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Field Researcher
Original Poster
#1 Old 2nd Feb 2014 at 1:22 PM
Default The EA Office Fire - The Game That Never Was
So I've been looking a lot at the older versions of the game, and I've come across a lot of people mentioning a fire in the EA office that caused most of the original coding to be lost, making Maxis have to completely recode the game, giving us what we have today.

I can't find any results on the internet, and searching on here just gives me Sims fire threads. Anyone care to explain for me? Do you think the game would have been better or worse, had they not lost the code?

Early game videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0o6s-Ym9AE - E3 2003
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq1LScuyzCA - GC Event 2003
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQh0-yykaco - Aspirations Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqiRdae6Qys - Unreleased Soundtrack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XwpoR9-jWc - 2003 Beta
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 2nd Feb 2014 at 2:09 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 2nd Feb 2014 at 5:30 PM.
#1 is more or less identical to the game we have.
#2 is so distorted it's almost impossible to see anything. It does look more or less like the finished product. Might be a still unfinished Beta.
#3 is an animated game trailer, not a gameplay trailer - they almost never look like the finished product.
#4 might just be that they decided to not put it in the game.
#5 says it's a beta, so there might be things in it they decided not to put into the game. I can't see anything vastly different from what we got, other than whatever the toddler is doing.

As for a fire, I don't know. Might have been mentioned, but if there's nothing to find it might just be a rumor.
There's lots of "lost" code and "lost" items already in the game files. Some have been salvaged already, and some is too unfinished to salvage properly.
Inventor
#3 Old 2nd Feb 2014 at 3:18 PM
(here comes a conspiracy theory, dislikes ahoy! also, this isn't serious)

Maybe there wasn't actually a fire. Maybe EA was just being EA and wanted the poor devs at Maxis to start over because they didn't like it and thought this newer version, the one we have today, would bring in more money. Whether that is true or not will never be known.

(end conspiracy theory, as a reiteration, don't take this seriously. )
Scholar
#4 Old 2nd Feb 2014 at 4:57 PM
Yeah, most of the videos seemed about the same as what we have in game with maybe one or two differences, except the 3rd one, but those trailers are never like the actual game.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#5 Old 2nd Feb 2014 at 5:34 PM
http://i.imgur.com/7O87KHe.jpg And this.. it looks like The Sims original here.

http://www.gamerstemple.com/games3/000570/000570s.asp More early images are included in this link.

http://oi62.tinypic.com/243ivyt.jpg
Mad Poster
#6 Old 2nd Feb 2014 at 6:46 PM
Ah I remember that Aspirations trailer. The moment I saw it, I was obsessed with getting Sims 2. But I'm going off topic, so anyway; I've done so much research over the years of the Sims 2 Beta and recovered objects and text and stuff and I too have tried to find out more about the fire. It's literally impossible to google it because so much other things came up. The Wikipedia page for Sims 2 doesn't seem to mention it; so I presume it either happened and never got recorded as it wasn't actually that important or it just didn't happen and some things were just took out of the game for 'newer better things'. If you notice, the Sims 2 beta doesn't look that much different from the original Sims game, so I imagine they decided to up their game a little bit more, making them re-texture and change a lot of the hairs (and lets face it, EA want to make money so they're not going to have cars in the original game) and some things just ended up just not working correctly so they had to be taken out (such as weather).
Scholar
#7 Old 2nd Feb 2014 at 6:50 PM
The first pic is interesting; was that box of text supposed to be her bio or or some kind of scenario? As for the archive of pics, the only thing I'm really seeing that's different are unused hairstyles.
Forum Resident
#8 Old 2nd Feb 2014 at 6:52 PM
Was there a crowd holding pitchforks and screaming "Down with EA!" involved in the fire? (Or was EA actually good back then?)

~Someday my prince will come... And he better not bring all his hood's character files with him.~
@)->----- Place this ASCII flower in your sig as a thank you to all of our amazing moderators at MTS!
TS3 vs. Your CPU: The Solution
Shameless plug for my fledgeling Simblr here
Top Secret Researcher
#9 Old 2nd Feb 2014 at 9:11 PM
Forum Resident
#10 Old 3rd Feb 2014 at 6:07 AM
Yes, I do recall there being something about a fire causing them to have to start over in that little mini game that plays when you first install the base game. Does anyone have any evidence as to whether this is actually true or just something that EA made up?
Mad Poster
#11 Old 3rd Feb 2014 at 9:17 AM
I do remember the fire rumour! They didn't lose EVERYTHING but they lost a good chunk of what they had. Nobody I talked to recalled such a thing so it kind of makes me smile to know that I wasn't crazy in remembering hearing about this.


