GMonkey's "The Sims" Tips

Cheats

Here are the cheat codes I found by looking around official message board.
To bring up the text box where you enter cheat codes, press Ctrl + Shift + c. It will appear at the top left corner of your screen.
For a lot of these codes, you can toggle the cheat on and off. I've just typed "on/off," meaning you type either on or off in the text box.

rosebud
    gives you 1000 simoleons
klapaucius
    same as rosebud but it works for the original game, without expansion packs
rosebud;!;!;!
    etc. you get an additional 1000 for each ;! you type
interests
    displays the interests of the selected Sim
grow_grass # (0 to 150) and water_tool
    where there's the #, type a number 0 to 150, which tells the grass how much to grow. water_tool allows you to make ponds. These are unnecessary if you have Hot Date or the later expansion packs.
map_edit on/off
    lets you select which squares on the lot are yours; for example, you can use this to modify the road if you want
autonomy # (0 to 100)
    the number determines how independently your Sims can act; 50 is the default
move_objects on/off
    in Buy or Build mode, you can move and delete objects you wouldn't normally be able to, including people, the mailbox and the trash can. Do not delete the mailbox or trash can because it will screw up your game.
house #
    automatically loads the house with the number you type
sim_speed # (-1000 to 1000)
    sets game speed
draw_routes on/off
    is supposed to draw a dotted line showing the selected Sim's path but I didn't see anything happen
draw_floorable on/off
    shows or hides grid of tiles where you can put floor
grid on/off
    shows or hides the floor grid in Live mode
prepare_lot
    checks and fixes problems with selected lot
rotation # (0 to 3)
    rotates the view (same as using the arrow buttons)
history
    creates a text file with info about the selected family
bubble_tweak # (-65 to 0)
    moves thought bubble - this is useful when the thought bubble intersects an object
route_balloons on/off
    determines whether a thought balloon will appear when the Sim's route is blocked
tile_info on/off
    is supposed to display info about a floor tile as you move your cursor over it but it didn't in mine
genable ____ on/off
    objects - makes objects visible/invisible
    people - makes people invisible/visible
    floors - makes floors invisible/visible
    walls - makes walls invisible/visible
    static rows - on makes all objects invisible except those that Sims are using and those you're pointing at with the cursor; off makes everything visible genable status
    displays info on your options for the above
genable default
    makes everything visible
set_hour # (1 to 24)
    sets what time it is in the game
nessie
    only for Unleashed; makes the Loch Ness monster appear in the river on the neighborhood screen
show_zones on/off
    also only for Unleashed; shows or hides the Residential/Business zone markers

Genie in the lamp

When you rub the lamp, the genie lets you choose from two options. Every option has either a good outcome or a bad outcome, so you have to weigh the potential gain against the potential cost when you make your choice.

	Good	Bad

work	get new skills	lose skills

leisure	get a present	start a fire

money	get a pot of gold	get overdue bills

love	someone falls in love with you	someone gets mad at you

earth	get some plants	your plants die

air	get a lot of flamingos	get a lot of cockroaches

fire	increase your comfort to max	start a fire

water	get a present	flood the house

friends	make a new friend	someone gets mad at you

family	improve relationships with family members	worsen relationships with family members

Magazines

You can change your Sims' interests by making them read magazines. So you don't have to stand there browsing through all of them, here are the topics each one contains:

MaxSimum - Travel, Exercise, Outdoors
Victor's Digest - Food, Sports, Weather
WhooNoo! - Romance, Style, Hollywood
Livin' Large - Music, Parties, The 60s
The Avarix - Money, Politics, Technology

Potions

You can't choose ahead of time which potion your Sim will make, and you can't throw it away once it's made. If you really don't want them to drink it, the only way I know how to deal with it is to sell the chemistry set and get a new one.
Fortunately, the potions are color-coded, as follows:

red - someone falls in love with you
orange - temporarily turn invisible
yellow - permanently reverse your personality points - you can use this to make Sims with more than the usual allotment of personality points, by not using up all the points when you create the Sim and then using the potion.
green - create an evil clone of yourself that leaves after a while
blue - increase hygine and comfort
purple - temporarily turn into a thing like Frankenstein's monster

Magic Town Tips

Makin' Magic is my favorite expansion pack. There's a whole lot of new stuff that can happen; here's what I've encountered so far. Skip this part if you'd rather be surprised.

