Managing Sims Downloads

I have found several things that have made managing Sims downloads fantastic and all are free. Because of this, I thought I'd share it with the world. My little secrets. Enjoy!

Mass Zip/Rar Unpacking

My first and favorite is this great little thing called Unpacker (alternate site), which just happens to be free and he could really get away with making it a pay app, but thankfully this is not so. It's not just handy for Sims, but for graphics designers too who (if they're like me) are constantly downloading fonts, brushes, etc. Also mp3 lovers will appreciate it as well. Unpacker is a little gadget that works in just about all versions of Windows, to include Vista, though I'm not sure about 7. I can vouch for Vista and XP myself though.

Once you download and install it. It's simple. Wherever you directly download compressed files to, whatever folder or directory you use, just...

Right click on that directory folder > Select "Scan ... with Unpacker" (it'll now scan the folder for compressed files; e.g., zip, rar, etc.) > Under "Found Archives" check the little "Extract" box and done.

 In a matter of seconds all your files are unpacked. It's like magic!

Now the really cool thing is that rar files, which Windows does not natively support, works like a dream with this. You don't need Winrar like so many recommend.

Mass Install

I was getting so frustrated when I had tons of little installs that I had to double click on. I didn't like Sims' native installer because I had to do them one at a freaking time. I read about Sims2Pack Clean Installer and that pretty much did the same thing, though you could rename files easily by previewing them. So it's decent enough to be included further below, but it didn't meet my "Mass Install" need.

Enter Q-Xpress Installer by none other than MTS! Genius I tell you! GENIUS!

At first it was just so simple that I didn't even think it worked. I ran it again and still wondered. So I fired up the game and to my dismay, it worked like a dream.

Here's how it works...

You start it > Select Install Install tab > Browse to where your downloaded install packages are > Click Install.

That's it. That's all you do. Within a second or two, hundreds and I mean... hundreds will be installed and working perfectly. This is even more magical than Unpacker, but they really do need to go hand in hand.

Fairly Painless Renaming

Have you ever become annoyed when trying to rename files because you either exited Sims and now have to wait for it to reload because you forgot the name of the shoe which is completely inappropriately named 8965571?!

Well if so, then this is for you and it's also from the wonderful MTS.

Consider a piece of software that will automatically give you a thumbnail when you mouse over the file. Sims2Pack Clean Installer also installs files, but only one at a time and for me that is not good enough (see Q-Xpress Installer above). This app really is only good for organizing and not installing, despite it's name. It's also rather complicated to use in the beginning and I'm not going to try and explain it here. You can get the tutorial at the download page. For me this is probably a 3 on a scale of 1-5. It's one selling point is the thumbnails, but even that doesn't work on all of it.

 That's it for now, if you have any further recommendations, then feel free to post them in the comments!

Why haven't I been writing?

Because I have been playing Sims 2, duh!

I'm not going to be buying Sims 3 either, or not anytime soon. I really have no need. The list of "new features" don't excite me in the least, yet.

I also just ordered University, and am excited because for whatever reason, half the stuff I want nearly always requires University and it ticks me off. I got it at Amazon for about $8 used. Why pay for new when you can get it used for so much cheaper?

I also owe an apology to Mod the Sims. It really is a great site, but it also seriously needs to work on its interface. Yikes that's frustrating!

The Sims Resource (TSR) is okay, but you get users like Cashcraft who have this delusional belief that they can actually copyright things that they make for the game. Uh, no. Only Sims can copyright anything Sims. In fact, they happen to own the entire game, since she missed that newsflash, and THEY are the copyright owners. She actually has no right at all in passing out game modifications. Obviously she thinks a little bit too highly of herself.

Further I have the same thing to say about TSR. What right do they have at all in charging for its use? They really don't. I'll explore all of that later in detail, but MTS is dedicated to free sharing and THAT my friend is what it's all about.

I am a full supporter of open source, and users like Cashcraft are proof of how low society can go sometimes.

modthesims.info SUCKS!!!!

Why? Because all it has are a series of links and serious information overload. There is no straight forward quick answers and they want you to jump through hoops to post a question.

This message is for moderators at modthesims: YOU SUCK!

I'll never go back there again and will now do everything I can to stop people from going there.

So I have embarrassed myself. Read this on how wrong I was! I cannot apologize enough and if you want a picture of me so you can throw darts at it, please let me know. I deserve it. :)

I love you MTS! I will be begging for forgiveness forever now.

Sims 2 Downloads and Mesh Madness!

Good googly goo! What a pain in the pumpkin these downloads are. I love how so many sites have all these mesh goodies and not a word of what meshes do nor where they go. One site hid a readme file into their zip downloads, and thank goodness I found it. The problem with that method is that most people will actually look first for where to extract the files to, not in the extracted file itself.

YIPES!

So.. for those who are anxiously looking for an answer, here goes.

First, pay attention to the file extensions. That makes all the differences in the world. Also know your system (XP, Vista, etc.)

When I say My Documents\ in Vista, that means C:\Documents. Just remember that.

I will first put the location, and the file extensions that go inside those locations. That makes all much easier.

Sims 1

The Sims\Game Data\Skins

• .skn
• .cmx
• .bmp

C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\Downloads OR
C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\GameData\Objects (Depends on which one you have)

• .iff files

Sims 2

XP:     My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Downloads
Vista:   C:\Users\Cindy\Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Downloads

• .package

As you can see, Sims 2 is much easier.

That about does it. I'll later post some good sites that offer FREE quality Sims 2 downloads. I refuse to pay for downloads. There is plenty of free stuff out there and paying for downloads is ridiculousness and personally, should be illegal. The only place you should pay for downloads is at EA games, period. Paying anyone else is like paying someone full price for a DVD that I could buy new elsewhere.

Weird Crime

As you can see, I watched a lot of TruTV (still hating the name) last night.

Another tragic, yet strange, case gripped me last night. A lot of research later, I still am not sure I understand everything about it and probably no one ever will.

The players: Peter Weber (victim), 27; Ila Legacy Womack Grey (murderer), 28; and Jesse Kenneth Lee (murderer), 20.

Now as I read more about it, the more confused I get. The Investigators', "The Witching Hour" last night mentioned her one son, Thane [I'm not sure about the spelling, but for now will spell it this way, it could be Thayne], but never mentioned any further children. Yet an article from The Philadelphia Daily News' article, "Cops: Bewitching couple killed him. Poconos man found dead in Louisiana," dated 8 May 1997 states, "Arrested and charged with second-degree murder were Ila Legacy Womack Grey, 28, a mother of three... "

Three?! Where did the other two come from?

Who says you can't get a conviction with only circumstantial evidence?

I was watching TruTV (goodness I hate that new name) last night and specifically this episode. It details the murder of Melvin Snyder by Ronald Harshman.

The case was really very interesting, but as always an unhappy one. A murder one conviction would eventually be handed down even if there was no body, nor a weapon.

On May 25, 1985 Melvin Snyder, 42, disappeared from his Greencastle, Pennsylvania home, never to be seen again. The previous year, it was a well known fact that Mr. Snyder was having an affair with a Mrs. Ronald Harshman. Not surprisingly, Mr. Harshman was not very happy about it and struggled to come to terms with the infidelity of his wife.

Congrats to Obama Supporters!

It is coming to fruition. Obama supporters are single-handedly crushing free speech as we know it. Today the blogs, tomorrow the world!

They now should be ashamed of themselves.  Look at what you've done. You've created a monster. Shame on you!