I can still remember playing this game as a young man, when it first came out in the eighties. I guess you could call it a game. But to me, it had always forged it own ground and never really fell into any classification. I guess that’s why the memory of it stuck with me for so long. It was just that memorable of an experience. In fact, many years later when The Sims went big, this was the first game that popped into my head.
I even followed the hype before The Sims was released and couldn’t wait to install it afterwards. I had assumed that some of their inspiration had been drawn from this old C64 program. And it may have been. But LCP is still very much different from The Sims. Whether you do or do not like the Sims, I still highly recommend you download and install this classic.
For starters, The Sims is a simulation where you create a character, like role playing, and mold their world around them too see what happens. In some ways like watching a modern day Reality show unfolds on TV. But LCP seems to have a “little” mind of its own. It’s more like having
a goldfish in a bowl, and watching it’s every move just to see what it will do next. This is the magic of LCP, a virtual “people” pet so to speak. One that you can even feed, water, and care for when he gets sick. I often wished that someone would update and re-market this game as a screen saver to run on today’s computers. But, I digress.
When it starts up, the blue spiral notebook sets the tone for you, like a scientist about to conduct his field studies. Then your little person moves in and starts to walk freely about the house for you to observe. Doing his chores, living out his life under your own personal little microscope. You can even interact with him or pet him on the head if you so choose. However, my personal favorite is when he knocks on the monitor screen to get your attention in certain situations.
The only game that I have ever played that comes close to this one is Animal Crossing on the Nintendo GameCube. Still nowhere near the same game, but it seems to have more of the LCP feel to it than the Sims ever did. Just on a different level. But that’s just my opinion.
So, download it for yourself, and you’ll be the judge. What will he do next? Will he practice on the piano today? Or, go take a short nap and get up later to write you a letter. Watch and see...
