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You can still get The Sims 2 but there's a catch
WinMacSims3
Posts: 1,610 Member
The Sims 2 (at least for Windows users) is hard to legally get unless you have the CD/DVD copies or gotten the Ultimate Collection. If you don't have either, you can still get The Sims 2 but only on a Mac. EA stopped selling The Sims 2 so there was no way to get it unless you use stores like Amazon. On July 2014, EA allowed you to get the Ultimate Collection free from Origin but after August 2014, there's no way to get it now. However...
The Sims 2 Super Collection is available for §30 although many Stuff Packs and the last 2 remaining EPs (FreeTime and Apartment Life) are missing since they're not released on OS X.
The fact that the Mac is currently the only legal way to obtain The Sims 2 can be annoying because most Simmers are Windows users although there are Mac users as well and not everyone can afford a Macintosh. I'm not sure about The Sims' OS/Platform Market Share since EA doesn't release such information.
How do you feel that you have to have a Mac to purchase The Sims 2 now?
The Sims 2 Super Collection is available for §30 although many Stuff Packs and the last 2 remaining EPs (FreeTime and Apartment Life) are missing since they're not released on OS X.
The fact that the Mac is currently the only legal way to obtain The Sims 2 can be annoying because most Simmers are Windows users although there are Mac users as well and not everyone can afford a Macintosh. I'm not sure about The Sims' OS/Platform Market Share since EA doesn't release such information.
How do you feel that you have to have a Mac to purchase The Sims 2 now?
Origin ID: GothicSimmer, YouTube: GothicSimmer
Post edited by WinMacSims3 on
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Yours sincerely, Joseph
Origin ID- manda102784
You're right that it's now pretty difficult to get the Sims 2 for Windows brand new anymore, but if you don't mind a used copy, it's easy to get. Just search "sims 2" on eBay, there are plenty, and as the above person said, almost every thrift store I've been to recently have had old Sims games (1 & 2) in the game section.
^ just a heads up though to anyone looking for Sims games in thrift stores, MAKE SURE they still have the original game manual inside so that you have the code, or else it's useless! I recently found TS2 Apartment Life in a thrift store for $3. I'd been looking for a physical copy of AL for a while so I was happy to find this and bought it right away without thinking. However, the case was sealed with tape and I failed to realise until I got home and opened it that there was only the disc inside...no manual...no code. So essentially useless (unless anyone knows how to install a disc without the code??) At least it was only cheap, but very disappointing. Don't buy second hand if you can't tell whether it still has it's code inside or not.
Offer BOTH sims 1 complete collection And sims 2 ultimate either for free OR a small fee of say $5.00 or $10.00 for Everybody all the time.
It's ironic that The Sims 1 is more expensive than The Sims 4 which costs ($60-$80). The manual is important because often times, used copies will not include the manual making installation impossible. I've seen MySims DS games not have a case or manual at all, those are usually labeled Cartridge only.
While for console games, the manual isn't vital but some games have information exclusive to the manual. For example, Donkey Kong Country 3 had a boss (not The Sims' boss) named Squirt who can only be defeated by sucking water and squirting water at it. The manual tells you how to suck water but this isn't mentioned on the game as all. If you got the game used, getting pass Squirt was impossible since you didn't have the manual. However, it's possible to look online to find out how to suck water from a waterfall.
Hi @Joey2eyeball
I am just wondering if it was difficult to install sims 2 discs on windows 7 as my initial joy at receiving and downloading the UC a couple of weeks ago has turned into torture as it keeps crashing all the time now after playing for around half an hour and looking around the net for solutions it appears a lot of other players are having the same problem. I went onto EA chat explained the situation and after offering a little advice on compatibility nothing has worked including repairing and reinstalling the game. They told me that there was no other advice they could offer me as the game is unsupported.
I have already decided that I would still like to own/play sims 2 and went looking to buy secondhand disc versions of the game but am worried I might spend even more only to find the disc version will not play either.
Did you have to do any jiggling around to get your discs to play properly on windows 7 and if so would you mind sharing with me how you made it work. Also I am assuming as long as I have the original game codes it should all work?