Talk to the vendors. You can get otherwise unavailable items by doing what they ask.
The Mushrooms Game: the vendor will offer to give you a rare item if you touch more mushrooms than they do. These are special mushrooms that only appear when the game begins (I made the mistake of thinking I had to touch the mushroom-shaped chairs). Once the game begins (when you hit "OK" and the vendor's dialog box disappears), pause the game and look for the mushrooms. There are often clusters of two or more - head for those. The vendors seem to go after the mushrooms at random, so you have the advantage of coming up with a more organized plan. I can beat the Vampire at it, if I'm careful, but I the Tinker runs and I can't always get my Sims to run - sometimes "go here" makes them run but sometimes they walk - for some reason. If you touch more mushrooms then you'll be rewarded with a rare item (one you can't buy). Don't forget to go back and talk to the vendor to collect your prize.

The Sleepy Clouds: another thing that can happen when you talk to the vendors is that they ask you to get rid of some clouds. It starts out as one innocuous little cloud hanging there cloud multiplies quickly. Use the 'Disperse' action on the clouds. They put other people to sleep but not you. I've found it's easiest if you set the speed to '1' and don't line up too many Disperse actions at a time, because the clouds disappear and new ones appear and you don't want to be waving your wand at empty air.

The Tombstone Puzzle: it's a square surrounded by a low fence and if you click on it, you'll find that it's one of those games where every change you make (raising or lowering the tombstones) reverses the condition of the adjacent stones. You can practice with it any time and if you talk to the vendors, sometimes they'll give you an item for making all the stones be up (you have to talk to them first and they tell you to fix the graveyard).

Deliveries: You can also get free stuff when a vendor asks you to deliver something. You can deliver it and get a rare item, or just steal whatever you were supposed to deliver.

Get an item: A vendors might ask you to get them an item from someone in the area. Curiously, it's always something red: a brick, an apple or a red banana. I tried keeping the items but I couldn't find anything to do with them.

Cheer someone up: A vendor might ask you to cheer up their friend. You have to find the person they name and talk to that person for a while. If you fail, (if the vendor says they haven't cheered up) you can continue trying.
Other things to do in Makin' Magic:

Makin' money: you earn MagiCoins by doing magic shows. These have nothing to do with the spells you've made, it only depends on your skills: logic for the goth show and mechanical for the circus show. So quickly max out the logic and/or mechanical points for one family member then have that one go and earn the money. You'll have that spooky mansion across the river in no time! You can make hundreds of magicoins in a single show if the Sim keeps doing tricks. To make them do more than one trick per show, click on the stage just before they start each trick, when they're standing in the middle of the stage, and you'll be able to get the action menu ("Perform") and select the next trick. Try doing the show before you've got a lot of skills too; you'll still get a little money and it's pretty funny to watch your Sim get beat up by the mummy. You can also get money for your creativity by charming the snake but you don't get as much.

Savin' money: Never buy golden thread if you can help it. Not only can you make it yourself without spending any MagiCoins, but you also increase your mechanical skills at the same time. The same goes for honey/beeswax and cooking skills. You can get free toadstools if you own the toadstool chair. Sometimes when you sit on the chair, toadstools will grow in your yard and you can harvest them. While I'm talking about the honey, I should mention...

The bees: sometimes, inexplicably, my stupid Sims would try to make honey/beeswax without putting on the beekeeper outfit, resulting in their getting stung and their fun score plummeting. I just cancelled the "Harvest" action and they walked away; there didn't seem to be any permanent damage. I'm pretty sure having a low mood is what triggers the bees to attack. Sometimes, the bear that knocks over the trash can comes by and, if you have a beehive, instead of knocking over the trash, it'll try to eat the honey and get chased away by the bees.

The Snake Charmer: you can get MagiCoins by charming the cobra but you don't get many unless you have high Creativity. I've never been bitten by the snake, but that's just the sort of thing they'd throw in there so be careful.

