//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// What you'll find in this folder and the purpose of this file:
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following files are included in this folder:

- The latest version of ZDoom or GZDoom, depending on your download
- 'Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict' Version 1.1 PWAD ("chexgc.wad")
- Batch files used to load Galactic Conflict ("z-chexgc.bat", etc.)
- Doom Builder 2 config file ("ZDooom_ChexQuestGC_UDMF.cfg")
- The zipped folder containing all the licenses for ZDoom
- This readme file

This file will give you a brief rundown of the changes made to Chex Quest 3 in
the Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict expansion and how to use ZDoom.exe to play
Chex Quest 3 and Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict. If you just want to play the
game, skip to the startup instructions and start zorching Flemoids--remember
that the Bootspoon is silent this time, and won't alert stationary Flemoids.
I highly recommend reading through the complete list of gameplay changes first,
however. See section three for details.

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Table of Contents
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 ~ Story
2 ~ How to start Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict
3 ~ Differences between Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict and Chex Quest 3 (READ!)
4 ~ Finding Secret Areas
5 ~ Tips for beating the levels in Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict
6 ~ .WAD files, .bat files, and manually loading Chex Galactic
7 ~ Multiplayer
8 ~ Character Bios
9 ~ Adding Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict to Doom Builder 2
10 ~ The Saga, Credits, Acknowledgements, etc.

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// 1 ~ Story
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After the defeat of the Flemoids at Shreddies Provincial Park and the subsequent
development of high-power, large-scale zorcher weaponry, the Intergalactic
Federation of Cereals declared the Flemoid threat to be all but non-existent.
Any attack on the Cereal Dimension by the Flemoids would require a force too
large to quickly transport through inter-dimensional space.

Unless, of course, the attack was already rooted in the Cereal Dimension.

Eight years after cleaning out the Provincial Park, you receive a distress
call from an IFC research base built inside an asteroid in loose orbit around a
remote moon, on the border of IFC territory. It appears that the recent
occupation of the asteroid by Cereal peoples has awakened a sinister Flemoidous
presence that was already inhabiting the asteroid's caves. The scale of the
threat is, so far, undetermined.

Knowing there is no time to waste, you immediately set off for the base. You've
beaten the Flemoids before, but your warrior's intuition tells you that this
time, things won't be so easy. You face a battle unlike any fought before... and
unlike any that will ever be fought after. After eight long years, the Flemoids
will be hungry for revenge.

The automated docking bay doors close behind you, and the hangar is pressurized.
You give your trusty zorcher one last check, and then climb out of your ship and
into the base. Your final mission begins here.

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// 2 ~ How to start Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict:
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you don't already have it, you'll need a working version of Chex Quest 3
Version 1.4 in order to play Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict. You can find Chex
Quest 3 here: http://www.chucktropolis.com/downloads/ChexQuest3.zip

Once you've got Chex Quest 3 downloaded and unzipped, follow these instructions
to play Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict:

1. Go into the "Chex Quest 3" folder, and copy "chex3.wad" into the folder
   containing "chexgc.wad".

2. Open "z-chexgc.bat", "gz-chexgc.bat", or "zan-chexgc.bat" depending on which
   version you downloaded, and start zorching Flemoids!

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// 3 ~ Differences between Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict and Chex Quest 3:
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In order to make the gameplay more interesting, a few changes have been made to
Chex Quest 3 in Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict. These changes are listed below:

- MOST IMPORTANTLY: Using the Bootspoon will no longer alert Flemoids to your
presence! This means that when using the Bootspoon, you will only alert Flemoids
that see you--if their backs are turned, you can use it to dispatch any Flemoids
that ambush you without alerting an entire level to your presence. Take note of
this new capability when you make it to some of the later levels...

