90,919,537 visitors since 2 February 2002 

News Archive - February, 2002
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Friday 1 February 2002
Sim Brother - Day 14
Written at 01:08 by Andy - 0 comments.

The task comes to an end and Sim Brother tells them whether they have passed or failed.

Also, they are told who is up for nomination this week.

Find out how they all took the news!
 
Counter reset
Written at 22:37 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
Due to some problems with our visitor counter, it's been reset. It'll start counting again at midnight (from 0). We'll stick to the current counter as our official visitor number, which took it down with about 30,000(!) (since 14 January 2002). We want to thank you for visiting us and so increasing the visitors number, and we hope to get back to 30,000 (and more) again soon.
 

Saturday 2 February 2002
Sim Brother - Day 15 (Friday)
Written at 14:57 by Andy - 0 comments.

What is Tom saying to Jennifer?

If you want to find out the answer to this question, what has been going on in the house and the latest odds ...

Click here!
 

Sunday 3 February 2002
We're number 1!
Written at 02:18 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
We've made it to the number 1 spot at the KillerSims Top Sites List. We'd like to stay at this spot, so please keep the votes coming! Thank you for all the votes we got so far.
 
Sim Brother - Day 16
Written at 03:22 by Andy - 0 comments.

Monday 4 February 2002
Sim Brother - Day 17 (Sunday)
Written at 01:08 by Andy - 0 comments.

Jennifer and Davina come to blows!

There's been a lot happening in the house today and someone gets a warning from Sim Brother.

Check the Report out!
 

Tuesday 5 February 2002
Sim Brother - Day 18
Written at 01:54 by Andy - 0 comments.

A Congratulatory Hug?

Find out who won the first Chess Heats and the other goings-on in the house.

All the news is here!
 
The Sims celebrates
Written at 19:45 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
2 years ago and 1 day (4 February 2000) ago the original of The Sims was first released. It became a top-selling game, and it still is. After over 11 million of copies sold world-wide (including expansion packs) in 13 different languages, The Sims and its expansion pack still tops the sales charts. We wonder if the next SimDay will be a special one... Happy birthday to all The Sims (and their creators)!
 

Wednesday 6 February 2002
Sim Brother - Day 19 (Tuesday)
Written at 04:57 by Andy - 0 comments.


Anne reveals what's on her mind ... and more!

Find out what by reading it here!
 

Thursday 7 February 2002
Sim Brother - Day 20 (Wednesday)
Written at 02:12 by Andy - 0 comments.
 
SimDay Report: Skins and a chat
Written at 19:28 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
Not a lot of new stuff this SimDay: A reminder for the Hot or Not skin contest, the announcement of the winners of the TSO Skin Contest and a chat with Sid Meier from SimGolf...
 
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Vacation Screenshots!
Written at 19:48 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
The first screenshots of the upcoming expansion pack have been found...
 
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Friday 8 February 2002
Site of the week
Written at 00:10 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
SimmingItUp.co.uk has recently moved over to new servers, a whole new design and a new system. They also have a site of the week, and The Sims Zone is the first to be site of the week there. Thank you, SimmingItUp.
 
Sim Brother - Day 21 (The First Eviction)
Written at 01:00 by Andy - 0 comments.

One of these three has to go.
Find out who it is!
 

Saturday 9 February 2002
Sim Brother - Eviction Night Special
Written at 02:16 by Andy - 0 comments.

Sunday 10 February 2002
Site problems
Written at 13:08 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
Yesterday afternoon until this morning there were some problem that made unfortunately The Sims Zone inaccessible for several hours. That's why the latest Sim Brother report has been delayed a little, as well as some other things. Don't worry though, it'll be here soon enough. We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the downtime of this site.
 
Submissions
Written at 15:26 by Steve - 0 comments.
The new submissions page is almost finished. You may now submit your files. Please read the guidelines on the submissions page. If you do not send me the file correctly then it will not be added!

Unfortunately I will not be accepting houses and Hot Date downtown Lots at this time, but I will post again soon when you may submit these. Please visit the file submissions page.
 
