HuguesJohnson.com

Speedrun Tower

Speedrun Tower is a Sega Genesis demo specifically designed for speedrunning. It's set in a building with pseudorandom floor connections. Your goal is to reach the top floor in the fewest steps possible.

My Loser Phase

Reflections on Video Game Retail from 1992-1997

A look back at the 16 and 32 bit wars from the perspective of a lowly retail clerk. Relive all the highs and lows of the era - from the Sega CD launch to the rise of the Sony PlayStation and everything in-between.

Retail Clerk '89

Retail Clerk '89 started as a personal exercise to learn Sega Genesis programming. It's now a complete, albeit short, game demo.

The Game Boy Advance version of Doom is very good for what it is

June 6, 2026
I recently learned that the Game Boy Advance version of Doom is based on the Atari Jaguar port. As I recall that was one of the better 1990s console ports of Doom. That's all the excuse I needed to finally try this small screen version.

Midwest Gaming Classic 2026 recap

May 2, 2026
This is the 25th anniversary of the show. It's probably technically only the 23rd show due to the 2020 one being cancelled and a 2005 one never happening. However they are counting, this is a great accomplishment. Here's what I saw that was new and/or interesting to me.

Sega Genesis programming sidebar: A better understanding of planes

April 25, 2026
Despite creating three full demos on the Sega Genesis, I never really understood how planes work. So I wrote a very quick and ugly demo where all planes are drawn and all overlap each other. The end result is something that I can quickly reference when I'm trying to design a new scene.

Strategic Simulations 1992 Catalog

April 11, 2026
This is the last of the SSI catalogs I'll be scanning for a while. I was a little surprised to see how well the C64 was still represented in this one.

Strategic Simulations 1989-1990 Catalog

April 11, 2026
I don't know if this is the oldest SSI catalog but it's the oldest one I have. I have a decent collection of the "gold box" Dungeons & Dragons games. This particular catalog was included with most of the Apple II games I've found over the years.

Galloping Ghost Review

April 4, 2026
I finally visited Galloping Ghost arcade a couple weekends ago. Here's a little page that recaps some cabinets I found interesting. They are a mix of rare games, "new to me" titles, old favorites, and a few I completely forgot about.

Strategic Simulations 1991 Catalog

March 28, 2028
I've seen people trying to sell this catalog for $20 on auction sites. It was included free in the thousands of "Gold Box" games sold at the time. I have at least three of these. One is from a game I paid 27¢ for on clearance, I have the receipt to prove it. This is cool to look at, but not worth $20. Here are some totally free scans of it in a relatively decent resolution.

1995 WizardWorks Catalog

March 21, 2026
Scans from a 1995 WizardWorks Catalog featuring a mix of budget productivity software and games. I don't know why I thought this was something that needed scanning. I guess it's a small look into the world of knock-off Windows 3.11 software a few months before the Windows 95 launch. That's kind of interesting.

Strategic Simulations 1996 Catalog

March 21, 2026
A small catalog of games published by Strategic Simulations (SSI) in 1996, presented with minimal commentary because I'm not familiar with most of these games.

The Midlife Crisis of Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama

March 14, 2026
Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama is a somewhat obscure Sega Genesis game starring a character from a midlife crisis comic released when the system itself was experiencing a midlife crisis. It's also similar enough to the TurboGrafx-16 CD game Camp California that I can't help but speculate if there's a connection.

Modernizing a Visual Basic 6 application using Google Gemini

February 14, 2026
I have a few old Visual Basic 6 applications that are collecting dust. Although they still run on Windows there isn't a practical way to update them anymore. I had some previous success converting FreeBASIC code to Java with Gemini so I decided to try it again. The results were overall pretty good with only one problem that had to be manually fixed.