37 replies to this topic

[gegelolo]

I was just wondering it could be interesting to know how many of us TS1 players have kept the original Maxis character Bob & Betty Newbie, and if so how they have evolved.

Personally I kept them but haven't really played with them much in the few months I've had the game. My daughters and my priority seem to have been creating many new families and new (more or less themed) neighborhoods (15 or 16 so far..), and have for the moment had more fun designing houses than really evolving any character much, and the Newbies are way down in the list of priorities.
Last time I checked what my daughter had done with them, Bob was still unemployed and watching a lot of tv, and apparently Betty had gone Downtown to buy herself new clothes and make herself a very intimate girlfriend who looks like Trinity of Matrix. The original idea was apparently for her to be Betty's sister and have her come and visit often, but it came awfully close to real love so my daughter chickened out :eek: and gave up following that family..

[oreocreme]

I still play with the Newbies, but things have never been what Maxis intended. From the start of the tutorial, Betty couldn't stand Bob. He got to be a -64 on her friendship panel and there was never anything romantic between them. She didn't like any of my other Sims, either, except for Bella. She was also terribly depressed due to the low social interactions she had with everyone, so my official story was this. Betty was Bob's cousin. When she became depressed and was unable to work, she couldn't support herself. Being the easy-going guy he is, he let her stay at his house until she could get back on her feet. He soon lived to regret that decision. He had to sleep on the couch and was nagged and insulted on a regular basis. I saw him autonomously give her a shove one day, so he must have been totally fed up with her.

I created a brother & sister who bought Mort and Bella's house when the Goths moved to a larger home, and Betty fell madly in love with the brother almost at first sight. After a whirlwind courtship, she married him, had 2 boys and a girl, and lived happily ever after. They never had an argument in all the years I have had them. Bob married the sister. Both of them are in law enforcement. He is now police chief and has a wardrobe more fitting for his position. They have a daughter and a son, and live in a new house I designed for them.

Betty and Ray's house is one of my favorites. I renovated the old Goth place to be a cheerful, family-oriented Victorian home. It gives you a happy, contented feeling just to play it.

[deekitty31]

I still have them in my game, but I don't play them....lol. One that I do play is Claire Charming. Claire met and fell in love with a local out of work musician. They moved into her home and while she works, he runs their small vinyard and breeds dogs. (He still plays his music and may someday look into a career in that area, but he is enjoying his time at home with his new wife) He actually makes a pretty good living selling the nectar and the puppies and has repeatedly asked her to quit her job. She's considering it. He has plans to expand their vineyard if she does. We will have to wait and see...lol.

[Yersinia]

I have them in N1, but I don't play there anymore..and I only played the Newbies (a) when I first got the game, the tutorial to learn how, and (b) in a tested reinstall of my G4 game. I either play my Akaren village, As'ral, or my suburban-with-a-touch-of-rural small town of Cranberry Brooke which is populated by "normal" contemporary sims of my own creation -- with only two exceptions. I did adopt two Maxis families -- Claire Charming and the Hick family, and they are the only Maxis sims who live there.

Claire was dating my sim Matt for quite awhile, but recently she met Chris, a new sim based on one of my coworkers, hahahahaha, and now she's dating him! Otherwise, she still has her dog Luna, plus she grows some veggies, and, she made it to the top at the hospital. I had built her a new house when I moved her to Cranberry Brooke, and recently I put her in a nicer outfit. Still casual, but she looks a little classier.

As to the Hicks, I transformed them from simple hicks to full blown hardcore rednecks (they make moonshiine, shoot rifles, cure tobacco in their house, and they love to sit outside and smoke!) -- I also brought in Jasmynn Mae, who is Elden's "kissin' cousin who does a lot more than just kiss." Much to Elden's great delight, she moved in with Elden and Mama. Mama is presently working as a cookbook author. Elden and Jasmynn Mae don't have jobs, but they do have a good sized farm and make good money selling vegetables, plus of course the whole family eats some of what they grow. And yes, they still have the three dogs.

~Yersinia.

[ts1depot]

I never really played The Newbies all that much. The most I ever played was maybe a few sim days.

However, the Newbies have become background characters in N1, because she has a twin named Judy, who eventually bought her house. Also, a bizarre rumor started floating around that Bob was killed by cannibals, so it's become a running joke of the sims there ever since the Newbies left.

[Takeshi666]

I noticed something weird...Betty has no interests whatsoever, meaning no matter what the topic, she hates everything. I ended up having to use SimEnhancer to give her some interests so her social life wouldn't be doomed.

[JenRoxRat]

I have a lot of fun with the Newbies. They were the perfect Sims to live on my "Trashy Trailer" lot. Here are some pics...

Attached Files

•  The Newbie trailer.JPG   219.55K   229 downloads
•  Betty checks her look in the bathroom.jpg   47.75K   216 downloads
•  Bob enjoys a smoke.jpg   56.33K   214 downloads
•  Their dog Rocky naps in the bedroom.jpg   69.36K   201 downloads
•  Their living room.jpg   114.71K   196 downloads

[JenRoxRat]

Some more pics...

