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.

Inviting Sims at or after midnight will always cause them to refuse regardless of relationship level, the exception to this is The Urbz: Sims in the City.

In The Sims for consoles and Free Play mode The Sims Bustin' Out, time works the same as in The Sims. However, when playing 'Bustin Out in Bust Out mode, time passes time passes on all lots as it does in The Urbz: Sims in the City.

PS2, Xbox and Gamecube
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.

Unlike other The Sims games, Urbz such as Scary Mary will never refuse if the player invites them after midnight but they will however if the player has a -40 relationship with that Urb.

Midnight parties always occur at 12:00 AM (0:00) and Villians will arrive at 1 PM (13:00).

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.

GBA and DS
Unlike the console versions of The Urbz, time is very important in these versions. Like Bustin' Out, it affects what mini-games can be played, what objectives can be completed and what area Urbz are at (Note: In the DS version, Urbz might be at a different area than in the GBA version). It uses a week-based system similar to The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories.

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.

Like all other games of The Sims, trying to invite Sims after midnight will always cause them to refuse regardless of relationship level.

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 console games
The Sims 2 console games are different from The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories. Most of them (Except Pets) are the same as The Urbz and The Sims.

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. However, in Story Mode, time passes on all lots.

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 weeks.

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
Time now passes for the enitre Town. Similar to The Urbz: Sims in the City, all Sims share the same time regardless of what Sims you are playing as. The clock is the same as in earlier games, but there is a new speed setting. "Speed 4" Ultra-speeds through the current interaction.

Whenever a game is started in The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval, the first day is Sunday and it will be Week 1, Day 1.

While in China, France and Egypt, there are no weeks. This means that week-based events won't occur such as weekly payments from Professions, Weekly Book Earnings. Some events such as receiving free items will still occur.

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.