Now that the CQ Gallery is up and running, Manny Cav has released the newly uncovered Chex Quest 4!
I felt this occasion warranted a discussion thread and a link http://www.chexquest.org/chexquestgallery/downloads/#Chex_Quest_4 (http://www.chexquest.org/chexquestgallery/downloads/#Chex_Quest_4)
I hope this one is worthy of being included in all CQ related discussions to come.
P.S. Sorry Manny if I stole your thunder. :-[
You did not. ;) Make sure to read the listed tidbits if you need help! *pins*
When I saw that title my heart almost stopped. o_o I was thinking Chuck was announcing CQ4, but after reading it now I see.
I'm glad that the Game Maker Chex Quest 4 was found. ^^ But can you please change the title a bit?
meh, I was expecting gzdoom :(
Quote from: arch129 on April 27, 2009, 01:48:08 AM
When I saw that title my heart almost stopped. o_o I was thinking Chuck was announcing CQ4, but after reading it now I see.
I'm glad that the Game Maker Chex Quest 4 was found. ^^ But can you please change the title a bit?
Nice to be dreaming big. :D Is the title good enough for you, now? :P I also revised the information on Chex Quest 4 for my website. There is a little glitch in the game that will sometimes mess up the Automatic Zorcher if you save and reload. I don't know what triggers the glitch, but it seems to have something to do with viewing the ending screen.
And finally, there's still the mystery of the cheat code that enables the Zorch Grenade, so if anyone knows anything about that, that'd be great,.
FYI for anyone interested, this game is a point-and-click game. DO NOT ATTEMPT PLAY ON A LAPTOP WITHOUT A MOUSE! Trust me, it's frustrating. And for all the complaining about how lame it is, I thought is was a unique diversion. True, the graphics leave much to be desired, but it makes for a different point-of-view on the CQ universe as a whole. Try it; you might be surprised.
Not bad. It's different, but I think the time limit could be shortened a little. Other than that, it's something new. If you can call something Notiswas made years ago new. :)
Quote from: matthias720 on April 27, 2009, 12:47:10 PM
FYI for anyone interested, this game is a point-and-click game. DO NOT ATTEMPT PLAY ON A LAPTOP WITHOUT A MOUSE! Trust me, it's frustrating. And for all the complaining about how lame it is, I thought is was a unique diversion. True, the graphics leave much to be desired, but it makes for a different point-of-view on the CQ universe as a whole. Try it; you might be surprised.
This is all I had to complete it with. I found that the touchpad did a fair job as a sort of "tablet" that allowed me to take the cross hair where I needed it. Still, though, I found the game quite hard. It would have been murderous without save and load.
So, um, what exactly is this? A fourth Chex Quest, or something else?
When you guys get all technical, my eyes glaze over. I just want to click, download, and play.
Of course, as you know, Manny, I even sometimes have trouble with that. Thanks again for the lengthy chat where you tried to solve my gameplay problems for Slimeinator's mod. After chatting with Slimeinator himself, he helped me figure it out, but hey, at least you got me to that point. ;)
Whatever the case may be, know that I am along for the ride! Chex Quest FTW! ;D
Sincerely,
Chexy
Glad to see you're here.
Basically, that's all you really need to do. Click the link, download it, unrar it, and play. ;)
It's not an official Chex Quest, but is really just a Game Maker game that Tyler "Notiswas" Wright made years ago when he was eager for a new version of Chex Quest. He thought he'd make his own, and this is what became of it.
As for the whole mouse/touchpad thing....the game seemed tremendously easy when using a mouse, so it might be better if I played it on my laptop. :D
I have a fond memory of breaking my mouse because of this game. It was the constant clicking.
For new members who don't know the back story behind this game, the following topic tells it. http://www.chexquest.org/index.php?topic=641.0
Quote from: ChexCommander on April 27, 2009, 05:21:24 PM
Glad to see you're here.
Basically, that's all you really need to do. Click the link, download it, unrar it, and play. ;)
How do you "unrar" something? I've never done something like that before. Is it like WinZip, only with pieces of files?
