects.

PieBack.png, this was most likely a very early background design for the pie menu.

Unused Cursor

An unused cursor for the Downtown loading screen exists in the game's files which appears more cartoony, and doesn't have shading unlike the final design. What's interesting is that the final cursors for Hot Date and Vacation/On Holiday are already included in the Deluxe Edition even if the player has not installed either expansion pack yet.

Early Taxi Cursor	Final Taxi Cursor

Unused Lot Data

The game can handle 100 lots, House00.iff through House99.iff. However, some lots are not used by the game in any game version. Below is a list of lot numbers (HouseXX.iff) that are unused and have something special about them. If any other unused lot is loaded, the game will simply try to treat it as a residential "Sim Lane" lot. However, the game engine will correctly pull a lot zone from Neighborhood.iff if one is added.

Files for House00 and House11 do exist in the game but are unused. Files for all other unused lot numbers are absent.

#	Info
00	NPOs and Ghosts have this house number. In Hot Date and later, this is the house number assigned to the "Townies". Later EPs use this as the house number for other generated public visitors such as the Vacation Tourists and Makin' Magic Stranges. If one replaces a house with this house, then moves a family into it, none of the Sims will automatically spawn due to no mailbox or *Trash - Outside being present. The layout of the lot also appears to be identical to the one shown in the Gamestar Preview Video of an early version of The Sims.
11	Not much special other than the fact it actually has a street and a different style of crosswalk. The neighborhood screen may have had a different look before it changed to the one we see nowadays. A video tour can be seen here. If you rename House11.iff to one the game can normally load, the game engine will report "missing objects". The lot seems to lack some controller objects, suggesting at one point controller objects had different IDs.
49	The game will try to treat this as a Vacation Forest lot.

Lots 12 through 20 and 31 through 39 are not defined anywhere and load as described above.

Missing Objects! Prompt on House11.iff

Although the game can be forced to load the lots, the game simply generates an entirely blank lot for them since there is no default data available in the game files. This "default" generated lot is simply a 60x60 square with the default green grass. However, the lot generation code does include all "global" objects including the lot controller objects which means they do function correctly, to a point. The vacation lots have a Vacation Director Lana walking around, functioning properly but no payphone objects to get home.

Unused NPCs and NPC Features

Some Base Game NPCs are named in a format such as job_fafitmed suggesting that multiple firefighters, maids and mail carriers were planned to be generated live. Hot Date does feature multiple variants of cashiers and restaurant staff which will spawn if the same objects are used more than once on the same lot.

NPCs

• 

  Bones (Anim test) in game.
  Bones *Anim Test, An animation test sim which was left in by mistake, probably. This sim causes the game to hang if you try to load it onto a lot, as the skeleton referenced by the body strings ("biped") does not exist. If you change it to "adult", the sim loads with a missing body graphic, before walking off the lot.
• Party Clown - Not the Tragic Clown from Livin' Large or the Entertainer Clown from House Party. This NPC appears to have been conceived as an entertainer for a children's party. Some ideas were probably rolled into the other Clown NPCs, though. This sim will crash the game to desktop if you try to load it on a lot. No debug mode error is shown by the SimAntics engine.

Unused Game Engine Features

The SimAntics engines which handles the object's code has some features which are not referred to by any Maxis objects as of the final game edition. Most things have straightforward names and most even function properly.

