The Sims wouldn't exist without This | Nostalgia Nerd
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- čas přidán 10. 09. 2024
- The Sims almost certainly wouldn't exist, or at least, be the same without a game released in 1985 known as Little Computer People. Published by Activision, it's one of the first instances of a "virtual pet" or "human simulator" and was arguably well ahead of its time. Here I'm investigating the original Commodore 64 release which poised as a special new research project, to observe actual living people who resided in our personal computers. By creating a house on a disk, the idea was to coax these little people out of the circuitry, and into a 2 1/2 story house, where we could interact, play games and even starve, if we so choose. Good times indeed.
Thank you to both Stuart Ashen of Ashens, and Clint Basinger of LGR for lending their superlative voices for this episode.
LGR: / phreakindee
Ashens: / ashens
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If you believe I have forgotten to attribute anything in this video, please let me know, so I can add the source in. It takes time to make these videos and therefore it can be easy to forget things or make a mistake.
As to why Bobby would rather become ill of dehydration than drink directly out of his tap, is one of life's greatest mysteries. Maybe he's not a fan of the water hardness in his area.
Stu was lovely in this!
Sir ! How dare you criticize the Most Venerable Emperor Bobby Kotick... REEEEEEEE
@@mqccompo4156 Dangit, Bobbeh.
So happy to see a 2019 review of this simulator! Thank you.
So in Bobby's computer are microscopical computer people?
When I was 14, my secondary school closed and being friends with the I.T. teacher, he let me plunder the department for Commodore stuff. I came home with a load of books and a disk copy of LCP, the "House On A Disk" pack like in the video. I kept it for about 35 years, but rather than sell it I donated it to the Retro Computer Museum in Leicester, UK. It's still there.
I really appreciate ppl like you! You're donation I'm sure means the world to many ppl! I hope you know that 😁
0:48 "...no mention of the actual title: Little Computer People anywhere on the front..." as i was reading "little computer people" on the front.
LOL just as I went to mention myself, it I saw your comment!
@@chrispychickin Same! XD
You just saved me some time by saying. Thanks. 😀
I think it must have been a troll comment to enrage people into interacting with the video. Damn, I've been tricked!
So it's a screen saver that burns a house into your computer screen.
For some reason, I was way more impressed with Johnny Castaway than with this.
Also, it was quite clear why only male people were programmed (guy gets naked, takes bath, nobody cares; girl gets naked, takes bath, everyone panics.) I guess the eventual introduction of a female version tells something about the change in the times.
@amesdepartmentstore 2002 Adding an extra gender is trivial, just allow for longer hair that syncs with a female name, add the possibiliy of a skirt. Change a few text instances for others. Presto. So I think the possibility of being female was intentionally left out.
@amesdepartmentstore 2002 Gender is about appearance, they had many male hairs, male shirts, male pants, male shoes, and male names, so if they were going to add women, they'd had added it while they were adding those (a sync check is trivial to implement), which makes me believe "male only" was decided early in development.
@amesdepartmentstore 2002 Well, lack of females is something computer geeks could relate too ? :-) It is a full game where interacting with one NPC IS the game. The 'secret' rooms are interesting ... where does the NPC go and what is in there ? What is he doing?
HOLY CRAP, LGR for that voice over was AWESOME, love these style of videos, a documentary and a "game review" at the same time. Great video keep em coming....
Thought I know that voice. Yes, LGR. But Peter didn't mention that in the credits. Or did I miss it?
I also noticed The 8-Bit Guy featured Clint's voice once or twice. Nice to see everybody is helping each other out.
@@TheAnkMan oh yeah they're a nice tight knit community
I thoroughly enjoyed this back in the day. Mine was called Hubert ;)
You can't kill him because it saves when he goes through a door, so that's like a check point.
There was a reset program in a magazine that I typed in and tested on a copy.
From that I wrote a "hotel" that could be used to save LCPs.
One thing to note these days: it's not Y2K compliant ;)
I was just going to mention that there were programs to reset the disk and save your LCP. :)
Indeed! I even used that as a basis for a "Hotel" where you could store many personalities.
In what manner does it fail due to Y2K issues?
2 digits only so 22 = 1922.