- Some changes have been made to the difficulty scaling. Ammunition pickups
will now award double ammunition on any difficulty rather than only on
"Easy Does It" and "Super Slimey!". This change was made for balance reasons,
as there are no enemies in Chex Quest that drop off ammunition pickups when
defeated, unlike in Doom. Flemoids will also now move faster on "Extreme
Ooze". This means that the only differences between "Extreme Ooze" and "Super
Slimey!" is that the Flemoids respawn on "Super Slimey!" and they won't on
"Extreme Ooze", and the bosses are slightly more difficult on "Super Slimey!"
A breakdown of these changes is listed below, with game elements changed
since the previous difficulty charted out:

Easy Does It - Enemies deal half damage.
Not So Sticky - Enemies deal full damage.
Gobs of Goo - More enemies.
Extreme Ooze - Even more enemies. Enemies now move faster.
Super Slimey! - Enemies respawn.

In every difficulty level, the abilities of bosses will increase. As a note,
Episode 4 played on "Gobs of Goo" is about as difficult as the prior three
episode played on "Super Slimey!". Episode 4 is meant to be as much more
difficult than the prior three as Doom's Episode 4 was.

- All Flemoids now have unique properties. This means that, for example, the
Quadrumpus and Armored Bipedicus move at different speeds and have different
health levels now, unlike in Chex Quest 3 where they were just clone enemies
with cosmetic differences. The differences are negligible but noticeable if you
know what to look for. This has the side-effect of making the game's second
episode a little easier and the first and third a little harder. Well, the
third one is a lot harder because of buffs to the Stridicus, but that's beside
the point.

- Flembranes and Maximus Flemoids will now attack at the speed they did in the
original Chex Quest and Chex Quest 2. (i.e. very fast.)

- All weapons have been modified to deal 'Zorch' damage, so that deathmatch now
renders correctly. This of course means that every single weapon in the game
has been redefined; all new weapons have a 'V4' suffix attached to their name.
Zorch death states now exist to reflect this change, and Chex Warriors now have
no 'blood' particles dropped when hit by an attack. A few damagetypes have been
redefined for use in ACS scripts which did not support custom damage types at
time of writing or would not display the correct obituary at time of writing.

- The selection order of the weapons has been modified to accommodate the fact
that the Zorch Propulsor does no damage--the game now considers it your go-to
weapon in the event that you run out of Phasing Zorch or don't have any, and it
can be auto-fired as soon as it's drawn for emergency situations. The game will
also default you to the Super Bootspork rather than the Mini Zorcher in the
event you only have Mini Zorch left but no Rapid Zorcher. I don't think this is
possible unless you're playing co-op or using cheats, but I figured it would be
a good idea anyway because the nature of the Chex enemies makes the Super
Bootspork far more effective than the Mini Zorcher. All of the game's default
weapon preferences will be overwritten if you are playing the game using
Zandronum.

- Some sounds have been changed in order to offer extended functionality. These
include the "floor moving" sound (was originally the Cycloptis' alert sound).
The sound made when a secret area is discovered has also been modified, and a
few additional sounds have also been added for boss encounters and victories in
Episode 4.

- All Flemoids have had the "Flemoidus" prefix removed from their actor names,
for the purpose of making script-writing for this episode much less difficult.
For those of you who like to play around with console commands, this should
make summoning enemies a much simpler process!

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// 4 ~ Finding Secret Areas:
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you want hints for finding the secret areas within each of the levels, open
the console (tilde key) and type 'secret', then press 'Enter' to display a list
of hints for the secret areas in each level. Ones you've already found will be
shown in green, while ones you haven't will be shown in red. Tips for finding
all of the secret areas in the original levels have been provided, too, but I
think after twenty years most of them aren't really that secret anymore.

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// 5 ~ Tips for beating the levels in Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict:
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you've played Doom or a Doom-based game before, most of these are probably
extremely obvious to you. If not, read up:

- Save often. If you make it through a room without taking damage or using ammo,
save your game. Consider using multiple saves in case you find yourself in a
situation where backtracking a few rooms would be preferable to your current
situation.

- Keep moving! If you let a swarm of Flemoids drive you into a corner, you'll
take a lot of damage very quickly. Armored Bipedicus and Quadrumpus Flemoids
also have a hard time hitting strafing targets. Strafe by holding down the 'Alt'
key while moving left or right, and hold down Shift to run. Pressing Caps Lock
will toggle running on and off, so you won't have to hold down Shift all the
time to run.

