Editing Chex Quest (section)

==Development==
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Chexquest.jpg|thumb|right|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 $500,000, ''Chex Quest'' began life as the brainchild of the WatersMolitor promotion agency – an award-winning group that had been hired by [[Ralston Foods]]{{refn|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.<ref name=thompson/>|name=header|group=nb}} to reinvigorate the Chex cereal brand.<ref name=hub/> The original game concept was created by Dean Hyers and Mike Koenigs as a non-violent CD-ROM computer game to be released with 5.7 million boxes of Rice Chex, Wheat Chex, and Corn Chex cereals<ref name=vindicator/> 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.<ref name=PMA/> The game would be a high-quality program whose normal retail value would be between $30<ref name=vindicator/> and $35.<ref name=hub/> However, it would be offered to consumers for free<ref name=PMA/> with no increase to the cost of the cereal box.<ref name=buffalonews/>

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 Ultimate Doom''. For budgetary reasons, [[Id Software]] was contacted and an inexpensive license was obtained for the ''Doom'' engine which was considered obsolete in light of Id's then-recent release of ''[[Quake (video game)|Quake]]''. ''Chex Quest'' was the first foray into professional game development for lead artist Charles Jacobi and programmer Scott Holman, though both had previously modded ''Doom'' levels in the past. 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.<ref name=PCGamerAug09/> Indeed, the game has been recognized for having a sense of humor about its identity and origins.<ref name=plante24sep10>Plante, Chris. ''[http://www.ugo.com/games/chex-quest-1 The Forgotten First-Person Shooters You Need to Play: Chex Quest]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120213192240/http://www.ugo.com/games/chex-quest-1 |date=February 13, 2012 }}''. UGO. ([http://www.1up.com/features/forgotten-first-person-shooters-play reprinted at 1up.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120710181952/http://www.1up.com/features/forgotten-first-person-shooters-play |date=2012-07-10 }}) 24 September 2010.</ref>

Humorous aspects of the conversion take the form of ironic [[in-joke]]s 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.<ref name=lock>{{cite web|last1=Lock|first1=Chris|title=Interview with Chex Quest Team Member Charles Jacobi|url=http://levelsave.com/interview-with-chex-quest-team-member-charles-jacobi/|website=LevelSave|publisher=LevelSave LLC|accessdate=8 August 2015|date=13 April 2012}}</ref>

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 fight]]ing, 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 characters|M&M's animated characters]]. The flemoids were originally yellow, but this was changed to green due to limitations in the ''Doom'' color palette.<ref>Jacobi, Charles. ''[http://www.chucktropolis.com/chex Chex Quest 1 Concepts!]'' Chucktropolis. Retrieved 1 February 2013.</ref>

Additional development team members include: Producer Kimberly Hyers, Technical Coordinator Dave Brus, Project Manager Mary Bregi.<ref>Info provided by Creative Director</ref>

=== 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.<ref name=PMA/> To cut down on development costs, WatersMolitor formed a promotional partnership with [[America Online]] who actually manufactured the CDs<ref name=hub/> in exchange for which all copies of ''Chex Quest'' came bundled with the AOL software and a [[AOL#Direct marketing of disks|"50 Free Hours" subscription offer]].<ref name=PMA/> WatersMolitor also created a telephone help-line for gamers who encountered problems with the game<ref name=gaw>Gaw, Jonathan. ''Business: Chew on this - Chex will put CD-ROM in cereal; $5 million high- tech promotion comes as General Mills takes over brand''. [[Star Tribune]]. 31 January 1997.</ref> and hired fledgling [[new media]] company, [[Digital Café]], to provide coding, plot, animations, original music and art for the game.<ref name=PMA/>

===Comparison with ''Doom''===
Some parameters used to start ''Doom'' are also used to start ''Chex Quest''. Despite  ''Chex Quest''<nowiki>'</nowiki>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.<ref>''[http://www.ign.com/cheats/games/chex-quest-pc-8787 Chex Quest Cheats & Codes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130307092822/http://www.ign.com/cheats/games/chex-quest-pc-8787 |date=2013-03-07 }}''. [[IGN]]. 2012.</ref> 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.<ref name=cq>{{cite video game|title = Chex Quest|developer = [[Digital Café]]|publisher = Digital Café|date = 1997|platform = [[Personal Computer|PC]]}}</ref> Some leftover levels are playable (as ''Chex Quest'' conversions) only via the level warp parameter at startup.<ref name=foster>Foster, Neil. ''[http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/chexquest/chexquest.htm Chex Quest] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223193851/http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/chexquest/chexquest.htm |date=2014-02-23 }}''. Hardcore Gaming 101. 13 February 2014.</ref> 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.<ref name=cq/>

[[File:Chex quest you've done it.jpg|thumb|The intermission screen shown after completing E2M5]]
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''.<ref name=cq/><ref name=foster/> 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..."<ref>{{cite video game|title = Chex Quest|developer = [[Digital Café]]|publisher = Digital Café|date = 1997|platform = [[Personal Computer|PC]]| level = E1M5|quote = MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. ARE YOU PREPARED FOR THE NEXT MISSION? PRESS THE ESCAPE KEY TO CONTINUE...}}</ref> Completion of the leftover level E2M5 displays the message: "YOU'VE DONE IT!"<ref>{{cite video game|title = Chex Quest|developer = [[Digital Café]]|publisher = Digital Café|date = 1997|platform = [[Personal Computer|PC]]| level = E2M5|quote = YOU'VE DONE IT!!}}</ref> which never appears in ''The Ultimate Doom''.<ref name=foster/> Likewise, the episode intermission text displayed upon completion of E3M5 reads: "WONDERFUL JOB!",<ref>{{cite video game|title = Chex Quest|developer = [[Digital Café]]|publisher = Digital Café|date = 1997|platform = [[Personal Computer|PC]]| level = E3M5|quote = WONDERFUL JOB!}}</ref> and that displayed upon completion of E4M5 reads: "FANTASTIC"<ref>{{cite video game|title = Chex Quest|developer = [[Digital Café]]|publisher = Digital Café|date = 1997|platform = [[Personal Computer|PC]]| level = E4M5|quote = FANTASTIC}}</ref> 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<ref name=lock/> and 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.<ref name=cq/> This introduces an additional experience for those playing the "leftover levels" as these difficult enemies still exist in a completely invisible form.<ref name=foster/> 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 [[H. R. Giger|Gigeresque]] scenes of death and hell) and maps that were not modified (E1M6 through E4M9) were left intact,<ref name=cq/> allowing anybody with WAD file editing knowledge to create their own copy of registered ''Doom'' (specifically ''The Ultimate Doom'').