Attached Files

•  Betty is a wiz in the kitchen.jpg   106.16K   194 downloads
•  Bob proudly surveys his domain.jpg   88.87K   174 downloads
•  Sometimes Bob is tempted to use strays for target practice.jpg   85.01K   188 downloads
•  Betty hangs out the wash while Bob grills burgers.jpg   93.04K   175 downloads
•  Hamburgers for breakfast.jpg   92.83K   169 downloads

[JenRoxRat]

And a couple more...

Attached Files

•  The water hole.JPG   244.26K   179 downloads
•  Apropos of nothing Justin Timberlake passes by.jpg   93.37K   173 downloads

[Yersinia]

JenRoxRat --

OMG I AM IMPRESSED!!! I see we've been to some of the same places for trashy downloads, hee hee, but you've got some stuff I don't. Wow, it's great! I wish I had some of that for what I did to the Hick family in my game (I turned them into hardcore rednecks), it would really add some nicer touches on them, but having reached my downloads limit, I have to bite my tongue and not ask where you got the stuff I don't have. But, oh wow, I really loved looking at your pics and you did a fantastic job with the "trailer trash" concept!

Excellent! :D

Happy Simming,

~Yersinia.

[JenRoxRat]

Hahaha, well thank you for your appreciation of my site-scavenging, Yersinia! I forgot all about the Hicks. Hmmm... I guess THEY should have been the obvious choice for the trailer! I'll have to check in with mine and see how they're living. Did you do also make a theme home for your Goths? My Goths live in a funeral home (with a secret torture dungeon :devil: ). By the way - what was your download limit, and how did you know you'd reached it? My Game Data folder is currently 1.29 GB, and I live in fear of the next download causing something catastrophic to happen. Yet I keep downloading. LOL If you change your mind, let me know what stuff you're interested in and I'll see where I got it!

[Yersinia]

JenRoxRat said:

Hahaha, well thank you for your appreciation of my site-scavenging, Yersinia! I forgot all about the Hicks. Hmmm... I guess THEY should have been the obvious choice for the trailer! I'll have to check in with mine and see how they're living. Did you do also make a theme home for your Goths? My Goths live in a funeral home (with a secret torture dungeon :devil: ). By the way - what was your download limit, and how did you know you'd reached it? My Game Data folder is currently 1.29 GB, and I live in fear of the next download causing something catastrophic to happen. Yet I keep downloading. LOL If you change your mind, let me know what stuff you're interested in and I'll see where I got it!

Well, I always give credit where it's deserved, Jen, and both your site scavenging and the job you did with the trashy treasures you found really was incredible. Maybe your screen name should be JenPackRat instead of JenRoxRat? :lol: Anyway, to answer your questions:

1. No, I didn't make a theme home for the Goths. I don't even play them. The only Maxis sims I actually play are the Hicks and Claire Charming -- but I do happen to be a serious theme player, and bringing a particular theme to "life" was the reason why I got interested in playing The Sims at all, in fact. So, to that end, I have an original themed hood based on the Akaren people who are the focus of a sci fi fantasy novel series I wrote and will eventually get back to writing once my abject Simoholism dies down enough for me to pick back up on "Towards Healing Waters," which is supposed to be the eleventh in this series. I was 30,000 words in when the Simoholism struck. That was June 2006 and I haven't touched the novel since, except to reread one of the sub-books and wonder, all too briefly, "why did I stop doing this?" :lol: Anyway, in my themed hood (the Akaren village of As'ral), all the sims are based on characters from the series. Maybe that's why I'm so obsessed with them. My "regular human" neighborhood, which is much smaller than As'ral by far, is the small suburban-with-a-touch-of-rural town of Cranberry Brooke, and with the exception of the Hicks, Claire Charming, two sims I created to "experiment" with how the game works (Matt and Marleen) and five characters from non-Akaren stories I wrote (Christine, Karyn, Todd, Quinn and Deirdre) -- is entirely populated by sims I created especially based on people I know in real life, including myself and my boyfriend.

2. My Dreaded Downloads Limit appears to be much, much lower than what every other Simmer seems to be reporting. :( My main computer is a Macintosh Quicksilver G4. Significant Simming specs are 867 MHz processor, a gig of RAM, and residence on a hard drive with about 10 GB free space. In any case, I see most Simmers reporting hitting the limit at between 2.5 and 3 gigs of downloads, but I don't get even half of one gig! I originally hit my limit in June of this year. My Downloads folder "only" had 200 or so megs of stuff in it! Yes, I said megs!

:eek: I also play Sims on a G3/800 iBook. Significant Simming specs: 800 MHz processor, 640 MB RAM, and there's also about 10 GB free space on the HD. I guess because of the slightly slower processor and lesser amount of RAM, you probably won't be surprised to hear that the limit on the iBook is a little lower than the G4.

