Game Review: Little Computer People (Amiga, Ricochet)

In 1985 the “scientists” at Activision made a startling discovery. There were living, breathing creatures living inside our computers. Through the House On A Disk developed by David Crane, we were able to see and even interact with these Little Computer People and be a part of their fascinating world. In reality, Crane’s innovative title for the Commodore 64 started an entire people sim genre, years before we saw anything like The Sims. But how did this port (re-released on the Ricochet label) hold up to the original?

Meeting The Little Computer People

Booting the disk up gives you a plain diary cover where you have to enter your name, the date and current time. Your name is important as you’ll discover later on, and the date and time will both be relevant thoughout play. However, regardless of which version you play the developers next expected this to be used beyond the year 1999 so it only allowed for a two-digit number for the year. Entering 24 for example and the game thinks you’re playing in 1924!

Once you’ve done all of that, you’re taken to the house itself. Your LCP has a digital three storey house with everything he could need at his disposal and it’s not too long before the front door opens and he walks in, followed by his pet dog.

Moving In

Once your LCP has moved in to the house, he’ll start to explore his new surroundings and interacting with much of the furniture and objects in most of the rooms. While you can interact with him, to start off with you’ll generally be ignored while he settles in so it’s best just to watch as he finds his way around.

Getting Interactive

While Little Computer People isn’t a game in the traditional sense, it’s far from being a passive experience. You’re able to send various gifts to your LCP – new books for him to read, records to play – as well as food for him and his dog. When he sits down in his armchair in the living room, you have the ability to activate an extending arm from the wall and scratch his head – something that all LCPs seem to love. And if you feel like cheering him up you can give me a call on the phone, not that anyone has ever been able to understand or translate their language.

Simple commands can also be typed in asking him to play music, play the piano and even to write you a letter, but you have to be polite so you have to say please!

Think Happy Thoughts

Just like us, Little Computer People have different moods and need to be kept happy at all times. You have to keep a close eye all the time on how they look as their facial expressions show their current mood. If they’re not smiling, give them a call, pet them on the head or give them a call. It will work wonders!

That also goes for food and water as well. The last thing you want is for them to go hungry or thirsty so you have to make sure that they are always stocked up and their water dispenser is full. There’s nothing worse than seeing your LCP fall ill…

Shall We Play A Game?

If you want to do something different with your LCP, you can ask if they want to play a game. There are several on offer including basic word games and blackjack and while they’re all relatively simple it’s a fun distraction from the rest of the experience. If he decides to ask you to play on his own, he’ll often look towards you and knock on the screen while he waits impatiently for you to choose.

The Write Stuff

I mentioned earlier about the importance of entering your name and date. One of the most import reasons for this is another aspect of how you interact with your LCP as they love to write letters. When in the mood, they’ll head upstairs, sit in front of the typewriter and start writing. The letter usually starts off addressed to you personally, talks about things he likes and wants to do revealing more about his unique personality, and then closes with the date and his name.

Strangely, this was one of my favourite aspects of Little Computer People even right back to the Commodore 64 version. On the expanded disk version at least, each LCP looked different and had a different name so it felt as if each one was completely unique to you and it’s the same here on the Amiga. Loading this several times under emulation with save disabled gave the same results with each game session generating a brand new character to interact with, each with a new name and even a new pet.

A C64 Classic But An Amiga Disappointment?

I have to be honest and say that Little Computer People was – and still is – one of my all time favourite releases for the Commodore 64. I lost count of the amount of hours I spent just watching and taking care of Leo (my very first LCP) and even my daughter loved playing it. But for some reason the Amiga version seems to be lacking in almost every department.

All of the substance from the C64 version is there but it seems to be lacking the heart and soul of the original. Visually while it looks better, it doesn’t feel like the major upgrade that you’d expect from an Amiga title. And for some unknown reason everything runs much slower. The LCP takes his time walking around the house and when it comes to walking upstairs… it’s reminiscent of the running scenes from Baywatch or the Six Million Dollar Man.

More Conversion Woes

Unfortunately it doesn’t stop there with the Amiga port. Loading times are attrocious and there are huge pauses when almost anything significant happens. Considering the entire game managed to fit into a single load on the Commodore 64, this is unforgivable. Yes, the enhanced version on the C64 needed to load extra content from disk for the personalised letters and extra music, it was never this sluggish.

But one of the biggest failings of the Amiga conversion has to be the sound, which is nothing short of terrible. While the sampled sound effects are passable, the music is truly dire. The varied Russell Lieblich pieces from the Commodore 64 version have either been replaced or have been adapted so badly that they are barely recognisable. Music on the Amiga was sample based as the sound chip was basically a digital-to-analogue converter rather than a synthesiser which the C64 had and to be honest, with the quality of the sounds used here the difference was a real deal-breaker.

Overall

I genuinely had high hopes for this conversion. Just like the C64 I’ve had a soft spot for the Amiga for a long time, so I was expecting this to take a classic and improve on all of its strengths. Instead it did nothing but added a fresh lick of paint and hoped that that was good enough to gloss over all of the flaws underneath. Sadly it wasn’t and left this as a huge disappointment.

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