Notiswas' Game Maker Chex Quest 4 has finally been uncovered!

[matthias720]

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.

[ChexCommander]

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...

[Manny Cav]

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.

[Notiswas]

Hi!  I always enjoy talking to people in the Chex scene.  Always a welcoming and happy bunch!   .  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.   

[Dacicus]

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.

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...

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.

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, it appears that Notiswas probably based CQ4 upon some game called "Jim Jordon: Alien Exterminator" (punctuation added by me). Based on this second hint, 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!

[ChexCommander]

Success! Manny will be pleased.

Good job, Dacicus!

[matthias720]

Success! Manny will be pleased.

Good job, Dacicus!

Yes, congratulations are in order.  Good Job!

[Notiswas]

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  . I remember now.  Let me tell you, it felt odd accessing the fanart section.  Took me back in time.  Thanks Dacicus!

[Dacicus]

In 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.

[Notiswas]

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  . *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.   

[Dacicus]

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). 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.

[Wodd]

DO NOT ATTEMPT PLAY ON A LAPTOP WITHOUT A MOUSE!

I'm assuming that "MOUSE" refers to an external mouse. 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!

[DestroyedEDGE]

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.

[noob1234]

Dude, that post was from 6 years ago. Not exactly relevant to reply to that.