Chex Quest

From DoomWiki.org

Chex Quest Cover

Chex Quest is an award-winning promotional game created by Digital Café and released in 1996, utilizing the Doom engine. The player is embodied as Chex Warrior, a hero attempting to rescue captured Chex people from evil slime creatures known as Flemoids who have invaded the Intergalactic Federation of Cereals' mining outpost on the planet Bazoik. The game was made available inside boxes of Chex cereal. It featured five levels. Because the market for the cereal consisted largely of children, the game was made to be deliberately non-violent: for example, the enemies in the game are not killed, but are instead transported back to their home dimension.

The game is notable for the fact that it was the first game CD-ROM to be released inside a cereal box. Sales of Chex cereal increased by 295% in incremental volume over base and 48% in volume share during this promotion.[1] Much of the manufacturing cost of the CDs was paid for by America Online. AOL was allowed to include its dial-up online service client on the disc in exchange for this contribution.

A series of limited-edition boxed re-releases were announced by Limited Run Games on April 14, 2020.[2] In addition, Chex Quest HD, a high-definition remake of the game created by Charles Jacobi and the Chex Quest HD Team, was released by General Mills and Flight School Studio on May 19, 2020.[3] A port to Nintendo Switch was released on March 11, 2022.[4]

Story[edit]

Chex Quest CD

Chex Quest begins with an emergency meeting of the members of the Intergalactic Federation of Cereals. In it, it is brought to everyone's attention that a volcano exploded recently on the surface of Bazoik, a peaceful mining planet renowned for its quality nutritional products. The Chex Squadron captured fragments from the explosion, and discovered that they contained strange, slimy larvae of a creature from another dimension. When exposed to nutritional substances, these larvae abruptly grow into huge, slimy creatures with the capacity to launch slime as a weapon from their bodies. When a member states that there has been no trouble reported, the Commander addressing the members states that communications with Bazoik have been interrupted, and the Federation cannot contact anyone.

Luckily, the scientists from the Federation have found a way to counter the threat. Although conventional weapons do not affect the slimy invaders, the scientists have modified the "zorchers", the main weapon of the Federation, to effect a transportation of any object into another dimension, and this is demonstrated to those present.

With this new weapon the Federation believes that it can subdue the threat by sending a lone volunteer to the surface of Bazoik. The crowd discusses this for a moment, and a warrior from Chex Squadron declares he is willing to take the rescue mission. Taking his ship, he flies to the planet and begins his quest.

Enemies[edit]

The non-boss flemoids are given faux-Latin names by the IFC. It is unknown what name they give themselves.

Flemoidus commonus
The most basic enemy, vaguely humanoid but slithering around on its legless body. It attacks at close range by trying to cover you with its slime. It corresponds to the former human from Doom, but only has a melee attack and does not drop ammunition when zorched.
Flemoidus bipedicus
A more humanoid variant of the former type, who shaped two legs out of its slime body. It is slightly tougher than its commonus brethren but otherwise behave identically. It corresponds to the former human sergeant, but again does not have a ranged attack and does not drop a weapon.
Armored flemoidus bipedicus
The first hint the flemoids have advanced technology, this bipedicus wears a special armor. It is twice as tough as the unarmored bipedicus (and thrice as tough as the commonus), it is more damaging at close range, and it can even throw balls of slime at long ranges. It corresponds to the imp.
Flemoidus cycloptis
This small flemoid appears to be roughly spherical and to have a single eye. However, it is entirely encased in a small hover tank. While it lacks a long-range attack, it is very fast and can deal a lot of damage close range. It corresponds to the demon.
The Flembrane
A living wall of flem slime, this monster guards the hostages in the caverns of Bazoik. It cannot move, but it is very tough and can throw dangerous balls of slimes, and is even more dangerous at close range. It corresponds to the baron of Hell.

Levels[edit]

Built-in demos[edit]

The game features four built-in demos. The demo levels are:

Demo Level Skill Tics Length
DEMO1 E1M1: Landing Zone 3 3094 1:28.40
DEMO2 E1M2: Storage Facility 3 4754 2:15.83
DEMO3 E1M4: Arboretum 3 1960 0:56.00
DEMO4 E1M5: Caverns of Bazoik 3 3938 1:52.51

Chex Quest 2[edit]

Chex Quest 2: Flemoids Take Chextropolis is the second installment in the Chex Quest series, released in 1997. It is an add-on to the original, as the first Chex Quest is required to play it. In this sequel's plot, the Chex Warrior returns to his home planet and lands in Chex City only to discover that the Flemoid threat has reached his homeworld. There, the player battles through a terrestrial spaceport, a cinema (showing three videos each endlessly looping), a museum, and the eponymous city, Chextropolis, until reaching the sewers to confront an end boss named "The Maximus".

