Chex Quest

Chex Quest
Developer(s)	Digital Café
Publisher(s)	Digital Café
Engine	id Tech 1
Platform(s)	MS-DOS Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)	1996
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player Multiplayer
Media/distribution	CD (Physical)

Chex Quest is a non-violent first-person shooter video game created in 1996 by Digital Café as a Chex cereal promotion aimed at children aged 9 and up.^[1] It is a total conversion of the more violent video game Doom (specifically the Ultimate Doom version of the game).

Chex Quest won both the Golden EFFIE Award for Advertising Effectiveness in 1996^[2][3] and the Golden Reggie Award for Promotional Achievement in 1998,^[2][4] and it is known today for having been the first video game ever to be included in cereal boxes as a prize.^[5]

The game's cult following^[6] has been remarked upon by the press as being composed of unusually devoted fans of this advertising vehicle from a bygone age.^[7][8][9]

Story

Zorching a Flemoid.

Set on a distant planet named Bazoik, the game follows the Chex Warrior, a humanoid in an anthropomorphic piece of Chex cereal armor, as he fights to eradicate the Flemoid invasion.^[8] These slimy, green creatures have infested the planet and captured many helpless citizens whom the Chex Warrior must save.^[10] His only weapon is a device called a "zorcher", which teleports his enemies instead of killing them.^[1] The game starts at the landing pad of the research facility on Bazoik, after which the protagonist is teleported to the storage facility. The other levels include the laboratory, the arboretum, and finally, the underground caverns of Bazoik, where the Flemoids seem to be making a home for themselves.

Gameplay

Main article: Doom gameplay

Originally based on the Ultimate Doom engine, the gameplay present in Chex Quest is substantially identical to its predecessor. A few notable differences are evident, however, regarding enemy profiles (specifically the loss of long-range attacks in low-level enemies and the loss of movement in high-level enemies) and the number of levels in each world (restricted to 5 levels in Chex Quest).

Chex Quest Multiplayer

In summer 2008, Chex Quest cooperative and "zorchmatch" games were hosted on the Doom Multiplayer Client Skulltag. Games were hosted daily from July to August. More information is available on the Chex Quest Fan Forums.

Development

The Chex Quest CD was manufactured by America Online as part of a promotional partnership in exchange for which all copies of the game included a "50 Free Hours" subscription offer for AOL.

Produced with a small team of developers on a budget of around $500 thousand, Chex Quest began life as the brainchild of the WatersMolitor promotion agency - an award-winning group that had been hired by Ralston Foods^{[nb 1]} to reinvigorate the Chex cereal brand.^[8] The original idea was that a non-violent CD-ROM computer game should be released with 5.7 million boxes of Rice Chex, Wheat Chex, and Corn Chex cereals^[1] in order to cast Chex as a cereal that was exciting and fun for children while appealing to modern sensibilities by targeting home PC owners.^[4] The game would be a high-quality program whose normal retail value would be between $30^[1] and $35,^[8] however it would be offered to consumers for free.^[4]

In support of the promotion coupons and advertisements were included in newspapers and magazines with total circulation of 42 million, promotional art was added to the front of all boxes containing the game, a 30-second television advertisement was broadcast, and a website (chexquest.com) was launched to present game tips, Chex recipes, and further plot details such as character biographies.^[4] To cut down on development costs, WatersMolitor formed a promotional partnership with America Online who actually manufactured the CDs^[8] in exchange for which all copies of Chex Quest came bundled with the AOL software and a "50 Free Hours" subscription offer.^[4] WatersMolitor also hired fledgling new media company, Digital Café to provide coding, plot, animations, and original music and art for the game.^[4]

The development of Chex Quest differed from traditional video game development in that the basic game engine had already been created and the bulk of the creation process consisted of aesthetic changes made to the music and artwork from the original Ultimate Doom. Although both had previously modded Doom levels in the past, Chex Quest was the first foray into professional game development for lead artist Charles Jacobi and programmer Scott Holman. In an interview with PC Gamer magazine in 2009, Jacobi stated that the biggest reason for the lasting success of Chex Quest has been that it is still essentially a disguised version of Doom with basically unaltered game dynamics.^[7] Indeed, the game has been recognized for having a sense of humor about its identity and origins.^[11]