Primitive	Argument	Intended Function	Actually Works?
Global From Simulation...	Time Of Day	Check the time of day on the loaded lot.	Returns a string for the time of day, but is unused in favor of arguments which get the minute and second separately.
Global From Simulation...	Year	Keeps track of how many in game years have gone by.	Begins at 1997 (or on some lots 1996?) but will advance if you play a lot for 365 days. It's worth noting that prerelease screenshots show the current date in the game's interface, so this is likely a remnant of that idea.
Global From Simulation...	Last GZ Button ID	Checks for a macro button or hotkey.	Untested. Possibly rolled over from the Edith object creation environment.
Global From Simulation...	Budget Mod 10000	Adjust the budget by 10,000 simoleons.	Believed to refer to a developer mod budget cheat which was dummied out in 1.0 and removed almost entirely from 1.1 and up.
Global From Simulation...	Budget Div 10000	Divide the budget by 10,000 simoleons.	Believed to refer to a developer div budget cheat which was dummied out in 1.0 and removed almost entirely from 1.1 and up.
Global From Simulation...	Speed	Checks the current game speed	Works, but no object uses this. Note that some object do use the argument which checks to see if the game is paused.
Global From Simulation...	Held Sim Speed	Possibly refers to walking speed(?)	Untested since no one is sure what it is supposed to do, nor can an example be found.
Global From Simulation...	Lot Size	Check the current lot size	Works, but it checks the LOT size not the build able area defined in the lot's map data.
Global From Simulation...	Debug Flags	Checks for debug flags such as --Debug_Houses or --Debug_Sims.	Appears to work at least so far as checking if any flag is set. No object in the final game ever uses this.
Global From Simulation...	Maximum Day Number	Keeps a running tally of the days instead of resetting them when a new month ticks over.	While the game does track days months and years correctly the actual elapsed days does not stop when a new month ticks over (at least as of 1.1) suggesting that a full time system was scrapped early on or intended to be outsourced to a controller object.
Global From Simulation...	Free Will	Checks the adjustable level of free will.	Works, but effectively useless in the final game as most object interaction calculation is done by values set in the TTAB resource which handles free will meaning only in some oddly specific conditions would even version 1.0 of the game engine need this in a BHAV.
Global From Simulation...	Simless Build Mode	Introduced in Hot Date for building downtown.	The game sets this correctly when building on a lot without sims both community lots and for unleashed residential lots with no sims. Some object hackers have made good use of this, but no maxis objects seem to care.
Global From Simulation...	Machine Level	Checks the game's idea of the machine's specs, mostly based off of available RAM.	While this does correctly reflect the game's interpretation of the machine it is not great at handling most of today's machines so it is effectively useless.
Object Attribute...	Object Version	Returns the object version from the object's OBJD (OBJect Definition table)	While the game engine will use this and, when a lot is loaded, will run a tree (specified in the OBJD or OBJf) if the version of the object on the saved lot does not match the version specified in the object's actual OBJD. However Maxis never made use of this and, indeed, they had a great chance when they updated the telephones in House Party and required players to sell and re-buy all their house phones.
Object Attribute...	unused trailer score	The game has several unused scores from when sims had a 'taste' or preference for decorations. In the final game each object handles it's own likability, though the one in ArtGlobals is based mostly on cost.	Unused as a scrapped feature, but some objects actually set this even though nothing checks it.
Object Attribute...	Unused eclectic score	Same as unused trailer score, but presumably a different style. 'eclectic' could really mean anything.	Unused, scrapped feature.
Object Attribute...	Unused classical score	You guessed it, this went with the trailer and eclectic scores.	Scrapped feature as above.
Object Attribute...	Age in months	The object (or sim's) age in days roughly divided by 30.	Nothing ever checks this. Some objects use age in days to simulate wear over time and to break more often, but age in months is never checked by anything.
Object Attribute...	Birth Day	A string that records a sim's birthday. Possibly generated from other values at call.	The game simply does not care if a sim (or object) has been on the lot however long. All sims from Create-A-Sim have the same birthday.
Object Attribute...	Birth Month	Works for sims born in game. Does not reflect a sims's star sign.	Since the game really only measures time of day this is unused.
Object Attribute...	Birth Year	A sim's birth year. Matches the lot's year for sims born in game but all Create-A-Sim sims are born in 1997.	Again, the game hardly checks days let alone months or years (note that the 100 day easter-egg that is rarely seen is less than 1/3rd to a full year!) so this is unused. What's interesting is that some pre-made lots have a default year of 1996 meaning a sim may be alive but born after the current year (effectively -1 years old) and be born after their children. The Sims 3: Into The Future was not the first in the series to include timetravel, it seems.
Object Attribute...	Birth Hour	While I know for a fact I was born at 9PM if I were a sim the game engine would not care.	Perhaps a remnant of scrapped birthdays.
Object Attribute...	Birth Minute	While I know I was born 45 minutes after the hour if I were a sim the game engine would not care.	Possible remnant of scrapped birthdays.
Object Attribute...	Sim Age	While this is used the game engine allows for any number at all but only 27 (for adults) and 9 (for children) are used.	Interestingly checks for age are always greater than or less than 18.
Object Attribute...	Walk Style	OK this is used but is useless after the "Gorilla Walk Fix" patch was rolled into the main game.	Pre-Unleashed active sims would swing their arms while they waked, but it looked too exaggerated for many players and they compared it to a gorilla using its knuckles to drag itself. The patch simply overrides the default active walk with a copy of the normal walk.
Generic Sims Call	get distance to camera in temp 0	Untested. Presumably checks the zoom level or distance to center screen.	There's no meaningful way to an object to use this since the game engine handles all the sprites.
Generic Sims Call	house radio station := temp 0	Assigns the radio station to the value of temp 0. This does work.	This is much more easily done with an expression (since an expression would, in most cases, be required to assign a value to temp 0 anyway) and usually is.
Generic Sims Call	change normal outfit	Changes sims to outfit ID 1 (normal/everyday). Does work, may be a leftover from when outfits were handled differently (most Maxis objects use a global to change the outfit while most players simply use an expression).	While no object uses this it is possible that in Superstar and later the game engine makes use of it, as Superstar introduced enforcing normal clothes on residential lots.
Generic Sims Call	house radio station := temp 0	Assigns the radio station to the value of temp 0. This does work.	This is much more easily done with an expression (since an expression would, in most cases, be required to assign a value to temp 0 anyway) and usually is.

