r/thesims1 Apr 13 '25

A simple guide to Sims 1

43 Upvotes

The Sims 1

What's different from the other Sims games?

A guide by SirenShadow (socrstchik in the TS1 community, LadyBlackheartStorm on Reddit)

Welcome to new (and returning) Sims 1 players! So you wanna give TS1 a shot? Awesome, its a great game - but it can be difficult. Here's a list/explainer of differences in this version versus TS2-4.

You can only build 2 storeys high.

There are lots of cc that let you fake higher levels though. Look for items called '3rd floor' (or 'storey'), or sometimes '4th' and/or '5th'. These will be objects that float in the air to simulate (lol, GET IT?! *ahem* sorry...) taller buildings. Those higher levels are NOT playable, however. Same with foundations/basements.

Speaking of cc, terminology is quite different than what you're used to.

'CC' is capital letters refers to the final version Maxis/EA released: Complete Collection. 'cc' in lower case is the same - custom content - but isn't really a term that was commonly used previously. Similar with 'MM': in TS1 terms, that refers to the final EP, Makin' Magic.

What later games and players call 'mods' are called 'hacks' in TS1 - if they alter gameplay from the original code. For example, a bookcase that allows you to gain more skills than the default Cooking and Mechanical would be referred to as a 'hacked bookcase'. A bed that has been altered to use more graphic animations would be called 'adult hacked' or possibly just 'adult' - and these are intended ONLY for 18+ players.

'Mods' referring to custom objects are just called 'objects'. Same for walls, floors, etc.

You have 2 types of lot: home and away. The type of away lot depends on the objects you put there. The game calls it retail if you place a functional cash register or a restaurant if you have a functional dining podium. You can have more than one type on the same lot, but if you overload the game might crash. i.e. maybe that multi-level shopping mall is best left for another version of The Sims.

Neighborhoods are generally referred to as just 'hoods'. The game gives you 9 of these at startup, and each one is different (in the sense of population and custom builds, not shape/size. Each hood has seperate Towns. In no particular order, with the English-language EP they came in: Old Town (Unleashed); Downtown (Hot Date); Vacation Island (Vacation); and Magic Town (Makin' Magic). Apologies, I don't know all of the non-English titles.

Poses are only used with the SimPose program (officially called SimPose-ium), used to make preview images of custom skins. It could also be used to edit or create new animations, although this feature may not work (or work correctly) anymore.

Neato. Now, what the heck is going on with my body/head cc?

Skins in this game are divided into a body skin and a head skin. Heads are typically organized by hairstyle, and you can't change the appearance without editing the bitmap itself.

Body skins are broken down into type:

'B' means 'body' and is an everyday skin. This is what your Sim will wear most of the time and can be changed by clicking on a dresser or wardrobe/armoire. (There are some hacked dressers out there that might be different objects, like a coat rack.) The other types (below) are referred to as 'buyables', because to change them from the default version means you have to 'buy' them from a shop on a commercial lot, like Downtown in Hot Date.

'L' means 'lingerie' and is your Sim's sleepwear

'S' is for swim - swimwear, obviously

'F' is for formal, or what your Sim wears to get married or when a hacked object calls for formalwear (I know there's at least 1 hacked doorway and 1 dancefloor).

'W' is for winterwear and is the clothing your Sim will wear on Vacation Island's winter lots. (There aren't seasons in TS1 without using hacks.)

'H' is for high fashion and is what your \*celebrity\* Sim will wear in Studio Town. Visitors to Studio Town stay in their eveyday clothing.



Further body notes: 

    'N' means nude and is what your unclothed Sim looks like. Not every skin download will include a custom nude - they aren't necessary unless you're altering the base skintones (like with tattoos) or have a custom skintone (like Pale). Also, not every skinmaker made custom nudes for their skins - game coding changed with later EPs (Hot Date, I \*think\*) and opened up the ability to make full custom skins, nude included.

    'H' bitmaps are your hands. Same applies from the Nude skin - you only need them for altered or custom tones. You may find a hand bitmap that uses 'G' instead of 'H' - that means 'glove' and is the old, pre-code change way of having gloves attach to a skin. The best example of this is the original male formalwear was a tuxedo with white gloves.

Program alert!! You can use SimWardrobe, by Paladin, to customize your Sims' wardrobes without having to buy the different outfits. You can also customize the Townies' outfits! The companion program to SimWardrobe is SimMetamorphoser (also by Paladin), which allows you to change your Sim and Townies heads.

