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

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Miscellaneous Unused Text#

Executable#

Hidden within the base game's binary is leftover text suggesting an abandoned plan to launch a trial version of The Sims. Several other games from the Sim series of its time had demo builds, such as SimCity 3000.

demo

The 30 day expiration of this pre-release has expired.

Apparently, in early builds, the game's legal information did not contain a special character for copyright. Furthermore, it mentions 1999, aligning with the earlier assumption shared by both the community that the game would hit shelves by late 1999.

Maxis is a division of Electronic Arts

The Sims is (c) 1999 by Maxis/Electronic Arts.  All Rights Reserved.

Early Credits Sequence#

The game features strings for an exaggerated staff roll, sticking strictly to the core The Sims team without diving into other tangents. It was likely a placeholder, as the final version highlights all branches involved in the game's development.

UI Strings

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

Context: Neighborhood Menu#

6-12#

These suggest that "Community Spaces" — either as fully playable properties or mere interactive elements in the Neighborhood Menu — were originally going to be in the base game but didn't appear until the Hot Date expansion pack, which released over a year after the base game launched.

Also, the unused textual strings relating to the marquee is a leftover from the January 1999 prototype.

4-5#

There is no house here to bulldoze. is used, instead.

8-11#

In the final game, generic lot-buying strings appear, not identifying them as pre-made.

These strings suggest an unlikely situation in which the player would be unable to interact with Neighborhood Menu buttons while attempting to place a family in an empty house.

Context: Create A Sim#

22-23#

The minor characteristic that makes these unused button label texts different from their final counterparts is that all their letters are capitalized.

Context: Object Placement#

2#

Objects always 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.

3#

Oddly, this error message is on the set of strings related with the Terrain Tool. The objects in the game can not be selected or picked up by players when terraforming

3-4#

No objects use the flags defined for this (4 & 5 in object data - wall placement flags) so it is unused by the game. As stated before, the objects always snap to the center of the tiles in which they can be placed. None of the final objects can be specifically placed in the tiles' corners.

7#

No object meets this condition. Probably refers to older mechanics of adding pond/pool tiles in game.

9#

Error message that foresees objects that could only be placed inside the houses. No object in the base game has this specific placement rule, however - at least not until later expansion packs first featured objects as ceiling lamps.

11#

Unused in favor of the more generic Can't intersect other objects..

13-14#

In fact, the objects in the game are assigned to a given "weight" value that may prevent their placement on certain surfaces depending on how high it is. However, even when users manually modify an object's weight to a value that is unsupported by a surface, the error messages below fail to trigger.

15#

Similar to 11, Can't intersect other objects. is used in cases as the one described in the translation comment below:

19#

All the objects in the game can be placed on a grass tile.

22#

An error message within the game's code hints at a feature that never saw the light of day: the ability to place objects diagonally in the world. This concept was designed to be enabled through a "wall placement" Expression flag set to "diagonal required" within an object's init scripting tree. However, the final release of the game lacks any remnants of this functionality, with no objects capable of being placed against diagonal walls and no pre-rendered 45º sprites to support such placement. One of the few tangible vestiges of this abandoned concept reside in the alpha channels of certain doors and windows, suggesting its potential inclusion at some point during development.

25#

It's no wonder this ended up unused!

32, 35#

Can't intersect other objects. is used, instead.

39#

Older string for what reads Must be on first story in the final build.

41-42#

Other instances of specific building failure states that went summarily reduced as a multi-purpose Can't intersect other objects. tooltip.

LocalKeys#

Refers to the game's hotkeys — 161 as its ID, presumably so they could be changed by the localization teams easily.

• A for Anti-Alias. Manual toggling works, but is removed in versions patched in Vacation onward, when is always forced it on by default.
• S for Shadows. Again, removed in Vacation and later expansion packs, in favor of the shadow detail level setting in the UI.

Expansion Packs

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 in the Unleashed expansion, meaning this translation was possibly retro-fitted.

Minua ei nyt huvita tehdä kokeita!

Minua ei nyt huvita!

Madame Blahbatfry Crystal Ball#

You are already solving a crystal ball riddle.

You are already solving a crystal ball riddle.

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

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.

Hot Date#

Downtown Controller#

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

An alternate ID 1 line for when your Sim does not have enough money to pay for their food. The game explicitly calls the used ID 0 string. 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 the "diner". Regardless this is unused.

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.

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.

Restaurant Podiums#

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.

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.

Footnotes

References#