Digital Café was a new media company founded in early 1991 by Dean Hyers (creative director) and Mike Koenigs (technical director, foley, web development). It operated for 7 years independently in

St. Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...

before being acquired in October 1998 as a new

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

-based division of Campbell Mithun Esty (an advertising firm) specializing in programming and design for special-market advertising (promotional games, site design, etc.) similar to Black Widow Games.Koenigs, Mike
Digital Cafe : One of the Nation's first Interactive Agencies
2008. In 1995, Hyers and Koenigs formed a sister company to Digital Café called Digital Entertainment as a joint venture with Navarre Corporation. Digital Entertainment was then sold to Navarre Corporation in 1996. In 1999, Digital Café merged with four other similar firms to become Zentropy Partners. In 2008, Mike Koenigs bought the name and trademarks back and restarted Digital Café as a digital advertising agency, opening a small studio in San Diego. His company specializes in online video advertising and has high-definition cameras, green screen backgrounds, and various digital editing equipment at their disposal.

Projects and Products

During its lifespan, Digital Café is best known for developing the ''

Chex Quest ''Chex Quest'' is a non-violent first-person shooter video game created in 1996 and released in 1997 by Digital Café, originally intended as a Chex cereal promotion aimed at children aged 6–9 and up.Thompson, Stephanie. "WatersMolitor Promo ...

'' series of computer games which have attracted a sizeable cult following. The first game in the series, ''Chex Quest'' (or ''Chex Quest 1''), employed the

Doom engine id Tech 1, also known as the ''Doom'' engine, is the game engine used in the id Software video games '' Doom'' and '' Doom II: Hell on Earth''. It is also used in ''Heretic'', '' Hexen: Beyond Heretic'', '' Strife: Quest for the Sigil'', '' Hacx ...

as a base and is considered a total conversion. It was released in boxes of

Chex Chex is an American brand of breakfast cereal currently manufactured by General Mills. It was originally known as Shredded Ralston, first produced in 1936 and owned by Ralston Purina of St. Louis, Missouri, then later renamed Chex in 1950. T ...

cereal as a free promotional in 1996. The promotion was quite successful, increasing sales by 248%,Hyers, Dean
Digital Café Projects
and this practice has since been duplicated several times by other cereal manufacturers. Digital Café released '' Chex Quest 2'' the following year as a free download from their website. Using the same executable files as used to run the original game, ''Chex Quest 2'' could be classified as an add-on mod since it requires the original Chex Quest to run. In 1998, promotional material for ''Chex Quest 3'' was put on the Digital Café website, and plans were drafted to allow updates to the game to be posted on the company Web site as an effective way of generating traffic there. In September 2008, 9 years after Digital Café ceased to exist, ''Chex Quest 3'' was developed and released as a service to fans by former Digital Café members, Charles Jacobi (art director and lead artist) and Scott Holman (programmer). Between 1995 and 1999, Digital Café was involved in a number of promotional online projects for upcoming movies. These projects included the ''Godzilla Web Presskit, CD-ROM and Screensaver''''Ad agency to buy digital media company''. AP Online. 24 April 1998. (1995), the ''Mystery Science Theater 3000 Movie Web Site'', and the ''Strange Days Movie Presskit'' (1995) (the first CD-ROM distributed in ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

''). Promotional online projects were also developed for such companies as

Energizer Energizer Holdings, Inc. is an American manufacturer and one of the world's largest manufacturers of batteries, headquartered in Clayton, Missouri. It produces batteries under the Energizer, Ray-O-Vac, Varta, and Eveready brand names and fo ...

(''Energizer Bunny Screensaver''),

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

(''BMW Screensaver''), and the

Minnesota Zoo The Minnesota Zoo (formerly the Minnesota Zoological Garden) is an Association of Zoos and Aquariums, AZA-accredited zoo in Apple Valley, Minnesota. The zoo is one of two state-supported zoos in the United States, with the other being the North Ca ...

