Even if you're not an avid video gamer, you've probably noticed a significant uptick in "HD remakes" of older, popular video games. Everyone's doing them, and the remaster pool includes everything from redrawn, cartoony games like Capcom's DuckTales to gritty war simulations like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

You might argue that some of these aren't necessary, whether because they're "remasters" of games that are only a few years old or because the source material isn't a cultural cornerstone. And you may be tempted to lump Chex Quest, a 1996 CD-ROM game packed into boxes of cereal in which players must save a race of square-shaped "Chex people" from booger-shaped monsters, into the latter category.

But even that game's coming in HD—and apparently, some people really want it. Chex Quest has enjoyed quite the cult following since its unique mid-'90s launch, perhaps because it was a free, kid-friendly re-skin of Doom and was therefore many kids' first taste of the first-person shooter phenomenon. As such, gaming site Zam reached out to one of the game's co-creators, lead artist Charles Jacobi, to talk about the weird game's genesis and development in light of its 20th anniversary this year—and in the interview, the artist let slip that he's currently working on an HD remaster of the original.

Having been prodded by fans to contribute to a 10th anniversary project in 2006, Jacobi was surprised to learn how many people still cared about Chex Quest, so he spent a year and a half in his off time crafting a five-level sequel, 2008's Chex Quest 3, in the open-source zDoom engine. (You can still download the game from Jacobi's personal portfolio site.) As he told Zam, Jacobi now works with Unreal Engine 4 on a daily basis at his current job at Pipeworks Software, which he's using during his off hours to scratch his nostalgia itch once more.

"I don't necessarily need to be a programmer and I can build lots of functionality with it," Jacobi said to Zam about Unreal Engine 4. "So I've started building, basically, a high-def remake of the first [Chex Quest]." Jacobi announced work in earnest on the project in April of this year, and he told Zam this week that he has since built "maybe two levels" along with half of the remaster's monster and weapon assets.

The interview didn't confirm any timeline plans, with Jacobi merely reminding readers that this is a game-development project for fun during his off hours. Still, it's a surprisingly interesting read about one of gaming's weirdest releases, especially in light of Jacobi revealing in this interview that the promotional team attached to General Mills got the Doom engine license for "a special deal" discount.