The Sims was a formative game in my childhood. I have distinct memories of taking timed turns playing with my siblings. Creating characters, teaching them magic, using the Concoctanation Station to form clones and monsters, rubbing a genie lamp to wish for great wealth. I remember getting The Sims 2 and The Sims 2: University with a Pizza Hut order. I remember spending all my pocket money on The Sims 3, and my first casual pay checks on expansions for The Sims 4.
So, it’s unsurprising for me to report the recent Sims 25th Birthday celebrations at ACMI were, to me, full of such whimsy and nostalgia.
To celebrate 25 years since the release of the original game, EA Australia worked alongside ACMI and duo Josh & Matt Design to create a temporary exhibit designed to capture the feeling of playing and enjoying The Sims in the early 2000s. Visiting the exhibit on Thursday and Friday, I’m more than happy to say the vibe was absolutely nailed, with a computer and bedroom setup that was overwhelmingly nostalgic in every corner.
It was a worthy tribute to the enduring legacy of The Sims, and to the memory of playing this game, way back when computers were more of a rarity, and time to use them was limited.
The exhibit was styled specifically as a teenager’s bedroom, with an accompanying en suite of gaudy pink and blue hues. I knew the vibe was perfect when I spotted a bunch of items I used to own, that I’d pretty much forgotten about. There was the usual icons of the early 2000s, of course – a Furby held watch over a retro gaming station, and a Plasma Ball decorated a shelf for that added cool factor.
But looking in close, I spotted a rack of So Fresh CDs (of which I owned many – shout out to Autumn 2003). There was an original Tamagotchi, with a pink eggshell. There was a Motorola Razr V3 phone in Hot Pink. There was a Magic 8 Ball. There was a Tweety plush, and a Humphrey B. Bear plush.
Read: Looking after a Tamagotchi V3 hits different as an adult
The thing that made me properly gasp out loud was a collection of K-Zone and Disney Adventures magazines that I’m quite sure I owned way back when. It was a lovely throwback to the glory days of kid’s mags, and the pure feeling of joy of cracking open one to read stories about Naruto or Dragon Ball Z, or Spyro the Dragon, or Beyblade.
I’m quite sure that reading these magazines as a kid was part of the reason why I wanted to be a writer, growing up. So to see them once again, and to see magazines I specifically might have read once, was a warm blast of memories.
It meant that sitting down to actually play The Sims, in its Legacy Collection form, against this backdrop, was far more like living in the past. To that end, the EA team also did a great job in replicating the standard 4:3 display and blocky monitor setup of “ye olden times” PCs.
These pictures are both of me, more than twenty years apart. It’s extremely funny to me that pretty much nothing has changed, besides my hair colour. And really, that also speaks to how well the ACMI exhibit did to replicate that intangible feeling of being young, and being on the computer for the first time. Discovering the power and freedom that a game like The Sims can lend, and eventually, learning the magic of the internet (for however long that lasted).
In this regard, the Sims 25th Birthday celebrations at ACMI were a real triumph. It wasn’t only looking inward, at my own memories that I came to that conclusion. It was in watching the folks entering the exhibit, seeing their eyes light up, and seeing that very real joy of childhood come flooding back as they explored the space.
I saw quite a few people poring over the kid’s magazines. Others playing on the available PCs with their friends, once again taking turns at playing The Sims. I saw plenty of folks poring over the CDs and video cases, and noting the collection of Goosebumps books, with whispers of “I HAD this… Remember THIS… Oh my gosh.”
In choosing to represent The Sims in this way, ACMI and EA created an exhibit with a powerful, heavy impact. It was an ode to The Sims and the feelings and mood that surrounded it on release. It highlighted the power of video games and their ties to memory, and underlined just how transformative The Sims was for an entire generation of young players.
The only real shame is that it was temporary, only for one weekend. I’m very glad I got the chance to see it while it was around, and to see, so clearly, the impact it had on those that attended.
The Sims has a legacy worth representing, and it was fantastic to see it written so large at ACMI.
GamesHub attended the ACMI Sims exhibit as a guest of EA Australia, with flights and accomodation provided.
