Little Computer People

About Little Computer People

Little Computer People (1985) is Activision's social simulation in which a unique little man moves into a three-storey house inside the computer, a game with no way to win that is often called a forerunner of The Sims.

Little Computer People in Depth

There is one setting, a cross-section of a three-storey house, and no win condition. Soon after starting, an animated character moves in and goes about his day, cooking, watching television and reading the newspaper. The player can type simple commands, play poker with him or give him presents, and now and then he makes contact himself, inviting the player to a game or writing a letter about his feelings and needs. Each copy generates its own character, named from a list of 256, with personality and mood settings that can lead him to ignore the player's commands, so no two copies play the same. His day runs on a six-hour real-time cycle. The manual keeps up the pretence that the little people are real and live inside the computer, with the player as their caretaker.

The Commodore 64 cassette version is cut down: the character is created afresh every time it loads, with no moving-in sequence and no memory, he does not communicate meaningfully, and the card games are missing.

Making Little Computer People

Gold funded early work and hired James Wickstead Design Associates, which spent about a year refining the idea of a pet person living in a house. At that stage it was closer to a screensaver. Activision president Jim Levy showed it to David Crane, who took it on as a starting point for something interactive, arguing with Gold, who felt interactivity went against the Pet Rock concept. Crane said part of him wanted to make the character "the smartest thing in computing", but time made that impractical. Counting the earlier work, it took about two years when most games took four or five months.

Released in 1985 for the Commodore 64 and then the Apple II, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum and Amiga, it won a Zzap!64 Gold Medal and best original game at the 1986 Golden Joystick Awards, and Jerry Pournelle wrote that it "sure has consumed all the game time we have around here". Retro Gamer said it sold well enough, but its development costs ruled out sequels. Will Wright has said he played it and received feedback on The Sims from Gold, while Crane said only that he took "the first baby steps toward the simulation genre".