Sim Brother - Day 22 & Day 23
Written at 18:41 by Andy - 0 comments.


Sim Brother would like to apologise for any inconvenience our downtime may have caused. This was allegedly caused by disgruntled MNM fans who were upset about his eviction and vandalised our TV Station.

Find Friday and Saturday right here!
 

Monday 11 February 2002
Affiliation break
Written at 00:27 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
For good reasons, we and The Sims.co.uk have decided to break the affiliation. Their link has been moved to the links page, and you can still visit them here, even though they're currently working on a relaunch. They'll launch again around 23 february.
 
Sim Brother - Day 24 (Sunday)
Written at 02:29 by Andy - 0 comments.
 

Tuesday 12 February 2002
Sim Brother - Day 25 (Monday)
Written at 01:06 by Andy - 0 comments.
Hot Date Patch
Written at 12:51 by Steve - 0 comments.
The Hot Date Patch has now been released again.
The patch is a whopping 4.95 Mb, so for everyone stuck on 56k connections (me and I think all the TSZ staff) it may take a while to download!
At the time of writing international versions of the patch are unavailable. Whether this means the patch is only available for the US version of the game it is unclear, so if you do not have the US version and are on a 56k dialup, I would wait so you don't download an unuseable patch.

The following have been added / changed with the patch:

 
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Wednesday 13 February 2002
Sim Brother - Day 26 (Tuesday)
Written at 01:09 by Andy - 0 comments.
 
Problems with patch - again
Written at 03:00 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
To most people the patch v2.0 seems to be working fine - but for others it's still causing problems, sometimes even more than the unpatched game. The problems seem to occur when you create a new neighborhood and want to build in that. The game will crash itself then. We've heard that using the reinstall option in the CD menu works. It'll keep the old prude coming, though the bay window won't show up then. We haven't been able to test the patch yet because it's not out for international versions yet, but we'll keep you updated. The international versions will be 'comimg soon' according to Maxis.
 
Vacancies
Written at 03:15 by Andy - 0 comments.
Due to reorganisation and expansion, there are some staff vacancies at this site. If you are interested in working for us, look at the details here.
 
Maxis Forbids SimAntics Editing
Written at 14:31 by Steve - 0 comments.
I recently found this on a website. This site used to contain a program called Script Station which allowed you to edit the SimAntics scripts.
SimAntics is the language used to program the objects in The Sims. It controled everything about the objects. The animations, sounds, motives (eg. Hunger) how the Sim interacted with the object.
The program Script Station allowed you to edit these, but recently on the website a news post was made by the creator.
 
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Members Area
Written at 22:00 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
As you could see in the notice, we now have a members area. Please read that notice for more information. If you'd like to see anything in specific for this members area, then you can comment to this post. Just click the comments link, or click here. Scroll down to the bottom to comment. Note that you have to register.
 
New Game: SimUniverse?
Written at 22:45 by ChEeTaH - 2 comments.
In this article at ShackNews, we can read something interesting. Will Wright was featured in the new issue of the WIRED magazine, and he was telling what he's been reading lately:
Life of the Cosmos, by Lee Smolin
"I'm currently working on a universe simulation game and have been reading a lot on recent discoveries about our galaxy, stellar processes, and astrophysics. Most science books are camouflaged in technical jargon - they sound deadly boring and dry - but Smolin comes across more like Richard Dawkins or Carl Sagan, and he makes it all interesting in much the same way that we'll need to in the game."
Does this mean we can expect something like SimUniverse in the future, or will SimMars be continued after all? We'll keep you updated...
 

Thursday 14 February 2002
Moving in next door
Written at 00:45 by Andy - 0 comments.


Now he's out of the Sim Brother house, when he comes back from vacation, he might be moving into one of your neighbourhoods.

Get "Eminem" right here!
 
Sim Brother - Day 27 (Wednesday)
Written at 01:00 by Andy - 0 comments.
The Sims: Vacation
Written at 17:27 by Steve - 0 comments.
Gamespot have just done an article on the new expansion pack for The Sims, The Sims Vacation. They have the first pictures of the game that are actual screenshots taken directly from the game. If you want to read the full artice, or just see the screenshots then check out the Gamespot article.
 