Sincerely,
Chexy
Quote from: Chexy on April 27, 2009, 10:39:03 PM
How do you "unrar" something? I've never done something like that before. Is it like WinZip, only with pieces of files?
You do it with WinRAR (http://www.rarlab.com/) or any other archive handling program that can unzip RAR files. ;)
Quote from: Manny Cav on April 27, 2009, 10:45:10 PM
Quote from: Chexy on April 27, 2009, 10:39:03 PM
How do you "unrar" something? I've never done something like that before. Is it like WinZip, only with pieces of files?
You do it with WinRAR (http://www.rarlab.com/) or any other archive handling program that can unzip RAR files. ;)
Manny nailed it, just use WinRAR. RARs are basically the same thing as zip files only using a different compression (storage) method. They're usually smaller in proportion to zips.
Quote from: Manny Cav on April 27, 2009, 10:30:29 AM
And finally, there's still the mystery of the cheat code that enables the Zorch Grenade, so if anyone knows anything about that, that'd be great,.
It's possible to edit the game code to some degree using a hex editor on the gmd (or whatever extension it is) file that gets installed along with the executable. I've tried searching for the code this way, but I wasn't sure if I was just looking for a string or a key combination (maybe Notiswas remembers?), so I didn't make much progress. Maybe you one of you guys has more time to put into such a search...
I found strings for "grenade" in the file, but nothing that hinted to a code. The documentation clearly implied that it was a code you entered with a letter combination. What we don't know is what that code is, or even where it's entered. Worse than this, Notiswas' post here (http://www.chexquest.org/index.php?topic=497.msg25759#msg25759) implies that we won't be seeing anything from him anytime soon.
Ah, the Navy. That would probably be my choice if I had to join the military. Or maybe the Coast Guard.
Well, we'll just have to keep doing more research.
It's funny how we're spending all this time looking for a cheat code to a Game Maker game, but it's cool. I'd like to get that Zorch Grenade someday.
For a flash game this has some serious potential as a mini game on a site like newgrounds
The ONLY thing I would change is the graphics, although we know what were looking at my buddy who never played any Chex Quest games asked why he was shooting cucumbers...
Other than that solid game, I like it for a quick "got 5 min to kill" kinda game
The graphics do need a bit of a change, as they look like they came straight out of Paint (and probably did, to boot). The final boss also needs a tone-down, because it's just nearly impossible to beat without serious use of save/load. Unfortunately, the original Game Maker source to this game was never released, and the author is away in the military, I think. Our only option here is to use a program that can make a source file from the EXE. This is an early version of Game Maker we're talking about here, so this is considerably easier than doing it against a more conventionally made EXE. Such utilities exist, but they seem to want to charge money or something.
What about a VB decompiler? as long as someone has visual basic it should be easy, to you of course my game creation skills are not even close to yours otherwise I'd giver a run.
Once you open it in Visual Basic could you import sprites? My skills in it are very limited and i'm used to RPG maker and Qbasic for game creation.
Firstly, I don't have Visual Basic, so... yeah. I'm still thinking a Game Maker 3 (this game was made with one of the 3rd generation Game Maker versions) decompiler could achieve the best results. I honestly don't know if a Visual Basic decompiler would work or not since I don't have one, but this wasn't made with Visual Basic anyway. And what exactly do you mean by your game creation skills not even being close to mine? I've doodled a thing or two in Game Maker and had a few Chex Quest mods that were, eh, ill-contrived to make a long story short, but really, the only thing I have going right now is Chex Quest Arena.
I have Visual Basic 6 (the one from the 90s, or maybe 2000)..but I don't think that would work on this file. And my game creation skills are extremely limited.
Quote from: Manny CavOur only option here is to use a program that can make a source file from the EXE.
Is there such a program for GM3? I've heard of ones for later versions of GM, but I only got into GM when it was at version 4.3. Or do you mean a disassembler?
I was actually thinking about tackling the game with a debugger, but I'm not familiar with the Win32 API at all, so I don't know what API functions would be most appropriate to examine.
Quote from: LothalisWhat about a VB decompiler?
As I understand it, VB decompilers are for taking programs made with VB and getting some sort of VB "source" for them. As Manny Cav pointed out, CQ4 wasn't made with VB, so a VB decompiler probably wouldn't work.