- Check your back often. Remember that Flemoids will teleport back to their
original locations after a short period of time on Super Slimey--this could
result in a sticky ambush.

- Consider avoiding parts of a level that aren't essential to its completion.
For example, you might find it more beneficial to avoid dropping into the
docking bays on E4M1. You might miss a power-up or two, but you also won't have
to fight extra Flemoids.

- Remember that some switches are activated only by zorch energy. If you don't
have any ammo, the Bootspoon or Super Bootspork will work on these--you'll just
need to find a way to reach them. If you can't get to them, search the level for
a zorch recharge.

- If it seems like you're stuck in a room with no apparent exit, search harder--
some rooms have hidden switches or doors that will help you get out, or hidden
ways to reach switches that are seemingly inaccessable. Every room has an exit,
so try everything you can before giving up.

- Use the right weapon for the right situation. The Bootspoon or Super Bootspork
will easily handle small groups of weaker Flemoids without consuming ammo, the
Large Zorcher can clear out large groups of weak Flemoids in a small amount of
shots, the Rapid Zorcher stuns stronger enemies like Cyclopti, making it easier
to avoid them, the Propulsor deals with groups of stronger Flemoids easily, and
the Phasing Zorcher is best reserved for bosses or large groups of strong
Flemoids like Stridici or Super Cyclopti.

- Bosses have a ton of health, powerful attacks, and only one glaring weakness:
they're slower than you. Use this to your advantage when fighting them.

- Finally, remember that the Bootspoon will allow you to 'silently' zorch
Flemoids. This capability may become invaluable should you come upon a large
group of Flemoids who can't see you but will attack you if they hear you.

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// 6 ~ .WAD files, .bat files, and manually loading Chex Galactic:
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you're familiar with Doom or ZDoom, then this section won't mean much to you.
It's here mostly for newer players and self-documentation/notetaking on my part.

ZDoom relies on WAD files to provide the information for the game you're
playing. There are two kinds of WAD files: internal WADs and patch WADs.
Internal WADs, or "IWADs", contain a ZDoom-based game's core files. Generally,
IWADs are registered or retail versions of a specific game and become unplayable
if extensively modified because ZDoom determines whether or not a WAD file is an
IWAD based on its content, not its file name. Chex Quest 3 uses a free IWAD,
"chex3.wad".

Patch WADs, or PWADs, are WAD files designed to supplement or patch an IWAD
file. All files which do not contain content marking them to ZDoom as IWADs will
be treated as PWADs. ZDoom will not run a PWAD unless it has a supporting IWAD,
so PWADs are most often used to supply existing IWADs with additional content,
such as new levels, enemies, weapons, and more. As you might have guessed by
now, all of the content used in Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict is stored in a
PWAD, "chexgc.wad" that runs as a patch to Chex Quest 3's IWAD.

ZDoom can be told to load PWADs in addition to IWADs in one of two ways: through
the use of batch files (.bat) or through the use of its own IWAD selection tool
once started. A specially-created batch file is included with Chex Quest:
Galactic Conflict for easy startup--all you'll need to do to start Chex Quest:
Galactic Conflict this way is to load the included batch file, which instructs
ZDoom to add the Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict PWAD to the list of files it
loads upon its startup.

For instructions on how to access ZDoom's IWAD selection tool, visit the
official ZDoom website.

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// 7 ~ Multiplayer
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict supports multiplayer gameplay in ZDoom, GZDoom,
and Zandronum with no modifications required. If you are planning on playing
multiplayer with Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict, use of the Zandronum source port
is highly recommended, as the game's multiplayer experience has been designed to
take advantage of many features in Zandronum which are not present in ZDoom or
GZDoom. Zandronum Version 3.0 or higher is required; at time of writing, there
is yet to be an official release. You can find a link to a stable alpha build
below.