Humorous aspects of the conversion take the form of ironic in-jokes related to Doom resulting from the more or less exact "translation" of previous non-essential Doom decorations into their non-essential Chex Quest equivalents. Thus the bloodied bodies and the twitching torsos from Doom become the goo-covered cereal pieces and the cereal victims twitching to extract themselves from goo in Chex Quest. Likewise, according to the plot the "health" meter represents the Chex Warrior's ability to move, with 0% representing being completely covered in slime and unable to move. Picture of the Chex Warrior in the status bar display becomes progressively more coated in slime, as opposed to bleeding, as does the face in Doom.

Relations to Doom

Some parameters used to start Doom are also used to start Chex Quest. Despite Chex Quest's major changes from its predecessor, there are still a few remaining relics (e.g. levels from other Ultimate Doom episodes and some in-game text).

While Doom has a cheat code scheme in which every cheat starts with 'ID', the codes in Chex Quest are based on the names of the people in the production crew of the game, with a few exceptions. PC speaker sound effects from the DOS version of Doom have been modified and are used in Chex Quest. Whereas Doom is rated M for Mature, Chex Quest was made to be a child-friendly game for all audiences. Nearly every graphic and sound effect from Doom has been replaced, from textures to enemies to weapons.

The Leftover Levels

Chex Quest has only the first five levels from Ultimate Doom converted for the game.^[12] Some leftover levels are playable (as Chex Quest conversions) only via the level warp parameter at startup. These leftover levels include maps 6 through 9 from episode 1 as well as all maps in episodes 2, 3, and 4. In these levels the music reverts to the original score from Ultimate Doom. After the level warp parameter is used to access maps E3M1 or E4M1, the remainder of the levels (through map 5) within the episode selected can be accessed by completing the levels in the episode in order (just as with the standard level progression in Doom or Chex Quest). Unfortunately, bugs prevent any of the other levels from launching upon completion of the level before it, and similarly E4M9 cannot be reached from E4M2 as previously. Completion of E2M5 (via either exit) displays the end graphic originally displayed at the end of The Shores Of Hell, the second episode of the original Doom, and completing E3M5 displays the end sequence from Inferno, the final episode. Likewise, completing E4M5 displays the end graphic from Thy Flesh Consumed, the final episode of Ultimate Doom. Both of the latter two end sequences feature a decapitated rabbit named Daisy.^[12]

Episode intermission texts which originally (i.e. in Doom) were displayed upon completion of E1M8, E2M8, E3M8, and E4M8 are now found in modified form for Chex Quest.^[12] Thus completion of E1M5 in Chex Quest now displays the new message: "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. ARE YOU PREPARED FOR THE NEXT MISSION? PRESS THE ESCAPE KEY TO CONTINUE..."^[13] Interestingly, completion of the leftover level E2M5 now displays the message: "YOU'VE DONE IT!!"^[14] which never appears in the original Ultimate Doom. Likewise, the episode intermission text displayed upon completion of E3M5 reads: "WONDERFUL JOB!",^[15] and that displayed upon completion of E4M5 reads: "FANTASTIC"^[16] again neither of which ever appeared in the original game. Charles Jacobi says that he knew Scott Holman, another programmer, ran through the text strings and changed any that seemed inappropriate, without knowing where they went.

The skins for the more difficult enemies from Doom have not been converted as these enemies were not employed in Chex Quest levels, but rather the skins have been removed entirely^[12] in order to tone down Doom's hellish imagery. This introduces an additional experience for those playing the "leftover levels" as these difficult enemies still exist in a completely invisible form. This also goes for items like the partial invisibility, berserker pack, light amp goggles, and all skull keycards. In addition, the music from the original registered Doom as well as the overworld graphics (depicting Gigeresque scenes of death and hell) and maps that were not modified (E1M6 through E4M9) were left intact,^[12] allowing anybody with WAD file editing knowledge to create their own copy of registered Doom (specifically Ultimate Doom).

