The Sims (Windows)/Unused Graphics

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

Graphics ripped from the base game (Version 1.0), except those listed in Expansions. Some of the following resources were repurposed for different objects in later expansion packs, not in the same context as originally intended. These repurposed features will be mentioned in the associated notes.

Lost Graphics

No longer existent, or checked by any files, yet resources as global strings contain raw data with their filenames in. What's now known upon earlier builds of the game unveils their intended context, hence the prototype sprites listed in the Sample column below.

Behavior.IFF — 10 December 1999 14:10

STR# 161 - bubble icons
ID	String	Possible Context	Sample
1	Toilet	Low Bladder.
2	Wired	Unknown.
3	Shower	Low Hygiene.
4	Lightning	Allegedly for the Insult Sim interaction.
5	Comfy Chair	Low Comfort.
6	TV	Low Fun.
7	Snooze	Low Energy.
8	Sleepy
9	Very Tired
10	Dancing	Low Social and Compliment Sim interaction.
11	Doubly Lit Candle	Unknown.
12	Candle	Talk Sim interaction.
13	House
14	Blah Blah
15	Weather
16	Prayer
17	Newspaper
18	Government
STR# 501 - conversation icon labels
ID	String	Context
0-4	Horoscope (1-5)	Early conversation icon labels, including the discontinued "Leisure" and "Horoscope" topics.
5-9	Weather (1-5)
10-14	Sports (1-5)
15-19	Leisure (1-5)
20-24	Sci-fi (1-5)
25-29	Travel (1-5)
STR# 502 - motive icon labels
2	unused alertness	Discontinued motives originated from builds as old as 1997. It's unknown what motive the "candle" icon was associated with. A number of scripts for the scrapped "Stress" motive still exist in global tree data.
11	unused stress
12	unused candle
7	unused sleeping	Were eventually condensed as a single Energy motive.
8	unused tired
9	unused really tired
14	unused NO MONEY	Sims apparently once saw their mood affected depending on their household funds.

Unused Sprites

Edith Tool

Sims.exe — 05 January 2000 16:09

ID	Sample	Note	Context
203		The master executable keeps resources remnant of Edith (in-house editing/debugging utility for the game's visual programming) in all versions, and that includes three very simple bitmap icons, that see use at the tree tracing dialog, indicating which primitive event is currently running.	203, here indicating that Bob Newbie calls an idle animation loop until further instructions may tell him otherwise.
204
205

Miscellaneous

To do: Which expansion pack started using the miconEnvironment icon?

Sprites.IFF — 10 December 1999 14:10

Type	ID	Sample	Note	Context
'Head dots'
PALT	2001		A flashing blue dot. Early in development, this could be seen right above the Sims' heads, as an indicator of the currently-selected character. It was discontinued sometime around January 1999 in the name of an arrow-shaped 3D prop that would be subject of quite a few minor tweaks along the game making process, only to become what it is now known as the plumb-bob.	Head dots in an early pre-release .
"micon" icons
'miconEnvironment'
SPR#	213		Meant to be displayed as one Sim begs for the player's attention due to their messy Environment mood conditions. Unlike other Sim needs (Hunger, Comfort etc.), the Environment score is instantaneously set depending on the neatness of the room the Sims are in, instead of expressing a time-based decay; for that reason, if this sprite were used for its original purpose, it would be called way more often than a regular player could afford, so its obsolescence was likely intentional. Further expansion packs for the game notably repurposed the sprite for when a Sim nags another, otherwise it sees little to no use.

"Hdline" Icons

The "hdline" sprite hierarchy contains static images for the means of expressing different character conditions and feelings, very akin to those seen in comic books. This concept was entirely removed from the final product, save for the sprites related to Sim relationship statuses.

• The game has an old, unused scripting primitive — Set Headline — whose possible purpose was calling these sprites above the Sims' heads.
• Oddly enough, these would also be left over in console port and Bustin' Out.

