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.

Let's track down those paintings that keep appearing in Falcom games

May 27, 2023
Despite having no background in art, or anything even close to it, I try to determine the paintings used in Falcom games from the Vita to PlayStation 4 era.

Midwest Gaming Classic 2023

April 8, 2023
The annual Midwest Gaming Classic was last weekend. Here are 80 or so pictures of things I felt like mentioning. Along the way let's see how the show has evolved over nearly 20 years.

Cloudfront + Athena + Pi + Java mini monitoring thing

March 18, 2023
For no real reason I'm going to write a Java program to read AWS Cloudfront logs (via AWS Athena) and display the results on a small screen connected to a Raspberry Pi.

Those GTA remakes sure are, uh, interesting

February 26, 2023
I try to keep pieces on this site positive. Or at least that is something I recently commited to. I won't always succeed and I'm afraid this might be one of those times. In this article I look at the GTA Definitive Edition remakes and find some odd things. I also finally finish San Andreas nearly 20 years after it was released.

Why are so many sites using the Dummies font? (but are they really?)

February 4, 2023
It's another rambling article where I try to figure out why some weird browser thing is happening. This time around I'm going to solve the mystery of why so many web pages are rendering with the Dummies font.

Electronics Boutique Summer 2004 Catalog

January 28, 2023
This is the second of three catalogs I recently acquired. Unfortunately this isn't in the best condition. If you can get past that you'll find some good things in here. The PlayStation 2 vs Xbox vs GameCube battle is in its 3rd year and there many important new game releases. There are also some amazing deals on previous-gen games.

Electronics Boutique October 1993 Catalog

January 16, 2023
Very recently I acquired some Electronics Boutique catalogs I haven't scanned yet. There are fewer of these left and I will eventually run out for real. Until then, here is the October 1993 catalog. In a time when Mortal Kombat was the hottest home game... this catalog does not mention it at all. That is one of the odd choices in this catalog, there are some others. It's still fun to look back at anyway.

2022 Virtual Xmas Card

December 17, 2022
2022 was a perfectly normal boring year and that's great. I couldn't have asked for anything more. Here's a look at this year's crop of ornaments and mini reviews of the games I played.

Destroying a perfectly good Windows 98 virtual machine with Xmas sampler CDs

November 25, 2022
It's officially the start of the holiday season. Let's celebrate by traveling back to the late 90s and trying every Xmas sampler CD we can find.

Speedrun Tower

June 11, 2022
Here's a beta of my second Sega Genesis game. It's called Speedrun Tower. As the name implies it's a game designed for speedrunning. It's set in a quirky office building with randomized floor connections. The first demo is a complete game with three endings. Think of it as being functionally complete but not fully skinned. The final version should be out later this year.

Midwest Gaming Classic 2022

May 7, 2022
This is something like the 15th Midwest Gaming Classic gallery I've posted and maybe the 17th event I've attended. In that time my ability to take pictures has not improved. Neither has my ability to describe things at the show. These minor issues will not stop me from highlighting the things from the 2022 show that were new or interesting to me.

Electronics Boutique March 1997 Catalog

March 8, 2022
I'm rushing this catalog scan out since it turns 25 this month. This is the most 1990s catalog I've found yet. It looks like what would happen if you asked someone to create a 1990s video game catalog today.