Hugo's House of Horrors

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Hugo's House of Horrors

Hugo's House of Horrors - DOS - USA.jpg

MS-DOS - USA - Reprint.

Developer David Gray
Publisher David Gray
Published 1990-01-01
Platforms DOS, Windows 3
Genres Adventure, Graphic adventure, Passive puzzle, Puzzle
Themes Adventure, Cartoon, Halloween, Horror
Series Hugo
Distribution Shareware

Hugo's House of Horrors is graphic adventure puzzle video game developed and published by David Gray and released for MS-DOS on 1990-01-01 and later ported to Windows. It uses a game engine similar to those used by Sierra On-Line years earlier. It is the first game in the Hugo series of games and followed up by Hugo II: Whodunit?. David Gray began programming Hugo's House of Horrors in 1989 writing in Quick C, and drawing graphics in PC Paintbrush.

The story is rather typical: the girlfriend of Hugo has been kidnapped and taken into a mansion. The game uses a haunted house theme with various Halloween and horror movie tropes.

Personal

Own?No.
Won?Yes. Perfect score, no hints.
FinishedMid 1990s.

I believe my mother got me this game at a shareware game swap. I played the game so much that I not only beat it, but made a hand-written full-score walk-though, complete game script, and documented various game bugs.

Review

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3 4 3 2 2

Best Version: MS-DOS

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

Bad

  • All of the puzzles are pretty straight-forward and there aren't really any alternate methods of defeating them.
  • The developer used a silly excuse for having the player drop the mask before entering the lab so it wouldn't cause problems with the animation. A much better solution would have been to lock the wardrobe and give the player the key only after they solved the puzzle in the lab.
  • There are a couple bugs in the game that can be exploited, but they're minor.
  • It's possible to put the game in an unwinnable state, but it's pretty obvious when you do.

Ugly

  • The story is lacking, the theme is tired, the game is too short, and the ending is unfulfilling.
  • The graphic and sound fidelity was very dated (King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder! came out only months later!). The art and music production is also clearly amateur with poorly drawn graphics with pixels often left uncolored and jumpy animation. The exterior of the house, which is clearly in a different style, looks like it was stolen from a clip art collection.

Media

Maps

Screenshots

Design Notes

Videos

Longplay.

Play Online

MS-DOS

Representation

Strong female character?FailThere is a female in the dining room and Penelope at the end. Neither is anything more than a static drawing.
Bechdel test?FailNo woman speaks in the game.
Strong person of color character?FailEvery human is white.
Queer character?FailThere are no queer characters.

Download

This is all of the shareware versions of the Hugo games I could find including Hugo's House of Horrors for DOS and Windows. You can still buy the game from the author.

Links

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