Developer Tools

This is a sub-page of The Sims (Windows).

28 cheats-based commands can be natively accessed in The Sims, though the number might slightly differ, depending on the expansion packs installed. A fair extra amount can also be detected within the binary data, unveiling an interesting set of developer tools, majoritarily for debugging purposes¹, and as to compensate for developing stages when their commands yet did not have UI equivalents.

Among the commands listed below, the ones that the final releases of The Sims have them working, yet capped, are highlighted in Red. The codes in Green, however, should work in all versions (except if otherwise noted).

Commands List#

To all Simmers: Within the game, type Ctrl-⇧ Shift-C. A little text widget will appear, into which you may type a cheat²... but you already knew that... right?

help#

Triggers a pop-up window in which players can choose from all the existing cheat codes in the build they are playing. Most of the cheat codes have accompanying developer commentary that explains their function; some explanations are more vague and cryptic than others.

tile_info#

tile_info, the "secret" window with in-depth information about the tile the mouse pointer hovers is also called if Ctrl, ⇧ Shift and Alt are pressed when in lots. Tells you the tile's coordinates, which footstep sounds will be played when Sims walk onto it, the internal name of home items, and many other details.

memview#

memview and sweep might've helped the team to ensure that the game's memory consumption remained solid and smooth after a newly-implemented feature. The lowest portion of the real-time generated graph onward is the direct effect of flush, though it doesn't seem to improve the game's performance on newer systems.

sweep#

sweep: The second half of the real-time graph displays the performance of the game as it is played in the background, commonly in lesser priority, therefore slower.

log_animations#

The Sims is a silent animation orchestra — a single interaction tends to use multiple. log_animations registers which .cmx files the Sims play (as well as the short moments when they play none), and in time.

sound_log#

sound_log plays a similar role as the previous cheat, except it focus on the SFX events, from the Simlish to the tiniest white noise the world runs.

water_tool#

Early in basegame, water tiles (free of any interaction potential) were only seen in the corner of lots that, in the context of the Neighborhood Menu, were set close to its running river. water_tool allows the player to draw customized ponds anywhere, with no financial hits, as intuitively as placing floor tiles. Ultimately became an official feature in later expansion pack-based builds.

lot_size#

lot_size sets the (x)² amount of tiles in the world. x > 3 < 65. Yet, 2 rows typically stay out of bounds, with the assumption that Pedestrial Portals (NPC spawners) will be put there.

offset_world#

offset_world "moves everything in world by specified x & y tile offsets". Once out of bounds, the progress done to that specific portion of the lot will be lost, if an attempt do undo the cheat is made.

draw_routes#

draw_routes draws colored dots that describe the active character's trajectory, once it starts. It is of note that the game's pathfinding algorithms cause Sims to prioritize floor paths over terrain when walking.

map_edit#

Remember that RollerCoaster Tycoon land-rights-buying mode, which indicates you the where on the world you may build things? map_edit plays in a very similar vein. Highlighted tiles not only signal the lot's editing boundaries, but what parts of the lot will not be shown the next time the lot's thumbnails are generated. While the assortment of editable tiles is manual, edit_size automatically draws a pattern of custom size.

genable#

Since we're bringing up RCT analogies, remember, also, that you could natively disable the world's graphics (including the customers) ad hoc? genable is the same kind of deal, albeit entirely through codes. Stops/resumes the rendering of 3D people, terrain, object and home structures and lets you choose whether or not frames should be cleared once processed, specially when there is nothing to overwrite them.

all_menus#

all_menus unlocks all the possible pie-menu commands for given interactions — among these, the ones with SimAntics tree tables assigned as Debug Only. A similar cheat code exists in The Sims 2; in a way, it serves as a testament to the belief that the sequel used the first game as basis.

*Mood window#

all_menus provides an alternate method of analysing someone else's motive data, including that of *Mood — in early pre-release builds, had a control panel display of its own, alongside its fellow Needs...

*Baby Stats#

...also, *Baby Stats! When will my baby become a child? How long will it take until it yells out of hunger? The strings above got the answers.

porntipsguzzardo,xyzzy and plugh#

Indirect references to other games: xyzzy and plugh tribute Colossal Cave Adventure (1976), known as the first text-based RPG. In the game, these two samples of nonsensical words are magic teleport commands — Nothing happens here. as one of the possible negative outcome strings, also justifying why the Sims player gets these exact words in response to inputting these cheats.

