LO: Generative Art

I’d like to talk about a video-game called “Little Computer People,” which is also known as “House on a Disc.” I’ve never played it myself, but I heard about it on the podcast “Wonderful!” — episode 95, around 38:35 — and for some reason I’ve never forgotten it. It’s basically like an early version of The Sims or Tamagotchi, released in 1985, and was credited as a source of inspiration for the making of The Sims (though The Sims came out 15 years later). As the player, you were a researcher observing the little person living in your computer. You entered your name, the date, and the time, so the game would address you in real time. You’d always have a male character assigned to you. And there were 256 possible different names that the character could have. The game play was basically typing in instructions for the person, like “take a shower,” “watch TV,” “play the piano,” etc. If you stopped feeding the character or making him sleep, his smiley face would turn into a frown, and then he’d turn green. The character could also send you, the player, correspondence with his little typewriter, like “Low on supplies,” “Would like to have a party,” “Would like to have a cat,” though there would be no result if you instructed him to have a party or get a cat. He could also initiate a game of poker, war, or anagrams with you. So although the gameplay may seem mundane or like it’s not much content, I myself am really impressed with all the different functions and variables working together to respond to the player’s input. And I imagine there are a lot of if/else if/else statements working together to produce those results as well.