In the late 90s, I wrote a book about my Dad’s upbringing in the small, port town of St. Helen’s, Oregon. As research, we did a couple of driving tours through “modern” St. Helens, with a tape recorder running, as he regaled me with loads of stories I had never heard before. There was something about that one-on-one time, with every turn along the roads unlocking a new memory, that was beyond special.
When he passed in 2012, I remembered that I had kept the tapes from that day, and after buying a used cassette player that I could hook up to my studio console and computer interface, I transferred them all to digital, and later shared them with the entire family. After all of this time, I still listen a couple of times a year, when I just want to hear his voice, as well as the love that comes through our mutual banter.
Knowing that TSTO is going to “die” on the 24th…the need/urge/panic to capture my town, which has given me so much pleasure through a very insane part of my life, is now “Job Number One” for the time we have remaining.
Here are three ways you can do the same.
First of all, Yes…there are rumors, and hacks, and some workarounds that will allow you to “host” your town on other servers. This is not for the faint of heart…or the Non-Tech-Savvy. Plus…it just keeps your town alive. It does not allow you to actually PLAY your town…which is tantamount to being outside the glass, as you watch a loved one in a coma, on life support. Meh…
LOW-RES SCREEN GRAB TOOL- EZ, But “meh” Results
This is the method EA gives us, by simply clicking the icon at the bottom of the “MOVE” page… You WILL NEED to have enough storage on your device to save the screen grab.
Be aware…to make this tool work, the final picture is LowRes (pixelated when you try to zoom in), and is not really suitable for printing and framing.
HIGH-RES- Cut and Paste- Great Results if you have the time!
This is not a new concept, and requires a bit of knowledge, regarding joining large pics together, using a graphics editing tool like PhotoShop or a Stitcher program. You will have to have a LOT of time to capture a full-size town. And about 4-8 times as much more time to stitch it together.
I strongly suggest doing the screen grabs and storing them off, even if you aren’t going to take the time to do the stitching. The High-Res pics are waaaaaay better than the aforementioned Low Res version. And in the end, you will have a town pic that is suitable for framing, or perhaps even using as wallpaper in your bedroom, bathroom, or “person-cave” (we don’t call them Man Caves anymore). At Full Resolution…the final town will be HUGE!! (the small example from my town is 24″ wide at 300 dpi…).
DIGITAL VIDEO RECORDINGS – BEST results for memories.
There are SO MANY aspects of TSTO that I will miss, that just a static screen shot isn’t going to cut it. Sounds, Music, Charcter Dialogue, and more…can all be captured. And as a bonus, with many of the programs, you can also record a narration of what you are capturing. This may have the added benefit of being a snapshot of YOU at this point in your life, and help your loved ones understand what the hell you have been doing the past 12+ years!
*None of my kids played. All of my grandkids tried to play, and moved on to more “sophisticated shooter games,” while affectionately remembering that I was obsessed enough to write a book about it.
But, I digress…
Again…You will need TONS of space on your device…and if you want to convert them to YouTube vids, or even edited MP4 videos, you will need an editing program. But, if you just want to save them, as is…they can be saved to your cloud storage, or device.
I will post a more detailed version of a “How To,” covering the program I use, on Monday.
SET SOME TIME ASIDE. Don’t let the final hours creep up on you. Call in Sick! Order In! Do whatever it takes to take the time.
DO THE SCREEN GRABS at the very least (after doing the low-res version as a safety).
I spent four days to capture my own Sprigfield screenshot by screenshot (after more than 12 years of playing). After taking approximately 800 images, and cca. 30 hours to stick them together, I’ve got a 70.000 by 30.000 pixel sized “raw” capture, which was downscaled to 25 percent, giving me a decent high-definition image. It’s unfortunately not perfect, because I rushed to get shots of every part of my city, and sometimes the renders have a slightly different magnification level).
How did you stick them together?
Using Photoshop.
With Photoshop of course.
I discovered TSTO ten years ago and this website and your blog back in the days were instrumental in me really getting into this game and enjoying creating a lovely town for the characters to thrive in. Thank you for 10 years of amazing fun!
I used a mixture of all of these. My setup: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and a PC with Windows 11. I installed “Link to Windows” on the phone and “Smartphone Link” on the PC. Then I mirrored the phone’s screen on the PC. Set the window to full screen. Started The Simpsons. The display goes horizontal. Now called up the editing menu. Collapsed everything that works. Then pressed the print button on the PC. There you can select “Video” and choose an area to grab. Then just scroll back and forth through the city. I myself went up and down in strips. The video contains the individual images in very good quality. Later I can get to work and put these individual images together with Photoshop.
Tomorrow I’ll do it with my wife’s city. She died two years ago, but she also loved The Simpsons and put a lot of heart and soul into it. That’s also a small part of her.
Thanks for joining us for the farewell Patric!
Its been loads of fun playing The Simpson’s Tapped Out!!!!
Ive been doing some videos on peoples towns on my YouTube channel including my own. I’ve also done videos on some characters I haven’t unlocked yet. I miss doing event videos. My YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/@Kanesdarkside
Do you do requests
I’ve tried to archive my town in a few ways. I’ve been concerned that the game might end for several years now so I’ve been taking loads of screenshots for about 5 years now. Without exaggeration, I’ve taken over 1500 in screenshots over the years, not only of individual sections of my town but also holiday and events decorations too. Looking through my folders of screen grabs, I was glad that I had a few of my town with snow. Like many players, snow was one of the things that I missed the most in Tapped Out this December and it was nice to have a few shots of snow in my town.
I was also able to take a town portrait after having some difficulty getting into the game a few weeks ago. I get that it’s not the best quality but I feel that it does a great job of showing the scale of your town. It would have been nice if this feature was available with the game at launch, it would have been cool to see how our towns have grown over the course of 12 years.
I was going to try for a digital recording but I play on Kindle and all the screen recorder apps available don’t have very good reviews so I did an old fashioned recording of my game by holding my iPhone up to my Kindle as I scrolled through my town. Obviously it’s not the best quality but it’s decent enough.
Now That’s Dedication! Great job!
Hello!! I need some help. I would like to have Jebediah Springfield in my town before the game close. Is h estilo avaliable?? I can’t find him 🙁
Not available, mirror disco stu also not available unless you bought him at the time.
Or you can download on to a YouTube channel. There is a limit to the size of each video so you have to do it in parts. Here is my channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRPuoPVBt2Kwvft4jTdX5cg
I had one large remaining stretch of empty land, and perhaps as a nod to leaving something for the omnipresent AI of the last event, I created lettering with hedge pieces and flowers, spelling out in extremely large letters, “farewell TSTO and thanks for all the fun”. It helped process the grief 🙂
I am debating whether or not I can possibly try the Hi-Rez screen grabs, but I can’t really fathom how long it would take and how easily I could mess it up. Trying to get an iPhone-screen-full — but with with enough overlap between every one, for stitching together as a project later on…
I took some screenshots and then did a video grab around the town and a ride on the monorail. Plus, yesterday I realized I needed to send the Simpsons family all home, so Homer, Marge and the kids are doing tasks around and in their house now 🙁 cause I’d be sad otherwise.
I tried to do the low-res option first but the game keeps kicking me out at the last second, just as i was about to save, server issues all last week, will try again tomorrow, I have some of the splash screens saved, about 50+ not sure what I will do at the end…..tbc
I plan on streaming a farewell to TSTO on Twitch this week, which will also double as my video recording of my time spent on the game. 🙂
Makes sense! Good idea!