@@ColinJonesPonder Oh, right, so 2000 should be a leap year, but perhaps wouldn't because it might be considered to be 1900. Has anyone tested this? That would be the only glitch that would show up in the recent past or future. All other years would have the dates calculated correctly until 2400. It only uses the date to calculate Xmas and perhaps some other holidays. It doesn't ever display the year, AFAIR.
I remember programming my own Tamagotchi-esque 'thing' to look after in ZX Spectrum BASIC. It's simple hunger system allowed the user to feed it 5 types of food or drink that would increase it's hunger and thirst meters (a full bar representing it was full, i.e not hungry or thirsty). Using a ton of DATA lines I could have it change expressions as time passed, but while I didn't program in any games to play, it's happiness was purely based on how hungry, thirsty and clean it was (keeping that digital poop scoop on hand). I did include a real time clock and an alarm feature into it so it would sleep after a certain time and wake up either on it's own accord if the alarm was switched off, or when the alarm sounded.
I loved my ZX Spectrum, I miss my ZX Spectrum.
Funny, that BMW Dealer sounds an awful lot like LGR.
It's what he does in his spare time.
Ashens AND LGR Cameos?
Count me in!
I thought I heard ashens lol. Was questioning that.
Awesome addition! Spotted immediately.
12:09
Guy who lives in a computer? Check.
An 8 bit computer? Check.
Plays piano all day? Check.
Is your person secretly The 8-bit guy?
He's just missing the glasses.
Nicolás Verdi Comes with age.
Bobby: Would you like to play a game?
NNerd: Yes, let's play global thermonuclear war
Is it weird I felt a tiny sense of sadness for Bobby when the game finally got powered off?
"This was Activision and new experiences was their mantra." Oh how the times keep a changin
Seems that Bobby has a much more exciting life than mine... at least he can play the piano.
Despite being into video games from the era, I've never heard of this title until today. Amazing to know that virtual pet ideas were being floated that far back.
You have no idea how happy i am someone finally reviewed this in detail. *Thank you so much!*
*Nostalgia Nerd* Great video! Brought me right back to the 80's! When I was 6-10 I was absolutely addicted to Zork, Little Computer People, and Flight Simulator. Thank you for this excellent overview.
Lovely to hear the silky dulcet tones of young Clint from LGR. I often think of you two as two sides of the same coin (just one side has an eagle and the other has old Liz)
I always wondered what happened to TRON after he defeated the MCP. Looks like he settled down into retirement quite nicely.
LOL! You noted the MCP references in the manual/"magazine", too, I take it? Stood for Modern Computer People here, the name of the "magazine". I have to believe they made that acronym intentionally.
Around 0:48 Peter says that there is no mention of the title on the front page of the "Magazine" yet it clearly says "Discover The Little Computer People Inside Your Computer - They Play Games, Write Letters and Live Full, Active Lives!"
I noticed that too, was wondering if someone had already commented on that
TRUE. I meant more in a titular sense, rather than a cunning little reference.
@@Nostalgianerd I apologise for my misunderstanding.
Did you get Ashens to read out the note from the publisher?
Well, now I need to relisten and feel ashamed for not recognizing the voice.
It's not exactly surprising, they are friends after all.
It was also LGR who voiced the enthusiastic American if I'm not mistaken...
Nah, that was Simon Pegg
@@heartgenerator4967 yeah simon pegg called he wants his face and voice back
Got this when it was released and my then 4 year old daughter was captivated. We had floods of tears whenever I had to switch him off. Pretty sure she still hasn't forgiven me.
I had the original tape version in the 80s. Years (more like, "decades") later I heard the disk version had a few more features.
And now I see the disk version had a fake magazine too! The tape edition came only with a poster.
Just don't forget to buy "Walking Sim Feature" DLC, it only cost 59.99$
They weren't smart enough back then to rob us like that
@@evanfehr3819 or scummy enough.
LGR cameo for the win!
I genuinely laughed out loud when I heard his silky-smooth voice. "I love being an American!"
You got to admit, he has an excellent voice broadcast.
Not only LGR, also Ashen.
I prefer Ashens tbh
It's pronounced La-grr
I really liked the marketing around this, at the time all magazines wrote about people living inside your computer.
They should make a modern 4th wall breaking human sim
I think they do, but the breaking is on the other side. It's call... _The Internet_
Like, say, Seaman?
It's amazing how strong our emotions of empathy can be that our brains force us to feel bad for a couple of pixels and lines of code.
I'm not sure they were honest in the manual. I ran it on an emulator and it worked.
