Little Computer People (Commodore 64) - Let's Play 1001 Games - Episode 105

Channel:

Gaming Jay

Subscribers:

7,410

Published on June 16, 2016 12:00:30 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix8VFAqdaL0

Game:

Little Computer People (1985)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 27:22

1,799 views

33

A unique little title that essentially has you own a human as a pet

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I'm Gaming Jay: Youtube gamer, let's player, retrogaming fan, and determined optimist... Join me in this series while I try out EVERY game in the book 1001 VIDEO GAMES YOU MUST PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE, before I die. The game review for each game will focus on the question of whether you MUST play this game before you die. But to be honest, the game review parts are just for fun, this series is more about the YouTube gamer journey. So let's play those classic retro games we grew up with, have fond memories of, or heard of but never got a chance to try! And with that said, the game review for today is...

Little Computer People
Released 1985
Developer(s) Activision
Platform(s) Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Apple II
Genre(s) Life Simulation

Jay's Thoughts
Little Computer People is a predecessor to most of the modern life simulation games, of which, the most popular is obviously The Sims. In Little Computer People, you are peering into the residence of a virtual little person who's meandering around their house, living their life. This little person is not directly under your control, and so in a way it's kind of like having a virtual goldfish. The person will wander around, do some work on his computer, sit and read, eat in the kitchen, and watch his dog. If you're feeling particularly adventurous, you can initiate a game of cards with your little person, though you do have to wait an agonizingly long time before the game starts as you watch your person slowly walk all the way up to the attic, retrieve the cards, then walk all the way back downstairs to the kitchen table to play.

As far as I know, there are a few other things you can do with your little person, but to figure it out requires you to experiment with typing in various commands. Generally speaking though, the interaction is fairly limited.

These days, I don't think that this game particularly holds up. To be honest, it feels a bit more like an interesting screen saver than a real game. I couldn't see many people loading the game up and actually sitting and "playing" it (again, there's really little to do here). I do think that the idea of Little Computer People is pretty inventive, and when it originally came out it would've been as interesting as Tamagachi's and other virtual pets (which definitely are things that did take off when they came out). So Little Computer People deserves a nod, and is an interesting piece of software for sure, but as times have changed, I think this has become one game you can definitely skip.

➙ Must You Play It?
Little Computer People basically sets you up to have a little human fish-tank on your computer, as you get to watch a little virtual person go about living his life in a modest home. Modern life simulation games like The Sims owe a lot to Little Computer People and it was a very inventive title for its time, however, in terms of its own gameplay, I think it's a title that has aged and these days could probably be skipped.

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