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.

A pro wrestling title grid game is harder than it sounds

January 24, 2026
I've started and abandoned many ideas. A little while ago I looked into writing a pro wrestling title crossover grid game. It turned out to be a project I wasn't ready to finish. This documents how far it went before I moved on.

Brute Force Paranoid Directory Copy: Some hacky code I wrote a while ago

January 11, 2026
Quite a while ago, before the existence of Java 1.7 (this is an important note), a friend came to me with a problem. He had a USB drive with some important files that was dying before all the files could be copied. I thought I could probably write a small program that handled this so I did. It even worked on the first try.

My Video Game Setup

January 10, 2026
The first weekend of the year I usually rearrange my game setup a little bit. Along the way there's a diagram I use to keep track of how it's all connected. Here's how my setup has evolved over the past decade.

2025 Virtual Xmas Card

December 20, 2025
Here's a look back at the year 2025 including my favorite posts from sites I follow. It also has the annual festive viewing of new video game ornaments (albeit smaller) and a recap of recaps.

Converting FreeBASIC code to Java using Gemini (or how I continued to avoid writing a Sega Genesis sound driver)

December 6, 2025
I am not going to generate articles or code using AI because I enjoy writing both the old-fashioned way. I will explore things that I think AI will be helpful with. Here's an article where I try using Gemini to convert FreeBASIC code to Java. Although that worked fairly well, my ability to debug the results was sadly lacking.

Shuffle copy files in Java

November 9, 2025
Here's a little bit of code to copy files in random order until the destination drive is full (or another limit is reached). This is useful for filling SD cards or USB drives for an audio player. It could be used to fill any drive with any file type in random order really.

1993 Hawthorn Mall Directory

November 8, 2025
I promise this site is not turning into a 1990s mall directory archive. I found a couple directories at an estate sale and am posting them before I forget or lose them. This one is for Hawthorn Mall as it was in 1993

Lakehurst Mall Directory

November 1, 2025
Scans of a Lakehurst Mall directory from (probably) 1990. This was a frequent afterschool hangout for me in the late 1980s to early 1990s. Perhaps others will find this interesting too.

Some sites I've outlasted

November 1, 2025
This is a self-indulgent article that I probably shouldn't post. Looking back, most of my 2025 pieces fit this description. I guess that's the mood I'm in this year. On the probable 25th anniversary of this little insignificant site, I'm looking back at some favorite sites that didn't last as long.

Arcade Age Exhibit

September 20, 2025
The other weekend my wife surprised me with a trip to the touring Arcade Age exhibit at a (somewhat) nearby library. The exhibit is a tribute to the rise of arcade games, collapse in the mid-1980s, and resurgence in the early 1990s.

Killer Frequency - A short game that completely rules

August 23, 2025
I recently tried the game Killer Frequency and enjoyed it enough to crank out this quick review. I wrote this in about an hour and might experiment with more small pieces like this.

My father in-law's backyard observatory

August 23, 2025
In the summer of 2000 my now late father in-law built an observatory in his backyard. Here's a gallery of the construction process and final product.

My favorite NPC in the Ys series

August 23, 2025
After 10 numbered games, a prequel, and numerous remakes I've found my favorite NPC in the Ys series.

Intellivision: Then and Now

August 9, 2025
The Intellivision was my first game console, yet I haven't written much about it. It's time to fix that. This article is a ranking of Intellivision games with my thoughts on them in the 1980s (as best I recall) vs today. It also talks a little bit about Intellivision collections and plug & play consoles.