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Yes, Little Computer People was certainly one of the inspirations for The Sims! I played it on my Apple ][+.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Computer_People#Legacy

>Little Computer People is often compared to an early predecessor to The Sims game series.[12][11] When asked about its influence, Crane responded that "Almost everything we touched in those days could be constructed as the precursor to something on the market today. So rather than go there, I simple acknowledge that I took the first baby steps toward the simulation genre when I added human-like interactivity to Little Computer People."[12] Will Wright, designer of The Sims, has mentioned playing Little Computer People and receiving valuable feedback on The Sims from its designer, Rich Gold.[23]

Will Wright: A chat about the "The Sims" and "SimCity", January 20, 2000, CNN:

https://web.archive.org/web/20190412045233/https://edition.c...

>Question from MaxSteele: Will, did you ever play "Little Computer People Research Project" from Activision, and did it influence you at all?

>Will Wright: Yes, a long time ago. I've since gotten to know several people who were involved with that project, and many of them gave valuable feedback on The Sims, especially Rich Gold.

>Question from Dan: Can Sims express their sexuality?

>Will Wright: To a degree. We have different levels of romantic involvement. At the highest you see very passionate kissing, sharing of the hot tub naked, sharing a bed together, and sharing of the bathrooms with no modesty.

>But as I said we wanted to keep the game accessible to kids. The Sims make babies by very passionate kissing.

>Question from Pinky: Is homosexuality addressed in the Sims?

>Will Wright: We wanted players to be able to roughly model their own family structures whenever possible. So we allow the players to develop homosexual relationships in the game, though they won't happen automatically unless the player is directing it in that direction.

The awesome recent indie game "TinyLife" is even Little Computer Peoplier than The Sims 1! It takes it the opposite direction of The Sims 4, with a beautiful retro pixelated 8 bit graphics style.

https://tinylifegame.com/

https://x.com/TinyLifeGame

https://x.com/xardox/status/1785112477904023674

>Don Hopkins @xardox

>@TinyLifeGame by @Ellpeck is an awesome indie game that's a retro pixel graphics deeply moddable modern re-interpretation of The Sims 1, but is also highly unique with its own style, and stands on its own, with a mesmerizing soundtrack by @leissMusic !

It blows my mind that one person could accomplish all that (he says it’s a labor of love). And I really like the retro 8-bit pixel art style. The music is also top quality, listenable to for hours. And it even allows plug-in user created content, which was essential for the success and popularity and longevity of The Sims! I can’t wait to see how it develops over time.



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