Mysterious Plants: if you do enough magic in your house, stuff starts to grow. This happens faster if you live in Magic Town. In the regular neighborhood so far, I've just gotten a gnarly root which doesn't seem to do anything. In Magic town, I got a red crystal, from which a Sim can learn the "Hot Foot" ability. See below for more info.

Dueling

Whether you win or lose has nothing to do with your skills or inventory; it just depends on the spells you cast. The duel lasts four rounds and you have four (of five possible) spells to choose from; you can only use each spell once. The trick is knowing which spell will beat your opponent's spell. You can tell what spells are cast by the symbols below your feet on the dueling stage - definitely zoom in all the way for this. If you win at least three rounds then you get MagiCoins. If you talk to a vendor and they suggest that you challenge them, they'll give you an item if you win. Here's my sort of crude representation of the symbols, but you get the idea:

dueling chart

The symbol in the box is the spell that wins. So, for example, if it's lightning vs blizzard, then blizzard wins. It doesn't matter who casts it.
Also, make sure you're quick about choosing a spell, or you'll lose that round no matter what.
(I really hope that what-beats-what doesn't change, or else I just wasted a whole lot of time. So far, in my experience, it doesn't).
You can tell which spells you and your opponent have available by looking at the colored globes on sticks that appear on the stairs on each end of the dueling stage. The globes' colors match the colors in the names of the spells.

Recipes

Grape nectar grapes, grapes, sugar

Elderberry nectar sugar, elderberries, elderberries

Honey nectar honey, grapes, sugar

Freshly baked bread baking mix, baking mix, baking mix

Homemade cake butter, sugar, baking mix

Carrot cake butter, baking mix, carrots

Elderberry pie sugar, elderberries, baking mix

Magic tart butter, baking mix, pixie dust - may turn your head into that of a donkey

Magic nectar grapes, grapes, toad sweat - same effect as the Shed Your Skin charm

Spells

The spells and charms can all backfire. This usually happens when you cast the magic at a time when it's not necessary or when you try to cast the magic when your mood isn't right.

Toadification butter, toadstools, toad sweat
    temporarily turn someone into a toad. If you cast it on someone who has a wand, they'll turn you into a toad instead.

Relationship Boost honey, honey, pixie dust
    improve your relationship with the person on whom you cast the spell

Enchant butter, toadstools, pixie dust
    Make inanimate objects come to life. So far, I've been able to enchant the following:
    frige - goes crazy and you won't be able to get food for a while
    chessboard - plays by itself and you won't be able to use it for a while
    lawn gnome - comes to life for a while and takes care of your garden, unless you have a nectar press, in which case he'll jump into it and get drunk
    flamingo - comes to life as a go-go dancer; this is good for entertaining party guests
    If your mood is low when you cast Enchant then the thing you try to enchant will catch on fire

Get Happy honey, grapes, pixie dust
    Make someone else's mood improve

Smiley Face honey, garlic, toad sweat
    Instantly make someone your friend

Banish butter, snake venom, garlic
    Temporarily make someone disappear down a hole

Love Struck honey, dragon tears, pixie dust
    Instantly make someone fall in love with you; you also fall in love with them

Hypnotize butter, toad sweat, clown confetti
    Hypnotize someone, then you get to pick one action to make them do.
    If you try to hypnotize someone who has a wand, then you'll get hynotized

The Big Question honey, clown confetti, wizard eyelashes
    Instantly marry someone. I tried to cast this on someone I didn't know (didn't appear in my relationships window) and it failed.

A Friend Indeed butter, pet treats, clown confetti
    Permanently turn your pet into a human

Charms

Beauty or Beast beeswax, beeswax, beeswax
    Temporarily look like something out of a bad sci-fi movie; you can choose from a selection including werewolf, minotaur, sorcerer and orc.

Horn of Plenty golden thread, magic beans, magic beans
    Get lots of food
    If you cast this when you're not hungry, you'll get a housefull of toads. If you kiss the toads, one might turn into a prince but this is extremely rare. I haven't seen it happen myself.

Dish Wish golden thread, golden thread, llama spit
    All dirty dishes in the house disappear.
    If you cast this charm when there are no dirty dishes then a whole lot of dirty dishes will appear

Rain of Riches beeswax, rubber chicken, diamond dust
    Get lots of treasure, that you can sell for money or keep around to look at in your hoard. Being a pirate monkey, I prefer the latter.