How do you know your LPC wasn't just a migrant from the host PC? :D
but do you get dif little people each time you reload the rom? Different = random gen = they lied, Same little dude = just a copy from the host floppy
LCP will always hold a special place in my gaming heart. I remember "playing" this with a mix of both fascination and confusion. Fast forward to 2022 and I am now making a modern day version of LCP for fun.
Thanks for this vid! I remember wanting to get it for our Amiga but could never convince my parents. I could never remember the name of it but new it predated The Sims. I was beginning to think I had imagined it lol.
I've found myself watching a lot of your vids lately and am loving this channel. Subbed and looking forward to more :)
LCP was one of my favorite C64 games! Back in my youth, I would leave the computer running all day while I was at school.
Hahaha, your alternative channel name gave me a giggle. You should change to Old Man Gaming if you can :)
i've played LCP ... a lot ! but the AI in modern games are more interactive than LCP, it was a very very cool great game, i've spend a lot of time in it, but very limited, no real AI in it's only programmated sequence norhing from raw data. But it was the first one of "not really a game" but a concept. I hope some some studio took it to make a real interactive AI game.
I had a Little Computer Person, his name was Dwight.
Ah, does a mildly attractive man named Jim pester him?
We used to play that at RAF Chivenor and would leave it running whilst we went to the pub coming back to a very sad character.
The amount of effort that went into the marketing of this game is fantastic. The game itself seems a little underwhelming.
Herbie Husker
Imho the general idea is absolutely brilliant, but as a game it's pure rubbish. It's as good as an ant farm as a "toy".
@@frankschneider6156 agreed. The concept is cool and impressive, but probably not very fun.
I used to enjoy playing with Marvin, my LCP, on the Apple ][+ when I was a kid. Thanks for this!
I remember reading about this in Compute and the language was singularly breathless about what a unique, advanced breakthrough this game was. I was immediately reminded of it when I first encountered the Sims, despite having never had the exhilaration of playing it when it was contemporary
that packaging is super cool, love the aesthetic
Yeesssss OMG I'm so glad you did this!! I STILL check in on "Tom" on my ST every now and then. You know, to make sure he's OK. I live in fear of the day his disk stops working. So far, so good though!
If you think just watching the LCP for 10 minutes would not entertain 80s kids back then - then you haven't been a kid in the 80s. I've stared at this for *days*.
Wow......blast from the past.....had forgotten about this game.......if it actually was a game! Remember at the time thinking this was something special and unique. Gr8 vid
I miss you Walter! Sorry about that one time I refused to feed you and made you play the piano until you got sick!!!!
I must admit that my first copy of this was pirated, created on tape by a freezer cartridge, so pre generated. I loaded it without any context or instructions and was just very confused by it.
We had the cassette version back in the day. One thing, the opening scene was always 'in media res' meaning there was no official entering the house. So no 10 minutes of having to wait before trying to interact with the little bugger!
And no, we didn't get a new random LCP everytime we started a new session. Our little guy's name was Andy!
Graphics were very good and it was nice to see him move about the house, gratifying even when he responded to our requests for playing a game or playing the piano.
Getting him sick and trying to kill him was of course also a rather entertaining way to 'punish' him whenever you felt like it.
I had that game on my Commodore 64. My little person's name was Hugh. My favorite thing to do with him was play poker.
I still have my LCP stuff (magazine, disk, etc) in my closet with my C64s and SX64s. I enjoyed running it as well.
I think my favourite sims game was The Urbz. Probably the first sims game I played even.
In reference to "Chronology of a Discovery" I must point out that both the Commodore PET and Apple I were prototyped in July of 1976. If fact if not for Commodore, the Apple I would likely not have even existed as it shared the same cheap 6502 microprocessor that Jack Peddle(who worked at Commodore) designed and was using in the PET.
In fact if Commodore had made the decision to not sell it's 6502 and instead kept it in house for only their projects, Apple computers would most likely have never existed at all as the next cheapest processor at the time was nearly 5x the cost of the 6502.
The world at large today has no idea how much they owe to Commodore and it's brilliant engineers for the inception of the personal computer revolution.
I'm amazed that those little computer people survived for over 2 decades inside your Commodore 64. They don't seem to have aged a bit.
I dunno, little Bobby had leathery looking skin, he was clearly a very old man or a 35-year old Australian.