Chex Quest 2 was available only from the games' official website, and only for a limited time. The basic gameplay is the same as in the first Chex Quest game, though some enemies have been changed cosmetically. Game development on the sequel was rushed to completion, with a lot of graphics being reused from the first game and the levels lacking in detail and quality.[5]

Enemies[edit]

Flemoidus commonus
Unchanged from the previous episode.
Flemoidus bipedicus
Also unchanged from the previous episode.
Flemoidus quadrumpus
A buff, four-armed flemoid variant, it can shoot balls of slime at range. This is a cosmetic replacement for the armored bipedicus.
Flemoid larva
Looking like an annelid worm made of slime, it is fast and packs a punch up close. This is a cosmetic replacement for the cycloptis.
Flemoidus maximus
A huge and buff flemoid. This is a cosmetic replacement for the Flembrane.

Levels[edit]

Engine[edit]

Chex Quest comes with an executable called CHEX.EXE. This is a modified version of the Final Doom engine code that changes the engine in subtle ways that are hardcoded into the executable. Among these are new behaviors for the level warp cheat, longer text strings, and changes in enemy behavior. Its subtle differences are significant enough that Chex Quest as such cannot run in Vanilla Doom and thus has to rely on its modified executable to function properly.

  • Text strings can be longer.
  • The menu skips the Which Episode? screen when selecting New Game.
  • Episodes end on the fifth map instead of the eighth.
  • When using the level warp cheat, it always warps the player to the first episode, no matter the value of the first input.
  • Cheat codes have been changed, the cheats themselves are the same, however. A full list can be found here.
  • The "automap" shows the level name corresponding to the current map's mission number in episode 1 (eg. In E2M4, the automap would read "E1M4: Arboretum").
  • The commonus and bipedicus (former human and former human sergeant) are no longer able to fire at enemies from a distance. They still use A_PosAttack and A_SposAttack respectively, though, meaning the attack itself can hit from a distance, just that they can only initiate an attack when a target is in melee range.
  • Enemies can no longer drop items. Functionally, this means commonus (former humans) do not drop mini zorch recharges (clips), and bipedicus (former human sergeants) do not drop the large zorcher (shotgun).
  • The Flembrane (baron of Hell) has its speed set to 0 map units per second, effectively making it immobile, alongside having a radius of 44.0 as opposed to the baron's radius of 24.0. Its third attack frame has its duration set to 0 tics instead of 3, meaning it takes 6 tics for it to attack instead of 9.
  • The lost soul has its height set to 0 units. This is likely a mistake, as the lost soul occupies index value 19 in the map object index, and the "impaled human" obstacle (which was changed to a small flower) has an editor ID of 25, which is 19 in hexadecimal. The developers presumably wanted to remove collision from the flowers and checked its editor ID. They saw the hexadecimal value of 19, assumed it was a regular decimal number, and changed the height of the 19th thing in the map object index, assuming it was the yellow flower.

DeHackEd patches[edit]

Two DeHackEd patches exist that attempt to emulate the behavioral changes seen in CHEX.EXE:

  • The author of NxDoom, BlackAura, created a patch called CHEXQUEST.DEH on September 1, 2002. The patch was made to enable playing the game on a Sega Dreamcast.
  • Another, more extensive patch was made in 2008 by Fraggle. His patch (CHEX.DEH) was made from a comparison of CHEX.EXE with Final Doom's version of DOOM2.EXE.

Both patches do not emulate the executable fully, as the executable has to support longer text strings and cheat entries than DeHackEd can handle. Fraggle's version solves this by including a magic comments mode in Chocolate Doom, enabling long text strings and long cheat support and recommends running the patch either through Chocolate or through a source port that has extended DeHackEd support.