Sprites.IFF — 10 December 1999 14:10

"hdline" icons
'hdlineHate'
SPR#	500		An icon for the "Hate" relationship status: A Sim-hand giving the Sim-bird! It's worthy mentioning that the mechanics in the final game does not quite display the low relationship scores between two Sims as a very significant event in gameplay in the same way as romance and friendships, hence the lack of a proper icon that goes with it. Later, an interaction that implies a similar (if not the same) gesture being used was created for The Sims: Bustin' Out as Sign Language.
	'hdlineStress'
	501		Stress is an early motive that was entirely removed in the final game, seeing a last use in pre-release builds as old as early 1998. The final game still has remnant scripts for this concept, as well as an object that loosely references it. A similar feature would be reworked into a Moodlet in The Sims 3.
	'hdlineSurprise'
	502		It's very unlikely of The Sims retail builds to utilize imagery as a way of expressing emotions (the animations and the phenomenal Simlish already do that with much more efficiency!), suggesting it was implemented — and scrapped — a long time prior to the game's release.
	'hdlineIdea'
	503		The exercise of the Sims' intellectual faculties basically reside in improving skills, which may be the context where this sprite would be used.
	'romance'
	300		Old designs of the heart icon, that kicks off every good new Sim Romance in the game. They were traded for a much more universal, less dramatic equivalent. 300 would be repurposed in Makin' Magic where a Sim kisses a toad that was turned from a pre-existing Sim via the Toadification Spell or the backfired side-effects of the Horn of Plenty spell.
	504
	631 (Final)
	'friends'
	301		The icon that announces new friendships and counts the existing ones, throughout an undetermined gap of development time, went from being a multiracial handshake to an universal Smiley.
	630 (Final)
	'hdlineDrunk'
	505		Since the franchise's day 1, you could actually buy your Sims a Bar and direct them to drink its beverages, though they could drink as much as they wanted without any drunken effect. Hints of a drunken state would be introduced in House Party (through the punch bowl) and Hot Date (through the downtown bars), but this icon still goes unused.
	'hdlineHurt'
	506		Except for death, Sims will not experience much pain throughout their lives, if not a few accidentally chopped fingers and the potential of physical fights.
	'hdlineSmell'
	507		A similar effect would be used on the game's sequel: being negligent to one Sim's Hygiene need causes flies and green air to be produced around the smelly character.

"debug" Icons

Sprites.IFF — 10 December 1999 14:10

"debug" icons
'Sim Actions'
SPR#	601		Placeholder sprites that signify different contexts a Sim may struggle to move. They're called across the Sims' heads if one switches the Debug simulation global from 0 to 1, but obviously no event in normal gameplay causes this.		Simulation Globals Sprites as 620 oddly appear across speech bubbles, when the lot's Debug flag is toggled on.
	602
	603
	604
	605
	606
	607
	608
	609
	610
	611
	612
	613
	614
	620
	621
	622
	623
	'pizza'
	619		Pre-release builds of the game use this icon — here, for some reason, listed by the developers into the "debug" sprite hierarchy — across speech bubbles for every time a Sim dialed the pizza place. The final, instead, utilizes a thumbnail of the pizza delivering NPC's head. If anything, the very same pizza sprite can still be looked at his uniform.	Late 1999 SimWebcam snapshot.
	pizzadude.iff (Final)
	'Can't find room'
	624		Meaning a Sim is unable to find a way to get in/out of their current room.
	701 (Final)
	'Can't sit down'
	625		For Sims unable to sit down.
	'Can't stand up'
	626		For Sims unable to stand up
	'Destination occupied'
	627		Inability to place an object on a tile that keeps another object.
	'Dest chair occupied'
	628		When a given interaction requires a seating.
	700 (Final)
	'Wall in the way'
	629		The Sim is unable to leave the room.
	702 (Final)
	'Altitudes don't match'
	632		The interaction can't be completed while on a slope.
	703 (Final)

Textures.FAR

hunger.bmp 28 May 1999 19ː31
Early	Final	Note	Context
		Early icon for the Hunger need, oddly located in Textures.FAR rather than Sprites.IFF, indicating how early it is, when compared to the other sprites in the game. A monochromatic and animated equivalent of the needs icons took the place of it.	Snapshot of an 1998 pre-release, hunger.bmp in action.