Quote from: Dacicus on June 07, 2009, 02:42:14 AM
Quote from: Manny CavOur only option here is to use a program that can make a source file from the EXE.
Is there such a program for GM3? I've heard of ones for later versions of GM, but I only got into GM when it was at version 4.3. Or do you mean a disassembler?
Decompiler or disassembler, either one would probably work, and you're right--I've only seen decompilers for GM5-GM7. I tried one of the GM5-7 ones out on the GMF file for Chex Quest 4, and it couldn't process it. The EXE itself was also a no-go. I'm hoping I can find a program that works on old Game Maker files.
Hehehe, enjoy trying to read the output of a decompiler. Unless you can find one designed to work SPECIFICALLY with GameMaker, odds are all you'll get out of a decompile/disassemble is a bunch of assembly language code, if you're lucky.
For those of you who are lucky enough to have never set eyes on assembly language [not me], let me tell you this: it is nasty. You know all those nice things about programming, like declaring variables and manipulating data? Yeah, Assembly makes that into pure torture.
However, I DO know there was a program designed to reverse-engineer older GameMaker programs, so there is a possibility. However, it wasn't something I came across "in the wild", and old GM Forums guys I ran into elsewhere didn't like to talk about it back then.
What I remember about the coding was that I utilized hidden objects, so if you hit the right first letter in the string, it activates a transformation to a further invisible object, and so on. If you press the incorrect variable, it reverts back to this initial object. The best bet would be to somehow convert the game back into a .gmd... but I'd be darned with how. I am not sure whether anybody knows this, but there is a secret 3-variable code typed on the title screen that accesses a fanart section. I believe it has 3 pages of fanart submitted to me from the likes of Richie, Chex Warrior, Brian Worley, Gilgy, and several others. I would really love to see it again, but it seems next to impossible, taking into consideration the thousands upon thousands of possibilities a 3 letter/number phrase can yield... ^-^ XD ^-^I am going to make this message short for now (I am using a phone to write this.) First of all, hello everyone! Um, yeah... please excuse the bizareness of this post. I am not exactly a text fied, lol
hehe, strange post from a guy we dont see often XD
so...trying to extract a game maker out of a exe?
AFAIK, game maker decompilers are illegal due to the fact that its mostly NOT your own code, just your input via Game Maker's code. Also, YoYoGames has placed encryption on it...soo...i dont believe it is possible to get a gm file out of an exe.
Quote from: Atariangamer on June 12, 2009, 02:19:31 AM
hehe, strange post from a guy we dont see often XD
so...trying to extract a game maker out of a exe?
AFAIK, game maker decompilers are illegal due to the fact that its mostly NOT your own code, just your input via Game Maker's code. Also, YoYoGames has placed encryption on it...soo...i dont believe it is possible to get a gm file out of an exe.
Ah, but this is an OLD version, so it doesn't have that encryption. Like I said, I know there was a program for older GM files, but I've never seen it. I'll take a look around, see if I can find something. Anyone know what version of GM was used?
Quote from: Notiswas on June 12, 2009, 01:18:52 AM
What I remember about the coding was that I utilized hidden objects, so if you hit the right first letter in the string, it activates a transformation to a further invisible object, and so on. If you press the incorrect variable, it reverts back to this initial object. The best bet would be to somehow convert the game back into a .gmd... but I'd be darned with how. I am not sure whether anybody knows this, but there is a secret 3-variable code typed on the title screen that accesses a fanart section. I believe it has 3 pages of fanart submitted to me from the likes of Richie, Chex Warrior, Brian Worley, Gilgy, and several others. I would really love to see it again, but it seems next to impossible, taking into consideration the thousands upon thousands of possibilities a 3 letter/number phrase can yield... ^-^ XD ^-^I am going to make this message short for now (I am using a phone to write this.) First of all, hello everyone! Um, yeah... please excuse the bizareness of this post. I am not exactly a text fied, lol
First of all, hello! Long time no see! I heard you was shipping off to the military (I forget which branch). Did you go through with that, or did you back out?
Now, on to the topic. Are you saying that there are two different text codes for Chex Quest 4?