Both my Simming Macs have the same EPs and OS on them: LL/HD/VC/UL/MM over base game, Mac OS X Tiger (10.4.9).

At present, I'm playing my two hoods as two entirely separate games. As'ral is on the G4, Cranberry Brooke is on the iBook. This is because I need way more stuff for my Akaren theme and the G4 does hold a little more than the iBook does.

~Yersinia.

[hawkflight]

I hope it's ok to reply to this because it's an old thread. When I last reinstalled my game two years ago I decided to deal with those Newbies in no uncertain way! Because by then I'd got the internet and discovered forums and downloads.
So I took a look at those miserable Newbies and gave them both a makeover. First I got them all their skills points. I don't allow my sims to shirk. Before they get to have a life they have to study.
Then I used a hacked book case to tweak their personality points to make them more compatible. They just had to read books on the appropriate topics until they got a "personality point". Then I used a hacked magazine rack to get them some "interest" points in every category. The hacked magazine rack is indispensible to making your sims into interesting conversationalists. It's always available, you don't have to go downtown to buy a magazine and it doesn't get thrown in the trash five minutes later.
After that the Newbies had six children, they got on so well. They were always kissing and hugging. They don't have jobs, they paint using a hacked easel and grow vegetables and flowers that I got from a fansite. There are no gophers, no weeds and the sims actually LIKE to garden. In fact the whole family sometimes goes out and starts to hoe the plots, and even visitors join in. The house got crowded so I used Age of Instant to grow up and move out most of the kids, then one grown up kid met and married another sim and now there are granny and grandpa Newbie, their son and daughter in law and one of their original kids all living in a rather small house, growing veg, painting, keeping chickens and generally being very happy with their lives.

[Takeshi666]

JenRoxRat said:

And a couple more...

All I wanna know is...where'd you get all the stuff for the water hole? Especially the half-sunked car and the swimming thing and...well, everything, really!

[bluesage]

The FAM has grown. :cool:

Attached Files

•  B+B Kids.jpg   35.66K   171 downloads

[dancer_em]

I'm also curious where you got the stuff for the watering hole, I'd love to have some of those things for a family of mine!

[hawkflight]

ROFL Jen, you are SO mean to those poor Newbies! I'm sure they weren't really supposed to turn out that bad. I thought my trailer trash family was bad enough with a yard full of weeds and beer cans, but that awful car in the water. Eeeew, no way would I swim there. I shall be sure and tell my own Newbies to count their blessings! Their house might be small but it is neat and tidy and paid for. Even their chickens have a nicer home that your Newbies.

[Sim Boy 5]

i didn't do much to my newbies. I like to keep stuff original in both The Sims 1+2. i just changed their clothes. Betty I think is at the very bottom of fame, and Bob is unemployed. I'll mess around soon and report back! In one installation of The Sims, I killed Bob, and had Betty marry this guy I hadn't played for MONTHS (he had a wife and a kid!). In another, Betty was a close friend to Bella Goth, and B+B had a dog named Buddy (B,B, and b!!) and, again, Betty went into fame, but remained at the bottom.:huh: Then, in another, they had two kids and had a double-decker house. (they were rich!) and in another when they were also rich, they had 1 boy, because having a baby was so hard, and I never had actually done it before. he had a wizard hat! The Sims 1 seems so boring now...:cry:

[Yersinia]

hawkflight said:

ROFL Jen, you are SO mean to those poor Newbies! I'm sure they weren't really supposed to turn out that bad. I thought my trailer trash family was bad enough with a yard full of weeds and beer cans, but that awful car in the water. Eeeew, no way would I swim there. I shall be sure and tell my own Newbies to count their blessings! Their house might be small but it is neat and tidy and paid for. Even their chickens have a nicer home that your Newbies.

Oh, come on, Hawk! :rofl: That trailer trash setup she designed was incredible!! And besides, one of the great things about The Sims custom content is that many of the strangest, most unexpected, i.e., not "hoity-toity ritzy fancy pristine and really expensive" furnishings and decorations actually give good room scores! Which means you can furnish and decorate for circumstances and themes other than "clean and neat modern contemporary affluent suburbia" without condemning your sims to hate their houses and yards -- thank goodness -- because while I do have a small number of "upper middle class suburban" type families in my Cranberry Brooke hood, as a rule I find "normal contemporary suburbia" totally boring! A few families like that is fine, but for me, they're in the minority. I don't have personal direct access to JenRoxRat's game, but I'll bet her Newbies' room scores in that trailer and in that yard are darn good, maybe even maxed. I actually have these piles of garbage with flies buzzing on them, and my sims who have them, like them! And since good room and yard scores help put simmies in better moods, there's no reason to feel sorry for her Newbies! :lol:

~Yersinia.

[Sim Boy 5]

i really do like that car in the water and diving board. it's so makeshift, it's hillarious!!!