(Source: LUCPIX)

Unused Graphics in Objects

Found in Objects.FAR, object sprites in The Sims are made up for four separate images, one for each rotation in each direction. It is worth noting that Maxis, especially in the base game, would often exclude two of the four rotation sprites and simply flip the remaining two to make up for it. The end result is (mostly) imperceptible and creates the illusion of a full rotation.

For the purposes of this article, any object that has only two rotation sprites will have the remaining two rotated as would have been done in-game to illustrate its full rotation.

Unused Graphics

Objects.FAR

Draw Group	ID	Sample	Note	Context
cursors.IFF
tile cursor	301		Some of the earliest pre-releases used this as an indicator an object could not be placed on a tile, without detailing why. The final build swapped this in the name of tooltip texts.	tile cursor in an early 1998 pre-release.
Shutters.IFF
Abstract Tile	200-202		Earlier in development, a few attempts in designing complex shutters for the game's windows were made, but it does not seem like the plan went too far.
ToyBox.IFF
left/right	3101-3100		A partial dupe of one of the dresser objects, except they feature some programmer text.
ChairsLR1Tile.IFF
chair2 graphic	128		Passively listed in ChairsLR1Tile.IFF is a remnant of an early chair that is a household name in several pre-release media, yet was not correctly featured in the final build, deliberately or not. Unfortunately the original palette is long gone.	chair2 graphic in a late 1998 pre-release
counters.IFF
Counter Chp	120		As with chair2 graphic, its original palette is long gone, if one even existed to begin with. Evidently this sprite did not get very far before being scrapped, given that it is a (more or less) exact duplicate of the "NuMica Kitchen Counter" with "Bathroom Cheap" written across it.
Multiple
TestObject graphic	128		A clone of endtable1 graphic: sprites for an unused single-tile dining table that the final iteration has as a placeholder for all the invisible vehicle spawning objects in every lot. Multiple objects have this listed in their Sprite2, in different (arbitrary) palette choices, including ChildStepstool.IFF.
pc 1 through pc 8	101-107		Clones of the sculpture "Scylla and Charybdis", in incorrect palette, also seen listed in many different objects.

Early Graphics

The stereo objects were originally designed to break and be repaired, like other electronic items in the game. While this concept did not go too far in development, one can spot two placeholder draw group resources for the "Zimantz Component" stereo that, given their names, were meant to picture it as broken. In practice, they have a visually intact stereo instead; the actual oddity manifests itself in their mild visual differences in comparison to the final stereo, indicating they're slightly early iterations of the object:

• The two cables that connect the stereo to the speakers are white instead of black;
• The disc/stereo rack is a little darker, yet the closest speakers present the same brightness level as the partially covered ones;
• Even though both versions seem to use the same wooden texture, it's a little offset when compared to the final.

Objects.FAR

Draw Group	ID	NE	SE	SW	NW
stereos.IFF
stereo broken	2101
	2110
Final

(Source: LUCPIX)

Other Unused Graphics

5Kiss

28 December 1999 00ː47

• 

  5Kiss

Attached to the game's setup executable are five different screen snapshots of a female Sim in different social settings, intended to be displayed, one at a time, on dialog windows as the user progresses through the installing. According to logic, the fifth and final image would be 5Kiss.bmp: a happy ending where the female Sim passionately kisses a man (as pictured above), except that the last dialog window mistakenly displays a repeated instance of 4Fight.bmp, where the character is seen having a fight with the same man.

"X"

28 May 1999 19ː31

arrow.bmp (Early)	X.bmp (Final)

"Arrow" is the internal name for the always-spinning motive diamond that has been eventually popularized as the plumb-bob — but that's because, as a three-dimensional prop, it first came in game as a literal, not-very-interesting arrow. What, at first, was a solid-color texture, saw an evolution as a plain "X" texture, virtually unnoticeably wearing the final prop.

