The Simpsons: Tapped Out/References

Version information

Version	File Size (with no progress)	Notes	Released
1.0.0	12.9 MB	A bug was reported on the Tapped Out forums.	February 17, 2012
1.0.1	17.4 MB
1.0.2
1.0.3
1.1.1
1.?.?		It is unknown if there was an actual update released.	June 13, 2012?
1.?.?			Around July 30, 2012
2.1.0	44.4 MB		August 2, 2012
2.2.0	46.1 MB		August 29, 2012
2.3.0	44.3 MB	Additional behind-the-scenes adjustments made to improve overall gameplay.	September 19, 2012
3.0.0	49.5 MB	Halloween update with new Halloween objects, characters and buildings.	October 3, 2012
3.0.1	50.7 MB	Additional behind-the-scenes adjustments made to improve overall gameplay.	November 8, 2012
4.0.0	~80 MB	Christmas update with new Christmas objects, characters and buildings.	December 5, 2012

Timeline of events

Date	Description
February 17, 2012	The game is released in App Stores in Singapore, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.
February 19, 2012	An article on the game is created on this wiki.
February 21, 2012	The game is released in the Canadian App Store. A Gameplay trailer that features the first few levels of the game is uploaded to YouTube.
February 24, 2012	The game's official Facebook account is created.
February 29, 2012	The game is released in the App Stores in United Kingdom, Spain, Greece, Egypt, Botswana, Germany, Australia, Mexico, Indonesia, New Zealand, Ireland, Switzerland, Russia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Turkey.
March 1, 2012	The game is released in the United States. Due to overwhelming response, connectivity problems began.
March 3, 2012	The game is removed from all App Stores.
March 5, 2012	Official game forums are created on EA.com.
March 9, 2012	The last update by the official Facebook page. (until June 11, 2012)
March 21, 2012	The Wikipedia page on the game is created.
April 9, 2012	Template:Www released a report saying that Tapped Out would be available on the App Store again soon.
April 10, 2012	An Template:Www from EA was posted on the game forums.
April 20, 2012	Another Template:Www from EA was posted on the game forums.
April 22, 2012	Another Template:Www from EA was posted on the game forums.
June 11, 2012	A message from EA, Template:Www, was posted on the game forums. It said that the servers would be down for two days to be fixed, and that current players would get 60 donuts free after this. Also, on the day, the game's Facebook page wrote a message on the game being offline - its first message in 3 months.
June 13, 2012	Several users reported on the game forums that after the 48-hour server fix and update, users had lost 72 donuts instead of being given 60 donuts. Also, the player's Springfields were reverted back levels, and some had been completely re-arranged (with buildings being added and quests being skipped) - what would have likely happened is that EA changed player's levels into a preset level, such as a preset level 6 or a preset level 12, etc.
June 18–19, 2012	Service maintenance took place on the Tapped Out servers.
June 20, 2012	The last update by the official Facebook page. (until August 16, 2012)
August 14, 2012	It was revealed at Gamescon 2012 that Tapped Out would return that week on the App Store in the United States, and in the other App Stores (apart from Germany and Canada) later in the month, or in September.
August 16, 2012	Tapped Out was re-released on the US App Store.
August 29, 2012	Tapped Out was re-released on the UK App Store.
September 21, 2012	The first content update for the game was released with new characters, buildings and objects.
October 3, 2012	A huge Halloween update was released (v 3.0.0) with new characters, buildings and objects.
November 5, 2012	The third content update was released.
Between November 5, 2012 and November 8, 2012	The fourth content update was released.

Cultural references

After building a road, Lisa says she feels "like Robert Moses in that giant book that took me two years to read." She is probably referring to The Power Broker, which has 1,336 pages.
When talking about planting trees to deal with their carbon footprint, Lisa says "the Inconvenient Truth is this place looks dull", a reference to Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.
When you level up to level 5, Barney says "It's always level 5 somewhere". This is a reference to the Alan Jackson song "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere".

