M4 20 (PlayStation 2)

This is a sub-page of Proto:The Sims 2 (GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox).

Debug ToolsBoolProp testingcheatsenabledtrue: Console Edition Create-A-SimWhen Genetics were more of a priority. TextTEMP here, TEMP everywhere! LotsLots that look completely different.

Build Version#

While this build doesn't show a build version in the bottom left corner on the menu like some other builds, it does still have it hidden inside the ELF. It would look like this:

SKU: 1 [US]
Build Version: A.07.28.1
Sandbox Version: 1.mainline.0.238

General Differences#

• This build has no cheats. Instead it has a Cheat Gnome that spawns in every lot, filled with debugging options.
• Pressing Select + L3 toggles the HUD.
• Depending on whether you saved or not after the initial Create-A-Sim, and whether it's Story or Freeplay mode, you'll get different starting times for each.

• The Main Menu has a different icon layout. The text for starting a new game, or continuing is also changed.

• The credits are aligned differently.

Early	Final

• Loading and saving a game makes the background go blank, and has a placeholder-looking UI design.

Developer Options#

While a lot of the options present and pre-enabled in this build can also be enabled in the final game, there still are a couple that only apply to this build.

use_hsn_main_menu#

Use HSN Main Menu

005AE958 00000001

Enables a very early main menu used for the Hot Summer Nights event, as indicated by the name.

The development menu (enable_development_menu) has a more basic look to it as well with this menu enabled.

enable_two_player#

Used to active two player mode until we have UI to do so. Cannot be changed once a lot has loaded

005AE8F4 00000001

As the previous early menu doesn't have a way to load splitscreen, this option would've been used instead.

enable_display_anim_names#

Used to display the current animations being played. Warning: doesn't work on ps2 currently

005AE8F8 00000001

Despite the cheat subtitle saying it doesn't work on PS2, it does actually work in this build. It, however, does not work in the final release.

enable_display_mem_usage#

Used to display the amount of current free memory, largest free memory block, size of the last save games and the percent of available space used by the save game.

005AE8FC 00000001

While it renders the necessary text over the screen, it doesn't seem to have any actual function. The Save size values can be manipulated by editing the values at offsets 205AEA40 and 205AEA44.

enable_character_diagnotics#

Used to display diagnostic information on the current sim

005AE968 00000001

Displays the Sims current state, coordinates and a bunch of other things.

Gameplay#

EyeToy#

All the strings that refer to it as simply EyeToy were expanded in the final to say EyeToy® USB Camera.

The default settings are all centered in this build, but in the final it defaults to maximum exposure.

Early	Final

It doesn't use 5 different generated icons based on your Sim, instead it has 5 different premade icons for each slot.

Early	Final

The 1st fun frame is present in this build, but this also means you can't take an image without any frame at all, which is likely the reason why it was removed.

Early	Final

All of the filter icons show the 1st fun frame icon, but the actual effects seems to remain unchanged from final, asides from the slight change of order.

Early	Final

And lastly, the Done button has placeholder text instead.

Early	Final

Cinematics#

This game stores all its cinematics inside the MOVIES.ARC container. Most of them are just the EA logo in various different languages, but a few of them are related to the game. All the urbz_ prefixes from the filenames were changed to s2c_ in the final build.

Animations#

The animation for the low Social Need was completely different from the final; Sims talk to themselves with their hands rather than cry like in the other The Sims games. The filename (a_motive_social_low_talktoself_idle_01) can be said true.

Textures#

Textures are stored in the TEXTURES.ARC container.

Logo Changes#

The Sims 2 logo has been slightly changed from this build. Mainly the backdrop shadow being thicker in final, and the glow around the Plumbob being saturated and brighter in final.

Main Menu Related Textures#

There are a couple unused textures related to the Main Menu found in this build.

Filename(s)	Texture	Additional information
hsn_map_mainmenu hsn_map_loading		Background for an early main menu. As the hsn_ prefix would suggest, this would've been shown off during EA's July 2005 Hot Summer Nights press conference.
hsn_map_alien_site hsn_map_cas hsn_map_cliffside hsn_map_hms_amore hsn_map_rockwell_acres hsn_map_shoreline		A bunch of button textures for the previous menu textures were also found in this build.
temp_worldmap_e3		Even earlier version that was most likely planned to be shown at E3, as suggested by its filename. This texture is found in all builds, including the final one.

The Team Photo wasn't changed to the current one yet, signifying it may have been taken between July and August.

Filename	Early texture	Final texture	Additional information
team_picture1 team_picture2 team_picture3 team_picture4			The texture is split into four 256x256 images. They've been combined together into a single 1024x256 image here for ease of viewing.
team_picture			Uncertain if this texture is ever seen in-game, even in the final game. It is 512x256 in M4 20 and 512x512 in final.

Audio#

The music of this game are all stored in AUDIOSTR.ARC and the sound effects are stored in the SAMPLES.ARC container.

Music#

The music for the most part stayed unchanged, but there were a few differences still.

Sound Effects#

Most sound effect filenames are pretty straight forward. am_ for ambient in-game noises, v_ or vox_ for voices in Simlish, etc. This build has a total of 11550 sound effect files, whereas the final build has 9466.

Non-specific SFX#

These tables contain the changed or removed sound effects that don't necessarily belong to a much bigger bundle, or simply not enough differences to warrant a separate sub-section.

Ambient SFX#

30 ambient sound effects found in this build that were entirely cut from later builds. Pretty much all of these belonged to a larger list of similar sound effects, the Additional information tab lists which sound effects with similar names did survive into the final release.

And there's one ambient sound that was noticeably different than the final one. There were about 10 ambient sounds total that had different hashes, but they were either changes to a row in the sound data, or extra data at the beginning and end of the file. But when listening to them, they all sounded pretty much the same in either case.