Back when The Sims was first being developed, it’s possible that the creators started to wonder just how obsessively people would start playing their game and for how long. In order to test this, they slipped in several secret Easter Eggs inside to see if any life deprived weirdo gamers would pick up on them?
I have no idea if the above story is true. All I know is that during the decade and a half of my life I’ve spent playing this addictive game, I’ve noticed a lot of hidden messages for the player to discover. With a total of four versions, thirty expansion packs, thirty-one stuff packs, and twelve console spin offs, there are many, many hours of The Sims to enjoy and to distract yourself from the scary outside world and all its problems. But if you go back to the beginning and play the games all over again for the nth time, there are new things to discover each time and new path for you and your Sims to take. Having said that, I’m far more likely to just obsessively play the same story all over again, but you know, the option is there.
While it takes a dangerously obsessed fan to notice all these messages, I’m sure that there are plenty more that fans haven’t noticed yet, but that’s one of the glorious things about The Sims. So be sure to look out for these things in your next Sim-a-thon!
20 Hey There, Claire
The idea behind the 2001 expansion pack Hot Date for the original base game was to encourage players to romance their Sims. Your Sim could turn into a hip Casanova and decorate your house accordingly, with décor that looked like it came straight from a cheesy '80s romantic comedy. Including a bear-skin rug!
Despite this, the game creators are always up for a little fun, so introduced Claire the Bear into the game, to make things a little more interesting. Claire was the first regular animal to appear in the series, and if Hot Date is installed will come to your house randomly, go through your garbage, talk to your teddy bear and guilt trip you by crying at your bearskin rug! Shame on you!
If Makin’ Magic is installed, she may investigate your honey jars, but the bees won’t like it!
19 The Yeti Is Famous!
Betty the Yeti is one of the creepy mascot characters to appear in The Sims Vacation winter lots that will dance around madly for your Sims, and for some reason hug your children. Betty is a bizarre looking creature, who goes to Lisa Simpson’s stylist and has a creepy open-mouth smile to show how super happy she is to be there!
But don’t let this fool you, she really something very evil.
In later expansion pack Superstar, Betty is the subject of a movie entitled: Betty Attacks! With the description: “In this classic pulp movie from the Sixties, the friendly Betty Yeti is turned into a rampaging monster when she comes in contact with radioactive waste from a SimCity military waste facility. The radioactivity causes her to grow to enormous size and sends her on a berserk rampage.” And you let her hug your kid!
18 The Pleasant Show
The Pleasant Family is one of the most iconic families in the franchise, being one of the families from the original game continued in The Sims 2. Daniel Pleasant starts out as a child in the original game with his sister Jennifer. In the next game, Jennifer can be found in the family bin with her husband John and their daughter Lucy. Daniel, however, lives with his wife Mary-Sue and their daughters Lilith and Angela.
The Pleasants' story is one with many fan theories and different player scenarios, but not only players can enjoy their story... your Sims can too! On the television channel SBN (Sims Broadcasting Network), your Sims can watch a soap opera revolving around the Pleasant family, notably Lilith and Angela fighting. The family also appear in a pizza advert.
17 Cheating Rosebuds
Every Simmer worth their Sims knows the Rosebud cheat. This cheat from the original game allowed players to add a thousand Simoleons to the household. If you need more than this, then you can add some exclamation points or semi-colons to the end, stick something heavy on the shift key, go off to a trendy bar and come back to find your Sims are now millionaires. But why rosebud?
Allegedly, this is a reference to Citizen Kane, the premise of which was a reporter trying to find the meaning of the word Rosebud. Rosebud was replaced in Sims 2 by the “kaching” and “motherlode” cheats, but returned in Sims 3 and 4 as a one thousand Simoleon cheat.
16 What To Expect…
In the Sims: Vacation, souvenirs were introduced to the game for the first time. Your Sim could collect souvenirs whilst on vacation. Some could be found while fishing or with the metal detector, but mostly they can be obtained by playing carnival games and winning tickets. While most of these are typical carnival prizes, one particularly creepy prize is all too familiar.