Trivia

In the game, characters refer to the game, e.g. Homer says to Lisa: "Thank God you're here to guide me through this tutorial".
Homer suggest he and Lisa move to Miami instead of rebuilding Springfield.
There are three cutscenes in the video game, that were uploaded to YouTube on March 11, 2012. The first cutscene is shown once Homer completes his first shift at the Power Plant, the second cutscene is shown once the player has bought Bart's treehouse, and the third cutscene is shown once the player has built Moe's Tavern.

You can steal a lemon tree from one of your friend's Springfield, and if you plant it in your town within 24 hours, it will start to generate XP and cash. But when your friend visits your Springfield, they can steal it back. Recently, EA disabled this functionality from the game.
You start off the game with $750.
If you make Principal Skinner be a crossing guard and your Springfield Elementary School isn't near a road, he will stand outside the school anyway.
Sometimes, characters may walk over water to get where they are going if there is no other way there.
As of a Facebook photo on November 2, 2012 at 6:59pm (GMT):
- 1.97 billion donuts spent in-game
- 7.36 million Kwik-E-Marts placed
- 6.93 million played the Treehouse of Horror update
- 3.43 million Krusty Burgers placed
- 2.25 million Jack-o-Lanterns placed (47% of players)

Errors

Goofs

In the trailer, the Simpson's house only shows Homer inside and the space around him would be too small to fit their whole house in.
In the opening intro, the tire fire isn't on fire. However, the fire could have been put out.
Lisa mentions that she and Milhouse are both eight-years-old. Milhouse is in fact ten-years-old.

Glitches

There are more glitches in the game than there are in this list. If a glitch is not frequent enough, it will NOT be added to this list.

Houses and buildings in the game are somehow placed 'outside the land', and when you click to buy a land expansion, the land in which the buildings are on show up with a price.
On March 1, 2012, the response to Tapped Out was so overwhelming that it created some connection issues. On March 3, 2012, EA were still working to fix the issues. On the evening of March 3, the game was removed from the App Store, although players who downloaded Tapped Out before March 3 could still play the game. On March 8, it was announced that most connectivity problems had been fixed, but are working on a solution to player's characters or buildings that have disappeared.^[1]^[2] Since March 9, no updates have been made on the game's Facebook page, no updates from EA, apart from a post on the EA Game forums in April which showed an email reply from EA, saying that the company was STILL trying to fix the bugs.

The town in this picture has pavements and roads in wrong places.

On March 11, 2012, reports began of an error with player's Origin accounts. The error somehow made multiple Springfield's on the user account, and in some cases, supposedly made the game wipe all the player's progress, and when they log in again afterwards, goes back to the player's former Springfield which progress was supposedly wiped.^[3]
Since the launch of the Tapped Out forum, users have been reporting problems which appear to be the "DC while loading friends city bug".
Not technically a glitch, but since EA have released different versions of Tapped Out in different countries, if players add a friend who is playing on a different version of Tapped Out, they cannot visit them. EA said that once they re-release the app, they will standardize versions across countries so people on different versions to each other can visit each others towns.
A common error in the game is that after visiting a friend's town, they find that their town has been messed up. Then, when they attempt to log in the next time, the game crashes.
Sometimes, texture glitches appear in the game. That is when another building/object appears instead of another building. For example, Moe's Tavern may appear where a Blue House should be.

Exploits

If the player runs the game on his/hers jailbroken iPhone/iPad with backgrounder setting and changes the date, the game will move forward, enabling them to keep on moving time to get the mystery box.

Continuity

Homer's quote "One time our house was next to a prison so I could make a joke about how we lived next to a prison." references how in "Pokey Mom", Marge looks out the window in one scene and sees the Waterville Prison a few fields away from 742 Evergreen Terrace.
One of Moe's jobs is to smuggle endangered species. He then runs to his tavern with a panda on his back, a reference to "Cape Feare".
The "Death by Squishee" quest is probably a reference to "Boy-Scoutz 'N the Hood" where Bart and Milhouse take an all-syrup Squishee.
In "Illegitimate Concern Pt. 1" there are references to the teachers strike from the episode "The PTA Disbands" with Bart saying that Skinner will "fold faster than Superman on laundry day."

References

[1] Facebook

[2] EA.com

[3] EA Forums

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