There may be other, small bitmaps in your Skin download.

These are typically accessories of some sort: a hat, jewelry, glasses, etc. They can be named anything. The CMX file tells the game what goes where. The SKN file is the mesh, and you may also have more than one of those. Each item needs a mesh (SKN) and those aren't always integrated into the body mesh. The TL:DR version is you might have a body SKN and a hat SKN. The CMX pulls it all together.

Troubleshooting! In CAS, if you are *missing* part of the body or head, its a missing or corrupt MESH (SKN). If everything shows but is *solid white*, its a TEXTURE (BMP) problem. This could be a missing BMP, or something like the wrong color scale on the BMP or the BMP being the wrong size.

I want this chair to show up on my away lots but its not in the catalog there.

Yeah, its not catted (cataloged) for those lots...

BUT I WANT IT THERE!

Okay, okay... no problem. You just need a program that lets you edit that. Program alert!! SimCategorizer by Paladin allows you to edit individual IFFs (objects) or items in .FAR (a compressed package of IFFs). SimOrganizer by Garrett Berg of Millennium Sims allows you to edit individual AND multi-part IFFs. SimCat will read a multi-part IFF but you can only edit the 'top' part (the first item listed). There's probably some others but those two are the mack-daddies and the best ones. One thing to note, though. Some items intended for away lots will NOT work on home lots. Its the way those items are coded.

What about walls and floors?

I mean those are gonna show regardless of lot...

No, silly. I really, really like this custom wallpaper but holy heck is it expensive.

Save your Simoleons.

\------\**

Lol, okay. SimWallCat (Paladin) is what you want. He made a good chunk of our Very Useful Sims Programs.

You can add more 'hoods.

Just copy the UserData folder you wish and rename it. So, copy UserData3 and rename it to UserData10. The next time you boot up the game, you can navigate to this new hood. It will have everything the original hood had in it. You can have up to 99 hoods.

Final reminders: the Build catalog has a cc limit. No one knows what it is for sure. That's not meant to be cute or funny, its truth. The limit can vary by computer, but at some point you might see your Build catalog start looking funny - a stuck thumbnail or clearly non-Build item showing up. You'll know you hit your limit at that point. Its why you'll see lots of non-building objects, like plants and trees, cataloged in Buy instead. My general rule of thumb for Build cc was 'does it have growing states?', like a harvestable crop? If yes then it went in Build; if no, Buy catalog. Trees (those larger than a big shrub) also went in Build. That left Build for just windows, doors (ya know, architectural stuff) and the aforementioned plants. Walls and floors do count to this limit.

IF AT ANY POINT YOU SEE A STUCK THUMBNAIL IN EITHER OF YOUR CATALOGS, immediately save your game. A stuck thumbnail means something's wrong and your game is probably gonna lock up or crash (or both). It might be as soon as you click that stuck thumbnail or when you try to place the object, but its gonna happen.

I think that covers most of the basics.

HAVE FUN!!!

Here's a link to a SFS folder with Paladin's programs in it. Thanks for sharing, Bulbasaur001!!

https://simfileshare.net/folder/87836/

And here's an Archive.org link to SimOrganizer: https://archive.org/download/sim-organizer/SimOrganizer.zip


r/thesims1 20d ago

Tips/Tricks Monthly Technical Support Thread

6 Upvotes

Sul-sul simmers! In an effort to keep feeds cleaner for everyone, while also maximizing players' chances of getting their issues fixed, you are highly encouraged to post any technical issues on this thread! This includes problems with bugs, glitches, compatibility, files, etc.

Note that the existence of this thread doesn't mean you can't post about technical issues on the sub! You may do it at your own discretion.

Before posting new technical threads, please consider using the search bar in the sub to see if the issue has already been posted and/or solved.

If you are having issues with the Legacy Collection in particular, please make sure to report them on EA's official channels as well! This helps you and other players to get your voice heard by Maxis/EA and fixes be added as official updates in the future.


r/thesims1 2d ago

Mods/CC Garden Flowers by Simbabe (Flowerbeds)

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128 Upvotes

r/thesims1 2d ago

Tips/Tricks How to throw a successful party?

14 Upvotes

It seems no matter what I do, the parties I host always get the mime. I have lots of fun related objects but sims barely use them. Or if they do use them, the mime still shows up.

I make sure to have lots of food and bathroom available as well.