Unused Object Features

Unused OBJD and OBJf Entries

Putting these together because the OBJf is basically an extension of the OBJD. And if we keep putting an extension on the previous extension, the table will be a big circle. Many OBJD entries are unused in favor of the OBJf (and, indeed internal notes discourage using the OBJD in place of the OBJf). If no OBJf is associated with an object, the game will use the OBJD values. Some of the earliest made objects were never updated to have an OBJf. For this reason, the technically-unused-but-exists-as-a-functional-fallback OBJD entries won't be included. Most aren't even interesting.

• version_2 - Never set to anything other than 0. version_1 is always set to 138.
• sale price - This is never used. The game calculates the sale price from the buy price and the initial and daily depreciation values.
• shadow brightness - does not seem to work.
• level info request - this button does not exist in the final game. If it did, objects could react to it.

Scrapped Behaviors

Some objects have strings and leftover scripting that suggest that other things may have been planned.

A note regarding NPCs is that the Repo Man seemed to be a favorite NPC to clone other maxis NPCs from and his strings are often leftover in other NPCs. Amusingly enough this includes the Grim Reaper introduced in Livin' Large.

Base Game

Stoves

All stoves (even ones introduced in later expansions!) contain strings for a help system related to fires. None of these are translated and the notes even indicate that the feature was cut.

Sims can start fires when they use a stove and have a low cooking skill. Warning: Cook Object is going to burn. Do you want to allow this?

Livin' Large

The "Concoctanation Station”

There is a duplicate "I'm not in the mood to work" string. ID 3 is unused while ID 14 is used. While not every language translated the duplicate ID 3 string, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish did and interestingly enough have different translations for ID 3 and the used ID 14 string. All three of those languages were (officially) added int he Unleashed expansion, meaning this translation was possibly retro-fitted.

Unused Finnish ID 3	Used Finnish ID 14
Minua ei nyt huvita tehdä kokeita!	Minua ei nyt huvita!

Madame Blahbatfry Crystal Ball

Contains a string (ID 30) for when the sim is currently working on a crystal ball "riddle". However the object never references this string. It is translated into other languages.

You are already solving a crystal ball riddle.