(''Minnesota Zoo Nagivator''). Several commercial products were also released and targeted toward children or specialty markets. Such products include ''Virtual Cop I'' (an interactive CD-ROM comic book "about a criminal working for the cops to fight crime"), ''Virtual Cop II'', ''BACKSTAGE'' (an

enhanced CD Enhanced CD is a certification mark of the Recording Industry Association of America for various technologies that combine audio and computer data for use in both CD-Audio and CD-ROM players. Formats that fall under the ''enhanced CD'' cate ...

musical series), ''A&E Biographies'' (an

featuring material from musical celebrities on

A&E Biography ''Biography'' is an American documentary television series and media franchise created in the 1960s by David L. Wolper and owned by A&E Networks since 1987. Each episode depicts the life of a notable person with narration, on-camera interviews ...

), ''Normal Walking'' (an informational CD-ROM developed for pediatric surgeons), ''Minnesota Zoo Game'' (an educational CD-ROM), and ''ScreamSavers'' (a series of monster-themed

screensaver A screensaver (or screen saver) is a computer program that blanks the display screen or fills it with moving images or patterns when the computer has been idle for a designated time. The original purpose of screensavers was to prevent phosphor s ...

s). ''XAN and the Cosmic Callbox'', an educational game based on

Montessori The Montessori method of education is a type of educational method that involves children's natural interests and activities rather than formal teaching methods. A Montessori classroom places an emphasis on hands-on learning and developing ...

learning principles, was released as a commercial product and marketed to schools. Digital Café has hosted many prominent figures, including an interview with Tony Robbins.

Clients

Digital Café has done exclusive development for

General Mills General Mills, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded ultra-processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in ...

Gramercy Pictures Gramercy Pictures was an American film production label. It was founded on May 20, 1992 as a joint venture between PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Universal Pictures. Gramercy was the distributor of PolyGram films in the United States and Canada ...

, Energizer Batteries, Sony/Tristar/Columbia Pictures, Pillsbury,

St. Paul Pioneer Press The ''St. Paul Pioneer Press'' is a newspaper based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. It serves the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. Circulation is heaviest in the east metro, including Ramsey, Dakota, and Washington countie ...

, Miller Meester Advertising, 3M,

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

, St. Paul Companies,

Trane Trane is a manufacturer of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, along with building management systems and controls. The company is a subsidiary of Trane Technologies, a company focused on manufacturing HVAC and refrigera ...

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Co ...

, Delux Corporation, Datakey Corporation, SciFi Channel,

Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on WUCW, KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. It then ...

John Tesh John Frank Tesh Jr. (born July 9, 1952) is an American musician and radio and television presenter. He wrote the '' NBA on NBC'' basketball theme " Roundball Rock", and hosts the ''Intelligence for Your Life'' radio show. In addition, since 20 ...

, Andersen Windows,

Domino's Pizza Domino's Pizza, Inc., commonly referred to as Domino's, is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1960 and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware General Corporation Law, Delaware-domiciled and headquartered ...

Land O'Lakes Land O'Lakes, Inc. is an American member-owned agricultural cooperative based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb of Arden Hills, Minnesota, United States, focusing on the dairy industry. The cooperative has 1,959 direct producer-members, 751 ...

Healthy Choice Healthy Choice is the name of a brand of refrigerated and frozen foods owned by ConAgra Foods. ConAgra sells a broad array of dishes through its Healthy Choice brand, including frozen dinners, side dishes, cold cuts and other meats, canned soups, ...

, GAMC,

AirTouch AirTouch Communications, Inc. was an American Mobile phone, wireless telephone service provider, created as a Corporate spin-off, spin-off of Pacific Telesis on April 1, 1994. Its headquarters were located in the One California building in the F ...

, Navarre Corporation, and Campbell Mithun Esty.Hyers, Dean
Digital Café Clients
/ref>

References

External links

Digital Cafe's current homepageDigital Café blurb at Mike Koenigs' personal website
* * ttps://web.archive.org/web/20060825132145/http://www.zentropypartners.com/ Zentropy Partnersbr>''Digital Café'' profile
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controlle ...

Video Interview with Mike Koenigs about Digital Cafe
{{DEFAULTSORT:Digital Cafe Video game companies of the United States Advergaming companies Companies based in Minnesota