How The Sims grew from a virtual construction game into a cultural phenomenon

As the year 2000 ushered in the new millennium, boy bands and pop stars dominated the music charts, and the International Space Station welcomed its first crew, while back on Earth, reality TV was forever changed by an inaugural group of castaways on the CBS show "Survivor" — all when more than 70% of Americans didn't own a cellphone and only half of U.S. households had a computer.

Phil Salvador, library director for the Video Game History Foundation, reflected on this era of rapid technological growth.

"If you were playing especially computer games back then, you were probably playing on the family computer," Salvador said.