Reception and legacy

On release, the game was received largely positively by gamers. Consumers of diverse ages gave enthusiastic feedback, and there were many requests for the development of sequels.^[4][8] Corporate sales also saw a tremendous boost with incremental volume over base increasing by 295% and volume share increasing 48% from the previous year.^[4][8] These increases were directly attributed to the release of Chex Quest. Although the promotion only lasted 6 weeks, the game continued to be played well beyond the promotional period and promotional marketing groups considered the brand image to have been revitalized "from old-fashioned and stodgy to exciting, fun and modern."^[4]

Despite this, what little critical attention Chex Quest received in the video game press tended to be negative. Comparisons of the game to its forerunner (Doom) and to other similar games of the day were oten unfavorable to Chex Quest, which was pejoratively labeled a "Doom clone," and the game was decried as an imitation with little to no innovation.^[17]

In modern times, Chex Quest is often considered to have been highly innovative^[18][19] and to have pioneered the use of licensed modding to insert product placement into established titles.^[20] The game has attracted a sizeable cult following, and its fanbase has been noted with interest by critics for the continued devotion to the game despite its great age.^[9] Other critics, however, have characterized the game as bad even for a Doom clone. ^[21]

Sequels

In addition to the original game, Digital Café's 1997 sequel entitled Chex Quest 2 was made freely available for gamer to download from the Chex Quest homepage.^[4] In addition, advertisements for an upcoming third installation entitled Chex Quest 3 were available for viewing. Before any such title was released, the promotion came to an end and the game became effectively unavailable until it was posted for download on internet fan pages several years later. A number of fangame editions were completed by fans to act as the third game in the series, however nearly a decade would pass before a second sequel was created with any claim of canonicity with the original two games.

In 2008, Chex Quest 3, was developed and released as a service to fans^[11] by former Digital Café members Charles Jacobi (art director and lead artist) and Scott Holman (programmer).^[7] Originally intended as a single stand-alone level, Jacobi announced the development of a full sequel at the Chex Quest Fan Page (Chexquest.org) in June 2008, and the full game was released in September of the same year.^[22] Chex Quest 3 makes use of artwork originally intended for Chex Quest 3 before it was canceled, and the game employs the ZDoom engine thus giving the character the ability to jump. Jacobi's release also includes ZDoom-based remakes of Chex Quest and Chex Quest 2.^[23]

Fanbase

From a fan perspective, similarities have been drawn between Chex Quest and GoldenEye with respect to the legal rights to the game subsequent to the original creators' purchase by larger companies.^[9] These corporate events have made the likelihood of later official sequels rather uncertain. As with Golden Eye, however, Chex Quest still has a devoted cult fanbase who still create fan-art, new WAD files, and even full sequels to the game more than 12 years after the game's original release-a fact has been used to highlight the capacity for PC games to foster and support community innovation.^[9][24]

Chex Quest has gained a devoted fanbase since its cereal-box release in 1996. Often simultaneous fans of the Doom series, the active Chex Quest fan community has produced a host of fan-made sequels, and numerous unofficial projects have been undertaken including the Chex Trek series and the Zorchmatch mod.^[9] Other examples which have arguably entered the fanon include a fan-made Chex Quest 4, and such .wad and Game Maker sequels as Return of the Chex Warrior, Chex Quest Project Z, and the Chex Quest platformer. There are fan-made Chex Quest WADs designed for nearly all major Doom ports, even the original Doom engine. Many of these fan projects display a keen awareness of the irony of a child-friendly version of Doom, and referential in-jokes demonstrating knowledge of Doom are plentiful. For example, precursor episodes of Chex Quest have been produced based on the Wolfenstein engine in reference to the fact that Wolfenstein is considered the direct precursor to Doom.

Chex Quest fans are also often fans of Chex cereal and, as with the original games,^[11] several fan creations spoof the blatant commercial aspects of the game with examples of over-the-top product placement as well as with counterexamples of inferior cereals.