_“In fact, there's no mention of the actual title, Little Computer People, anywhere on the front.”_
Well, except for the red text on the right that reads “Discover The *Little Computer People* Inside Your Computer -They Play Games, Write Letters and Live Full, Active Lives!”.
I'm looking for the background music (I assume public domain) on 1:32... thanks :)
The Numbskulls in (IIRC) the Beano c1960s was based on a similar premise but set in the human head. That was a comedy strip and I find it hard to imagine how it could have been 'gamed'. This fascination of 'Hey I can make it do something' morphed over time into the Flaming Rotating Logo syndrome that makes some websites as enjoyable as this game.
First time seeing your videos, when Clint came in for some of the quotes, for just a moment I forgot this wasn't one of his videos, then I thought maybe I had a stroke and my brain was replacing your voice with his cos maybe thats how strokes work? Turns out it's just, good youtube knows good youtube and sometimes they do good together.
You said there's no mention of the title on the cover., but it says "Discover The Little Computer People..." on the front of the magazine.
r/nitpicking
Indeed!
Great video on this Nostalgia Nerd, an infamous title that certainly stuck in my mind from back in the day.
I recall buying this on cassette for the C64 and feeling totally duped in its even more limiting lack of appeal. It did not randomise the LCP on each load however, it was always the same guy, from my hazy memory he always signed things "your friend" on the typewriter and didn't come coded with a name and with no save data and no game interactions it soon became very boring.
One of those titles that even with its limits should never have been released outside of disk format. Most certainly a title designed in America for the American market with the disk format being prevalent, and with it being innovatively popular cash cowed/dumbed down onto cassette for the C64 and the other popular computers of the day in Europe.
I also tried to kill the blighter leaving my C64 on whilst at school for a couple of days and soon coming to the realisation it did not seem possible.
I had this game on my C64 as a little boy in the 80s.
That's so nostalgig now. Thanks so much for another entertaining video, love your humor and the way you talk, i could just listen to you for hours and hours. Well.. sometimes i do. :)
Greetings from Cologne!
Little Computer People was my go-to game when I got home from school. Had to see how Stan was doing!
I bought LCP in the mid 80's. I'd just got a 1541 disk drive for my C64 and wanted some disk only games, LCP was my first and although it's not a real game.. it was a ton of fun and my wife loved it too.
I loved this as a kid. I loved that I could just keep it on and it was like having an aquarium. Of course, I was poor and only had a pirated copy of some LCP named Blake.
I loved Little Computer People. I had the C64 cassette version.
I was missing the pullout so had no idea what all the taps and speech lines meant, but it was still fun and cute.
Oh my lord. I am in the middle of recording an episode for little computer people. Can't believe it... nice work though...
I gave you your very first subscribe. Hope you still make the video.
Oh cheers. I'm truly humbled thanks
@@TheRetroByte: I'd love to see it, please do make it.
This is awesome. Thanks! I've been trying to remember the name of this ... thing? ... for decades. When The Sims came out and everyone was wetting themselves about it, I was like "But this has been done before ... on the C64... It was called .... uhhhhh". I had similar feelings about The Sims and LCP. Interesting concept, fun for a few hours, then it's just like .... so, what's the point? I'm simulating a person living a mundane life, just like I do. Heh. Cheers to the LGR cameo. Thanks for solving a decades long mystery for me.
I absolutely LOVED that game! I borrowed a friend's C64 to play it a few times. Eventually, it came out for the ZX Spectrum 128 but it was nowhere near as good as the original. It just had a certain charm to it. I distinctly remember leaving it running overnight to see if my LCP would die! :-o
I remember playing the original sims in the early 2000s. good memories gaming with my dad
2 Unlimited...a part of the 90's I'd not mind forgetting.
This. This was my game back in the day on the Commodore 64. Spent many hours on it. Immediately after The Sims came out I thought "Huh. That sounds like Little Computer People."
About a year earlier GE introduced the "GE Homeminder", which used your TV and X-10 modules to control your house. One of it's cool features was a graphical house on your TV screen You would install various devices in the virtual house to match ones in your real house and use the Homeminder to control them. The house looked very much like this one. I wonder if that virtual house was one of the things that influenced this one. Ironically enough with all our advances in technology I STILL can't control my house anywhere near as easily today as I could my little trailer in the woods over 30 years ago.
