Here at My Dpad, we like looking back at video game history as much as we like looking forward to upcoming video games. So, in that vein, we’ll occasionally spotlight some great retro games. Today, I have one that’s near and dear to my heart: Little Computer People.
I can’t quite remember the first time I played Little Computer People, but I seem to remember getting it from my Grandma’s boss when he was clearing out his house or something. Anyways, I fell in love with it the first time I opened it, played it quite often, then eventually forgot about it (like we do with all games). Years later, I would try to remember that great simulation game I used to play, but its name always escaped me. Finally, a few years back, a video game forum thread focused on helping people remember games like that helped me rediscover Little Computer People all over again.
Unleash The Person Inside Your Computer
Little Computer People is not a game, it’s a person living inside your computer. Well, that’s not quite right. In reality, every computer has a person living inside it, and Little Computer People just helps you reveal your computer’s resident.
The manual that came with the game (which was released in 1985 by Activision, funnily enough) suggested this, and according to Eurogamer, “[t]he Lavish disk edition of the game even came with a deed of ownership, an owner’s guide for the care of Little Computer People and a special edition of Modern Computer People Magazine.” In other words, this game does nothing but unlock the little person in your computer and let you see them and interact with them. It’s no wonder that it inspired Will Wright in a number of ways when he was making The Sims.
An Open-ended Gaming Pioneer
With Little Computer People, there was no end goal beyond seeing a simulated life play out. This was fairly revolutionary at the time, and it has had an enormous impact on gaming, even beyond The Sims. If you want to try Little Computer People yourself, the only place I am aware of that you can find it online is My Abandonware, though I am not sure of the legality of it there, so if you want to download it from there I’d advise you to look into it more yourself. Otherwise, if you want to read about it more, Retro Gamer has a great write-up on it a decade ago.
