Neighborhood Package Files: The Importance of Backing Up Your Sims Game

I never knew how risky playing the Sims 2 could be until my computer crashed a few weeks ago while I was saving the game. When I went back to re-visit the neighborhood, the entire neighborhood was gone! It didn’t even appear on the list of neighborhoods to choose from. Apparently, when the computer crashed, it corrupted certain files in the game and that particular neighborhood was no longer playable. Since I didn’t have a back-up neighborhood package file to replace the corrupted file with, I could only retrieve the characters and the lots, nothing else.

So, to help prevent this from happening to other people’s games, here’s an easy step-by-step for backing up your precious Sims 2 game files:

1) First, go into the neighborhoods file under “EA Games -> The Sims 2 -> Neighborhoods” then click on the neighborhood that you wish to back up data for. (In this case, I’ll back up Strangetown, neighborhood N002).

2) Next, go into detail view and search for the Neighborhood package file (which in this case is entitled “N002_Neighborhood”, when you hover over it the type should say “DBPF Package.” (The file should be rather large considering it holds all of the data for that particular neighborhood: memories, personalities, houses, community lots etc).

3) Now, copy the package file and paste it somewhere else on your computer. (Or you can always burn it to a CD). Do this for every neighborhood that you play often as, or any one that you would hate to lose. So the next time your game crashes, you won’t have to start completely over again! 

Next time, we’ll be exploring the extremely useful and amazing program SimPE, where almost anything is possible. We’ll resurrect random sims that you can’t legally do in the game itself, change personalities/genders and add sims to anyone’s family tree in the neighborhood! Don’t miss it!