Xyzzy and plugh ultimately were inspirations for multiple contexts throughout the early computing history, used as secret commands for software of different kinds; among notable examples, Minesweeper: Typing in xyzzy unlocks the game's debug commands. The term also does a timid "cameo" within scripts of the Unreal Engine.

On the other hand, porntipsguzzardo is also the all-time-favorite SimCity 2000 money-getting cheat code; except that, on The Sims, the players get a playful line in return, reminding that they would not get the same benefits from the command as that of SimCity 2000. Unfortunately, the latter cheat is present, however capped by default, on release builds;

crash#

The Sims contains an instance that simulates a system crashing scenario. Positively responding its subsequent pop-up window causes the game to stop working. Then... you can agree that it works.

#export, #import#

While the routine of exporting Tuning.txt files (based on huge lists of what effects every object, event, and social interaction can have on Sims and the surrounding environment) has its native boundaries, #importing existing ones is entirely struggle-free. Sadly, the game has none. It has been observed, however, that console versions sport a similar file, compatible to the original Sims.

prepare_lot#

prepare_lot "checks for required objects on the current lot.". That being said, if the mailbox, carpool spawner etc. are somehow missing, it will let you know through pop-up dialogs. If everything seems O.K., the cheat instead reboots the Sims' actions and overall state of the lot, as though a game has been just started from the scratch.

debug_social#

With debug_social, users are given the ability to pre-set the possible outcomes of certain Sim-to-Sim interactions. This picture lists the 2 possible consequences of the Give Gift social interaction..

Noteworthy Cases#

.]] Good things come to those who wait, so they say. Aside from predictable UI commands as save, quit, rotation etc., the cheats below, initially as debugging commands, sooner or later became official features in the game.

• Once noted that disabling certain accessory graphics could be beneficial to performance in low-end PCs, aa (anti-alias), shadows, lamps (lighting) and people_quality (character detail) turned user-friendly Control Panel buttons... until later expansion pack-based patches summarily made the former two controls inaccessible again, anyway.
• cam_mode (Camera Mode) came to The Sims before its corresponding pre-Alpha build had a Control Panel area to accommodate it. Most notably, one of its snapshotting devices worked as a medium to livestream the game through screenshots at the old SimCity website (more info. here). It did not take too long before its tremendous storytelling potential became apparent.
• water_tool draws unique water tiles that can be made into artificial ponds of many sizes, while edit_grass is a mighty grass paintbrush. Both cheats don't heavily impact gameplay, but somehow enhance the lot's look. Probably noticing that fans found them very amusing to experiment with, the developers eventually added the tools as Build Mode items in future expansion packs... also meaning that the players would need to waste Simoleons to use them.
• Allowing the players to check their Sims' interests became a much greater deal than the usual from the Hot Date expansion pack onward, when the social interaction systems were entirely rebuilt, and Sims could be interested in (and learn) a new set of talk topics. That being said, it deserved an extra room in the Control Panel.

All good things come to an end, they also say. The codes listed below, albeit as working cheats in the first original build, had a shorter useful life than their fellow magic words.

• set_hour was a time machine in itself, allowing players to jump straight to the X hour of the current day's past or future — pretty convenient to avoid the endeavor of waiting for the next carpool to arrive, for example. However it was entirely disabled from the base game's 1.1 patch onward.
• klapaucius was the original command to add §1,000 to the current household's funds, and perhaps the lesser known one. The 1.1 update onward turned it off in the name of rosebud, whose effect is pretty much the same.
• The preview_anims cheat series lists the whole set of animation strings pertinent to their respective objects (once clicked on in Live Mode), and allows the currently-active Sim to run the animations in time, no matter how far from the object the Sim is. The addition of later expansion packs refrains the cheat from normal, unhacked use.
• w allows users to change the subtitle string that goes printed at SimWebCam snapshots: a developer tool that is removed entirely from the Hot Date expansion pack onward. Furthermore, so is the cheat code.

References#