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Simday Report: Date Making Tool 'Comimg Soon' too?
Written at 17:40 by Steve - 0 comments.
This Simday a date making tool will be released (it is not available at the time of writing).
The latest competition 'I'm Hot I'm Not' is now closed. That means all the competitions are closed.
Unfortunately it is still only the US version of the Hot Date patch which is available. Remember that soon could mean a day to a few weeks, keep checking here and any further news on the patch will be posted here.

That is all for this Simday report. More about the Date Maker will be posted when it is available, later today.

 

Friday 15 February 2002
Sim Brother - Day 28 (Thursday)
Written at 01:01 by Andy - 0 comments.

Anna and Jennifer find out the bad news, the housemates have to carry out their weekly challenge, and Sim Brother gives the housemates a pleasant surprise.

Find all the news right here!
 
Date Making tool available
Written at 19:23 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
Want to make a new townie for your sims to date? Then you should now get the date maker tool over at the official site. It'll only work with Hot Date, of course. Click here to download it now (1.13 Mb). For your opinion about it, you could use the comments option (Members only).
 
Update: Date Making Tool doesn't work
Written at 19:41 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
It's true, Maxis did it again. The Date Making tool seems to be causing quite some problems. It seems to be swapping genders, and that certain textures aren't used so you get white bodyparts for your sim... Our advice at this time: don't use it. We'll keep you updated and tell you when the tool is safe to use.
 

Saturday 16 February 2002
Sim Brother - Day 29 (Friday)
Written at 01:05 by Andy - 0 comments.
Date tool fixed?
Written at 19:08 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
We have reason to believe that the date-making tool has been fixed. First of all - it seems Maxis had taken it down for a while. It's now back though, and the file size has changed to 2.74 Mb. I believe that it's now possible to create dates successfully, and no more messing with genders. We haven't tested it ourselves yet though. You can use the comments to tell us if it works for you or not.
 

Sunday 17 February 2002
Sim Brother - Day 30 (Saturday)
Written at 01:00 by Andy - 0 comments.
Affiliates Clearout
Written at 22:59 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
After last week TheSims.co.uk has been moved off our affiliates list, we've also decided to move Diary of a Sim and The Sims Outlook away from that list. You can now find them in the regular links page. We've also decided to go off synchroplay's top list. We have added SimHoo! to our links section too. We might accept new affiliates in the future, but we do not at this point.
 
The Partners - A The Sims-alike game
Written at 23:37 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
From Monte Cristo, creators of Airline Tycoon, we'll see a new game coming in April. Why would we post about it here? Because it'll be quite like The Sims: you'll control a few employees of a law firm like you were the writer of a TV Series. The Partners have needs like love, friendship, success and culture, to name a few. You can manage more than 20 lawyers in 3 campaigns containing 21 missions and 30 sub-missions. If you're interested, visit The Partners site. We are not sure when exactly it'll be available and where it'll be available then.
 

Monday 18 February 2002
Sim Brother - Day 31 (Sunday)
Written at 01:00 by Andy - 0 comments.
 

Tuesday 19 February 2002
Sim Brother - Day 32 (Monday)
Written at 01:00 by Andy - 0 comments.

Wednesday 20 February 2002
Sim Brother - Day 33 (Tuesday)
Written at 01:06 by Andy - 0 comments.

Thursday 21 February 2002
Sim Brother - Day 34 (Wednesday)
Written at 01:00 by Andy - 0 comments.
SimDay Report: Nothing interesting
Written at 19:01 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
This week's SimDay is very short. All it says is that the winners of the Hot or Not contest will be announced next week. That's all, nothing more to say. Not even a community update or anything else...
 

Friday 22 February 2002
Sim Brother - Eviction Night & Day 35
Written at 01:02 by Andy - 0 comments.

"When J-Lo met WW"
Find out what Jennifer said to Will about her time in the house and how the housemates spent their first day without her. Click here to get all the news!
 