> Joey2eyeball wrote: »
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> I have all The Sims 2 games on Windows 7 except for Pets and Happy Holiday Stuff, so I'm fine with what I got.
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> Hi @Joey2eyeball
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> I am just wondering if it was difficult to install sims 2 discs on windows 7 as my initial joy at receiving and downloading the UC a couple of weeks ago has turned into torture as it keeps crashing all the time now after playing for around half an hour and looking around the net for solutions it appears a lot of other players are having the same problem. I went onto EA chat explained the situation and after offering a little advice on compatibility nothing has worked including repairing and reinstalling the game. They told me that there was no other advice they could offer me as the game is unsupported.
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> I have already decided that I would still like to own/play sims 2 and went looking to buy secondhand disc versions of the game but am worried I might spend even more only to find the disc version will not play either.
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> Did you have to do any jiggling around to get your discs to play properly on windows 7 and if so would you mind sharing with me how you made it work. Also I am assuming as long as I have the original game codes it should all work?
I know you commented a long time ago, but if you're still having trouble, and forgive me as I'm not overly tech savvy, but I'm just wondering if you have enough virtual memory to run the game. I have Windows 7, and I can run pretty graphic intensive games for long periods of time before the game runs out of memory and I have to save the content, exit, and re-enter. So, I'm just wondering if that's why you're having issues running the game for long periods of time?
Thanks for the response however I found out when the game wont start up I have to go into Origin and perform an update then the game loads..
Then I found some of the crashing issues were bad CC so after I managed to resolve those 2 things the game has been fine but the reason I asked about discs and windows 7 was because if I could not get UC working I already knew I wanted to own the series and play it but was wary re operation regards discs.
> @SataiDelennn
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> Thanks for the response however I found out when the game wont start up I have to go into Origin and perform an update then the game loads..
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> Then I found some of the crashing issues were bad CC so after I managed to resolve those 2 things the game has been fine but the reason I asked about discs and windows 7 was because if I could not get UC working I already knew I wanted to own the series and play it but was wary re operation regards discs.
Oh, I see. Well, I'm glad you were able to get it up and running. I run mine off the base disc and it runs just fine. Or, just fine for a Sims game, lol. Occasionally I'll witness someone putting a baby or toddler in a crib, and suddenly the baby is on the floor next to the crib, or just recently, a toddler fell asleep and "collapsed" and his head went through a wall. I've also noticed odd things when I place garden features like trees. I'll put them up against the house, and it looks fine from the angle I'm currently viewing, then later I'll go back and change the camera angle, and look at it from the inside of the house and some of the tree's branches are sticking through the wall. Just minor things like that.
But overall I've had no issues running it on my Windows 7 system.
I do have one game (non-Sims related) that I had to put on an auto-save of every fifteen minutes (which drives me nuts when everything is running fine because I'll be in the middle of trying to do something and suddenly the game freezes and the auto-save thing pops up and I have to wait until it's done) and it's saved me several times when my system ran out of virtual memory (this is a VERY graphic intensive game) and I didn't catch the warning because I was so involved with what I was trying to do that suddenly the game would just shut down on me. In those cases, I've either lost nothing at all thanks to the frequent auto-save, or I've lost very minimal amounts of game data (and when I say game data, I merely mean what was directly involved in a task or completing a building or something. Not actual game content) so it's easy to go back and redo what I was doing. Thankfully though, I've not had that issue with Sims 2.
As this series is new to me I am not sure what other players who know it well experience things and understand them to be expected or whether its something I am experiencing alone that I need to resolve myself if that makes sense-)
When you mention the baby is on the floor after putting it in the crib I have not experienced that but I have experienced a jumping bug which is similar and after reading about it on the web know that's something many players have experienced so I know its not unusual.
