Simtistics

Branching out of sports

There have been 3 Sims games, each with many expansion packs. It was originally part of the Sim X (eg: town, city) genre, but since the original game's release, only Sim City has continued. Sim City was the original 'Sim' game, created by Will Wright and released by Maxis. Maxis were bought by EA Games in 1997 (hence why no recent Sim games say Maxis any more when you load them).
The original games were more scientific and about general simulation than playing. For example: Sim Earth, Sim Ant, Sim Life. However, Sim City had appeal, so Maxis continued that idea into a sequel!
The first Sim Game that I can remember playing is Sim Town (1995). It's more-or-less a junior version of Sim City: you create a town with roads, paths, houses, jobs etc. Sims move into houses. You can even select a Sim to follow. I think this may have been part of the inspiration for the Sims.
The next game I can remember is Sim Copter (1996). You play a rescue helicopter pilot in a city, and you earn money by putting out fires, rescuing people from drowning, carrying people to hospital etc. I loved this game – me and my brothers played it – and after we'd managed to get the best helicopter in the game, we earned even more money to buy all the rest back. In the end, however, we got stuck because a fire broke out where the helicopter couldn't reach. This is one of my favourite Sim games ever, and I wouldn't mind if a sequel came out.
I think I also remember playing Sim Park (1996), and learning what a gazebo was, but I can't be sure.
After that, it was a while to wait until the Sims came out in 2000. Since being bought by EA, Maxis no longer produced a lot of Sim X games, but instead went for the popular genres.

Total number of Sim games: 26 (excluding 'Spore')
Total number of 'Sim City' games: 6
Total number of 'the Sims' games: 6

Sims (1) expansion packs: 7
Sims 2 expansion packs: 8 (not including stuff packs)
Sims 3 expansion packs: 2 so far (not including stuff packs)

Of course, the Sims has branched out onto the Internet now. You can buy extra items for your Sims from the online store (the original Sims 3 game and its first expansion pack came with 1000 free points to spend in the store). The new game has some similarity to the original one, but an awful lot of other things have changed – for the better! Slowly it is becoming more playable and realistic, and EA are listening to their audience.