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

I'd bought a new PC and was browsing in an Electronics Boutique in Edinburgh, when they had a store there and found The Sims had just come out. I bought it as I liked the box art and the idea of those little people. Since then I've bought every iteration and every pack and even those dubious early packs made from appropriating other cc makers' work, though I didn't know that at the time.

It got me through a very bad time in my life when I had been suffering depression (later found to be caused by undiagnosed Coeliac Disease). I have been buying new PCs and laptops since then trying to run the game at Ultra!

My all time favourites are Sims 2 for fun and gameplay as a single or family but Sims 4 for building and whole community building with Eco Lifestyle. Sims 4 is the only one where I can control a whole family of eight easily, so that's a plus for me.