Iff Snooper

IFFSnooper is a Macintosh utility by Peter Gould for examining and editing IFF resource files used by Maxis's The Sims (2000). First released in 2002, it lets Mac-side modders open Sims 1 .iff packages, browse their internal resources, and import images for custom walls, floors, and simple objects.

What's an IFF File

The Interchange File Format originated at Electronic Arts in 1985 as a generic chunk-based container, and Maxis adopted it for The Sims to bundle every object's art, animation, behavior tree, and metadata into a single .iff file. IFFSnooper exposes those chunks individually so creators can swap art or inspect behavior data without leaving the Mac.

What You Can Do With It

The tool surfaces wall (.wll), floor (.flr), and object (.FAM) resources, allowing direct image import for custom-made tiles and lightweight new objects. While not a full IDE for SimAntics behavior code, it covered most of the asset-side modding workflow that Mac-only Sims fans needed.

System Requirements

This Classic build targets PowerPC Macs running OS 8.5 or higher and requires Carbon 1.2.5 or later. It was tested through Mac OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) and runs on Intel Macs only via Rosetta. It is not compatible with OS X 10.7 Lion or any later release.

Versions and Lineage

The OS 8.5+ Classic line tops out at 1.2.3 (March 31, 2008); a separate OS X-native track reached 1.2.4 (December 11, 2011). This nid 10263 entry preserves the older Classic build, sibling to the OS X-targeted iff-snooper-x (nid 10235) entry.