In ZDoom and GZDoom, cooperative play, Deathmatch, and Team Deathmatch are
supported. Cooperative play is possible with up to four players, and deathmatch
play is possible with up to eight players. To begin a multiplayer game, you will
need to use the command line, generate a batch file that will load the game with
the parameters of your desired game mode, or use a front-end launcher that will
execute the game with your desired parameters. You can find information on how
to do any of these here: http://zdoom.org/wiki/Multiplayer

In Zandronum, cooperative play, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Last Man Standing,
Team Last Man Standing, Capture the Flag, Single-Flag Capture the Flag,
Possession, Team Possession, and Domination are supported. Team game modes are
limited to two teams. Cooperative play supports up to four players, while
play on multiplayer specific maps has support for sixteen or more players.
Computer-controlled 'bots' are also supported as additional players; bots are
listed in the bot setup menu from weakest to strongest.

The alpha build of Zandronum 3.0 used during testing for multiplayer can be
downloaded here at the following link. The game will be retested for any bugs
once there is an official release build of Zandronum 3.0.

http://zandronum.com/downloads/testing/3.0/ZandroDev3.0-160814-2010windows.zip

To run Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict, you can either use the command line or a
batch file, as with ZDoom or GZDoom.

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// 8 ~ Character Bios
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To give Chex Quest multiplayer its own unique feel, all of the bots that can be
used to fill in empty slots in a multiplayer game have been given their own
personalities. Many if not all of these characters are based off of characters
that were originally conceived for a series of novels I have yet to write and
have had their backstories adapted for the Chex Quest universe. Others are based
off of real people. Their 'biographies' are listed below. The bots are sorted in
order from weakest to strongest.

-Mitch-
A tribute to one of the greatest comedians to have ever lived (in my opinion)
with most of his best material, which has of course been cleaned up to keep the
G-rated theme of Chex Quest. RIP Mitch Hedberg.

-Chef-
He's always cookin' up trouble! It's everyone's favorite culinary wonder, The
Chef from Chextropolis!

-Fred-
Ever wondered what it would be like if you woke up one morning and became a
space-traveling cereal? For Fred, that's just another day. A TV star who
hails from Portland (Oregon), we're not quite sure just how or why Fred is
here. He's just happy his friend Carrie is along for the ride.

-Carrie-
A musician who's from Portland (Oregon), she and her friend Fred are serial
misadventurers. Their latest exploit? Dimension-hopping into a world of
anthropomorphic cereal. It sounds weird, but Carrie's used to that--she's from
Portland, after all.

-Thunder-
This guy's a practical joker always on the verge of being annoying. Everything
is an opportunity to get under someone's skin, but only in a playful way--he's
got a good heart. Maybe.

-Cobalt-
Cobalt is a nerd, but does a really good job hiding it. She's always singing to
herself, but doesn't do anything more than lip-sync because she's too shy. A
shame, because her voice is beautiful.

-Gil-
Gil is a veteran of the IFOC military, spearheading its expansionary efforts
for over thirty years. He retired just before the Flemoid invasion, but never
keeps out of touch with what's going on at the frontlines.

-Flyer-
Ace pilots and big egos go together like milk and cereal, and Flyer is living
proof of that. Hipster callsign and outdated sunglasses always on full blast,
Flyer has a hard time accepting he may not be the best at everything.

-Alkyl-
Meet the world's biggest chemistry fangirl. Yes, those exist. Alkyl's father
got her involved in the chemistry scene at a young age, and she was
successfully identyifying compounds from NMR spectra by age 11. One of the
Federation's brightest up-and-coming minds, she dreams of heading up one of
its chemically-focused agencies.

-Grignard-
Alkyl's father. A man of few words, unlike her he's quiet and reserved. He's
prouder of her than anything else in the world.

-Marcus-
Marcus is one of the Federation's leading engineers, with a hand in nearly
its entire zorcher armory. The Rapid Zorcher is his pride and joy. He just
missed the cut for the Federation's three-person expansionary special-ops
team--and for very personal reasons is still beating himself up over it.

-Riley-
Fun-loving and adventurous, Riley is part of the Federation's expansionary 
special-ops crew. This currently small team of three has been tight friends
for a long time. The team's outward focus on space exploration and contact
with other possible civilizations matches her personality perfectly.