Notes

1. ^ Although WatersMolitor was hired by Ralston, Ralston's subsequent sale to General Mills in 1996 meant that Chex Quest would eventually be released under the General Mills name.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Sloane, Martin. "Cereal offer provides good fun." The Vindicator. Wednesday August 13, 1997. C2.
2. ^ ^{a b} Hyers, Dean. Digital Café Projects. DeanHyers.com.
3. ^ Vale, Heather; Comm, Joel. Closed Door Session #5 - EXPERT: Michael Koenigs. Closed Door Session DVD Series. 2008.
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Reggie Awards Case Studies: Reggie Gold Award Winners - Chex Quest. Promotional Marketing Association. 1998.
5. ^ Ross Miller (2008-04-18). "Ask Joystiq: Chex Quest, He-Man and broken 360 gamepads". Joystiq. http://www.joystiq.com/2008/04/18/ask-joystiq-chex-quest-he-man-and-broken-360-gamepads/. Retrieved 2008-07-16. 
6. ^ Sharkey, Scott. The 37 Best Free PC Games: Chex Quest 3. GamePro. 2 March 2011.
7. ^ ^{a b c} Lahti, Evan. Backspace - Chex Quest: Never Forget. PC Gamer. No.190. Pg.96. August 2009.
8. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Molitor, Dori. Return of the Flemoids. Hub Magazine. July 2008.
9. ^ ^{a b c d e} PC Gamer staff. PC Gamer Panel - PAX 2010: The Five Wonders of PC Gaming. (audio available). PC Gamer. 8 September 2010.
10. ^ "Moby Games - Chex Quest for DOS". MobyGames. http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/chex-quest. Retrieved 2008-07-16. 
11. ^ ^{a b c} Plante, Chris. The Forgotten First-Person Shooters You Need to Play: Chex Quest. UGO. (reprinted at 1up.com [1]) 24 September 2010.
12. ^ ^{a b c d e} Digital Café. Chex Quest (in English). (Digital Café). PC. (1996)
13. ^ Digital Café. Chex Quest (in English). (Digital Café). PC. Level/area: E1M5. (1996) "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. ARE YOU PREPARED FOR THE NEXT MISSION? PRESS THE ESCAPE KEY TO CONTINUE..."
14. ^ Digital Café. Chex Quest (in English). (Digital Café). PC. Level/area: E2M5. (1996) "YOU'VE DONE IT!!"
15. ^ Digital Café. Chex Quest (in English). (Digital Café). PC. Level/area: E3M5. (1996) "WONDERFUL JOB!"
16. ^ Digital Café. Chex Quest (in English). (Digital Café). PC. Level/area: E4M5. (1996) "FANTASTIC"
17. ^ Arsenault, Dominic. Video Game Genre, Evolution and Innovation - Part III. Game Genre and Innovation: Imitation and Evolution. Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture. Vol.3, No.2. Pp.149-176. 2009.
18. ^ Scacchi, Walt. Computer Game Mods, Modders, Modding, and the Mod Scene: Customizing, Tailoring, and Remixing Game Embodiments. University of California, Irvine - Institute for Software Research and Center for Computer Games and Virtual Worlds. Pp.3-4. 2010.
19. ^ Scacchi, Walt. Governing the Mod Squad: Customizing, Tailoring, and Remixing Game Embodiments. University of California, Irvine - Institute for Software Research and Center for Computer Games and Virtual Worlds. Pg.5. 29 December 2009.
20. ^ Vedrashko, Ilya. Advertising in Computer Games - Part III: The Many Ways to Advertise - Product Placement: Modding. Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Department of Comparative Media Studies. Pg.58. September 2006.
21. ^ Mamatas, Nick; Yeffeth, Glen; Thomason, Jennifer. Halo Effect: An Unauthorized Look at the Most Successful Video Game of All Time - Run Awaaaaay!" BenBella Books. Pp.143-152. 2007. ISBN 1933771119
22. ^ Plante, Chris. Chex Quest 3 Released; Cereal fans set down spoons to rejoice. UGO. 15 September 2008.
23. ^ Yu, Derek. Chex Quest 3. TIGSource. 11 September 2008.
24. ^ Decker, Logan. FanService. PC Gamer. #207. Pg.5. December 2010.

External links

	United States portal
	Video games portal

• The Home of the Chex Quest Fan Forums
• The Chex Quest Wikia Wiki
• Chucktropolis - Charles Jacobi's webpage