What year did you start playing your first The Sims game?

2001 was when I got my first computer (clamshell iBook) because I was taking computer programming and wanted a computer so I wouldn't have to spend all my spare time on campus in the lab. I was cruising the shelves at the local Apple Store looking for something to occupy me when I wasn't doing homework, and saw this game called The Sims by Aspyr (they did the Mac ports for Sims 1 & 2) and thought it looked interesting. The rest is history...

Prior to that though, I'd played SimCity on the SNES and enjoyed that as well.