My first every modding adventure was during the Sims 1 era. I was shocked how good this “cc” was and how cool the game could be. I had working farm animals, and working fish farms (uh what?). So, with that said, I’m going on an adventure to find fun downloads for The Sims 1, and share them with those of us who are still enjoying this classic in the 2020s.
How to install CC for The Sims 1.
Unlike newer titles in the sims series, the sims 1 requires you to put files in multiple folders. I suggest to make this easy you use windows’ file explorer function that “searches” by file type, moving multiple files at once.
For example, I’m going to show you my basket of downloads from The Sims Resource. When you download files, I suggest using your built in unzipper, winzip, or 7zip, and have all the files in one folder. If you got them from different sites, make a temporary downloads file and throw all unzipped single files in there to make this process more painless. To make this much easier, only download ONE TYPE OF CONTENT at once, so there is no question if you have multiple files of the same type (for example house vs. skin bitmaps).
As you can see, I searched in my file of downloads for .iff and then moved them to the objects folder listed below.
Where to install files
Objects
C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\The Sims\Downloads
File type(s): .IFF, .FAR
Heads and Bodies
C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\The Sims\GameData\Skins
File type(s): .BMP, .CMX, .SKN
Walls
C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\The Sims\GameData\Walls
File type(s): .WLL.
Floors
C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\The Sims\GameData\Floors
File type(s): .FLR
Lots
Lots are based on neighborhood types. You can only have 1 house type for each lot number. I recommend leaving neighborhood 1 as the pure default and then adding custom content to neighborhood 2 or 3, depending on your preferences.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\The Sims\UserData1\Houses
C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\The Sims\UserData2\Houses
File type(s): .IFF
Lots have to replace old files as the game can only have 1 titled the same per folder. For obvious reasons.
Where to get The Sims 1 Custom Content (CC)
I have a sims resource account, and I’m bored, so I just downloaded every item from there that I liked in a basket. Why not, right? Anyways, I downloaded things up until page 94.
https://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/browse/category/sims1/skipsetitems/1/
I still remember Parsimonious from my old sims days. I don’t super love their new layout, but oh well it is what it is. Times change, we’re just lucky they’re still online.
http://www.parsimonious.org/sims1.html
Game Changing Mods:
Teens for Sims
https://web.archive.org/web/20031207102900/http://www.simlifecycle.com:80/download.html
This mod installs itself when you download it.