Early Basketball Texture

basketball3drt.bmp (Early) 19 August 1999 15ː42	BBall1.BMP (Final) 05 November 1999 17ː24

The asterisk-lined basketball texture was given a makeover, in the name of warmer colors and even a fancy canon brandingǃ

Early Wallphone Texture

wallphone3drt.bmp (Early) 20 November 1998 17ː17	wallphoneX3DRT (Final) 29 August 1999 09ː35

Given both textures are nearly a whole year apart, it's of note they don't differ a thing despite how the latter edit is but crudely upscaled and sees brighter corners plus a metallic add-on up its antenna.

Unused Thumbnails

walls.IFF

The first two thumbnails depict early wall designs that can not be found anywhere within the game. However, they are used as full-size images on The Sims' official downloadable wall-making tool, HomeMaster (having its name changed to HomeCrafter right after The Sims' release), as demo walls. They consistently display a pale background instead of blue, as thumbnails did until the game's pre-final build.

• 

  ID 544

• 

  ID 543

• 

  ID 545

• 

  ID 532 (final)

Windows.IFF

Speech sprites (intended to appear across speech/thought bubbles) with final windows pictured in oddly colored thumbnail backgrounds, also akin to those of pre-release builds. Sims don't normally go and react to recently-placed windows, or think about them when they figure an obstacle during their trajectory, or talk about them with others, so these went unused.

• 

  6011

• 

  6012

• 

  6013

• 

  6014

• 

  6010

• 

  6002

• 

  6000

• 

  6001

• 

  4011

• 

  4012

• 

  4013

• 

  4014

• 

  4010

• 

  4002

• 

  4000

• 

  4001

Sims

• 

  faces

All Sims have 3 large face thumbnails generated right after their conception; two of them, depicting their head meshes slightly tilted up/downward, are not used anytime in normal play. May refer to older mechanics of facial expressions sensitive to the Sims' motives. A similar feature, albeit in mugshots would be in The Sims 2.

Diagonal Window/Door Alpha Channels

walls.IFF

• 

  ID 21:3:0(1066) ID 1066

• 

  ID 16:3:0(1056) ID 1056

• 

  ID 3:3:0(1030) ID 1030

One of most notable building limitations on The Sims is the inability to combine walls built diagonally (those that break the world tile grid into two rather than aligning its corners, "facing" the viewer as a result, as pictured above) with any object, even windows or doors.

At one point, the player might have been capable of doing so — an assumption sustained by a few visual mock-ups designed in mid-development — however this concept hasn't made its way to the final, with only a few unused alpha channel sprites, unused placement flags and text as remnants of it.

Tutorial Test Icon

tutorial.IFF

• 

  TestIcon.bmp

Placeholder for the Help Menu pop-up icons that teach the users how to play the game as they first venture into the Newbie household.

(Source: LUCPIX)

Unused UI Graphics

There are some unused graphics in UIGraphics.FAR, which contains the game's UI images and other content.

Neighborhood Menu

Pick-A-Family/Create-A-Sim

• 

  29 September 1999 16ː20

• 

  29 September 1999 13ː20

• 

  29 September 1999 21ː29

• 

  29 September 1999 16ː21

• 

  29 September 1999 16ː21

Early buttons for the family/character creation screen, most notably seen in builds of the game of approximately the same period as E3 1999. The buttons used in-game are empty, with text rendered over the button graphic.

DesignCharSkinsBtn

29 September 1999 16ː20

What's interesting is that this image shows a Sim in an outfit not available in the final game. However, it is present and used for the The Sims Steering Committee pre-release build of the game two years before the game officially came out.

Marquee

29 September 1999 16ː19

It is unknown what this could be used for. However, Marquees are also used with signs, so it could have been for the credits sign at one point.

SimEstates

29 September 1999 16ː17

It's unknown what this was intended for either.

Control Panel/UI

View Menus

At one point, right-clicking any of the areas in the game's world during gameplay called a specific pie menu with zooming/rotating settings to choose from, operating in the same fashion as the Control Panel buttons. Most of the game's pre-release builds from early 1999 had a darker, less saturated user interface, although their fundamental aspects didn't differ entirely from their respective finals.

