Proto:The Sims 2 (GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox)/M4 20 (PlayStation 2)
This is a sub-page of Proto:The Sims 2 (GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox).
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This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes. |
To do:
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The M4 20 build was provided by darksabre76, who had acquired it from antimatter. It's compiled on July 29, 2005, which is about three months before the final game, and around the time when the EA Hot Summer Nights event had happened. There's some interesting content leftover in this build of the game.
Contents
Sub-Page
Debug Tools |
Early Create-A-Sim Content |
Lot Changes |
Build Version
While this build doesn't show a build version in the bottom left corner on the menu like some other builds, it does still have it hidden inside the ELF. It would look like this:
SKU: 1 [US] Build Version: A.07.28.1 Sandbox Version: 1.mainline.0.238
Logo Changes
The Sims 2 logo has been slightly changed from this build. Mainly the backdrop shadow being thicker in final, and the glow around the Plumbob being stronger in final.
General Differences
- This build has no cheats. Instead it has a Cheat Gnome that spawns in every lot, filled with debugging options.
- Pressing Select + L3 toggles the HUD.
- Depending on whether you saved or not after the initial Create-A-Sim, and whether it's Story or Freeplay mode, you'll get different starting times for each.
Starting time | Save | No save |
---|---|---|
Story mode | 1:00 am | 6:58 pm |
Freeplay mode | 1:00 am | 6:56 pm |
- The Main Menu has a different icon layout. The text for starting a new game, or continuing is also changed.
Early | Final |
---|---|
- The credits are aligned differently.
Early | Final |
---|---|
- Loading and saving a game makes the background go blank, and has a placeholder-looking UI design.
Early | Final |
---|---|
Developer Options
While a lot of the options present and pre-enabled in this build can also be enabled in the final game, there still are a couple that only apply to this build.
Use HSN Main Menu
005AE958 00000001
Enables a very early main menu used for the Hot Summer Nights event, as indicated by the name.
The development menu (enable_development_menu) has a more basic look to it as well with this menu enabled.
enable_two_player
Used to active two player mode until we have UI to do so. Cannot be changed once a lot has loaded
005AE8F4 00000001
As the previous early menu doesn't have a way to load splitscreen, this option would've been used instead.
enable_display_anim_names
Used to display the current animations being played. Warning: doesn't work on ps2 currently
005AE8F8 00000001
Despite the cheat subtitle saying it doesn't work on PS2, it does actually work in this build. It, however, does not work in the final release.
enable_display_mem_usage
Used to display the amount of current free memory, largest free memory block, size of the last save games and the percent of available space used by the save game.
005AE8FC 00000001
While it renders the necessary text over the screen, it doesn't seem to have any actual function. The Save size values can be manipulated by editing the values at offsets 205AEA40 and 205AEA44.
enable_character_diagnotics
Used to display diagnostic information on the current sim
005AE968 00000001
Displays the Sims current state, coordinated and a bunch of other things.
Gameplay
Create-A-Sim
The Create-A-Sim allows you to manually select your Sim's grandparents in this build. But generating a Sim with any kind of change to your grandparents will still give you a default Sim, no matter what. The parent's frames aren't selectable.
The Create-A-Sim menus are quite different as well.
Freeplay Mode
This build has a pre-made Freeplay family with the surname Bradley, using icons of Bobo The Hobo and J.J. Bradley from The Urbz with both of them being named that. The appearance of the characters are the default male presets.
Only the 1st Freeplay lot, named 8 Rockpile Road in the final has an incomplete house layout while the others are empty.
Early | Final |
---|---|
EyeToy
All the strings that refer to it as simply EyeToy were expanded in the final to say EyeToy® USB Camera.
The default settings are all centered in this build, but in the final it defaults to maximum exposure.
Early | Final |
---|---|
It doesn't use 5 different generated icons based on your Sim, instead it has 5 different premade icons for each slot.
Early | Final |
---|---|
The 1st fun frame is present in this build, but this also means you can't take an image without any frame at all, which is likely the reason why it was removed.
Early | Final |
---|---|
All of the filter icons show the 1st fun frame icon, but the actual effects seems to remain unchanged from final, asides from the slight change of order.
Early | Final |
---|---|
And lastly, the Done button has placeholder text instead.
Early | Final |
---|---|
Cutscenes
This game stores all its cutscene videos inside the MOVIES.ARC container. Most of them are just the EA logo in various different languages, but a few of them are related to the game. All the urbz_ prefixes from the filenames were changed to s2c_ in the final build.
Filename | Early cutscene | Final cutscene | Additional information |
---|---|---|---|
urbz_intro | Incredibly early version of the intro cutscene. The audio is played back incorrectly by the build, it sounds slightly sped up and is lagging around a bunch, but that's caused by reading incorrect frequencies. The source file has normal audio. | ||
urbz_intro_pal | The PAL version of the incredibly early version of the intro cutscene. Slightly higher resolution, and seems to have more visible stuff on the sides. | ||
urbz_ending | Early version of the ending outtakes cutscene. The early version is missing a few scenes as well. | ||
urbz_ending_pal | The PAL version of the early version of the ending outtakes cutscene. | ||
urbz_attract | The attract mode video from The Urbz: Sims in the City. The video in the final game still technically exists, but it has been replaced with the EA logo. | ||
urbz_attract_pal | As before, PAL version of the attract mode video from The Urbz: Sims in the City. Also has the original video removed and replaced with the EA logo. |
Early Textures
Textures are stored in the TEXTURES.ARC container.