Angie/DS | Baby Sterling - 24/2/2014
This account is mostly used by my sons to download CC now, if you see me active, it's probably just them!
Mad Poster
#12 Old 3rd Feb 2014 at 12:30 PM
I would have thought that an organisation of the size and complexity of EA would have had effective off-site backup and source code control in place. (Although I know a lot of Simmers have strong doubts about the competence of EA!) I suppose it's possible that some minor parts of the project were just on one programmer's computer at the time of a fire, but it's highly unlikely that they would lose everything.
Field Researcher
#13 Old 3rd Feb 2014 at 3:09 PM
If someone got the time they could check the local newspaper from where the EA headquarter is and see if there says anything about a fire in 2004?
Mad Poster
#14 Old 3rd Feb 2014 at 3:11 PM
Hope this helps.

http://www.unseen64.net/tag/maxis/

All my Beginning Hoods here at MTS. http://www.modthesims.info/member.php?u=7749491
All my Beginning Hoods as Shopping Districts plus Old Town. http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=523417
MooVille, a tribute to Mootilda and her fabulous lots http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=534158
Top Secret Researcher
#15 Old 3rd Feb 2014 at 3:47 PM
So it was just a small server room fire, but it destroyed much of the beta. Some things in the beta didn't look too bad, and I bet that it didn't have the corruption issues the final game does!
Alchemist
#16 Old 3rd Feb 2014 at 4:01 PM
Meh, I think the current game looks way better.
Lab Assistant
#17 Old 4th Feb 2014 at 4:52 PM Last edited by ZedzKay : 8th Feb 2014 at 3:21 PM.
I have to say this beta's graphics and UI look like a console version. Thank god we don't have it or I would be in the TS3 realm.

EDIT:

I expect it would be quite nice to play the beta version, and hopefully, Bella, Skip and Olive's hubbies aren't borked up in the beta, we could take a look at them. Just a thought

Желаю счастья и успехов для всех олимпийцев - I wish you happiness and success for all Olympians
Formerly "ZedzKay" - Thank you Leefish <3

I live on the forums.
Thank you to all creators for the CC that is available for me and for everyone
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#18 Old 4th Feb 2014 at 5:22 PM
Quote: Originally posted by ZedzKay
I have to say this beta looks like a console version. Thank god we don't have it or I would be in the TS3 realm.


Whilst I agree the game we got looks better, wouldn't it be absolutely amazing if we could play the beta version? I'm 100% certain EA will have some copies of the early game with axed content and all the other goodies.
Forum Resident
#19 Old 4th Feb 2014 at 5:29 PM
The only thing I really see different from the early versions, is the better lighting (Which can be pseudo replicated using the radience mod), and the ugly UI...

Personally, I don't believe the office fire rumour for one second...

If there was an office fire, we would have gotten a really bad game... Think a more broken version of The Sims 3 with none of the advantages...
Instructor
#20 Old 4th Feb 2014 at 7:25 PM
Quote: Originally posted by parrot999
Think a more broken version of The Sims 3


Is that even possible? :O
Forum Resident
#21 Old 4th Feb 2014 at 7:53 PM
AndrewGloria, if EA is too incompetent to keep their Sims 3 Store working to where you can buy Simpoints, they're likely too incompetent to make backups.

~Someday my prince will come... And he better not bring all his hood's character files with him.~
@)->----- Place this ASCII flower in your sig as a thank you to all of our amazing moderators at MTS!
TS3 vs. Your CPU: The Solution
Shameless plug for my fledgeling Simblr here
Lab Assistant
#22 Old 8th Feb 2014 at 3:23 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Euan
Whilst I agree the game we got looks better, wouldn't it be absolutely amazing if we could play the beta version? I'm 100% certain EA will have some copies of the early game with axed content and all the other goodies.


Yes it would - if all the dead premades whom we can't access files to or resurrect, aren't borked in the beta, we could take a quick rummage through them to see where EA went wrong. I'd love to take a look at Skip or Olive's past husbands and the two Nervouses without getting corrupted.

Желаю счастья и успехов для всех олимпийцев - I wish you happiness and success for all Olympians
Formerly "ZedzKay" - Thank you Leefish <3

I live on the forums.
Thank you to all creators for the CC that is available for me and for everyone
Scholar
#23 Old 23rd Mar 2014 at 2:08 PM
Imagine all the items, cheats and etc in the beta!

I wonder if they have that missing Memory Manager...

The drop off has been made. You've been warned.
Theorist
#24 Old 5th May 2014 at 12:02 AM
Tits and Ass Stuff?

Am I trippin' son?
Top Secret Researcher
#25 Old 5th May 2014 at 12:24 AM
Quote: Originally posted by DJ.
Tits and Ass Stuff?

Am I trippin' son?


Part of the "Adult section" at EA Games. Parents, please keep out of reach of children.
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