I designed a period-accurate mock-up of The Sims (2000) as it looked like on April 1998 (roughly two years prior to The Sims' launch date), while the game was not done yet. This visualization was created by compositing authentic prototype assets, for documentation purposes.
Back on, um, August 28, 1999, at 10:47 PM EDT, The Sims 1 (2000) was still a work in progress. To build hype, I guess, the developers used the following dev-to-fan marketing act: they released TGA and bitmap images of various in-game foods—plus a southwest-facing microwave render, for some reason—for the fans' viewing pleasure and awareness of what's to come.
To add something extra contexty, please have a look at the transcript of Sean Baity's public e-mail announcing the graphics pack. It'll make you laugh
Date: Aug 28 1999 22:47:58 EDT
From: "Baity, Sean" <SBaity@maxis.com>
Subject: \/\/\/\..-... MAXIS NEWS FLASH!.......New Graphics Pak avai lable.. ..-..-../\/\/\/\/\
Sims Fans Discover New Graphics Pak
Luc's Server, Internet Territory (SCNS) - Three Sims fans hunting for the
mystical real release date of The Sims in a remote corner the internet have
found the remains of what appears to be Sims' dinners, scientists and local
leaders say.
Internetologists and elders from the territory where the zip file was found
announced the discovery Wednesday on SimWatch@listbot.com
<mailto:SimWatch@listbot.com> . But scientists hesitated to say how old they
thought the zip file was.
``It's so hard to pin down. I don't want to speculate,'' said Sean Baity, an
assistant producer with MAXIS.
``The elders have indicated that we should use this situation, what appears
to be several hi resolution shots of food and cooking equipment and refuse,
to learn more about this game, what it might look like, and how the food is
made and eaten''.
The zip file had been sitting there next to other older zip files, so it
felt kind of new.
Then they spotted another file in the directory that appeared to be a zip
file containing yet another avi.
``Well, the avi we were sort of expecting...they show up pretty regularly,''
he said.
While they could see the zip file, he said, they didn't see the images until
it was downloaded and extracted.
"What the heck....they are only about 2 MEGS each.", said one of the
grizzled fans.
http://www.simcity.com/thesims/luc/Whatscooking.zip
<http://www.simcity.com/thesims/luc/Whatscooking.zip>
http://www.simcity.com/thesims/luc/webcam8.18.99.zip
<http://www.simcity.com/thesims/luc/webcam8.18.99.zip>
sean baity
assistant producer
sbaity@maxis.com <mailto:sbaity@ea.com>
The Sims
Taken a few months before the expansion pack project was finished. Hence its vaguely "off" look.
Of all the existing development-oriented data surrounding the expansion pack discourse, those off HD interest me the most because many of its intended objects ended up repurposed for Maxis' parallel project The Sims Online (2002). In fact, even if you look at the Sims logo printed on the Downtown map screen, it bears much more resemblance to TSO's logo than Sims 1's, which never made much sense to me.
Aside from these details, the map only looks mildly discrepant when compared to its final design (even if you do not take into account the lot thumbnails obv) but that's something that only superfans will tell I think!!
My The Sims 1 (2000) data mining session has one extra goody: this is how the interest icon sprites looked like exactly 365 days prior to the game being finished. Somewhat stylistically consistent to the final designs, but also unveiling 3 extra set of interests that did not make the final cut: Babies, Beauty and Spooky Stuff. Guess the folks @ EA did not quite like the marijuana icon and wanted it gone. But I totally would not mind about the existence of a smoking mod =)
Here's a simple timeline of the known design changes to The Sims 1's Neighborhood Screen (1998-2000) across random gaming mag and prototype asset sources.
Sources:
img 1: The Sims Steering Committee Demo
img 2: Gamestar May 99 The Sims Preview
img 3: LEVEL Issue 07/99 - The Sims Preview
img 4: Gamestar Jan 00 The Sims Preview
img 5: The Sims manual
Once upon a time, the Sims called a specific "number 2" animated loop when using the toilet, and I am kind of glad they were not carried over. These animations are internally labeled tolet1-sittinggo. They were last modified (and, possibly, used) on 31 August 1999, ≅ 5 months before the game was finally shipped. I used a little program called SimShow to find and preview these animations.
I came across this unreleased bed while exploring the object directories off the game's January 1999 "Brain UI"/"Sims talk about marijuana"/"SimEstates" prototype; even old demos have their share of unused objects, it seems.
It's an unnamed and unfinished-looking double bed last modified July 30, 1998. File name is: BedDubX.
Some facts:
Slowly but surely, for the reading pleasure involved, I'm transforming the comprehesive object database off the available and known prototypes of the game into a readable article for people to see the different design iterations most of the objects in the game went thru. Nice pieces of knowledge for random elevator talks!
Some of my fav The Sims (2000) animations that I captured for a few TCRF articles in the past!
As an enthusiast of lost media, I've always found it cool that the team at Maxis briefly included a football object in the game's Buy Mode during development. In the final release, however, all that remains is a collection of animations depicting both child and adult Sims kicking the ball (or, more realistically, the void).
Makes me wonder the original behavior/motive increase/catalog information of the ball, and most importantly, why the heck it was ultimately removed!!
Animations listed as GIFs above (In order):
c2o-ball-kick-hard.cmx
c2o-ball-kick-lightly.cmx
animations' last modified date: 13 September 1999 16ː19