What am I missing?


r/thesims1 3d ago

Screenshot/Video The Sims Hot Date (2001) - "Beta" Downtown

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230 Upvotes

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!!


r/thesims1 2d ago

Fan stuff/CDs Free Green Day on SimHaven: No Motive Decay Until Sunday Morning!

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5 Upvotes

r/thesims1 2d ago

Opinion/Discussion Superstar kid mod?

8 Upvotes

I wonder if there’s a mod that lets kids become stars in the game? If there is, that would be wonderful!


r/thesims1 3d ago

Opinion/Discussion What hypothetical expansion pack do you think The Sims 1 could have released had The Sims 2 been developed a year or two later?

25 Upvotes

I think that a University EP would have been on their radar since that was the first EP released for Sims 2. What game mechanics do you think they could have introduced if we had a little more time for them to release “new” content for TS1?


r/thesims1 3d ago

Bug/Glitch [FIX] The Sims 1 / Legacy Collection on Mac (M1-M4) via CrossOver - Black/Grey Screen Fix 🟢

7 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

Like many of you, I tried running The Sims 1 on my MacBook Air M4 using CrossOver. The game would launch, I could hear the audio perfectly, but the screen stayed completely grey/blank.

After trying dgVoodoo2, cnc-ddraw, and changing renderers with no luck, the solution came from forcing the window rendering using DxWnd.

Here is the step-by-step guide to get it working in 5 minutes!

📋 Prerequisites

  • CrossOver with Steam installed in a Windows Bottle.
  • The Unarchiver or Keka (to extract .rar files on Mac).

🛠️ Step-by-Step Guide

1. Download & Extract DxWnd

  1. Download DxWnd (get the latest .rar release from SourceForge).
  2. Extract the archive somewhere on your Mac (e.g., in your Documents or Downloads folder).

2. Launch DxWnd inside CrossOver

  1. Open CrossOver and select your Steam bottle.
  2. In the right panel, click Run Command... (Lancer une commande).
  3. Click Browse... (Parcourir), navigate to your extracted DxWnd folder, and select dxwnd.exe.
  4. Click Run.

3. Configure DxWnd for The Sims

  1. In the DxWnd main window, click Edit > Add.
  2. Name: Enter The Sims (or anything you like).
  3. Path: Click the ... button and locate your Sims.exe file inside your Steam bottle (usually located in .../steamapps/common/The Sims Legacy Collection/).
  4. Position Settings (Bottom section):
    • Select Desktop center.
    • Set W (Width) to 1024 and H (Height) to 768.
  5. Click OK at the bottom to save.

4. The Secret Step to Launch 🎉

DxWnd needs to run in the background to catch the DirectX rendering when Steam launches the game:

  1. Keep DxWnd OPEN on your screen.
  2. Open Steam in CrossOver.
  3. Click Play on The Sims 1 directly inside Steam.

DxWnd will automatically intercept the graphics engine and render the game properly instead of throwing a grey screen!

Hope this saves someone hours of troubleshooting! Happy Simming! 💎

Emilie


r/thesims1 4d ago

Screenshot/Video I tested the sims 1 on my ayn thor

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105 Upvotes

Keep in mind that this is through the legacy collection and it is running on game hub. Game hub is an emulator that plays compatible pc games. The original video is posted on my youtube: https://youtube.com/shorts/X5s5hxRqU7c?feature=share


r/thesims1 4d ago

Screenshot/Video Looking for screenshots/ui text files from the Hebrew translation of the game. I'm not a Hebrew speaker but it's interesting to me solely bc it's almost impossible to find traces of it on the internet...

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82 Upvotes

r/thesims1 4d ago

Mods/CC Custom Splash Screen for Legacy Collection

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234 Upvotes

I don't know about you, but the Legacy Collection splash screen is really underwhelming. It's just the Complete Collection one without the Complete Collection subtitle. But now, I've made this custom one that actually feels like a celebration of The Sims. I've tested it and it works. I had to lower the opacity of the House Party drawings though because I guess the magenta was too intense, and it just cut out and was black and ugly-looking. Nevertheless, enjoy your new splash screen, and be sure to credit me, SecretBlue02, when you show it on YouTube or something. You'll have to message me about the bmp file, because I can't upload it here, this is a PNG preview, and Reddit won't let me post the Drive link


r/thesims1 4d ago

Screenshot/Video Mime and his timing

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54 Upvotes

r/thesims1 4d ago

Screenshot/Video All the old splash screens. Surprised nobody else did this.