Quote from: Loremaster on June 12, 2009, 03:21:13 AM
Anyone know what version of GM was used?
I've narrowed it down to some version of Game Maker 3 using the GMF format. I'd have to experiment to narrow it down to 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.2b, or 3.3.
Hey Manny. I am a United States sailor, currently worling through dental training. Chex Quest 4 was created with either 3.0 or 3.3 as I recall. I believe there were 3 different secrets. The zorch grenade, God mode, and the fanart gallery. The gallery would definitely be an interesting discovery... There were at least 10 pieces of work. If only I could remember the codes!
The creator makes an appearance! Well at least we have some idea what's going on now.
@notiswas: Good to see you again. Hope you do well as a sailor.
Oh, hey Notiswas! So it looks like you're in the Navy after all.
Oh, so there was a god mode cheat too? Hm, I wish we could find them...
This is probably a dumb question, but Notiswas, do you have the original source on you, or is it lost to time?
Also, in the event that it comes down to a Game Maker or other such decompiler, I (and others like me) would like to have your permission to do such decompiling for the purpose of finding these secrets. I don't want anyone hounding on me for the fact that I'm using such tools, so just to keep things neat, I'm making an open request.
Hi! I always enjoy talking to people in the Chex scene. Always a welcoming and happy bunch! XD. The editable is unfortunately some 8 - 10 years dead, so no luck there. If such a possibility arises where you can manage to hack into it, then by all means, do so! As a matter of fact, PLEASE figure it out because now I'm curious. I could hardly recall the game itself, let alone the crappy fanart secret. :D
Quote from: LoremasterFor those of you who are lucky enough to have never set eyes on assembly language [not me], let me tell you this: it is nasty. You know all those nice things about programming, like declaring variables and manipulating data? Yeah, Assembly makes that into pure torture.
I wouldn't say assembly in general is so bad. However, I have essentially sworn to never program in assembly that requires you to call a ton of API functions, like Win32. I might still try to work through this game, though.
BTW, do you have any experience with Win32 assembly, Loremaster? If so, might you know the best way to approach this? ATM, I'm basically planning to break on the key press event (or whatever Windows calls it) and follow the code from there. Horribly inefficient, I know, but I have no experience with Win32 assembly programming. If only it were 6502...
Quote from: NotiswasWhat I remember about the coding was that I utilized hidden objects, so if you hit the right first letter in the string, it activates a transformation to a further invisible object, and so on. If you press the incorrect variable, it reverts back to this initial object.
That's very helpful. Thanks! Some more questions, though:
- Was this how you did it for all of the codes?
- Do you remember how many characters the other codes had?
- Did the codes consist of just letters and numbers, or other characters?
- On which screen(s) did you have to type the other two codes? I assume the grenade one was in-game.
Good luck with your training.
EDIT:
I've decided to give up on this problem with any debugger-based approach... because I've made progress in another way. Here's an update (codes can be found toward the bottom of this post):
- From this hint (http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/8175/hint1.png), it appears that Notiswas probably based CQ4 upon some game called "Jim Jordon: Alien Exterminator" (punctuation added by me). Based on this second hint (http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/6454/hint2.png), said game may have been created by someone named Jim Jordan.
- The icon to obtain the Automatic Zorcher appears in round 5 if you have at least 350 points. I think someone already mentioned this.
- To view the fan art, you have to press a certain key on the congratulations screen after you beat the game. Despite what Notiswas said, I can't find any three-letter code to get to the fan art from the title screen. BTW, it's also possible to see the fan art by doing some hex editing. If Notiswas gives me permission, I'll just upload the files somewhere for all to see.
- I couldn't find any cheat to access a "God mode," but I did find one that converts objects that spawn cycloptis and tripodilus into objects that spawn commonus. This makes the game much easier, of course, but it only works on rounds 4, 5, 6, and 10.
- The code to obtain the Zorch Grenade works on every round. Upon using the grenade, every flemoid on the screen is returned to its own dimension (well, almost every flemoid). You only get one grenade per round, though.