ViewMenuZoomOut

28 May 1999 19ː21

ViewMenuZoomIn

28 May 1999 19ː21

ViewMenuRotateRight

28 May 1999 19ː21

ViewMenuRotateLeft

28 May 1999 19ː21

RotateRight

RotateRight.bmp (Early) 28 May 1999 19ː21	rotright.bmp (Final) 30 September 1999 13ː12

RotateLeft

RotateRight.bmp (Early) 28 May 1999 19ː21	rotleft.bmp (Final) 30 September 1999 13ː12

ZoomOut

ZoomOut.bmp (Early) 28 May 1999 19ː21	zoomout.bmp (Final) 30 September 1999 13ː16

ZoomIn

ZoomIn.bmp (Early) 28 May 1999 19ː21	zoomin.bmp (Final) 30 September 1999 13ː10

Personality

Personality.bmp (Early) 31 May 1999 20ː31	Personality.bmp (Final) 30 September 1999 14ː13

CatalogUnknown

31 August 1999 20ː31

Placeholder for objects in the buy menu with no icon. Later revisions of the game engine automatically generate the buy thumbnails from the sprite resources when they aren't explicitly defined in the object data. This means most players have never and will never see this in the buy catalog, although it can be seen in later versions of the game if an invention object's thumbnail can not be loaded.

AMPM

30 September 1999 14ː10

Originally placed next to the time display. The final game, though, uses a plain text equivalent.

popuproofpattern

30 September 1999 14ː09

cpanel\Build\popuproofpattern.bmp was meant for the pop-up when choosing the roof pattern, much like the one for the roof pitch.

Miscellaneous

CheckBtnNew

28 May 1999 19ː22

An old check button, which appears to may have been used in a debugging menu and/or the options menu.

TogglePushBtn

28 May 1999 19ː22

A sheet for testing the button effects.

PieBack

28 May 1999 19ː22

This was most likely a very early background design for the pie menu.

PieButt

28 May 1999 19ː22

In earlier builds, clicking the right button mouse whilst the mouse pointer is located at any areas of the game's world would call a special pie menu with world rotating/zooming choices. At the center of the menu, this image would be seen.

Sys Files

28 May 1999 19ː22

• 

  Gendlg

• 

  LBoxTile

• 

  CloseBox

• 

  FLDRBTNS

• 

  ListBack136

• 

  ListToggle

• 

  SPINBTNS

• 

  WINSLH

• 

  WINSLV

• 

  WinClose

• 

  WinRadioBtn

• 

  WinIbEdg

• 

  WINSLH

• 

  dropdown

It is currently unknown where these would appear — potentially in some type of debug menu.

Unused Mouse Pointers

Base Game

Build Mode

At some point, the building tools had cursors that much resembled those of SimCity 3000. The final game, though, uses colorful, pre-rendered sprites as tall as the own characters.

11 October 1999

• 

  SimsDelete.cur

• 

  SimsLevel.cur

• 

  SimsRaise.cur

• 

  SimsLower.cur

...and their final equivalents, for comparison.

28 November 1999 15ː19

• 

  terrain cursor anchor

• 

  terrain cursor error

• 

  terrain cursor down

• 

  terrain cursor lift

Miscellaneous

28 May 1999 19ː22

• 

  NODROP.CUR

• 

  HELP.CUR

• 

  EXPLORE.cur

• 

  ExploreAnchor.bmp (final)

(Source: LUCPIX)

Expansions

Graphics that are only present in expansions.

Later Updates/Expansions

Other\setup_placeholder

Only present in the Deluxe Edition and later expansions and bundles. The "Gold" subtitle can be assumed to be an early name for the Deluxe Edition. If one checks the credits for The Sims Vacation/On Holiday, The Sims Gold is mentioned.

Hot Date

Early Taxi cursor

An unused cursor for the Downtown loading screen exists in the game's files which appears more cartoony, and doesn't have shading unlike the final design. What's interesting is that the final cursors for Hot Date and Vacation/On Holiday are already included in the Deluxe Edition even if the player has not installed either expansion pack yet.

• 

  Early

• 

  Final