I absolutely LOVED this game on my C64!!! My friend had it as well and his guy was different.
That's crazy that they got LGRs dad to do a quote in that magazine. The dulcet tones apparently run in the family.
Clint cameo for the bloody win!! Loved this video Pete(r). (Never know if all Peters like the ‘r’ removal like I do).
Jeffery (the guy in my C64) blew my mind when he asked if he could get an LCP on his computer.
I remember I got the original sims for free when it first came out with Pepsi points when they brought it back in 2000. Me and my buddy would collect caps of pepsi and mt. dew and my mom was a college professor and would get them from her students. We found the most walking around town and just picking up random bottles we found, kept the caps put the bottles in the trash. We had so many damn points. I ended up with The Sims my buddy got Roller Coaster Tycoon and then we got a ton of those tiny Pepsi basketballs and filled people's lockers, closets, and etc with them as jokes. I even ended up giving a couple grocery bags of caps to a different friends because I was so tired of typing them in on the website. He got a Mountain Dew Jacket. In 1995 I got the Mt. Dew Mountain Bike with Pepsi points.
I owned this at launch on disk, I had to take it back for a replacement as my little computer bloke beheaded himself walking into the toilet and the game died;
Second disk was a charm and I had many many hours of watching my little guy just pottering about in his house;
I'd love to have a copy these day but alas my c64 went the way of all my stuff from then, shame.
So cool. History and documentaries are cool, it makes things more comprehensible.
I still have the cassette version for the c64, sadly the magazine was not included there.
I saw this video title and said, "He's not talking about Little Computer People, is he?" And he IS! I bought that for my college roommate when that first came out (it wasn't available for the computer I had, an Exidy Sorceror, but then, basically nothing was ;-) . I had to write my own software)
If the sims story of starting as an architecture game holds water, then it most certainly would exist without this. Either way, fun video. I never heard of this, but our family got a computer a bit later than the commodore.
wow amazing I swear you sounded like Stuart or Clint there for a sec . You are very talented.
Remember “playing” this over at a friends house. Both of us got bored of it within an hour.
Had this on the Apple II has a kid.
Our LCP, if I remember correctly had a cowcoy hat and red skin... I thought I was remembering wrong when I downloaded an Apple II emulator and rom.
"Won't die. Possibly invincible."
I had this for my pc
All mine did was say he wanted a kitten
Ah, nostalgia rushes in on those little moments of going and visiting Adam and Binky and listen to them play their piano, feet their pet, talk on their phones and watching their televisions
Played this on C64 back in the day. Yes, I can see where you are coming from with its similarities to The Sims. Thanks for posting 👍
Clint's voice is too god damn perfect for doing computer documentary voice overs.
I remember this game like i played it yesterday. So well marketed and because everybody got a different house, person and pet it felt real.
Listening on my earphones.For the first time I've discovered the cool music mixed in with the videos. Great work NERD!
This is one of those games that passed me by! However after watching this vid I’m really upset it did! Great vid Peter!
It's an Activision game, are you okay with aggressive monetisation?
When I read the thumbnail, the first thing that came to mind was the ReBoot cartoon from the 90s.
Liked the LGR cameo... NN, you're awesome too!
What winds me up are the little purple pants/green shirt combination and well as the total lack of toilet in the bathroom...Oh you think you're better than us Bobbie?!
Rich Gold. Is that the real name of a real person?
I was wondering the same :D
Sounds like a Rik Mayall character.
I went to uni with a guy called Rich Gold. not that one though.
His Richie Rich's cousin
Obviously a Jew LOL
I totally forgot about this game. I loved it back in the day!
5:37 Nice, getting Clint to do the voice over, great touch.
It was almost 35 years but my memory was triggered when you got to Darwin, I used to look through old games (well, old now) at the computer store and make wish lists of what I'd love to have if I could afford a C64.
well done, thx 4 the upload. LCP was and still is a fascinatin' game.
Hey it's Clint!
So Stuart Ashens is the Publisher? Wow, what a bombshell.
I had a copy of this for the C64 and I liked it, but I was always disappointed that his actions were so random. I mean he never sleeps even at 3am, never eats anywhere near the same time each day, doesn't change his clothes much. He just wanders around the house doing random things. It really spoils the illusion. I think it would have been better if he mostly had a routine, but occasionally did other stuff. Maybe leave for a while then come back with a package, etc.