Saturday 23 February 2002
Sim Brother - Day 36 (Friday)
Written at 01:01 by Andy - 0 comments.


Will the housemates be dancing the night away?
Who will be "grateful" if Tom helps her get into movies?

Find out all the answers right here!
 
Updates to registration
Written at 22:58 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
We have slightly enhanced the registration pages. You are now shown the time you registered in the end. Also, I now get an email with the information every time somebody registers. The main advantage: if you don't get the e-mail that's sent automatically when registering, it's now easier to get your account working...
 
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Sunday 24 February 2002
Sim Brother - Day 37 (Saturday)
Written at 01:00 by Andy - 0 comments.


There is an accident in the house. Find the details out right here!
 
TSO Screenshots
Written at 15:59 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
A couple of days 6 new screenshots of The Sims Online were posted at GameSpot.com. The Sims Online will be released late this year, and rumours are that it'll cost $50 to buy, and then $10 per month to play. Those prices haven't been officially confirmed by Maxis though. European prices are also unknown. You can see the new screenshots here.
 

Monday 25 February 2002
Sim Brother - Day 38 (Sunday)
Written at 01:01 by Andy - 0 comments.

Is the relationship between Anne and Jerry over?

Find the dramatic news about Jerry right here!
 
The 9th Housemate - You Decide
Written at 02:13 by Andy - 1 comment.
Jerry's sudden departure has thrown the show into chaos. There were three people too closely tied to be a replacement housemate and the studios do not know who to bring in to replace him.

It is up to the viewers to decide which of these three to bring into the house.
 
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New utilities coming up!
Written at 23:04 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
Bil Simser, the famous Canadian who made BluePrint, has announced 6 new utilities that will be released soon. Those are: 'SimVentory', 'Shotgun', 'RugWeaver', 'SimBar', 'Jobby' and 'Cabins'. SimVentory will make html pages of your installed add-ons like objects, walls, etc. Shotgun will find conflicts and errors in your installed objects. RugWeaver allows you to make your own rugs, and SimBar is an Internet Explorer bar that gives you quick access to several sim sites. Jobby is a career editor and Cabins can convert CMX/SKN files to binaries and vice versa. It'll also check them for errors. For more (detailed) information, visit the BluePrint website.
 

Tuesday 26 February 2002
Sim Brother - Day 39 (Monday)
Written at 01:00 by Andy - 0 comments.

How did the housemates react to losing Jerry?
Did it affect their task?
Who wanted J-Lo to come back in?

Find out all the answers in today's report!
 
New files added
Written at 19:32 by Carrie - 0 comments.
I have added 3 new Floor Sets and 1 new Roof Set to my files section today. Be sure to check them out! In the next couple of days, I will be adding my first skins, so be sure to stay tuned!
 

Wednesday 27 February 2002
Sim Brother - Day 40 (Tuesday)
Written at 01:01 by Andy - 0 comments.

There is a lot of stress and tension in the Sim Brother house today.
Find the details here!
 
Hot Date for Mac: System specs
Written at 20:42 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
For all those of you waiting desperately to get Hot Date for the macintosh: Aspyr has announced the system specifications for it...
 
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Thursday 28 February 2002
Sim Brother - Day 41 (Wednesday)
Written at 01:00 by Andy - 0 comments.

It is Nomination Day in the Sim Brother House and there is a new arrival.
Find the details here!
 
SimDay Report: Skinny week...
Written at 18:55 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
It's not an extremely busy SimDay again, but there's something. First of all, the winners of the Hot or Not skin contest have been announced, and Westwood (Colleagues of Maxis) has made 20 skins. That makes the grand total of 24 new skins to download...
 
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Friday 1 March 2002
(Late) poll results
Written at 00:58 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.
To get back on last week's poll that was closed a day ago: it looks like Livin' Large is the most popular expansion pack, with 222 votes of people who have that. Runner-up is Hot Date with 208 votes in total, and House Party follows with 194 votes. 163 people who have voted have all 3 expansion packs. 28 of the 272 votes told us about 10% of you only have the original game without an expansion pack. Detailed results and results of older polls can be found in the poll archive.