Shed Your Skin beeswax, beeswax, sands of time
    Temporarily become like a ghost

Polar Attraction beeswax, dragon scales, llama spit
    People will like what you say even if they don't have the same interests

Clone Drone beeswax, sands of time, pegasus feather
    Make a clone of yourself that's supposed to go to work for you while you goof off but mine just hung around reading the paper and then spontaneously combusted, setting fire to the shrubs. Oh well.

Perfect Garden golden thread, magic beans, four-leaf clover
    Instantly waters and restores all the plants in your garden UNLESS you have lawn gnomes in the yard. If you do, then the charm makes them come to life, go crazy and stomp your plants. Unfortunately, I discovered this when I had about 20 gnomes. I had to make my Sims go around "solidifying" them all.

Magic Mood beeswax, magic beans, glacial glass
    Improve your own mood, or the mood of everyone in the house, including guests. This is how I got Drew Carey to come to my party.
    If your mood is too high, then it'll makes everyone's mood bad.

Of House and Home golden thread, glacial glass, pegasus feather
    Wally O'Wisp comes and fixes broken stuff and cleans your house.
    If your mood is low then Molly O'Wisp comes and messes stuff up.

The Price of Fame beeswax, diamond dust, black roses
    Get famous but with obsessed fans

Kids' Magic

Beauty or Beast Jr. Charm toadstools, toadstools, toadstools
    Temporarily turn into a fantasy creature

Get Happy Jr. Spell toadstools, dragon scales, faerie dust
    Same as Get Happy for adults

Enchant faerie dust, faerie dust, dragon tears
    Same as Enchant for adults

No More Puddles Charm toadstools, toadstools, dragon tears
    Increase child's hygine to max

Make ~~Toads~~ "Cakes" Charm toadstools, toadstools, faerie dust
    It's supposed to make cakes but mine always makes a bunch of toads; I've heard this is a bug. I've also heard you can turn a toad into a prince if you kiss it but it's really unlikely. Only adults can kiss the toads.

Smiley Face Jr. Spell dragon tears, dragon tears, faerie dust
    Same as Smiley Face for adults

Invisible Friend Charm toadstools, toadstools, faerie dust
    A child appears that only the child who cast the spell can see

Clone Drone Jr. Charm toadstools, dragon tears, dragon scales
    Same as Clone Drone for adults

Age of Instant Charm toadstools, dragon scales, drgon scales
    Permanently turn into an adult; if your mood is low and this backfires, you'll turn into a baby

Ingredients

Here's the color code for my table of where to get stuff (buy it from the display or barter with the vendor associated with that display):
Lotta's Foodstuffs/Hidimant Food Display
Meriklime Berry Display/Golden Meriklime Display
Vegano Market Cart
All Things Draconic
Faerie Mara's Odds and Ends
Wagon O' Wares
Snake Charmer
Praisem High Treat Display
The number in parentheses is the price, S for simoleons, M for MagiCoins. You get a box of free magic stuff when you first move in. Don't forget to open it!
If it says "vendor" it means you have to talk to a vendor and do their task to get the item.
In case you have a black and white printer, the first letter of the source for the item appears next to the description of how to get it.

	where to get it	uses

baking mix	L buy it (10S)	freshly baked bread homemade cake carrot cake elderberry pie magic tart

beeswax	make it W buy it (17M)	Beauty or Beast Rain of Riches Shed Your Skin Polar Attraction Clone Drone Magic Mood The Price of Fame

black roses	Obsessed fan (see below)	The Price of Fame

butter	make it L buy it (20S) free box	homemade cake carrot cake magic tart Toadification Enchant Banish Hypnotize A Friend Indeed

carrots	grow them V buy them (9S)	carrot cake

clown confetti	vendor	Hypnotize The Big Question A Friend Indeed

diamond dust	F buy it (199M)	Rain of Riches The Price of Fame

dragon scales	groom a dragon A buy them (21M) steal them	Polar Attraction Get Happy Jr. Clone Drone Jr. Age of Instant

dragon tears	tickle a dragon A buy them (24M)	Love Struck Enchant (Jr.) No More Puddles Smiley Face Jr. Clone Drone Jr.