The Baby Doll, available from Barney the Carnie for 85 tokens, looks eerily similar to the babies in the Sims 2. The Baby Doll comes with the description: "named for their strong resemblance to the famously sad-eyed guinea pigs, these instantly loveable [sic] little bundles of pink, plastic joy has been a staple prize at amusement parks and carnivals for over a century."
It is unknown whether these dolls are a teaser for Sims 2 or whether the design was reused.
15 Dear Mr. Humble
While it is unknown whether or not the Baby Doll was a promotion for Sims 2, the actions of Mr. Humble were most certainly a promotion for their next game.
After adding Freetime to your game and playing a household for the first time, Mr. Humble will come to your house around 10:00 and drop off a pretty pink package with a message: This box contains Sims wonders that will dazzle and amaze. You have been awarded this for reasons too great to tell. Open it, if you dare! Open it, I say!
When you Sim opens the box, Mr. Humble’s Computer (worth 1,350 simoleons) will appear in your Sim’s inventory, along with the message: Perhaps this machine and the game included on it are signs of things to come? With the computer comes a version of Sims 3 for your Sims to play. The official video of Sims 3 on the computer had not yet been released. Mr. Humble is named after Ron Humble, Executive Producer for the Sims division of EA.
14 They're More Important Than You Know
Much like the Goth family of Sims fame, the Crumplebottoms have appeared in almost every Sims game and are implied to be one of the founders of the Sim world.
Miss Crumplebottom is introduced in Hot Date as a crabby old lady who will beat your Sims with her purse if she sees Sims showing public displays of affection. Miss Crumplebottom appears in Sims 3 and 4, where her first name is revealed to be Agnes. Another Mrs. Crumplebottom appears in Sims 2 Nightlife, following a similar role as her predecessor, but she is supposed to be a distant relative to Agnes, not Miss Crumplebottom herself.
The game includes other references to the Crumplebottoms and their long-complicated story, such as the Crumplebottom Memorial Park and Crumplebottom Lane. Fans of The Sims have tried to piece together Miss Crumplebottom’s story based on several details given in the game. In Sims 3 she was revealed to be the sister of Cornelia Goth.
13 Never Coming Off!
Tank Grunt and Johnny Smith are the only two Sims 2 characters to appear in the console spinoff Sims 2 DS. The game is set in Strangetown, only this time it's (mostly) a wasteland, containing only a hotel, a bar, a convenience store, and a jail. Here, Tank Grunt is an adult and hotel guest, leading to fan theories that the DS Strangetown is a dystopian future of the neighbourhood.
More importantly, the Tank Grunt in this world has a darker side to the teenage Tank we meet in the PC version. Not only did he injure his funny bone in combat, leaving him “permanently without a sense of irony,” But even more disturbingly, if you get to know Tank well enough, he will reveal that his army make-up is actually permanently tattooed on his face. Strangetown’s future seems bleaker than ours sometimes!
12 Shakespeare’s Secrets
Some of these Easter Eggs are a little deeper than others, as seen inside the premade Sims 2 neighbourhood Veronaville. This neighbourhood is inspired by the works of William Shakespeare and contains several parodies of his characters, including Romeo and Juliet who are in a budding teenage romance despite their families, the Capps and the Montys, being in a feud.
But the characters aren’t the only nod to Shakespeare some fans think is hidden in the game. Although all Sims can fall in love with any Sim regardless of gender, some Sims have gender preferences that can be viewed through boolProp or SimsPE. Despite starting the game in straight storylines, several of the pre-made male residents of Veronaville such as Kent Capp, Cornwall Capp, and Patrizio Monty have male gender preferences at the beginning of the game. This is thought to be a reference to Shakespeare’s orientation.