It sure is a learning curve and it sounds like you have other games you are playing with similar problems-) Honestly sometimes I don't know why we persevere but for me I put it down to my perfectionist OCD personality
Truthfully though, OCD or not, for those of us who appreciate GOOD gaming, games like the Sims are the best. My other favorites are the ORIGINAL Warcraft (and when I say original, I'm talking either 3 1/2" "hard" disc" or 5 1/4" floppy disc, which should give you an idea of how long I've been playing PC [i.e. Personal Computer] games!), King's Quest 1 - 3 (I love the more "recent" CD volumes as well, but there is just something fun about the pixel versions of the game, and having to actually type out instructions to make the characters walk and interact, etc. I mean, I remember looking around to see if my mom was anywhere nearby and then telling the character to go eff itself because I was so frustrated when I'd tell it to walk forward, or do something, and I'd get, "I'm sorry, I don't know how to do that." Well, you can have a LOT of fun telling it what to go do with itself and then getting that response, and I was somewhere between 11 and 14 at the time, lol. Another WONDERFUL game was Caesar II. That was simply the BEST of the Sierra Caesar games. Caesar IV was the closest you could get when Caesar II crashed/stopped working on newer systems and you could no longer get the patch to make it run properly because Sierra stopped supporting it. And then of course, there's the Sims, The Sims Deluxe Version, and The Sims 2. And quite frankly, The Sims just can't be outdone, especially (IMO) The Sims 2. That's probably why I and so many others keep going back to it.
If EA wants a hint of what works and what people really want in a game like this, they need to go back to Sims 2 and take a good, long look at the game and try and understand what we all find so appealing about it and go from there. Again, just my opinion.
I blame sims games for forcing me to learn more about PC's and the way they work and I am certainly no expert by any means but if your playing the sims in my humble opinion you better learn fast because I doubt there are many players untouched by the insanity playing sims games can cause
Honestly I have no idea about floppy discs but am not far off that era and laughed so loud reading how you describe telling the character to go eff itself while looking over your shoulder for your mum lol
I am quite new to sims 2 and in some ways feel like I am going around in circles and it does not help trying to start playing with a whole new series all at once (although I am extremely grateful to have received the whole series with UC)
There are few sims 2 players on this forum that I feel so guilty about for me constantly picking their brains whenever I get a new idea of what I want to do next lol
There isn't a day when I load up 2 that I am not laughing at something I have never seen before or just watching the quirks of how sims behave on their own with no real player guidance.
I am not a gamer in the strict sense of the word I actually fell in love with Sims 2 after playing a couple of hours on a friends PC but by the time I had any time to devote to the game sims 3 was out so I skipped 2 and went straight to 3, now I have played 2 for a while I can see why players are constantly referring back to the series. I doubt EA will ever make anything as in depth as 2 again because I don't think they actually care enough and I tried playing 4 when it came out thinking it was supposed to be like 2 but now I have 2 to play its really nothing like it.
Sims quirk or OCD I think there are many of us
Exactly! Sims 2 was created at the height of the creative gaming era (and I'm sure there are people who will disagree with me). It was at a time when developers had a LOT of creative freedom, and the corporate aspect of a company allowed for that creative freedom because they stayed out of the creative process, understanding that developers and coders are a totally different breed from themselves (paper pushers). Nowadays, it's the corporate side (I feel) which dictates a lot to developers while holding them on a short leash, and so the true creative process is drowned in paper and profits, etc.
Now it's all mobile games and Facebook games, and pay to play games. And that's fine for kids who are growing up now, but those of us who grew up in the 80s and even 90s, well, we know what was vs. what is, and we see that the quality is virtually gone, but there's quantity in abundance (at least, that's how I feel).
So yeah, for those who are lucky enough to have the Sims 1, 2, Deluxe, etc., or remember it, or can still get their hands on it, they understand the joy of Sims2 and the UNIQUENESS of Sims 2.
I'm not a hard core gamer either, but I think I'm pretty close (a rarity for a girl/woman my age. In my day, hard core gamers were boys/men). I played Doom on one of my ex-boyfriend's computers, and while I disliked a lot of the violence, I loved the "coolness" of the first-person aspect of the game. And outside of the games I mentioned above, being from the 80s, I will ALWAYS have a soft spot in my heart for PacMan, Ms. PacMan, Donkey Kong, Galaga/Galaxia, Joust (even though I hated the game, lol), Centipede, and all the others from that era. I watched the movie, "Pixels," for the first time last month. I am not an Adam Sandler fan, but that movie was really good. And there's a line in it that Sandler says which I wholeheartedly agree with. To win those old games, you had to figure out the combinations/strategies to be able to advance. Not just "point and shoot" as fast as you can with no rhyme or reason.