Translation notes indicate that the sim would receive the riddle then have to check in with the crystal ball the next day after completing the task. However the way the scenario works in the final game the sim is told by the tracker object when they finish a riddle without any sim interaction. If the sim does gaze into the ball again they will be reminded of the riddle.

This dialog appears when the user is in the middle of solving a riddle and gazes into the crystal ball.

Hot Date

Downtown Controller

An alternate line (ID 1) for when your sim does not have enough money to pay for their food. The game explicitly calls the used string at Index 0. While this is translated it is likely just an oversight since the tree that manages the eating controller is hectic enough. It is possible that the used string was intended for the "classy" restaurant and the unused one was intended for for the "diner". Regardless this is unused.

Nobody gets a free lunch. No §§, no grub. Sims need full bank accounts if they want to stuff themselves downtown.

Apparently, at one point all of downtown was supposed to close at 2AM. The controller does not check the time or ever display the following messages in case you're wondering they are translated.

All right people, you know the drill. This town has a strict 2 AM curfew and don't pretend like you don't know. Move it!

OK, OK, let's go people! It's 2 AM. Some people need to get up in the morning. Everyone go home. Now...I mean it.

Don't you people ever sleep? Perhaps you just moved here, so I'll go light this time. Downtown closes at 2 AM. Now let's move, nothing to see down here, go home now.

Restaurant Podiums

Apparently at one point the restaurants were intended to close. The strings are translated but there is no call to them in the podium object or any code which seems to reference the time or any attribute (which could be set by the downtown controller object) to see if the restaurant is closing.

Dear patrons. The restaurant is now closed. Thank you, and good evening.

Dear patrons: the restaurant will be closing soon. Please enjoy the remainder of your evening. Thank you.

Oddities

Intro Video Changes

This intro video plays prior to the start of the base game, all the way up to the Superstar expansion. Some expansions or editions feature slight variations of this video, and upon installing certain expansions, some remove the video entirely. The video notably features items that were never in the final game.

• The "platter" featured in the above image is seen with the final "group meal" image left unseen.
• Three unreleased televisions are shown, one on a wooden TV stand, one junky white TV on a cart, and a flat-screen TV. All of the general designs of these televisions were released in the final game, but in much more polished forms.
• An unreleased computer and office supplies.
• A red and black dining chair, which matches an end table that was released.
• A puddle that has more depth.
• A shabby orange/brown chair.
• A purple car.
• Coffee tables, which were not introduced into the game until the Hot Date expansion.
• The plumbob above a sitting character's head is an off-yellow color and is shaped more like a pointing arrow than a diamond. In the next scene it is red over another character, so it can be assumed that these were used to show mood in this state of the game; this feature is in the final game.

UI Strings

UIText.iff contains many strings which are used and naturally some that aren't (funny how that works, eh?).

• There are no user-directed actions available - The game simply displays no tooltip for this and does not let the user do anything. It does get used in Unleashed for Pets, though.
• Must be at center of tile - Objects snap to the center of the tile or to a slot. While the game can handle objects elsewhere perfectly fine it's strange to imagine the player seeing this.
• Must be in corner, Can't be in corner - No objects use the flags defined for this (5 & 6 in object data - wall placement flags) so it is unused by the game.
• Must be on its own tile on the ground - unused in favor of the more genetic "can not intersect other object".
• Must be on diagonal - Not used by the self-admission of the notes section of the STR# resource.
• User should never see this message! - It's clear why this was unused in the final game.
• Can't effect first level from second level. - Again, unused by admission of the notes.

Additionally, a few unused strings are in EvictModeStrs.

EvictModeStrs

Title	Text	Notes
Community Space	You cannot bulldoze community space.	This suggests that Community lots were originally going to be in the base game but didn't appear until Hot Date, which released over a year after the base game launched.
Sorry	You cannot bulldoze the SimEstates marquee.	In the final game there is no marquee in the neighborhood, and judging by the "SimEstates" and "Marquee" images shown earlier, the marquee may have been where you originally created a family before the feature was changed to simply be an option on the neighborhood screen.
Purchase Pre-Made?	Do you want to buy a pre-made home?	Unknown where this would appear.

