Little Computer People
Also known as House-on-a-Disk, this was a life simulation game long before Creatures, Tamagochis, and The Sims, a game that was not about winning and losing before SimCity (it should be added, however, that Will Wright had the idea for SimCity before LCP came out).
Now what was Little Computer People all about? As the alternate title "House on a Disk" suggests, each disk was a house, displayed on the screen like a doll house, inhabited by one person, which was always male. He would move around on his own, and it was your task to keep him happy: send him food, send him records, pat him on the back.
You could ask him to play the piano, even suggest a specific composer, you could play poker with him (he'd sulk if he lost all his money), and he would write you letters, adressing you by name. But these little computer people were not all the same, each had a distinct character. Unfortunately, you could not just start a new game if you did not get along well with your LCP.
Little Computer People did not change the landscape of gaming as SimCity would; but it was a successful attempt to create something completely different.
A DOS version seems to have been planned, but was never finished. This makes it one of the few Apple ][ games never on the PC.
You could ask your digital buddies to play the piano (even requesting tunes from various composers), challenge them to a game of poker, and tell them to feed their virtual pets. Occasionally, the little computer person would tap on the monitor and ask if you wanted to play a game or would go upstairs and type you a letter. The little people remembered your name, and it was possible to reward them by delivering records and books to them or by patting them every so often.
There's only one thing that worries me. Sometimes he vanishes behind a door and reappears looking happier than ever. I hope it's just paranoia but, you don't think… has he got a little computer bit on the side? If he over cheated on me I'd… I'd pull the plug on him! Still, I'll stick by him, because I've never seen anything like him before. Of course it may just be infatuation, caused by the novelty of it all. But there's something so cute about him that I'm content to sit and marvel for the time being.
This game is the grandfather of The Sims and the similar games. It may sound funny, but in time you get acquainted with these little computer people and will develop a certain affinity and love for them like they are your siblings, or pets. I used to leave my computer on until the cows came home, just to see what mischief they got into next. I dare you to do this with The Sims and see how many minutes it will be before the machine dumps the contents of memory on the screen.