Projects based off CHEX.EXE[edit]

The Chex Quest community created several projects that require CHEX.EXE to function:

  • Nitro's Chex Quest (by Cory Scott (NiTROACTiVE) - A episode replacement for the original Chex Quest.
  • Nitro's Chex Quest 2 - Another episode replacement, this time for Chex Quest 2.
  • Chex Quest Advanced - A project to improve/remaster the original Chex Quest (and later on Chex Quest 2) whilst still operating within the limits of CHEX.EXE.
    • Chex Quest: Vanillavasion - A PWAD episode for Chex Quest Advanced, that can also run standalone with CHEX.EXE.

Chex Quest 3[edit]

Main article: Chex Quest 3

The original Chex Quest 3 was made by fans of the series who were disappointed that the third had been canceled. But, rather than make entirely new levels and graphics, most of them were taken from other mods, including Hacx and STRAIN. This PWAD was noticeably more difficult. It was largely disregarded by the community when its unofficial status was confirmed. Team Eternity later started work on a different Chex Quest 3 project, but abandoned it.

Ten years later, Charles Jacobi, a former member of Digital Café, created and released his own Chex Quest 3, with cooperation from programmer Scott Holman and former Digital Café sound design leader, Andrew Benon. In addition to an all-new five map episode, the first two games were given a makeover and included as well.

2020 big box rerelease[edit]

In April 2020 a big box re-release was announced by Limited Run Games.[6] Two versions were released: a basic "big box" release, and a larger "Chex Warrior edition" containing the following:

  • 2-Disc jewel case containing game disc and soundtrack CD.
  • Floppy disk-shaped USB drive containing game and soundtrack.
  • 18x24" Chex Quest poster.
  • 8x10" lithograph print of Chex Quest concept art.
  • Chex warrior and flemoid enamel pins.
  • Chex keychain.
  • Metallica-themed "Zorch 'em all" t-shirt (XL).
  • Intergalactic Chexdallion of Bravery coin.
  • "Chex Quest" and "Intergalactic federation of cereals" hologram stickers.
  • Full size light-and-sound replica of the mini zorcher weapon.
  • Metal Chex Warrior statue.

The Chex Warrior big box is the same size as the SIGIL "beast box" release (also published by Limited Run), albeit in a portrait rather than landscape orientation. The box is designed to look like a cereal box, complete with a fake "Nutritional information" label that lists the box contents. A foil printing technique was used that gives the box a shimmering "hologram" effect.

Speedrunning[edit]

Current records[edit]

The DSDA episode records for Chex Quest are:

Run Time Player Date File Notes
UV speed episode 03:36 Jean-Charles Dorne (JCD) 2021-06-20 cqe1-336.zip
NM speed episode 03:44 Argentum 2021-09-05 cq1_nm_344.zip
UV max episode 08:21 Dime 2019-01-17 cqe1-821.zip
NM 100S episode 05:30 Jean-Charles Dorne (JCD) 2021-06-20 cq1ns530.zip
UV Tyson episode 24:16 Andrea Rovenski (Cyberdemon531) 2023-06-03 chexallt2416.zip
UV pacifist episode 07:33 veovis 2017-04-06 cqe1p733.zip
NoMo episode 03:48 AmnesiaSilence 2022-06-18 cqe1o348.zip

The DSDA episode records for Chex Quest 2 are:

Run Time Player Date File Notes
UV speed episode 04:20 Ks4 2020-09-28 cq2-420.zip
NM speed episode 04:21 Ks4 2020-09-27 cq2nm-421.zip
NM 100S episode 05:27 Jean-Charles Dorne (JCD) 2021-06-20 cq2ns527.zip
NoMo episode 03:52 Ks4 2023-10-08 cq2o352.zip

The data was last verified in its entirety on November 2, 2023.

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Promotion Marketing Association, Inc. (19 March 1998). "Reggie Awards Case Studies: Reggie Gold Award Winners - Chex Quest." (archived 🏛). Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  2. Peeples, Jeremy (14 April 2020). "Chex Quest Getting Special Physical Edition Via Limited Run Games." Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  3.  (18 May 2020). "Chex Mix Unveils Chex Quest HD: A Highly Anticipated Upgrade to the Cult-Classic ‘90s Video Game." Business Wire. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  4.  (5 March 2022). "Chex Quest HD is coming to Switch next week." VgameZone. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  5. http://levelsave.com/interview-with-chex-quest-team-member-charles-jacobi/
  6. Limited Run Games (14 April 2020). https://twitter.com/limitedrungames/status/1250153888310874114. Twitter. Retrieved 3 October 2021.


Source code genealogy
Based on Name Base for
Final Doom (id Anthology) Chex Quest Closed source