Hotkeys

The Hotkeys are defined in UIText.iff resource 161 - presumably so they could be changed by the localization teams easily.

• A for Anti-Alias toggling is is removed in Vacation, after Hot Date always forced it on by default.
• S for Shadows does not seem to work and was likely removed in favor of the shadow detail level setting in the UI.

Unused Registry Entry

There is an unused registry entry called "BetaSite" with a REG_DWORD value of 0x00000001 (1). What it does is unknown and changing the DWORD doesn't appear to do anything visually, so it's completely unknown what it's meant to be for.

Unused cheats/cheat help texts

In the game, 27 cheats can be used (which slightly differ depending on the expansion pack), but there are more implemented and even help texts in the binary, but the help command cannot be used, because the help cheat is not in the list of allowed cheats as well.

Fat cheat names are used in the base game, but the help text is not used.

Cheat name [parameters]	Help text
save_tuning	save out data from tuning.txt to object files
save_careers	save out careers data as binary
bubble_tweak [z offset]	sets the z value used to offset the sims' thought bubbles
report_assets	enables or disables assets report.
quats	enables or disables quaternion transformations.
import [FAM file]	Import and load the given FAM file. Does so without asking.
quit	Quit the sims.
save	Saves the currently loaded house.
flush	Flushes app completely in to VM file. NT only. Useful to see how much memory is required at a given time to run the game (by tracking the app's WorkingSetSize)
sim_limit [mils]	sets maximum number of milliseconds to allow simulator
sim_peek	enables or disables calls to PeekMessage within sim loop
auto_reset	turns on or off the automatic object reset feature (resetting of object simulations when main or init tree changes)
history	writes out the family history of the current family. if file is not specified, the default is used
hist_add	adds a new family history stat to the current family
core_dump	enables or disables automatic creation of web pages
tutorial	tutorial off keeps the tutorial object from being generated when a tutorial house is loaded
shrink_text [font_size] [text]	Products shrunk_text_#.bmp files, shrinking the text using the bmp shrinker
cht [file]	executes file.cht as a list of cheats
water_tool	enables the water tool
fam_test [opcount]	runs series of random operations on unhouses families
memview	shows the memory view window (debug builds only)
tile_info	show or hide the tile info window
log_mask [mask]	sets the event logging mask
log_animations	log animations in the event log window
draw_all_frames	draw all animation frames, without skipping to keep up
edit_char	open Create-A-Character screen, and edit the select person
refresh_faces	refresh the BMP_ resources for all people whose IFF files are writable
assert	force an assert (for testing)
rebuild_cp	rebuilds entire control panel/ucp from scratch
debug_social	turns on the debug flag to show outcome choice dialogs for social interactions
crash	crashes game :)
restore_tut	restores tutorial
sound_good
sound_bad
sev	short for "soundevent"
soundevent	trigger sound event
visitor_control	enable or disable allowing visitors to be controlled using the keyboard
porntipsguzzardo	type "porntipsguzzardo"
plugh	say "plugh"
xyzzy	say "xyzzy"
reload_people	total reload of people skeletons, animations, suits and skins
cam_mode	turns camera mode on or off
[cheat code missing] [path]	sets the neighborhood directory to the path
obj_comp	turns object compression in save file on or off
music	turns music on or off
sound	turns sounds on or off
refresh_textures	rematches dependent textures and regenerates bitmaps for all user characters
#export	write out behavior tuning constants to Tuning.txt
#import	read in behavior tuning constants from Tuning.txt
route_balloons	turn on or off the display of routing debug balloons
[cheat code missing] [text]	sets caption to appear at lower-left of webcam image
set_hour [hour]	sets the hour of the day
sim_speed [speed]	sets the sim speed to given number. 0-1000.
lot_border [tl] [tr] [bl] [br]	sets up the borders of the lot with non-editable flag. requires rotation 0
swap_houses [house#] [house#]	swaps the 2 house files and updates families
prepare_lot	checks for required objects on the current lot and deletes come and see me objects
allow_inuse	sets whether menu items appear for in use objects
dump_mc	dumps to a file the selected person's motive contribution curve
dump_happy	dumps to a file the selected person's most recent list of scored interactions
house [house #]	loads a house, no questions asked
preview_anims	turns on/off animation preview mode
all_menus	turns on/off the showing of unavailable interactions in person control menus
autonomy [level]	set the autonomy level for all people in the house
[cheat code missing]	turn on/off the motive engine for all people in the house
rotation [0/1/2/3]	set absolute world rotation
lot_size [size]	change the lot size
move_objects	turn on or off allowing the user to move any object
edit_grass [increment]	turn on mode for editing grass tiles. increment sets number value by which to change the grass
map_edit	turn on or off the mode to edit locked tiles
grow_grass [amount]	increase the grass level up to the maximum for each tile
sim_log [begin/end]	start and stop the sim logging
write_destlist	appends the route destination list to AllRoutes.txt every time a route is found
write_routes	write out an RTE file every time a route is found
draw_floorable	turn the floorable grid on and off
draw_origins	draw colored dots at each person's origin
draw_routes	draw colored dots on selected person's path
genable [default/status] / ([terrain / floors / walls / clear / objects / people / full_draw / static_rows / static / old_clear / all ] [on/off])
people_quality [low/medium/high]	dialog showing selected char's interests
sweep on/off/all/none/'subsys_name' [show/hide]	dialog showing selected char's interests
edit_size [size]	sets flag layer to allow editing only with a central square, size x size
offset_world [x_amt] [y_amt]	moves everything in world by specified x & y tile offsets
alt_add [amt]	add constant value to entire altitude layer
grid [on/off]	enables/disables terrain grid drawing
money [amt]	sets current funds to amt
shadows [on/off]	enables/disables shadows under objects
lamps [on/off]	enables/disables lamp effects on walls & floors
aa [on/off]	enables/disables sprite antialiasing
help [command]	shows all commands, complete, or partial match