Main Menu Related Textures
There are a couple unused textures related to the Main Menu found in this build.
The Team Photo wasn't changed to the current one yet, signifying it may have been taken between July and August.
Early Audio
The music of this game are all stored in AUDIOSTR.ARC and the sound effects are stored in the SAMPLES.ARC container.
Music
The music for the most part stayed unchanged, but there were a few differences still.
Filename | Early song | Final song | Additional information |
---|---|---|---|
music_24_bbcas2 | 2nd pause song. M4 20 uses The Sims theme (Lemon Jelly Remix) from the Nightlife expansion, that never appears in The Sims 2 Console. | ||
music_24_bbcas3 | Create-A-Sim song. This build uses Sim Time Sim Place (Lemon Jelly Remix), which is the full version of the Loading jingle. In all subsequent builds, the only remnants of this song are found in SAMPLES.ARC as load_loop2; 4; 5; 6. |
Sound Effects
Most sound effect filenames are pretty straight forward. am_ for ambient in-game noises, v_ or vox_ for voices in Simlish, etc. This build has a total of 11550 sound effect files, whereas the final build has 9466.
Non-specific SFX
These tables contain the changed or removed sound effects that don't necessarily belong to a much bigger bundle, or simply not enough differences to warrant a separate sub-section.
Filename | Early | Final | Additional information |
---|---|---|---|
arcade_lose_love | |||
arcade_lp_love1 | 22050Hz and 8s long in M4 20. 12000Hz and 16s long in final. | ||
arcade_win_love | Background guitar sounds more muffled in final. | ||
bed_mojo_lp | M4 20's bed_mojo_lp is used in final as bed_woohoo_lp Note: The final bed_mojo_lp might be incorrect, the file header indicates it should be 22050Hz, but it sounded like it was clipping a lot. This is exported as 12000Hz, where it still is somewhat clipping but it's much better than before. | ||
bed_woohoo_lp | |||
blender_st | Final is slightly longer and has a fade-out. | ||
bonfire_lp | More wood cracking sounds in final. | ||
car_junker_arrive | All the car_*_arrive sounds were extended in final. | ||
car_v4_arrive | |||
car_v6_arrive | |||
car_v8_arrive | |||
checker_move1 | |||
checker_move2 | |||
checker_move3 | |||
door_close_barred | |||
door_close_biker2 | |||
door_close_copper | |||
door_close_decoglass | |||
door_close_smallwindow | |||
door_close_subway | |||
door_open_biker2 | |||
door_open_copper | |||
door_open_decoglass | |||
fountain_splash_lp3 | Slightly longer in M4 20 | ||
obj_get_lino_newspaper | |||
plant_replant_shimmer | |||
sink_washdishes_end | Start of M4 20's sink_washdishes_lp was combined with the final sink_washdishes_end. | ||
sink_washdishes_lp | |||
slot_spin_lp | |||
slot_win_gunshot | |||
sting_npc_emergency | M4 20 has a sting at the start that would be removed. | ||
sting_ressurect | M4 20's jingle is significantly longer. | ||
toilet_lowerseat_public | M4 20's toilet_raiseseat_alien and toilet_raiseseat_steel are identical. | ||
toilet_puke_loop | |||
toilet_raiseseat_alien | |||
toilet_raiseseat_porcelain | |||
toilet_raiseseat_steel | |||
ui_social_mode_enter | |||
ui_social_mode_exit |
Filename | Cut Sound | Additional information |
---|---|---|
aquarium_maintain | ||
arcade_lp_love2 | The missing 2nd half from arcade_lp_love1 which was combined together and re-encoded into a lower frequency in final. These two sound more or less the same, but the raw data does show some slight minor differences. | |
arcade_lp_love3 | ||
attack_lose_stop | ||
attack_win_start | ||
bar_drnk_pickup1 | bar_drnk_pickup1 and 3 sound almost identical. | |
bar_drnk_pickup2 | ||
bar_drnk_pickup3 | ||
book_turnpage4 | Final build only has book_turnpage1 - 3. | |
book_turnpage5 | ||
book_turnpage6 | ||
bulldog_follow_clap | ||
dogday3i | These two technically still exist in the final game, but the sound data for these files have been nulled out. | |
dogday10i | ||
drinkbar_mix_drink1 | ||
drinkbar_mix_drink2 | ||
drinkbar_mix_drink3 | ||
drinkbar_mix_tray1 | ||
drinkbar_mix_tray2 | ||
drinkbar_mix_tray3 | ||
drinkbar_place_drink | ||
drinkbar_place_tray1 | ||
drinkbar_place_tray2 | ||
drinkbar_place_tray3 | ||
