Look what I found!

[strangetomato]

I've been digging through the folder of game textures that simgaroop extracted and shared with us in her journal, looking for anything music related. It's for a little Maxis-match cc project (yes, another object - I'm hooked). I found some good stuff in the TSS textures, or maybe it was the Ikea Stuff textures. It was one of them, for sure. Once I pulled up the image to view it full size, I noticed something very cool hidden in there. The cds are sim versions of real CDs, and include some of my favourite bands!










The CD on the far right is based on Belle and Sebastian's first album, Tigermilk. It looks like one of the Pleasant twins is filling in for the girl on the cover. Pretty cute.

The CD on the far left is Midnight Vultures by Beck. Another great album. One of his best, for sure.




Here's the original CD cover art for Tigermilk for comparison.




And here's Midnight Vultures.

Pretty cool, huh? ^_^


I don't know what the other two are referencing, but they both seem vaguely familiar to me. Can anyone identify them?

ETA: My SO just came home from his office and made short work of the other two (no big surprise there, music nerd that he is).




The second from the left is The Bends by Radiohead.




The third from the left is the Come to Daddy EP by Aphex Twin.



We own ALL of these CDs. XD

We've also determined that this texture was obviously created by my SO, four years ago.





There were also these textures:




I'm not sure if these relate to anything real, but they seem sort of dance/karaoke/DDR inspired to me. Any thoughts?

I love finding little surprises hidden in the game.




 

Comments

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

That's AMAZING. I know people like to knock em, but EAXIS really did include a bunch of awesome little hints like that in the games, which is delicious. I think my favorite is "Brick Rolled" though, it kills me every time I see it.

The Belle and Sebastian one looks very cool.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I figured out the other two and added them above. Well, my So figured it out. XD

I agree. I love all the little jokes and hidden stuff like this. It makes the game fun to explore.

[smjosh1218.livejournal.com]

That's amazing. Your SO is pretty fierce.

Doesn't it? I love reading the descriptions and giggling like a madman. It makes being in Buy/Build Mode a bit more fun.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

He's such a music nerd. It took him all of two seconds to figure them out.

Yeah, it does. I really should read more of the descriptions. I'll bet there's all sorts of stuff I haven't noticed yet.

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Well, there is a difference between the developers of EA who make the games, and are in charge of making and designing objects and features and putting all those little cool things in there... And the Evil on top who make the decisions about SecuROM and Let's Make our OWN Paysite! (Sims Store) and Testing? We have no time for that! We'll just let Pescado fix it for us. And so on.

In short, it's not the programmers' fault the management are idiots. Believe me, I would know...

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Oh, are you a programmer? Or are you just referring to any job where you have to listen to the boss, regardless of how asinine their leadership is? (If the latter, then me too. :P)

This is the reason I still essentially like EAxis, for all their oddball humour, while I grow ever more distrustful of the company as a whole.

But we're not here to discuss that, right? ;)

(Speaking of... hi! I didn't notice you come in. /party metaphor)

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Both. I'm a programmer in a company where the bosses have taken several idiotic decisions while refusing to listen to those "below" them pointing out the flaws in their plans. I'm sure that can apply to a lot of different jobs, though.

But, yeah. Sorry for butting in with my off-topicness. :) Those CDs were a mighty cool find. I wouldn't have noticed that, I think.

I still snicker at 'Prisoner of Azkalamp' and 'The Daisies of Our Lives'.

[music-simbol.livejournal.com]

Awwwwwwesooooooooome! This is why I'd love to work on a game, cuz then you can hide tons of stuff in there. :D (One dude put a pic of his gf in a game he was working on :P)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I know. I would love to be giggling to myself as I was adding these things in there.

My SO figured out the other two, btw (see above). The fact that someone snuck an Aphex Twin CD in there really amuses me.

[leskuh.livejournal.com]

OH GOD THE LAST ONE.

http://pics.livejournal.com/strange_tomato/pic/000pg5et

They are the faces that will haunt my nightmares. D:

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

LOL - you should listen to the music. It's equally mind-fucking. XD

He's an odd character, that one.

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

I love your super dramatic reactions to stuff, bb. <33

[leskuh.livejournal.com]

You aren't HORRIFIED BEYOND BELIEF?

Those faces.

And THE TITLE OF THE ALBUM.

Come to Daddy EP

[simgarooop.livejournal.com]

Wow! That's so cool!

Shows how little I know about music, though, because I didn't realize those were simlish versions of real CDs. It's great that you two recognized the original versions ^^. It seems like you share music tastes with one of the EA designers.

