Thsms204™
Home of the Restoration and Recuperation of Riverside!
General Riverside Information
Hello and welcome to Riverside!
Riverside was developed by me, Thsms204, as a way to bring back the old promised neighborhood by Maxis.
On my recreation I focused on working on a way to recreate the neighborhood and make it resemble as much as possible to the Maxis original neighborhood, but also allow it to be flexible and designable by the community.
The rest of the homes I populated with "lost" families promised by Maxis. As I looked around the community, I realized that many players wished they could have received these families instead of the given ones in Pleasantview, Strangetown, and/or Veronaville.
Many of these families resemble their original look from official preview videos and screenshots.
The featured families were chosen by me because of their appeal and connection to the community, many of these families are easily recognizable by followers of the series.
The families included in Riverside are:
The Baxters
The Anderson
The Marshall
The Brooke
The Brooklyn
The Molyneaux
The Roberts
The Jeffersons
The Russels
Of course many of these names are not recognizable because they were chosen by me, simply because these characters were never given official last names by Maxis. Further on I will go on to explaining them.
The Baxters
Much confusion sorrounds this family, so let's clear things up. The Baxters were a custom family created by (then) Senior Producer Tim Letourneau specifically for presentation purposes during the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), as a means to show off the power of the game. Some of the confusion comes after many players saw the name Waterside while he presented the neighborhood view, and assumed that it was one of the families associated with Riverside. Because of the name similarity many players had high hopes that they would get to play them, but unfortunately never got to. So to clear things up, The Baxters were never associated with Riverside and were only a custom family in a custom neighborhood by Tim. Of course since many expected this family, and were dissapointed not to see them. I decided to recreate them.
The Anderson
Probably the first family to be shown in actual gameplay of The Sims 2 to the public back in E3 2003. This family originally included two brothers Marty and Bernie. Along with the two brothers were two roomates Lisa and Jennifer. They all lived in a 3 floor house with a large mountainous backyard and a two level porch with a hot tub. During the presentation we are briefly explained about the lives of Marty and Bernie. We learn that Marty the older brother was somewhat of a "romance" sims. (Since back during the presentation wants/fears and aspirations had not been included in the game) And his brother Bernie was a somewhat shy and a stay-at-home sim. Since they had been shown to fans early on, mny drew hopes that they would get to see them two in the release of the game. But because of the 6 month delay for the game, many things were taken out and many things were put in. sadly Riverside, it's families, and Marty and Bernie never made it.
The Marshall
The first of the first set of screenshots revealed to the audiences back in 2003 were those of the Marshall's, their great environments ,family relations, and control of the surrounding was what defined The Sims 2 to the masses. The public fell in love of these characters which had been under wraps and protected by tight security since the beginning of development. Well, the basic story line of this family was mostly a simple one, the parents felt they had a good trust in their daughter, but when she is told to stay home and take care of her younger siblings and instead decides to throw the party of the year, things go awry! Only you can decide what the outcome is as Maxis left it off and now I present it to you in a playable form!
The Brooke
Another great and very interesting story that went to scrapes was that of the Brooks. This had a romance and overcoming your fears theme to it, as the younger sister tried to overcome her shyness and had to cope with the evil antics of her older relative, she waited until the right person came along. On the opposite side the very popular sister had everything she wanted and then some, but when a certain someone decides to fall for the unexpected person, is it time for her to respect her younger sister? While this was left unsolved one wanted to see what would happen to them after the interview with Maxis ended. With that note, I am proud to present this wonderful family to all.
The Brooklyn
Here we come to another family, who I personally feel was great to be included in Riverside. I really felt that the somewhat sloppy and troublesome family from the previews needed to be included to create some diversity. The basic story of them are of some caring parents with troublesome teenage boys and a younger son who they are trying to steer in the right direction and keep him from growing up under the influence of his older siblings who sadly have gone fallen through the wrong path. What happens to this young fella is all up to you.
The Molyneaux
Inspired by the need to make a family showing the different generations and the change that occurs in each, I came to the conclusion to re-create the Molyneaux. In this wonderful family, we have the teenage boy Scott who feels like the world is all his, but when it suddenly changes and he and his mother loose it all and are forced to move in to his grandfather's pristine home, things really take a sudden turn. With his sloppiness and carelessness he archives what he wants but the mistake of ruining his grandfathers home really puts his family on the line.Will the leave or stay? You can decide.
The Roberts
The Roberts were greatly emphasized as another family with a troublesome daughter. But in the case of this one it's much, much worst. While the daughter ends up with a criminal record, her parents reputation as a respectable family in town will be at stake.
The Jeffersons
The Jefferson's really proved to be quite a mess. Because of their many children the two Jefferson parents really have some large problems at hand. With one daughter that does nothing but jump around, a little boy begging and crying for food, a 10 year old scraping dirt and getting it all over the house, a disobeying teen, and... never mind, be advised there really is much work to be done.
The Russels
Finally the Russels, while the older son is out scavenging for friends his mother has no idea that her mischievous father is out to get some "luvin" from her best friend staying at her place. While the old man gets his groove one, will this poor woman ever find out?
Tell me what you think!
After reading this information, please tell me what you think of my Riverside Restoration and Recouperation(R) Project by signing this site's Guestbook.
Riverside Journals
This is the official journal of my Riverside project, documented during its creation.
This journal can also be found on http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/story_detail.php?asset_id=94051
Early planning and construction of Riverside.
I begin by finding out the neighborhood template for Riverside, much to my surprise, it happens to be the same one as the one used for Pleasantview!
Here I plotted the base lots to be featured in Riverside.
Two lots built so far.
The Park and a small house on the corner.
Here I have finished bulding three more lots.
A medium sized purple house on the left corner.
A large white house in between.
A medium size house on the right corner.
A few more homes, and Riverside is coming out real nice!
Alright guys, here is a little treat, a nice isometric view of Riverside as featured in the original early production pictures.
Here 9 homes are featured, and the nice little park up in the corner.
I think it's looking real neat.
Here I am setting up a few more lots. Notice that blue lot, that is what will soon become the Riverside South Park.
Here I have built a few more homes.
A medium sized one on the right corner and a blueish one next to it.
and underneath a park.
Here I have finished up the corner red home.
On the left side I am setting up the lots for two more homes.
Here we have it ladies and gentlemen, the upper side of Riverside has been completed!
As you can see the upper part has been completed.
Now I will move onto the central-right side of Riverside.
Also notice that I have started to add some nice neighborhood decorations.
I have now finished 4 more houses for Riverside!
In total I will have to build 9 new houses!
This section will make up the central-left side of Riverside.
I still have 4 more lots to build on this side of town.
Now I have finished the central-left part of Riverside!
This area will be completing the Restoration and Recouperation of Riverside!
Sneak Preview
Do you remember this household from the sims 2 early development screens?
One of the many playable families in Riverside!
Can you recognize this home from the sims 2 early development?
One of the many playable families in Riverside!
It has been a grueling many days of work on my Riverside Restoration and Recouperation Project(R), but finally it is done. I have constructed every house visible in all the Riverside preview pictures by Maxis.
See ya 'round!
-Thsms204
More to come soon, so check back later!
