Welcome,
welcome! I hope you'll enjoy The Sims 1! Before we get
started, let me say that all of this advice is based on playing the
game that was released in 2000 - 2003. The re-release is not yet
available, so I don't know what -- if any -- changes EA may have made
in the re-release. But if they hold true to form, they probably didn't
make any. :-)
One thing to know before you begin -- it will seem very difficult in the beginning, but it gets easier, as you get some practice and as you learn how the game works. When I first started playing The Sims 1, I found it difficult to manage a single sim, but now that I'm an old hand, I routinely run families of EIGHT with no problem.
The "p" command -- for "pause" -- is a useful one; feel free to use it anytime you need a second to think. When you're just starting out, you may want to keep one finger hovering over the "p" key most of the time. :-)
Needs decline very rapidly in The Sims 1, and one of the uses of money -- besides for buying food from the fridge and for paying bills at the mailbox, of course -- is to buy better objects. In general, expensive items satisfy needs better than cheap ones, so as your sim earns more simoleons, you can afford chairs that will raise their Comfort to a higher level, fun objects that will fill their Fun need to a higher level, and so on.
There are no weekends in The Sims 1; the carpool comes EVERY DAY. But you don't actually have to go to work every day! If you skip one day of work, you'll get a threatening phone call, but you'll only get fired if you skip work two days in a row. So you can take one day off to work on the skills you need for promotion or to make the friends you need for promotion; just make sure you don't take TWO days off in a row.
You can edit a lot -- both the empty houses sims move into and the community lots downtown or in Magic Town or wherever -- and that can help a lot. Any landscaping you do on an empty house costs nothing, whereas it all costs simoleons after you move in. So, before you move in, plant a row of trees behind your house to raise the room score of your lot. You can plant flowers, too, if you want, though you'll need to either water them or hire a gardener if you don't want them to die, which is why I only suggest trees for beginners.
Your sim's personality affects how quickly they learn skills. Sims with four or fewer Playful points learn Logic faster, and sims with six more more Playful points learn Creativity faster. Sims with six or more Outgoing points learn Charisma faster, and sims with six or more Active points learn Body faster. You basically never want to give your sim FIVE points in an attribute, because that doesn't get you anything.
And here's probably the important thing! MAKE SURE YOU MAKE YOUR SIM EARN TWO COOKING POINTS BEFORE YOU HAVE THAT SIM MAKE A MEAL. If a sim with fewer than 2 Cooking points makes a meal, there's a large chance that they'll set the stove on fire, and Sims panic when stuff is on fire, which often results in their setting THEMSELVES on fire. So prevent that; buy a bookcase and read the Cooking manual until your sim has 2 points.
Anything you buy from the store can be sold back to the store for the full purchase price if you sell it back before midnight. So if your sim needs special equipment to earn skills, like a chess set to learn Logic or an exercise machine to earn Body points, you can buy them, earn a couple of points, and sell them back to the store as long as it's the same day you bought it. (It would be unethical to do this in real life, but it doesn't hurt anybody if you do it in The Sims.) Eventually you'll want all the skilling equipment, but when you're just starting out, it can be hard to afford.
Sims need friends for promotions, and there's a bug in the sims that come with the game (the ones already living in the neighborhood) that's easy to work around if you know about it. I have a whole tutorial about making friends here.
Your sim cannot earn skill points when away from the home lot unless you have a mod. So don't play chess at a community lot and think you'll build logic points that way. (Mods are modifications to the game made by players and can be downloaded from many sites. But I recommend that you play the regular game for awhile before experimenting with mods.)
The sims in The Sims 1 take a LONG time to walk anywhere or do anything. They often have to turn around a couple of times just to pick up their plate from the table before they can take it to the sink. So while the game will warn you that your sim needs to go to work an hour before the carpool comes, I recommend that you get your sim out of bed at least TWO hours before the carpool comes, and three hours wouldn't be crazy. The carpool will wait for your sim for 59 minutes, though, so if the carpool shows up at 8, it will wait for you until 8:59 before driving off without your sim. So you don't have to have your sim ready to go to work exactly on time; you can wait half an hour or so before directing them to the carpool.