-General Mills-
The commander in chief. The boss man. The one who masterminded it all. He
really couldn't have a more appropriate name.

-Jet-
This one loves speed and dreams of a career as a successful racing driver.
She's the pilot in the Federation's expansionary team and totally at home
behind the wheel. She's also got a bit of a thing for the team's commander,
but don't tell anyone.

-Will-
Strong-minded, resourceful, and quick on his feet, Will learned everything
he knows about survival in deep space from the legendary Chex(R) Warrior.
He was chosen by the man himself to head the IFOC's outward expansion. He
keeps his cards close to his chest and doesn't let his inner self show very
often. He's had a crush on one of his squadmates since childhood. Cute!

-Lord Snotfolus-
The big-bad to end all big-bads is here, and he isn't afraid to squeeze
himself into a set of Chex(R) Armor and disgustingly tight spandex to do
battle on the cereals' own terms. Watch out--his combat skills are not to be
taken lightly.

-The Chex(R) Warrior-
The man himself. Consider yourself honored to have shared a battlefield with
him.

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// 9 ~ Adding Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict to Doom Builder 2
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can configure Doom Builder 2 to operate with settings designed for building
maps in Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict by following these instructions:

1. Cut the "ZDoom_ChexQuestGC_UDMF.cfg" file from your Chex Quest: Galactic
   Conflict folder.

2. Locate the folder that houses Doom Builder 2 on your computer, and open the
   "Configurations" folder inside it. Paste the "ZDoom_ChexQuestGC_UDMF.cfg"
   file here.

3. The next time you start Doom Builder, the option of "ZDoom (Chex Galactic in
   UDMF Format)" will be available.

I've included this configuration file with Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict because
it can also be used to develop maps for Chex Quest 3 in UDMF format. You can
probably find better configurations for Chex Quest 3 elsewhere on the web, but I
figured it couldn't hurt to include one for Galactic Conflict as well. The only
hitch with this one is that it renames all of the scenery items to their true
names rather than their DECORATE names, meaning that you may have to double
check some of them in DECORATE for use in ACS scripts. Sorry about that.

I encourage the creation of custom maps with the elements added to Chex Quest:
Galactic Conflict (particularly multiplayer maps--there's an endless set of
possibilities here), but if you do so I also suggest that you give proper credit
to their original author when you do so (yours truly). If you're just using the
configuration file to build maps for Chex Quest 3, though, don't worry about it.
(I try my best not to be a copyright Nazi, I swear, lol.) More on this below.

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// 10 ~ The Saga, Credits, Acknowledgements, etc.
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First off, a little background. Like a lot of people who were children to
caring, cereal-buying parents, I played Chex Quest as a kid and absolutely loved
it. As I grew up and moved from computer to computer, the files necessary to run
the game always went with me, even if I rarely ever played it anymore. Around
2009, with the additional but still very limited perspective that comes with
impending adulthood, I decided to search the web for more information about Chex
Quest and that elusive second sequel, and was delighted to find not only a
version of Chex Quest that worked reliably on Windows XP, but also five totally
new levels for me to play.

Honestly, I think there was about a minute delay between me finding out about
Chex Quest 3, verifying that it was Mr. Jacobi himself who had created it, and
me (and my brother) playing--no joke. We played it for more than three hours,
going first through the revised versions of episodes one and two before playing
the third (I still remember both of us cowering behind the trees of the
Provincial Park, clutching our Super Bootsporks as if our lives depended on it,
trying to get away from the swarms of Stridici that patrolled the place without
using up our last Phasing Zorch ammo). We enjoyed every bit of it.

Being the nerd-geek that I am, I looked up more about what powered this wondrous
new XP-compatible version of Chex Quest, and finally learned after more than ten
years that Chex Quest was, in fact, based on Doom. This was a bit of a surprise,
but not as much of a surprise as learning about just how many mod tools there
were on the web for Doom. It wasn't long before both my brother and I decided to
download some of these programs and mess about with WAD files, graphics, and
ZDoom itself.