And yes, you can let your Sims have complete free will if you want, but you can also control them and figure out the strategy that will work best to help you be successful with your family. So, maybe that's what draws people in? The fact that there is some strategy to this game and it requires effort.
I'm sorry if I'm coming off sounding like a/an ------ or a snob, but I guess that's my problem with a lot of games today. I compare them to the games of old, and I just see a lot of shortcomings in many of the games today. And please understand, I'm not trying to claim that games of yesterday are perfect, they're not. And my comments regarding the old King's Quest, and my constant frustrations with Sims 2 are proof of that. I simply recognize that there is still more quality in those games than there is in a lot of the games out today. Though PvZ is an exception. That is one funny game!
Oh PacMan and similar lol the memories of those games-)
What you say about the today's corporate strategy is spot on and I will not even begin to start about the deliberate stagnation of individual creativity in favor of the bottom line as in years gone by it was considered a skill to think outside the box not odd as it appears to be labelled today:)
Like you I am not really enthralled by violent games which is why I fell in love with the sims the first time I played it as although I have ultimate control there is a lot more to play/learn about the game if I feel like it.
I still fire up the wii occasionally and bash the heck out of my boxing opponent when feeling frustrated (which is different to killing) and there are a few other games unique to wii that are great to play but I have to really feel like it. I also bought an Xbox one when my 360 started to fail and although I bought games I don't enjoy them the same way I do the Sims and these days I have given up pretending otherwise especially after I paid out out for a new PC build just so I could play the game properly -)
In some ways I think 2 is harder than 3 but maybe that's because the way to play 3 was firmly attached to my way of thinking and it has taken me ages to rearrange that thinking to accommodate the way 2 works .. I love modern so before even playing 2 I was downloading CC and hair, added a few mods and have changed and swapped things around as I have gone along however I am a terrible builder and its quite hard finding very modern style builds for 2. If you saw my Sims 3 worlds they have to be perfect before I will even begin to play in them and that is only achievable thanks to many sims players personal creativity who share their talents with the rest of the community for which I am forever grateful and often think they should be the ones working for EA they are so talented. Same for the modder community as without their many talents many would find their games unplayable not to mention all the extra game-play their mods can add to the game itself.
Nothing is ever perfect just nostalgic when remembered years later lol however when you mention mobile games that is what Sims 4 reminds me of every-time I have tried to play it yet when I go into 2 something unexpected is always happening which is nothing to do with my game play style at all-)
For example I made a new punk style sim that I decided was going to become my first Vampire, live downtown and be a bit mean so what happens totally out of my control is Nina caliente turns up with a few others to welcome him to the neighborhood and he instantly falls for her swooning and following her around like a puppy totally smitten and they woohoo a few short minutes into the visit in the spa right in-front of a very annoyed Don Lothario..At first I thought it was a one off but every time he sees her its the same so I am having to re-think what he was created for and that's not something I ever had to think about playing 3, its like the sims 2 sims sometimes really do have minds of their own about what they want
I was browsing ebay for something the other day and came across the complete collection of sims 1 and was really tempted to buy it and put it on a shelf to try it later but when I read about the problems people are experiencing trying to get it to work I decided I did not need that kind of stress but am still tempted as it was the very first series and I have no clue how it works..
Have you ever played sims 1 and if so what are your thoughts?
In one of my custom homes for my custom Sims, I built a house with an inner courtyard (which Ladysimplayer8 recently helped me out with re: suggestions for how to achieve an inner courtyard in Sims2), and also had a backyard, and in the backyard I put a decorative fountain (two types actually came in the Deluxe version and I wish they had included it in the Sims 2), and then I built a tall hedge maze around it so that any time a Sim wanted to view it, they had to navigate the maze.
IMO, Sims 2 is better regarding interpersonal interactions, but I prefer some of the available content in the Deluxe version which I suppose could just be considered an expansion in some ways to the Sims 1. I liked all of them for being able to custom create homes which is something I LOVE to do (I also love viewing homes online, and am ecstatic if the pictures include floor plans because then I can study them and see what I would do to the house to "improve" them, lol).
