Chex Quest is an ostensibly non-violent first-person shooter video game created in 1996 and released in 1997 by Digital Café, originally intended as a Chex cereal promotion aimed at children aged 6–9 and up. It is a total conversion of the more explicitly violent video game Doom (specifically The Ultimate Doom version of the game). Chex Quest won both a Golden EFFIE Award for Advertising Effectiveness and Golden Reggie Award for Promotional Achievement in 1998, and it is known today for having been the first video game ever to be included in cereal boxes as a prize. The game's cult following has been described by the press as being composed of unusually devoted fans of an advertising vehicle from a bygone age.
In 2019, General Mills rereleased Chex Quest and its previously unofficial 2008 sequel, and presented a mini-documentary on YouTube.
Gameplay
right|thumb|The Chex Warrior "zorching" a Flemoid. Note the lack of lucid violence and [[wikt:gore|gore.]]
Originally based on the Doom engine, the gameplay present in Chex Quest is substantially identical to its predecessor.
Plot
Set on a distant planet named Bazoik, the game follows the Chex Warrior, a soldier clad in a Chex-shaped suit of armor, as he foils the invasion of the planet by the 'Flemoids': His main weapons are devices called "zorchers", which teleports his enemies to their home dimension.
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. The picture of the Chex Warrior in the status bar display becomes progressively more coated in slime, as opposed to bleeding as does Doomguy's face in the Doom status bar. Because time was limited, pre-existing tools popular with the Doom fan community (such as the level creation tool Doombuilder) were utilized in level design, and sound effects such as the distinctive vocalization of the Flemoids were created by creative director Dean Hyers and audio designer Andrew Benson playing around in a sound booth.
During development, aesthetic decisions had to be run by Ralston for approval and this resulted in a number of modifications. The zorchers, for instance, were originally intended to look like a classic raygun, though they were changed to look like a remote control or Star Trek tricorder due to Ralston's concerns that it looked too much like a violent gun. All of the higher-powered weapons were then designed on the tricorder model. However, the Zorch launcher and Phasing Zorcher were modified again toward the end of the design phase to have a more distinctive look. Zorch weapons were also originally going to "neutralize" flemoids with nutritional foods like banana slices, milk, and strawberries, but due to Ralston's worries that this might encourage food fighting, this was changed so that the zorcher emitted pink light and "sent back" the flemoids, making them vanish. Early designs for the Chex Warrior also had his head and body all as one giant Chex piece. However, this was changed due to aesthetic similarities to the M&M's animated characters. The flemoids were originally yellow, but this was changed to green due to limitations in the Doom color palette.
Additional development team members include: Producer Kimberly Hyers, Technical Coordinator Dave Brus, and Project Manager Mary Bregi.
Promotion
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. and hired fledgling new media company, Digital Café, to provide coding, plot, animations, original music and art for the game. PC speaker sound effects from the MS-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 all of the graphics and audio from Doom have been replaced, from textures to enemies to weapons.
Leftover levels
Chex Quest has only the first five levels from The Ultimate Doom converted for the game. 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 third episode. Likewise, completing E4M5 displays the end graphic from Thy Flesh Consumed, the fourth and final episode of The Ultimate Doom. Both of the latter two end sequences feature a decapitated rabbit named Daisy. Completion of the leftover level E2M5 displays the message: "YOU'VE DONE IT!" which never appears in The Ultimate Doom. and that displayed upon completion of E4M5 reads: "FANTASTIC" again neither of which ever appeared in the original game. Charles Jacobi has said that there were never any plans to produce more than five levels 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." Noted cereal scholar Scott Bruce decried General Mills' decision to invent a new mascot for Chex cereal for such frivolous purposes, and dismissed the Chex Warrior as not compelling enough to sell the product.
In modern times, Chex Quest is often considered to have been highly innovative and to have pioneered the use of licensed modding to insert product placement into established titles. Although at least 5 million copies were released, the original CDs are uncommon on the secondary market as they were noted by collectors as having great collectible value in the mid-1990s. 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.
In a retrospective review, AllGame editor Jonathan Sutyak referred to Chex Quest as "a good game", and that it is suitable for a "child who might enjoy a first-person shooter but is not ready for the violence that occurs in most games of this genre". and an end sequence suggesting a possible third installation was available for viewing. Before a third title in the series was developed, the promotion came to an end and both the original Chex Quest and Chex Quest 2 became effectively unavailable until they were 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. Chex Quest 3 employs the ZDoom source port (version 2.3.1), and is considerably larger in size than the previous two games. with significant enhancements and noted problems redressed. Chex Quest 2 in particular had been remastered, with some levels significantly revised or completely overhauled. A trailer for the remake was released in February 2019. Like the original game it contains five levels and was released for free. The Chex Warrior, the protagonist of the original game, is given the name Fred Chexter in the remake.
The remake was released on May 18, 2020, and can be acquired through Steam. It was also released on March 11, 2022, for the Nintendo Switch.
Fanbase
Similarities have been drawn by fans between Chex Quest and GoldenEye with respect to the legal rights to the game subsequent to the original creators' purchase by larger companies.
Chex Quest has gained a devoted fanbase since its cereal-box release in 1997. Often simultaneous fans of Chex cereal