- It's possible to obtain an editable form of CQ4 by doing some simple hex editing (5 bytes). As I have a strong suspicion that this would enable one to get an editable from any GM3.x game, however, I'm not going to give more details (yes, I know that no one probably uses GM3.x any longer). If Notiswas wants the editable, I'll upload it somewhere. If he gives permission, I'll give it to the rest of you, too.
Now, for the long-awaited codes:
- X9 - Zorch Grenade
- 37E - Spawn commonus instead of cycloptis and tripodilus
- F - View the fan art
The codes are not case-sensitive, but numbers need to be entered using the numeric keypad. Have fun!
Success! Manny will be pleased.
Good job, Dacicus!
Quote from: ChexCommander on August 07, 2009, 01:31:24 PM
Success! Manny will be pleased.
Good job, Dacicus!
Yes, congratulations are in order. Good Job! ;)
Wow dacicus! I forgot about most all the details, but you figured it out. Nice job, Warrior, your efforts have honored us all! In regard to whatever your intentions may be with this project, I have no concern. As far as I AM concerned, "Chex Quest 4" is not even mine. If somebody decided to get into the editable and wipe my name from it before a rerelease, I would be pleased, but that is askin a lot. Yes, Jim Jordan :D. I remember now. Let me tell you, it felt odd accessing the fanart section. Took me back in time. Thanks Dacicus!
Quote from: Notiswas on August 09, 2009, 04:01:12 PMIn regard to whatever your intentions may be with this project, I have no concern.
I have no further intentions with CQ4, but I take it you don't mind if I give the editable to others here who might want it?
Also, who is/was Jim Jordan? I can't find anything about him or his game online; there are a lot of people with the name.
As I mentioned before, I have no concern with whatever is done with "cq4." I appreciate your good nature in asking me permission, but I insist that it is not nessessary for anybody to do so any longer. This abomination that is so misput as "Chex Quest 4" belongs to the community, editable and all. Blah, I hate this game. >:( Jim Jordan Alien Exterminator was an editable available on the REAL old Game Maker 3 page, and looking back on it, I kind of remember the game being available in such a format for the exact purpose that I had utilized for. Granted the supposition that this is so, I still feel guilty for the act, even with a green flag signifying a go-ahead. Forgery is not in my present nature, but then again, the OG Chex Quest was a forgery in and of itself, so I guess I was carrying on the legacy :-X. *Runs before books are thrown. Aside from this mumbling meandering of nostalgia, I would like to mention the work of Mark Dominy in the fanart seection which is worth merit as the only one to contribute a good piece of work, let alone amazing! Here's an easy way to access the fanart without having to beat the game. Die until you reach gameover, and for some dumb reason you win! Press "F" at the end screen. Enjoy. Excuse grammatical errors and the endless stream of uncoordinated thought. I must use a cellphone and I have no idea on how to start new paragraphs. ;)
After doing some searching using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, I found more info about the original game upon which CQ4 was based (see here (http://web.archive.org/web/20010811194330/www.cs.uu.nl/people/markov/gmaker/version3.html)). It was called "Jim Jordan Alien Exterminator" and created by someone named Justin Hill. On the old GM page linked above it is described as an "Import version," which may mean that it came as an editable. Unfortunately, the download links don't work from the Wayback Machine.
Quote from: matthias720DO NOT ATTEMPT PLAY ON A LAPTOP WITHOUT A MOUSE!
I'm assuming that "MOUSE" refers to an external mouse. (http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail97.html) This is opposed to a touchpad (which is a mouse, by the way, but people have a hard time understanding that one I think). There goes the Thnikkaman! Oh, and don't forget, Coach Z missed unmasking the Thnikkaman, because he has really bad hand-eye coordination! (http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail158.html)
Quote from: Chexy on April 27, 2009, 10:39:03 PM
Quote from: ChexCommander on April 27, 2009, 05:21:24 PM
Glad to see you're here.
Basically, that's all you really need to do. Click the link, download it, unrar it, and play. ;)
How do you "unrar" something? I've never done something like that before. Is it like WinZip, only with pieces of files?
Sincerely,
Chexy
Use WinRAR or 7Zip. Then click the "extract" button.
Dude, that post was from 6 years ago. Not exactly relevant to reply to that.