The Sims is back!

If there is one thing I want new players to know about The Sims, it’s that this game is HARD. To a modern gamer, it’s less like a dollhouse and more like a survival game with only one difficulty level. Brutal!

bob and betty newbie's house the sims legacy

Playing a brand-new game presents you with a particular kind of difficulty. You can’t look anything up because it takes a while for the internet to catch up with the game guides, walk-throughs, wikis, and such. At first, it’s just you and a bunch of Reddit users trying to feel your way through it.

And, of course, when you go looking for help, at this point, search results for The Sims mainly return info for The Sims 4, which has had a 12-year head-start in that respect.

What is a Sims player supposed to do?

I rummaged through my ancient memories of a long ago time and remembered what we did: We bought the Prima guide!

The Prima guide for The Sims has been out of publication for quite a while. However, I was able to snag a copy of the original five-book set on eBay. It should be here next week, and my nostalgia factor is running high.

There aren’t many of these guides for sale online, and I imagine they will all be snapped up quickly. If you don’t manage to score one, or you don’t want to shell out the cash, you can also read the original The Sims Prima guide in PDF form on the Internet Archive.

In the meantime, I did my best and was surprised at how much I remembered. I only had time to play a few in-game days with Bob and Betty Newbie, but it was a treat. Except for the Tragic Clown, constant roach infestations, having to water all the outside plants by hand, earning $240 per day in a world where a basic meal costs $20 (actually that part feels pretty realistic), and so on.

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