Restore original base game intro video to Sims 1 Legacy Collection?
Right now, I'm entering giveaways for The Sims 1 Legacy Collection, but when I get the code for it, I hope this issue that I'm about to bring up gets resolved. Every time I launched The Sims Deluxe Edition back in 2003, there was this iconic 70-second video intro for the game (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR_E-gw1GmE) that followed both the 2000 EA Games and Maxis logos before segueing into the loading screen. It came with the base game and was kept for Deluxe Edition and most of the expansion packs up until Unleashed, which introduced a horrid rush job of an edit with some footage from the expansion packs cheaply inserted (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LSlFlL9Aig). And for some unknown reason, in SuperStar, Makin' Magic and Complete Collection, EA chose to take the iconic intro out as well as the Maxis logo, and cut directly from the EA Games logo to the loading screen.
Somebody on Reddit found a way to re-add the original intro file as well as the original EA Games and Maxis logo files into the the game (https://www.reddit.com/r/thesims1/comments/1droxeg/i_restored_the_sims_1_intro_video_in_the_sims_1/), and it works up to Complete Collection because the files are still compatible. However, according to this comment (https://www.reddit.com/r/thesims1/comments/1d9myu0/comment/maihof0/), this workaround currently does not work with the Legacy Collection because for some odd reason, EA revised the programming to skip the intro video file entirely. Personally, I think that's a very bad move for a release that is meant to be a nostalgic experience to players of The Sims franchise, because once the iconic intro is taken away, everybody is left with the same bland "generic" EA logo from 2005 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo6UqF2MRAA), which is cut off at the end (just like it was on the Complete Collection) before cutting straight to the loading screen. I know I wasn't expecting a full remaster with the Legacy Collection release nor was I expecting the intro video to be optimized for widescreen, but it does feel a little bit like cheating for the game to not have its nostalgic intro back.
Can EA find some way to reinstate the nostalgic 70-second base game video intro into The Sims 1 Legacy Collection? I find that video to be a important throwback to classic Sims gameplay, and it'd be a shame if new players missed out on grooving to such an iconic intro.
And I'd like to add a bonus sidenote because the 2005 generic EA logo implementation stuck in the Legacy Collection doesn't quite work in the same way as the EA Games and Maxis logo combinations did from House Party to Unleashed. I never saw the way EA did it for Hot Date back then because Deluxe (which was installed first) superseded it, but there was a sultry transition between the 2000 EA Games and Maxis logos where the EA Games logo faded to a photo of the moon zooming out to a moonlit park at night with two Sims kissing before fading directly into the Maxis logo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bw8Irpyq-M). I'd think I'd like to see an updated version of that logo combo for the Legacy Collection, in a way that could've fit the game for 2003-2004, but also keeps the Maxis logo so it doesn't diminish their role in the Sims franchise. I think the updated logo combo should start with either the 2003 EA Games "Challenge Everything" logo or the 2006 EA "Sims" logo (which was thankfully kept in The Sims 2 Legacy Collection), but then the flash that makes the EA Games logo disappear instead flashes the screen white and segues to a newly-rendered version of the park setting, with a new Moon, starscape, 3D trees and backlighting on the Sims. As the Sims kiss, a bright solar flare appears from behind the Moon and flashes the screen white; the flash dies down to reveal a subtly animated version of the 2003 3D Maxis logo (likely animated via AI from the image from The Sims 2 base game) (https://youtu.be/u-fkvvq5uFE?si=WB1P_hisRd9ukeVA&t=2), the letters and flare shine. It might be a cool updated logo combo to introduce to The Sims 1 Legacy Collection (and maybe a shorter version of the logo combo, cutting directly from the flash of the EA logo directly to the solar flare flash of the Maxis logo, could be added to The Sims 2 Legacy Collection, with the ending of the Timo Maas remix of The Sims 2 theme (https://youtu.be/LpxnAhHsyMs?si=LNs-PaAu-BK1jSUD&t=317) playing under the Maxis logo).