Regional Differences

To do: Expand on this: Icon change for the Life of Crime career in the Chinese version. Drew Carey from the House Party expansion is replaced by somebody else in another version.

Note that even though UK English has a valid language entry and does contain some graphical changes (such as its own title screen, usually identical to the US one), almost all UK strings are blank, meaning the game will pull from the US English strings. The game is programmed so that if a string is missing in a language it will try the language with ID 0, which is American / US English. While this is helpful behavior for other data stored as strings, it means almost all UK English strings simply display the US English strings, as no UK English text was ever written. The game even still uses the Vacation Island text in the On Holiday expansion.

Logos and Start Screens

To do: There appear to be different versions of the setup(?) logos.

To do: Add information/photos on Livin' Large/Livin' it up expansion.

USA/UK	Japan

With the game's transition to the Japanese market, the game's name was changed from The Sims to SimPeople. Why this change was done is unknown, but it might have been done to keep the game in line with the other 'Sim' games. A common theory among fans is that the lack of definite articles in Japanese, and the way families are referred to in normal Japanese culture. This would make the normal title hard to properly translate, as the last name is typically placed on the left of the name. The SimPeople logo matched other Sim games internationally but not the stylized logo of The Sims series until the Unleashed expansion.

The yellow text in the Japanese version's Unleashed logo says, "Pets and Gardening! Data Set", meaning the Japanese version didn't retain the title of the expansion pack either.

USA	UK

Some expansions had different names in different languages. While are most are simply translations or similar expressions, some translations are notable. Vacation is known as On Holiday in the UK. The final expansion, Makin' Magic, has many different titles in different languages, usually translated from the internal name Spellbound, being translated as everything from Hokus Pokus in Germany to Abracadabra in Dutch and Portuguese.

Makin' Magic

USA	UK

The UK Makin' Magic title screen also has the expansion title rendered slightly higher than the North American one, for some reason.