Released by Electronic Arts in 2000 and developed by Maxis under legendary designer Will Wright, The Sims became the best-selling PC game of its era. It spawned seven expansion packs over the following years, each layering new systems, NPCs, and objects onto the original sandbox. This guide covers the base game and every expansion in release order, drawing from official descriptions preserved in SimGoodie's Norwegian-language archive.
The base game
The Sims was not a typical game in 2000. It had no defined goals or ending, and it was never marketed toward a single demographic. Your Sims handle everyday routines: cooking, sleeping, bathing, going to work. They speak Simlish, their own fictional language that would carry through every sequel.
Gameplay splits into three modes. Live mode is where you direct (or neglect) your Sims' daily lives. Buy mode lets you furnish their homes. Build mode is where you construct the houses they live in. Sims occupy neighborhoods alongside other households, and from the neighborhood screen you can create your own families or play pre-made ones like the Goth and Newbie families.
What you do with a Sim's life is entirely open-ended, a philosophy the franchise has maintained across every generation since.
Livin' It Up
The first expansion doubles down on customization. New furniture and architectural pieces let you build rustic turn-of-the-century homes, garish Vegas-inspired lounges, medieval castles, and retro sci-fi future houses. Mixing these styles with custom skins gives each household a distinct look.
Livin' It Up adds four new career tracks: the paranormal, hacking, music, and journalism. At home, Sims gain new ways to develop their personality and knowledge through household activities, making skill-building less repetitive.
A notable bonus for players without internet access at the time: the CD included every object previously available as a web download from the official site, plus a selection of user-made skins. Nothing from the online community was left behind.
House Party
House Party turns your Sim's home into a social venue. Group activities range from grilling marshmallows around a bonfire to playing party games indoors.
You can hire a caterer to keep guests fed or book a dancer who leaps out of a cake at a bachelor party. A new dance floor with a DJ booth supports five music styles (rap, techno, country, beach, and disco), each with its own set of dance moves.
The costume trunk rounds out the party theme, offering outfits for toga parties and themed gatherings for your Sims and their guests.
Hot Date
Hot Date introduces dating as a full gameplay system. You play matchmaker, sending Sims on candlelit dinners at upscale restaurants or daring nighttime meetings in the park. Chemistry either clicks or it does not, and some Sims are destined for a lifetime membership in the Lonely Hearts Club.
New downtown areas and parks give couples (and groups of friends) places to meet outside the home neighborhood. Blind dates and neighbors from across town expand the social pool.
Social interactions get more playful and specific. You can play footsie under the table, whisper sweet nothings, or gossip about other couples. New romantic objects help set the mood: the cuddle sofa, the love tub, the hot tub, the picnic basket, and the love swing.
On Holiday
On Holiday sends Sims to a dedicated Vacation Island with three biomes: tropical beaches, a natural forest, and a winter wonderland.
New NPCs include the Vacation Director, the Yeti, the Archer, and the Beach Shark. Over 125 new objects come with the pack, among them a fishing pier, a snowman, a camping tent, carnival games, and a half-pipe.
Players can build custom vacation lots and share them through the vacation exchange, an early example of user-generated content distribution for the series.
Unleashed
Unleashed is the pet expansion for The Sims, and it is far more than just animals. The entire neighborhood expands with 30 new residential and public lots, adding parks, a pet shop, cafes, boutiques, and a vegetable market.
Pets come in several varieties. You can adopt a clumsy Labrador or a temperamental cat from the pet store, or pick up a parrot, turtle, lizard, or fish that requires no house-training.
A pet trainer NPC handles the dirty work of obedience lessons if you would rather not do it yourself. Sims can enter their cats or dogs in the local pet show, where judges evaluate competitors on obedience, tricks, and good humor. Competition is fierce, and only the best-trained pets win prizes.
Five new career tracks bring 50 new jobs total. Sims can enter the fashion world, become a world-famous chef, care for neighborhood animals as a veterinarian, teach others as an educator, or run away from home to join the circus.
Gardening becomes a viable income source. Sims plant seeds from the local vegetable shop, tend their plots, and harvest the crop into a new pantry storage object. Families who commit to the garden can make it their sole livelihood by selling produce at the market. Pets help protect the harvest by chasing away rabbits and gophers.
Over 125 new objects round out the pack, including New Orleans French-inspired furnishings for the home.
Superstar
Superstar opens up the world of fame and fortune. Sims can pursue three distinct paths to stardom: rock star, movie star, or supermodel. A new fame score in the UI tracks progression through ten levels of celebrity.
Studio Town is the new destination, themed around film, music, and fashion. It houses a spa, karaoke bars, and fashion boutiques alongside production sets. Studio objects double as mini-games and reward fame points and cash. Higher fame and famous friends open more prestigious gigs.
Studio professionals gate your Sim's performances. The photographer, director, choreographer, record producer, and fashion designer each approve (or reject) your work depending on skill and fame level. Lana, Studio Town's Production Assistant, is available for guidance along the way.
Sims sign with a talent agency by browsing the tabloid newspaper delivered to their home. Prizes include the Simmy Award and the Sims Audience Award, each tied to different in-game milestones. The award presenter NPC handles the ceremony.
New NPCs roam Studio Town. Paparazzi photograph your Sim, and a fanatical fan appears to shower you with too much attention if you neglect your audience. Celebrity guests Christina Aguilera, Marilyn Monroe, and Andy Warhol make cameo appearances.
Between jobs, Sims recharge at the oxygen bar or rest in the mini-camper for stars. Food options in Studio Town include a sushi cart, a smoothie bar, and the standard buffet table. The spa offers massage tables, mud baths, and steam rooms.
At home, Sims can hire a personal butler who manages the household, hires additional staff, and even takes care of the children. New objects include a skydiving simulator, satellite dish, improved pool table, and high-end stereo systems. New walls, floors, and ceilings complete the Studio Town aesthetic.
The pack features original songs performed in Simlish across multiple genres, continuing the series tradition of localizing real music into its fictional language.
Makin' Magic
The final and largest expansion for The Sims introduces a full magic system. Sims collect, craft, and search for ingredients to brew spells from a family spell book. Enchantments range from helpful (summoning magical housekeepers) to mischievous (turning annoying neighbors into toads) to romantic (forcing an unreachable Sim to fall in love).
Every spell can backfire spectacularly, resulting in plagues of toads, snakes, or lightning strikes.
Magic Town is a new carnival-inspired destination where Sims perform magic shows, visit the ghost show, duel at the magical arena, and do tricks at the magic table to earn MagiCoins.
Over 175 new objects ship with the pack. A Mediterranean-inspired kitchen includes a Baker's oven for bread, cakes, and pies. Skill objects like the beehive, spinning wheel, stone monster bench, and butter churn produce ingredients for spells. Sims can grow grapes and berries on garden plots to serve homemade nectar.
New characters include garden gnomes and flamingo ornaments that transform into eager garden helpers and glamorous hostesses. A skeleton maid cleans the house on command. You can even hatch a pet dragon that devours trash and small creatures.
Makin' Magic requires the original The Sims to play, as do all expansions in the series.
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This article restores content originally published on SimGoodie on September 16, 2010, sourced from thesims.no promotional descriptions preserved in the SimGoodie archive.
Source: SimGoodie legacy archive (simgoodie.no)