elderberry nectar	make it	W swap it for rubber chicken

elderberries	grow them M buy them (15S)	elderberry nectar elderberry pie

faerie dust	use "Visions of Sugarplums" box	Get Happy Jr. Enchant (Jr.) Make "Cakes" Smiley Face Jr. Invisible Friend

four-leaf clover	F trade honey for it	Perfect Garden

garlic	A trade beeswax for it	Smiley Face Banish

glacial glass	vendor	Magic Mood Of House and Home

golden thread	make it F buy it (14M)	Horn of Plenty Dish Wish Perfect Garden Of House and Home

grapes	grow them M buy them (30S)	grape nectar honey nectar magic nectar Get Happy

honey	make it L buy it (20S)	honey nectar Relationship Boost Get Happy Smiley Face Love Struck The Big Question

llama spit	W buy it (25M)	Dish Wish Polar Attraction

magic beans	F buy them (27M)	Horn of Plenty Perfect Garden Magic Mood

pegasus feather	vendor	Clone Drone Of House and Home

pet treats	P buy them (40S)	A Friend Indeed

pixie dust	F buy it (31M)	Relationship Boost Enchant Get Happy Love Struck

rubber chicken	W trade elderberry nectar for it	Rain of Riches

sands of time	F buy them (25M) F steal them	Shed Your Skin Clone Drone

snake venom	S trade gold thread for it	Banish

sugar	L buy it (8S)	grape nectar elderberry nectar honey nectar homemade cake elderberry pie

toad sweat	W buy it (21M) free box kiss a toad and you might get toad sweat	magic nectar Toadification Smiley Face Hypnotize

toadstools	toadstool chair (see below) W buy them (9M) free box	Beauty or Beast Jr. Get Happy Jr. No More Puddles Make "Cakes" Invisible Friend Clone Drone Jr. Age of Instant Toadification Enchant

wizard eyelashes	vendor	The Big Question

How to get the black roses:

You have to have the Superstar expansion pack and you have to have someone famous in your house. Having someone famous in your house becomes easy with magic; just read the tabloid to see who's a celebrity then go down to Studio Town with your Smiley Face or Love Struck spell. Cast it on the celebrity then go home and invite them over. If you used Love Struck then you can get them to marry you pretty easily without further magical manipulation but if they're just your friend then use The Big Question. When the celebrity lives in your house, an Obsessed Fan will start coming by and will occasionally leave black roses. Also, if you make gargoyles and leave them out, sometimes the fan will steal a gargoyle and leave roses (if there's someone famous in your house).
I've heard that if you have a celebrity grave (the kind with a star on it) in front of the house then people will come and leave roses but this hasn't worked for me yet.

Dragons

You can buy a dragon nest from the "All Things Draconic" cart and it'll hatch into a dragon! The dragon can be purple, red or gold, depending on what you do with the egg before it hatches.

If you neglect the egg, the dragon will be red
If you interact with the egg 6 to 13 times, it will be gold
If you interact with the egg more than 13 times, it will be purple

I've had all three dragons set things on fire but supposedly, the red one is bad, the gold one is good and the purple one is good but lazy. All the dragons eat daffodils.
Once the dragon has hatched, you can tickle it to get dragon tears and groom it to get dragon scales, though you may have to do these things a few times before the ingredients appear. They don't appear in your inventory; they'll be on the floor and you'll have to pick them up.
The dragons don't appear as family members, like cats or dogs, nor do they appear in your relationships window.

Crystals and other things that grow

Crystals, as well as roots, flowers and beanstalks (some of which can be climbed! More on this later) will spontaneously grow in your yard when you do enough magic on your property. So far I've only gotten the red crystal to appear, from which you can learn "Hot Foot."
Free toadstools: You can make toadstools grow by sitting on the toadstool chair (it doesn't happen every time so keep getting up and sitting again). You'll hear a bubbly noise when the toadstools appear in your yard somewhere and you can go and harvest them.

Ability Crystals:

Color	Ability	How to use it
RED	Hot Foot	Entertain someone; it appears along with "Joke," "Puppet," etc.
ORANGE
YELLOW
GREEN
BLUE
PURPLE