11 Don’s Tree
Don Lothario is famed for being the Sims' ultimate Casanova. When we first meet him in Sims 2 in the neighbourhood Pleasantview, Don is involved with several different women, including Cassandra Goth, his maid Kayleigh Langerak, and both Caliente sisters.
Although his treatment of the Pleasantview women is shocking in itself, it got a little darker with the Bon Voyage expansion pack.
One of the vacation memories that your Sim can acquire is to examine the tree rings, either by purchasing the tree from buy mode or travelling to the Three Lakes vacation neighbourhood. Upon examining the tree, your Sim may read a message in the rings, including one of four possible initial combinations: DL+CG, DL+DC, DL+NC, DL+KL. For goodness' sake, Don…
10 Don't Mess With The Monkey
The Urbz was an amazing spin off from the original game. Your character got to dress up in some amazing outfits, you got to explore new locations, meet new NPCs and learn interesting social interactions. Along with dance-offs and playing in the fountain, there were some really dark sides to the game, including a NPC that used to be homeless and one that used to work... an "alternative" career, along with muggers that terrorized the Urbz.
One of the darker (or slightly amusing, depending on how you choose to enjoy the game) moments is the ice cream machine in Kicktail Park, the skater side of the city. Major Monkey’s Ice Cream Emporium is the snack location of the park where your Sim can purchase an ice cream. However, using the machine while in a bad mood can have negative consequences, such as the monkey coming alive and strangling your Sim!
9 Shh, It's A Secret
Skills have been a major part of the franchise since the first game, allowing your sim to advance in their careers and gain new abilities. But along with the “skill point” skills that can be viewed in your Sims panels, each game came with secret skills that your Sims acquired through engaging in certain activities.
The original game came with the cleaning skill, which while not being a playable skill could be seen in NPCs such as the maid and the janitor. In Sims 2, skills such as dance and pool could unlock extra scholarships for your teens, and the study skill can help complete homework faster. Other skills included mediation, yoga and painting. Secret Sims 3 skills include golfing, karaoke, and club dancing, while in Sims 4 your Sims can (secretly) master gaming and sales. Many others can be discovered within the games!
8 Congratulations, Now Take A Break!
I sometimes wonder if when creating their game, the creators of Sims knew just how much of an addictive monster they were creating. When I found out about this message, I realised that they most certainly did, but that is exactly what they wanted from us!
In the first Sims game, if you had played a single household for over one hundred Sim days then a pop-up would come congratulating the player for wasting their life on the endless game! The pop-up then offers trivia about the creators, starting with Will Wright. If you feel like going back and doing this, then pay attention to the names, as you may notice some of them are used within the game, such as townie names and objects. Or if you’re busy, you can just take my word for it.
7 Whack-A-Creator!
The pop-up wasn’t the only time the game decided to honour their almighty creator Will Wright. During Sims Vacation your Sim can honour him in a fun and slightly sinister way.
While on vacation, your Sim can play several arcade games in order in win carnival tickets, most of them parodies of familiar games, including the Whack-A-Mole game. Instead of whacking poor, innocent moles on the head with a plastic mallet, your Sims are encouraged to whack the popping up heads of Will Wright in the “Whack-A-Will” game. While I’m sure this feature was added purely in fun towards the almighty creator, I can’t help but think sometimes someone at the Sims office snuck off to let their frustration out on some unsuspecting Wills.
6 The Big Man Is Coming To Town
Santa Claus was added to The Sims in the Livin’ Large expansion pack, where he would come to the house if you purchased a plate of cookies, left them near an open fire and sent every Sim in the house to bed before three in the morning. Simple! Although he will leave gifts for the household, they won’t actually get anything when they open them, which was probably more annoying than anything else.
However if you fast forward to Sims 2: Holiday Party Pack, Santa will appear if you bake cookies and buy a Christmas tree. This Santa was much more approachable than the original, giving hugs to children and leaving actual presents. This Santa was much better at being Santa, and he knew it. If you add Santa to the game and view his bio, it will simply read “The Big Man.”