I love the hidden details in the game. The description of some sculptures and paintings are priceless, for example. And I still laugh at the "how babies are born" conversation icons, it's a pity those weren't included in the game.

BTW, I wanted to recolor some CD meshes with these little pics, but they were too small (and I didn't want to make them big because then they'd become blurry).

Now I wonder what's your new project about?

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Actually, the project IS a CD mesh. :P It comes from ATS originally, but I found it at GoS. It has three CD cases and one disc, and the texture is small - the same size as the CDs in these textures.

I've done 4 recolours, but I'm going to wait until tommorrow to take some in-game shots (it's time for bed). I'm thinking of creating some of my own images for it too. I've been planning to do some artwork for my story bands for ages now anyway. It should be fun to do.

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

Very cool.

Like simgaroop, I'm keen on what your new project is. Can you recolor those cd cases? If so, it would be a hoot to have story based bands featured on in game cases.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much my plan.

The overall plan I'm working with now has three parts to it:

1. Use those extracted in-game textures to create Maxis-match CD clutter objects (In progress - nearly completed)

2. Create cover art for my story bands (Shifting Paradymes, Llama Dance Party, and maybe some new ones) - both new CD clutter and recolours for the in-game stereos and CD towers

3. Recreate more real life CD cover art to be Simlish/Maxis-match and make object recolours from that (I already have a tonne of other icon art covers in mind to recreate in-game)

If you want, I could include the Science Fiction Idols in my story band project. I'd need a couple of images for two album covers and one inside sleeve (this also could just be text).

Are there any other story bands? There were also the Simkees (I remember your references to Cactus), Van has Phish Secks (sp?), and some of Simgaroop's characters are musicians too (I don't think there's a band name, but that doesn't even really matter). I could search around for other examples and see if the creators want to contribute to the project.

I could also do a totally unaltered Shifting Paradymes (with Gunnar! Wheee! *snicker*) for those who want a more "canon" version. I could use the image from the neighbourhood story or something like that.

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

Very cool project. A lot of folks would be very flattered to be included.

*is flattered*

The re-created covers are super cool, too (I think I'll steal some DBT art for use by the SciFiIdols, it'll be a huge dorkfest mashup!). Are you planning to make different musical genres for the re-colors? Some simlish rap albums or "country and western" *snerk* offerings?

Thank you for giving my very bored mind something to think about while I'm waiting for the work day to FINALLY be over.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm glad you're interested. I think it'll be fun, and it acts as a sort of clever sim story advertisement too. Maybe I'll even upload the whole set to MTS2 when it's finished (something I'm considering for my woohoo stuff, maybe as one big upload when I'm finally finished with that theme).

Once you grab a couple of shots, it's easy enough for me to make the recolours. CD covers are squares - how much easier could it be?

Do you have the simlish fonts? if not, I can add the text in for you.

Yeah, I've been sneaking little moments at work to jot down ideas for my own covers. It's fun. I have a possible gender-bending idea in mind for the Shifting Paradymes, which might be fun to try. Actually, you'd be a good person to ask... where's the best place to find dresses for male sims without breasts added to them? I know Simmer Girl does versions with boobies, but do they do versions without too?

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'll be all over this when I get home. First I just need to check the DBT website to poach some ideas.

Sadly, there's no one good place for boy dresses (that I've found). Simmergirl is mostly boob-ified.

The man-dresses I have come from MTS2 but are, sadly, mostly gothic/lolita style (sans boobs, though).

http://nene.modthesims2.com/download.php?t=57070 That's a kind of out there glammy dress. There are a lot of skirts around that you could probably recolor for your needs. And there's always the Goopy cross dresser dress (it's pretty ugly, though).

qt3bo at MTS2 seems to have a lot of skirty things (and some really funky stuff).

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I really like the idea of basing it on some real album art like that. It should be fun. It doesn't have to be even close to exact to give the right effect, as you can see in these game examples.

Actually, an ultra-glamorous dress would be perfect. I'm envisioning a sort of Kurt Cobain in a dress type of look. You know, unkempt manliness just barely concealed by an over-the-top gown. I may break out one of those really girly male hairs too (as a wig). I'll play around with it and see if I like it.

I have the manly girl stuff, no problem. GoS has been pretty useful for that (and I use a lot of it anyway, like the hairs).

Thanks for the suggestions!

[muslemura.livejournal.com]

That's amazing! Love these little gems hidden in game <3 I have three out of four of the albums on my iPod too, even better :P

Looking forward to seeing your CD recolour cover art thingy ^^;