Time

Time is a feature of The Sims games. In general, there is a 12 or 24 hour clock, three speed settings (Normal, Fast and Ultra), and a Pause button which stops the clock. Some games allow the player to switch between the 12-hour and 24-hour clock.

The Sims
In The Sims, time is fairly simple. Bills come every three days, but that is the only cycle; there are no days of the week. Sims go to work or school every day, unless the player prevents them from going.

Time only passes on a residential lot when it is being played, so each household has its own time. When Sims visit a community lot, time on their home lot stops, so Sims can spend hours or even days on community lots and return home shortly after they left.

In The Sims for consoles and The Sims Bustin' Out, time works the same as in The Sims.

The Urbz: Sims in the City
Time in The Urbz: Sims in the City is the same as the other The Sims games, except that time passes for the entire city regardless of which Urb you are playing as. This was later seen in The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval.

Midnight parties always occur at 12:00 AM (0:00)

Unlike The Sims for consoles and The Sims Bustin' Out, time cannot be controlled with the Pause and Fast buttons while playing in two-player mode.

The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories
Time is now divided into seven-day weeks. This affects work and school schedules; students have weekends off, and Sims with jobs have scheduled days off. Bills are delivered every Tuesday and Thursday. The exceptions to this are The Sims 2: University (in college sub-neighborhoods) and The Sims Castaway Stories.

If Seasons is installed, there are four seasons, each of which lasts five days.

As in The Sims, time only passes on a residential lot when it is being played, and time on a Sim's home lot stops when he or she visits a community lot.

The Sims 2
Except for the DS and PSP versions, there are no weeks, as there are in The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories. Unlike The Urbz, but like The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories, time only passes for the current family.

The ability to control time in two-player mode, which was removed in The Urbz, is restored. While either player can pause the game, game time will only be sped up while both players are holding the appropriate control.

The Sims 2 Pets
Pets adds the week feature which was introduced in The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories. This is also the first non-handheld to implement time.

As in The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories, time only passes on a residential lot when it is being played, and time on a Sim's home lot stops when he or she visits the Town Square.

The Sims 2 Castaway
As in most console games based on The Sims 2, there are no weeks in Castaway. Whenever a Sim goes to a different area, a short amount of time, usually 15 minutes, will pass.

The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval
The clock is the same as in earlier games, but there is a new speed setting. "Speed 4" Ultra-speeds through the current interaction.

The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval keep track of days since the town was started. Mousing over the time will show how many days have passed since you started playing your town.