If your sim is well rested, they'll get out of bed at 6 a.m. If you get them up before then, they'll get out of bed and start their day if their Energy bar is full. If their Energy bar is NOT full, a sim will throw a tantrum when you make them get out of bed, and this tantrum will take around half an hour. So you REALLY want your sim's Energy bar to be full when you get them up. :-)
Sims are terrible at putting themselves to bed but want to eat every hour or two, even when their Hunger bar is nearly full. So I recommend micro-managing your sims. Feed them twice a day, and put them to bed early enough that they'll have a full Energy bar when it's time for them to get up for work. I turn free will OFF (there's a setting for that on the Options panel) and tell my sims what to do every minute. :-)
If your sims read the newspaper, if offers ONE job. If your sims buy a computer, THREE jobs are offered. (There are also modded computers that offer more jobs, but I'm talking about the vanilla game.) You can sell the computer back to the store for the full purchase price, provided that 1) You sell it back the same day you bought it, and 2) It doesn't break while you're using it. So if you don't like the job the newspaper offers, try buying a computer.
It's very easy for things to catch on fire in The Sims 1, and burglars are frequent visitors. So buy a fire alarm and put it on the wall over the stove, and buy a burglar alarm. It takes awhile for the police to get there when the burglar alarm goes off, so you might want to make a wall to put the alarm on that's right at the edge of your lot, to give the cops time to get there before the burglar actually gets to your house. :-)
There are frequent prank calls in The Sims 1, but sometimes when the phone rings, it's to give your family money. The bank found money belonging to you, or a radio program liked your response to a question, or some other thing. So it's to your advantage to answer the phone most of the time! Save the game before picking up, in case something bad happens. :-)
The Sims 1 does crash once in awhile, so save the game frequently, at least once or twice a sim day. Right before your sim goes to work and right before your sim goes to bed are good times to save; get in the habit of saving whenever you hear the "sim spinning into a new outfit" sound.
A trick that's so useful it feels like cheating, even though it's a valid part of the game: In the Decorative section of the catalog, under the Paintings sub-section, there's a Japanese Wall Fan that costs $81. If you buy one of those during the day, you can sell it the next morning for nearly $800. So, when you're furnishing your house with your starting funds, save $20 for a group meal and save $162 for two wall fans. The next morning, your $162 will have turned into $1500 or so, which will make it a LOT easier to buy the skilling equipment you'll need to earn the skill points you need for promotion. Or a second bathroom, or whatever your sims need most.
If you have any questions as you play, feel free to ask on either of the Sims 1 subreddits
https://www.reddit.com/r/sims1/ OR https://www.reddit.com/r/thesims1/
or at the ModTheSims discussion page for The Sims 1.
You needn't be shy, because the people in The Sims 1 community generally LIKE answering questions and helping one another.
There's also a lot of information in the Sims 1 section of The Sims wiki. The information on careers may be especially useful.
Have fun!
Back to the list of Sims 1 mods
One thing to know before you begin -- it will seem very difficult in the beginning, but it gets easier, as you get some practice and as you learn how the game works. When I first started playing The Sims 1, I found it difficult to manage a single sim, but now that I'm an old hand, I routinely run families of EIGHT with no problem.
The "p" command -- for "pause" -- is a useful one; feel free to use it anytime you need a second to think. When you're just starting out, you may want to keep one finger hovering over the "p" key most of the time. :-)
Needs decline very rapidly in The Sims 1, and one of the uses of money -- besides for buying food from the fridge and for paying bills at the mailbox, of course -- is to buy better objects. In general, expensive items satisfy needs better than cheap ones, so as your sim earns more simoleons, you can afford chairs that will raise their Comfort to a higher level, fun objects that will fill their Fun need to a higher level, and so on.
There are no weekends in The Sims 1; the carpool comes EVERY DAY. But you don't actually have to go to work every day! If you skip one day of work, you'll get a threatening phone call, but you'll only get fired if you skip work two days in a row. So you can take one day off to work on the skills you need for promotion or to make the friends you need for promotion; just make sure you don't take TWO days off in a row.
You can edit a lot -- both the empty houses sims move into and the community lots downtown or in Magic Town or wherever -- and that can help a lot. Any landscaping you do on an empty house costs nothing, whereas it all costs simoleons after you move in. So, before you move in, plant a row of trees behind your house to raise the room score of your lot. You can plant flowers, too, if you want, though you'll need to either water them or hire a gardener if you don't want them to die, which is why I only suggest trees for beginners.
Your sim's personality affects how quickly they learn skills. Sims with four or fewer Playful points learn Logic faster, and sims with six more more Playful points learn Creativity faster. Sims with six or more Outgoing points learn Charisma faster, and sims with six or more Active points learn Body faster. You basically never want to give your sim FIVE points in an attribute, because that doesn't get you anything.
And here's probably the important thing! MAKE SURE YOU MAKE YOUR SIM EARN TWO COOKING POINTS BEFORE YOU HAVE THAT SIM MAKE A MEAL. If a sim with fewer than 2 Cooking points makes a meal, there's a large chance that they'll set the stove on fire, and Sims panic when stuff is on fire, which often results in their setting THEMSELVES on fire. So prevent that; buy a bookcase and read the Cooking manual until your sim has 2 points.