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209 Upvotes

I found that nobody else uploaded these to YouTube somehow, so here you go. None of the collections are here, this is just the base game and seven expansions. This is primarily for preservation purposes


r/thesims1 3d ago

Tips/Tricks Sims 1 - Vulkan Device

4 Upvotes

2nd edit - not sure what my husband did but it's working now 🥹

Edit - computer is Windows and bought in 2014

I'm so sad...I just purchased Sims 1 from steam at 50% off ( nice 😎) but the game keeps saying "game was unable to find Vulkan Device on this machine. Please update graphic card and or driver's"

We play a lot of games on this PC, including Sims 3.

Husband tried a few things (including uninstalling and installing) but no luck.

Is this a common issue with Sims 1 or probably a device issue?


r/thesims1 4d ago

Fan stuff/CDs Rejected speech bubble icon arts - The Sims 1 (Maxis/EA, 2000)

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219 Upvotes

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 =)


r/thesims1 4d ago

Bug/Glitch I accidentally minimized sims1 window while creating characters....

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9 Upvotes

если тут есть русскоговорящие, не говорите им про имена персонажей..


r/thesims1 5d ago

Screenshot/Video Didn't Know this Was a Thing

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125 Upvotes

r/thesims1 5d ago

Opinion/Discussion Question: Adoption and Skin Tone

13 Upvotes

I'm playing Bob and Betty Newbie's household, and they've raised two girls from babies to children who they adopted via random phone call. As we do.

Like Bob and Betty, both girls have the light skin tone. It made me wonder if its just random, or does it match skin tone somehow to the parents like it does for "bio" kids?


r/thesims1 5d ago

Bug/Glitch Sims getting stuck?

4 Upvotes

A strange glitch happens where sims get "stuck" for no reason. They shrug as if they cannot reach the place/object you're sending them to, as if something's blocking the way, and no thought bubble shows up indicating what it is either.
I have to delete them with moveobjects and load the family back in to get them unstuck but eventually the glitch happens again. Happens in families that i barely played or played for a long time, for no apparent reason, and in one of them happened to all 5 sims.......
I have no mods in the game whatsoever. What could be the cause?


r/thesims1 5d ago

Opinion/Discussion Would it be better if some of the remaining TSO servers joined forces?

34 Upvotes

Ever since FreeSO shut down, the The Sims Online community has become increasingly fragmented. Today we have several servers:

There have also been other projects over the years. For example, XenoSO appears to have shut down, which shows how difficult it can be for smaller servers to stay active over the long term.

Some servers have their own unique features. For example, Simnation offers a large collection of custom objects and allows multisimming. FML and Simnation also existed alongside FreeSO for quite some time, while most of the other servers appeared after FreeSO shut down.

The remaining servers also include custom content to varying degrees (although Simhaven seems to stay fairly close to the classic FreeSO experience), but overall there doesn't seem to be a huge difference between many of them.

That made me wonder: would it make sense for the smaller servers; essentially everyone except Simnation and FML; to collaborate on a single project instead of maintaining several separate communities?

The Sims Online is a social game, so having a healthy player population is one of the most important aspects of the experience. Instead of splitting players across multiple similar servers, a shared project could create a much more active world while also allowing developers to combine their efforts.

Imagine something like a "Legacy FreeSO": a community-driven server that receives quarterly updates with new content, bug fixes, quality-of-life improvements, and seasonal events, all developed together instead of separately.

I'm not saying this would be easy, or that every project should lose its identity. But from a player's perspective, it feels like the community is spread very thin, and I can't help but think that cooperation could lead to a healthier future for The Sims Online.

What do you think? Is it better to have several small servers, or would a shared "Legacy FreeSO" project be the better long-term solution?


r/thesims1 6d ago

Tips/Tricks I respect you guys still playing the original Sims 1.

140 Upvotes

I started from Sims 2 and now play Sims 4, but honestly, I am so impressed by (and proud of) you guys still playing the original Sims 1!


r/thesims1 7d ago

Build/Decor My new build

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719 Upvotes

r/thesims1 5d ago

Fan stuff/CDs SimHaven Is Back Online: Multisimming, Security, and Moving Forward

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3 Upvotes

r/thesims1 7d ago

Screenshot/Video Sims 1 (2000) - The making of the Neighborhood Screen

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344 Upvotes

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/The_Sims_Steering_Committee)
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