Eventually, we tried collaborating on a fan-made project for a sci-fi story--he
worked out the graphics side of things while I did the programming and map
design--but we got about halfway through it before the tasks of schoolwork and
life became a higher priority. Every once in a while, I'd still fire up Doom
Builder and work on it, but when the story upon which we intended to base our
project died off, our project did as well.

When I was miserably sick one week with nothing to do (March 12th, 2012,
actually, according to the properties dialogue on my chexgc.wad file), I opened
up Doom Builder, clicked on a few random things, and started work on what would
eventually be the first level of Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict, the Docking
Bays. It was slow going as I re-learned the basics of mapping, but by the time I
was over my cold, I had regained an enthusiasm for creating maps, and decided
that I was going to create an entire episode as a tribute to Chex Quest. For a
brief period of time, my brother and I had considered transforming this into a
video-game adaptation of an original sci-fi novel I have been working on (and
will hopefully finish one day--keep an eye out!), but when we considered how
busy we both were we came to the conclusion it would likely go the way of our
original collaboration sooner or later. I was partly disappointed at this (who
wouldn't want to make *their own video game* for a novel they're writing?), but
in a way I was also happy that these levels would remain a tribute to the game
that got me interested in game design. Characters from my planned novels and our
abandoned total conversion have found a place in Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict
as multiplayer bots whose lives and personalities have been adapted to fit the
Chex Quest universe. I guess you could call it an Easter Egg.

I don't see myself as an expert designer by any stretch of the imagination, and
I think that's pretty apparent in my extra installment to Chex Quest. I did have
a desire to refrain from using any coding or map-making techniques that were
significantly more-complicated than what appeared either in Doom or Chex Quest,
which is fortunate, because if I had tried to make it as detailed and complex as
some of the best mappers do, I probably never would have finished it. The
simplicity of it all comes from a desire to stay within the limits of my own
abilities as well as a want to emulate 'classic' Doom games as closely as
possible. The levels in this game are meant to be 'the next step' up from what
was on display in Chex Quest 3, as far as that game was beyond its predecessors.
I personally feel like I've managed to strike a fairly balanced medium i this
respect, but everyone will come off with their own opinion about this project
and that's perfectly fine with me. I'm under no illusions that, even though I
came up with all the ideas I implemented in this project on my own (e.g. the
jetpack Flemoids), someone else has very likely executed most of them in some
way, shape, or form before, and that someone else very likely could've done a
job far superior to mine in terms of creating a tribute to Chex Quest. I would
liken this to the Chex Quest equivalent of Arreseted Development's fourth
season, but I don't think it even comes anywhere close to those heights. I did
the best I could.

In the end, the point of this whole thing is to have fun--I did while making
these maps, and I honestly hope you do while you play through them. I did keep a
dev-diary as I created Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict (and in case you're
curious, yes, it does become a chore to type the whole title after a while), but
as I think it would've been incredibly self-indulgent to force it upon you in
the ".zip" file, you'll have to crack open the PWAD with a WAD manager and
peruse the various text-based lumps if you want to read it. (Hint: it's probably
not worth the time, lol.)

This project is the culmination of four years worth of effort. It honestly was
really difficult at times to find motivation as new problems arose and new
features I hadn't even dreamed would be possible were released alongside the
lengthy development cycle (my discovery of Zandronum literally added a whole
new layer of customization opportunities that I felt needed to be undertaken
while I had free time in the interest of stepping Chex Quest into the current
era of Doom-ing). Throughout all of it, the motivation to release it on the year
of Chex Quest's 20th anniversery kept me driving to the finish. I think, for a
largely one-person effort, it's not that bad. Chex Quest deserved a fan-made
megawad on its 20th anniversary. I'm relieved and ecstatic to have finished it
after all this time.

I'd like to give my first thanks to you, the player, for downloading these maps
and giving up some of your time to play them. It means a lot to me, and I really
hope you find it to have been worth your time.