I wouldn’t recommend trying this one out yourself, as it can cause game corruption.
5 Seriously, Help Me!
Sometimes these Easter Eggs can take a slightly sinister turn.
In Sims 3: World Adventures, you can purchase the Fortune Factory Fortune Cookie Maker at the Shang Simla Market. The machine gives both positive and negative fortunes for your Sim to experience, which can result in the positive moodlet (“Promising Fortune”) or a negative one (“Foreboding Fortune”). Lucky Sims can’t receive negative fortunes and the machine can be upgraded by handy Sims to only give good fortunes, unless you have an unlucky Sim who will never receive a good fortune!
While that all seems fun and games, there is a change for another, creepier fortune cookie. Sometimes, your Sim will open their cookie to read, “Help me! I’m trapped in a game development studio!”
Funny, right? Because… they’re joking… right?
4 Those Poor Strangetown Kids
Strangetown has always been my favourite neighbourhood in the game. It came with the best characters, it’s constantly invaded by aliens, and summer there must be pretty awesome! Despite this, the neighbourhood only appeared in Sims 2, along with some of the console spin-offs. Despite this, the neighbourhood was mentioned in Sims 3 several times, revealing a dark past.
While the DS game implies that the future of Strangetown is bleak, Sims 3 implies that its past wasn’t that peachy either. If your Sim throws away perfectly eatable food in the third instalment, they will get the negative “wasteful” moodlet, with the description: “There are children starving in Strangetown.”
3 Reading Into It
In the original Sims and Sims 2, your Sim could only select the genre of book they wanted to read such as children’s, romance, or mystery. In the second instalment, each genre would have its own cover themed to the genre your Sim chose, but it makes no real difference to the book once put down as you could still use it to study cooking, cleaning, and mechanical skills.
But in Sims 3, book titles were added to the game and the creators decided not to be boring about it. Books include Murder in Pleasantview by Alexander Goth, which could be a reference to his mother’s disappearance in Sims 2. Business guides like The Goth Papers or The Wright Papers and, my personal favourite, sci-fi book 1948, a reference to George Orwell’s 1984. The book's description in the DS version of the game reveals that the book was written in 1908 and featured flying cars and “other futuristic things.”
2 EverSim Terrace
If you’re looking for something that has been around for longer than The Sims, then how about The Simpsons?
You wouldn’t think that there would be many opportunities for the two to overlap, but it seems that you can’t escape the jaundice family even in Sim world.
The Free Time expansion pack reintroduced the train set into the game. The Round and Round Model Train Set can be purchased for 1750 Simoleons and can be an opportunity for Sims with the tinkering hobby to gain enthusiasm, by playing with the train set and setting up landscaping on the table. If you choose to have your Sim build a town on their table and pay close attention to their work, you may notice a house on the table with close resemblance to 742 Evergreen Terrace, the house where The Simpsons live! Fun, right?
1 There's No Escaping The Llamas
I think it’s pretty clear to any devoted Simmer that the creators have a thing for llamas. Llamas are everywhere in the game, from sports teams, décor, and the popular band “The Screaming Llamas.”
The first notable mention of llamas came in Livin’ Large, where a sports outfit was introduced for male Sims with llamas written on in the roman alphabet. In Sims University, the mascots that come to your Sim’s lot will be dressed as llamas, the cheerleaders will have llamas on their uniforms, and a beach in Sims 3 University is named Llama Beach. Sims themselves like to talk about llamas, rejecting you on the phone in the original by saying they “have to feed their llama,” in Sims 2 by saying that they would “rather play MyShuno with a pack of llamas,” and later adding in the mean interaction, “Imply mother is a llama.” My personal favourite was a cheat in Sims 3, “enableLlamas on/off.” It does nothing to stop the llamas, it’s just fun!
Llamas are endless in Sims, and I’m pretty sure there is no end in sight.