I do seem to remember getting frustrated a LOT with the original Sim characters in the Sims 1 because of the limitations regarding what you could make them do, and what they would/could do on their own and when interacting with each other, and I seem to remember HATING the babies because of the severe limitations the parents had when "interacting" with them. The Sims 2 opened up a whole new world in that regard. The developers really listened to the players about what our loves and hates were about the game and put TONS of effort into creating the Sims 2, and I think that's a big part of why the game is STILL as loved and successful as it is.
That's funny about your vampire Sim and Nina and Don. Cute story. I never played 3 or 4. I stopped at 2.
Oh, another thing I wasn't thrilled about in 1 (or really, 1, the Deluxe version, and even 2) is the horrible color combinations available for decorating the houses. But I do my best to make everything work, so I do come up with some very interesting combinations. And something I've been doing lately that I never tried to do, is to choose furniture colors that "work" with the room colors. THAT'S tough!
In my McBlade family (the family I am playing right now), the house they're in has a LOT of green in it. I wasn't planning on going in that direction, but some of the paint patterns and wallpapers I liked were green, so eventually I just gave in and so now, most of the house is green. I think it works, though. And the current nursery I'll have to redo when the youngest boy becomes a child because the nursery will become his room, and I'll move Julie (the only girl, and a toddler also) into the HUGE room I created for her for when she becomes a child. Because of the size of it, it really should go to the eldest boy, Petey (now a teen), but I already decorated it so prettily for Julie that I can't give it up to Petey, lol.
And before I forget, yes, boxing is violent, but you're also right in that it's not killing like the Doom series, or this Mobile Strike thing I see advertised on T.V. all the time. My trainer has been having me box against the dummy, and you're right in that it's WONDERFUL for getting out frustration and aggression, lol. I would never fight a real person though.
I think after what you say about sims 1 I will stick with learning 2 for the time being lol
When I first got UC I spent ages looking for recolors because there is no color wheel like I had been used to in 3, by the time I had finished and because there is no utility to check for bad CC I installed a ton of it which later corrupted my game and I had to start over-)
Also after all the time spent downloading recolors I decided I did not like the furniture too much even if it did match and ended up downloading a lot of modern 3t2 furniture and build stuff which I like the look of much better so now the interiors are all modern looking until my sims step out the front door-)
I too have got to have my worlds/neighborhood in a style of my liking so the search still goes on for modern looking builds that are safe to download as I have also suffered problems downloading lots in the past as well. I found a fab website today where a player has built a beautiful looking world and was quite happy enough to share all the links where she got her stuff from so have been gathering yet more stuff to put in my game. I also enjoy perusing talented player stuff including the storytelling on some very cleverly put together you tube videos, most is way above my head but I truly appreciate the time, effort and creative talent I could only dream of
Your current playable family surrounded by green sounds adorable and shows that sometimes even if we think we are deviating away from what we believe we like the most it can work and we can be surprised.
with Sims 3 most everything is carefully controlled and no matter where I start my sims usually end up somewhere down the road being the same as the last family I played but with 2 I am noticing that if I start a sim off with a particular story in mind and the sim leans towards another direction almost by themselves I will accommodate that which is a totally different way to for me to play.
I only mentioned about the boxing not killing trying to convey that I understand the need for a stress/frustration outlet but I don't think it has to involve killing (even digitally) for me anyway even if it is pretend heck one of the first things I found out about in 2 was the grim reaper phone in efforts to keep my sims from dying if the worst happened as in 3 you simply require a death flower in a sims inventory to have that covered
On a whim today I am going to try making a hood with some deco world objects I have found but if its anything like my house building skill they will be huddled in a corner surrounded by a row of trees looking quite out of place and uncomfortable
And that's another thing I love about Sims 2. When they get really frustrated, they will turn and look up at you like, "YO! Are you going to DO something to help me out? Or are you just going to sit there and watch me be really angry or upset or tired?!"
Their facial expressions are really amusing sometimes.
I suppose many animations for you are old hat but for me their expressions and actions have make me laugh out loud unexpectedly as I had no clue what was occurring and I defo was not in control-)
Love the take on my poor sim looking up at the camera as if to say WTH is going on here surrounded by trees-)
one thing for sure I know I will never stop playing 2 now as I really am hooked