Now, let's start with what's mine in this thing:

- The levels found in "chexgc.wad". All nineteen of them. As a matter of fact,
  I was very close to saving them for use in the aforementioned original
  collaboration with my brother at one point, but decided in the end that I 
  wanted to keep them as a tribute to Chex Quest.
- All the coding found in "chexgc.wad", with the exception of the coding used
  to generate health bars for the bosses, the MENUDEF lump, and most of the
  TEXTCOLO lump, which had to be maintained for compatibility reasons. Credit
  for the TEXTCOLO lump goes to... I think it would be Charles Jacobi? Sorry if 
  I don't know for sure, as I don't know if the lump was in the original game.
  Credit for the awesome little nugget that is the boss health bar goes to that
  cool demon-slaying, Doom-coding dude they call 'Apothem'. I wrote everything
  except for that script, MENUDEF, and the TEXTCOLO lump on my own (and it
  shows--not in a good way--trust me, lol). I also owe huge credit to my dad
  for helping me write the script used to control the last bonus level, which
  expedited my completion of it tremendously.
- All of the sound effects used in this expansion were created/mixed with a
  combination of Audacity and GarageBand. Garageband in particular was great
  for mixing, and Audacity was great for performing the conversions necessary
  to give them that 'classic' feel. Some of the sounds came from hilariously
  unlikely sources (e.g. the moving floor sound comes from the first 0.5
  seconds of startup for a Hamilton Beach handheld mixer, recorded using an
  iPhone and extensively mutilated with Audacity once processed with
  GarageBand).

I owe some credits for some of the content in this expansion:

- All of the graphics found in this game, with the exception of two, were made
  from pre-existing graphics in the Chex Quest 3 IWAD. The only two graphics
  created without this source material are the space texture (taken from an open
  image on the Wiki-Media Commons, but modified to properly wrap around), and
  the forcefield texture (I made it myself).
- I also owe massive credit to my brother for all of the graphics he created
  for this project. Literally everything you see is done by him with the
  exception of some of the powerup sprites and the forcefield. His talent as a
  graphic artist is amazing and I'm incredibly thankful for his assistance on
  this project. I suck as a graphic artist and I'm really lucky to have had him
  as a resource for this. All of his work for this game, including the amazing
  new zorcher and the tons of multiplayer graphics, uses material from the
  chex3.wad file.
- My sister provided the voice acting for the female Chex Warrior. This was a
  feature I kept forgetting to add until the last minute, when I realized that
  the gender select option was having no effect on the multiplayer bots. So
  now it's just one more customization you can get with the game. Audacity and
  Garageband are to thank for the mixing of these sounds.
- In order to fix a missing texture in E3M2 as well as E3M4, entire copies of
  these maps are included .wad file. Neither of these maps are mine and were 
  made by Charles Jacobi. The only reason they're here is to fix the missing
  textures; if I could've done that without including the maps, I would've.
  Neither of these maps are not mine.

The credit for all the graphics based on files found within "chex3.wad" goes to
the graphic artists for Chex Quests 1, 2, and 3.

No copyright infringement is intended in the use of any material which is not
completely original. This is a creative endeavor made for fun and to be shared
with others for fun, with no motivation for profit of any sort. The use of
these materials is meant as a celebration of good memories and is done without
any intention of disrespecting their original creators or their intellectual
property. Thank you for understanding.
  
I would like to give thanks to the folks behind the 2004 edition of Macromedia
Fireworks MX. While it's almost certainly considered ancient by software
standards at this point, it more than satisfied my graphics needs during the 
development of Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict and had a hand in creating every
single graphic I created/modified for Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict, by virtue
of the fact that it converted all of them to ".png" format before they became
Doom graphics files. My brother has mastered this utility to levels I could
never achieve and also extends his thanks.

I also want to give thanks to the crews behind GarageBand and Audacity. Until
very late in the development of this project, all of the sound effects were
non-original placeholders (most of them being sounds from Modern Warfare 2).
I didn't have software that was really capable of recording or mixing sound
effects with any decent quality until a purchase of a MacBook Pro in mid-2016.
Four-and-a-half years and three (!) computers now involved in this project, I
had equipment with which I was confident generating sounds. Given enough free
time, I may even score this fourth episode. Who knows...?