Anything you buy from the store can be sold back to the store for the full purchase price if you sell it back before midnight. So if your sim needs special equipment to earn skills, like a chess set to learn Logic or an exercise machine to earn Body points, you can buy them, earn a couple of points, and sell them back to the store as long as it's the same day you bought it. (It would be unethical to do this in real life, but it doesn't hurt anybody if you do it in The Sims.) Eventually you'll want all the skilling equipment, but when you're just starting out, it can be hard to afford.
Sims need friends for promotions, and there's a bug in the sims that come with the game (the ones already living in the neighborhood) that's easy to work around if you know about it. I have a whole tutorial about making friends here.
Your sim cannot earn skill points when away from the home lot unless you have a mod. So don't play chess at a community lot and think you'll build logic points that way. (Mods are modifications to the game made by players and can be downloaded from many sites. But I recommend that you play the regular game for awhile before experimenting with mods.)
The sims in The Sims 1 take a LONG time to walk anywhere or do anything. They often have to turn around a couple of times just to pick up their plate from the table before they can take it to the sink. So while the game will warn you that your sim needs to go to work an hour before the carpool comes, I recommend that you get your sim out of bed at least TWO hours before the carpool comes, and three hours wouldn't be crazy. The carpool will wait for your sim for 59 minutes, though, so if the carpool shows up at 8, it will wait for you until 8:59 before driving off without your sim. So you don't have to have your sim ready to go to work exactly on time; you can wait half an hour or so before directing them to the carpool.
If your sim is well rested, they'll get out of bed at 6 a.m. If you get them up before then, they'll get out of bed and start their day if their Energy bar is full. If their Energy bar is NOT full, a sim will throw a tantrum when you make them get out of bed, and this tantrum will take around half an hour. So you REALLY want your sim's Energy bar to be full when you get them up. :-)
Sims are terrible at putting themselves to bed but want to eat every hour or two, even when their Hunger bar is nearly full. So I recommend micro-managing your sims. Feed them twice a day, and put them to bed early enough that they'll have a full Energy bar when it's time for them to get up for work. I turn free will OFF (there's a setting for that on the Options panel) and tell my sims what to do every minute. :-)
If your sims read the newspaper, if offers ONE job. If your sims buy a computer, THREE jobs are offered. (There are also modded computers that offer more jobs, but I'm talking about the vanilla game.) You can sell the computer back to the store for the full purchase price, provided that 1) You sell it back the same day you bought it, and 2) It doesn't break while you're using it. So if you don't like the job the newspaper offers, try buying a computer.
It's very easy for things to catch on fire in The Sims 1, and burglars are frequent visitors. So buy a fire alarm and put it on the wall over the stove, and buy a burglar alarm. It takes awhile for the police to get there when the burglar alarm goes off, so you might want to make a wall to put the alarm on that's right at the edge of your lot, to give the cops time to get there before the burglar actually gets to your house. :-)
There are frequent prank calls in The Sims 1, but sometimes when the phone rings, it's to give your family money. The bank found money belonging to you, or a radio program liked your response to a question, or some other thing. So it's to your advantage to answer the phone most of the time! Save the game before picking up, in case something bad happens. :-)
The Sims 1 does crash once in awhile, so save the game frequently, at least once or twice a sim day. Right before your sim goes to work and right before your sim goes to bed are good times to save; get in the habit of saving whenever you hear the "sim spinning into a new outfit" sound.
A trick that's so useful it feels like cheating, even though it's a valid part of the game: In the Decorative section of the catalog, under the Paintings sub-section, there's a Japanese Wall Fan that costs $81. If you buy one of those during the day, you can sell it the next morning for nearly $800. So, when you're furnishing your house with your starting funds, save $20 for a group meal and save $162 for two wall fans. The next morning, your $162 will have turned into $1500 or so, which will make it a LOT easier to buy the skilling equipment you'll need to earn the skill points you need for promotion. Or a second bathroom, or whatever your sims need most.
If you have any questions as you play, feel free to ask on either of the Sims 1 subreddits
https://www.reddit.com/r/sims1/ OR https://www.reddit.com/r/thesims1/
or at the ModTheSims discussion page for The Sims 1.
You needn't be shy, because the people in The Sims 1 community generally LIKE answering questions and helping one another.
There's also a lot of information in the Sims 1 section of The Sims wiki. The information on careers may be especially useful.
Have fun!
Back to the list of Sims 1 mods