A playthrough of David Gray's Hugo's House of Horrors, released by his own Gray Design Associates for the IBM PC in 1990.
Gray was developing air traffic control software and had in 1988 started a side-business writing business software and started experimenting with game design. Having played Al Lowe's Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards he wanted to create a similar graphical text-parser-driven adventure game. From a book, he found a monochromatic image of a haunted house that became the inspiration for the setting.
Earlier successful shareware titles inspired Gray to use the same model.
Hugo's House of Horrors was completed in December of 1989 and the following month Gray uploaded it to CompuServe and to a few local BBSs. The full game could be downloaded free of charge but players were asked to pay $20 to register the game if they enjoyed it. Slowly the game gained momentum and within a year he was earning $1000 a month.
The game was picked up by various shareware and floppy vendors and rereleased in the time that followed.
Enjoy and please remember to visit my blog at https://www.retro365.blog where I post new articles every month.
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