I would like to give a special thanks to the folks behind Doom Builder 2 and
SLADE3; if it weren't for you guys, Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict probably
never would've been created. Best map editor and WAD manager on the 'net,
respectively, and their developers deserve plaudits for the fact that they made
it easy for even a moron like me to create an entire set of levels for Chex
Quest 3. If you want to edit some of the aspects of Chex Quest: Galactic
Conflict, or design new maps using the Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict PWAD, I
would recommend using these two amazing programs, which you can find at the
following links:

Doom Builder 2 (Map Editor)
http://www.doombuilder.com/files/builder2_setup_1553.exe

SLADE3 (WAD Manager)
http://slade.mancubus.net/files/Setup_SLADE_302.exe

These links are subject to change and may not be operative after a while. If
so, a quick query with your favorite search engine should be enough to find
the latest versions of them.

If you want to publish custom-made levels using the Chex Quest: Galactic
Conflict PWAD, or use any of the resources found in this WAD file, you MUST
include a copy of this readme file with them wherever they are published. I
am personally not concerned about you giving credit to me as much as I am
about you giving credit to the people who helped me make this thing in the
first place. Any project containing resources from this WAD file and not
accompanied by this readme contains STOLEN, UNCREDITED material.

I owe thanks to the team behind Zandronum. My last brush with Doom multiplayer
was when my brother downloaded one of the last SVN builds of Skulltag, which
seemd buggy, broken, and outdated compared to ZDoom. Downloading the most recent
release build of Zandronum gave me a similar impression, but upon realizing that
the alpha versions supported many of the features in the current release of
ZDoom, I was mightily impressed. The only modification I had to make from my
2.8.x compatible script was to remove the last variable off of the railattack
code for the Beam Zorcher. Playing this version inspired me to make a cavalcade
of changes to the multiplayer so that it would be uniquely Chex Quest themed. I
love the way it came out and I was glad to experience working with Zandronum in
the process. I hope there is at least a small multiplayer community which grows
out of a Chex Quest mod for Zandronum.

I also want to give an extra special thanks to the creators of ZDoom, without
whom Chex Quest probably never would've resurfaced and I never would've found it
again. These guys are numerous, their contributions are endless, and the time
they dedicate to this project has made it, in my opinion, one of the greatest
achievements for video game modders and aspiring game designers/programmers/
graphics artists since the invention of the video game. You can find their
website at "http://www.zdoom.org". If you haven't yet, seriously, give it a
look.

I owe a huge thanks to id Software and General Mills, who laid the groundwork
for Chex Quest to become a possibility. Both of these organizations provided the
basis upon which Chex Quest was developed, and without them it mightn't have
ever happened in the first place.

And last but not least, I want to give an amazingly-huge super-special ultra-
mega-fied large-enough-to-generate-its-own-gravity-field thanks to the team at
Digital Cafe, the original creators of Chex Quest, and especially Charles
Jacobi, who is largely responsible for the finished version of Chex Quest 3. You
guys helped to make memories that shaped a childhood, even if only in a small
way, and you helped to drive someone who loves to create to find a new medium in
which to express his (dare I say it) artistic side. Nearly all of my desire to
create my own video games stems from Chex Quest, without which I never would've
found ZDoom or even known about Doom in the first place. For me, at least, you
guys beat id Software at their own game, and produced what I still believe is
one of the most imaginative, creative, and entertaining games ever--one that
combines Nintendo-like levels of ingenuity with id-Tech levels of playability.
For the latter, you deserve sincere plaudits, and for the former, you have my
utmost gratitude. Thank you very much.

My family has been instrumental in my composition of this expansion to Chex
Quest, and I think it's incredibly cool that all of them got involved at one
point or another. My brother provided graphics, my sister provided voice acting,
my dad provided code, and my mom provided moral support all along the way. That
we all added something or another to this project along the way made it so much
more fun. I'm forever grateful to them.

Now, if you're done reading all this over-wordy clap-trap (and don't try to tell
me otherwise--this is like a twelve page readme, for crying out loud), what are
you waiting for? You've got Flemoids to zorch!

--Tifosi 92