drinkbar_place_tray4 | ||
espresso_rep_lp1 | ||
espresso_rep_lp2 | ||
fiddlee_acc1 | Some of these technically still exist in the final game, but they've been combined together with the voice files (v_dt_fiddle*) and encoded in a lower frequency. The M4 20 v_dt_fiddle* sounds have a blank spot instead, where these fiddle sounds are supposed to go in. This change was most likely done to reduce the already incredibly slow load times. | |
fiddlee_acc2 | ||
fiddlee_acc3 | ||
fiddlee_rej1 | ||
fiddlee_rej2 | ||
fiddlee_rej3 | ||
fiddler_acc1 | ||
fiddler_acc2 | ||
fiddler_acc3 | ||
fiddler_rej1 | ||
fiddler_rej2 | ||
fiddler_rej3 | ||
fridge_catch_snack | ||
fridge_get_food | ||
fridge_platter_spin | ||
give_money_cash | ||
gossipee_acc_slap | ||
highfiver_accept | ||
listen_energa_claps | ||
o_schnizz_rap_lp1 | ||
passive_food | ||
passive_stereo | ||
piano_class_med1 | Final has piano_classm1 - 3 (and piano_classh1 - 3 as well) but those are entirely different and separate from these cut _med sounds. | |
piano_class_med2 | ||
piano_class_med3 | ||
pinball_repair_lp1 | Pinball machines never break in the game, so as a result these sounds were removed. | |
pinball_repair_lp2 | ||
pmuggee_end | ||
pmugger_handclap | ||
pool_swim_stroke1 | The console game doesn't have any pools to swim in. Likely a leftover from Bustin' Out. | |
pool_swim_stroke2 | ||
pool_swim_stroke3 | ||
pool_swim_stroke4 | ||
pool_swim_stroke5 | ||
rap_accept_clap | ||
revive | A leftover from The Urbz. | |
sbottle_spin_end | ||
sink_repair_start | ||
slot_score | Reused in Final as slot_spin_lp. | |
stereo_turnon | ||
ticklee_rej_push_away | ||
toilet_flush_ornate | ||
toilet_stand_off | ||
toilet_stand_on | ||
tv_repair_end | TVs don't break in this game, thus don't ever get repaired. Likely a leftover from The Sims Bustin' Out. |
Ambient SFX
30 ambient sound effects found in this build that were entirely cut from later builds. Pretty much all of these belonged to a larger list of similar sound effects, the Additional information tab lists which sound effects with similar names did survive into the final release.
Filename | Cut Sound | Additional information |
---|---|---|
am_catfight4 | Final build only has am_catfight1; 3; 5; 6; 9; 13. | |
am_chains1 | The final build has am_chainpull1 - 4, but they're different from these. | |
am_chains2 | ||
am_chains3 | ||
am_conv_laughb1vb | Retail build has a bunch of these, but from laughb there's only am_conv_laughb3. The rest are laugha. | |
am_conv_tense3vb | Similar as above, the only tense SFX in final are tense1; 1vb; 4; 4vb; 5vb. | |
am_ftsteps_enter1 | They're all pretty similar to each other. None of these ambient footstep sound effects are found in the final build. | |
am_ftsteps_enter2 | ||
am_ftsteps_enter3 | ||
am_ftsteps_enter4 | ||
am_ftsteps_exit1 | ||
am_ftsteps_exit2 | ||
am_ftsteps_exit3 | ||
am_ftsteps_exit4 | ||
am_rain_dirt | Final build only has am_rain_base_lp; am_rain_con_lp2; am_rain_porch. | |
am_siren1 | Final build has am_sirens_dist1 - 5 instead. | |
am_siren2 | ||
am_siren3 | These two seem to be identical for some reason. | |
am_siren_horn1 | ||
am_skateby2 | Only am_skateby1; 4; 5 survived into final. | |
am_skateby3 | ||
am_sub_rumble05 | Final has am_sub_rumble01 - 04. | |
am_sub_rumble06 | ||
am_subvox_attf10 | There are a bunch of subvox SFX, but from attf the only ones in final are 6; 18; 20. | |
am_subvox_trainf56 | As above, from trainf only 63; 66; 70 are left in final. | |
am_subvox_trainf60 | ||
am_tone_ind1 | The final build only has am_tone_hi_101_lp1; am_tone_hi_134; am_tone_lo_131; am_tone_lo_136. | |
am_tone_med_126 | ||
am_water_lap_hi_lp3 | There's a ton of am_water SFX in final, but specifically from lap_hi_lp, there's only lp1 and 2. | |
am_wolf2 | In Final, there's am_wolf1; 3 - 6 |
And there's one ambient sound that was noticeably different than the final one. There were about 10 ambient sounds total that had different hashes, but they were either changes to a row in the sound data, or extra data at the beginning and end of the file. But when listening to them, they all sounded pretty much the same in either case.
Filename | Early | Final |
---|---|---|
am_alien_tractor_lp |