Questworld

General Information

Summary

Questworld (or formally, QuestWorld) is a virtual reality world and computer system created by Dr. Benton Quest and used to assist his adventures. It gets far more use from Jonny Quest, Jessie Bannon, and Hadji Singh, who spend a lot of free time playing games on it. A Quest Byte explains how the system came to be. Back on Palm Key, Dr. Benton Quest developed a computer that could partially vectorize the human body, an effect termed hyperrealism. In phase two of development, wirematic stasis was achieved. Phase three involved block mannequin maturation. Phase four was the achievement of cerebral chrysalis. Phase five witnessed the construction of mellifluous resonance. The final phase saw the building of the current world. Dr. Quest established a golden rule after setting up the system—someone must always stay on the outside to monitor those jacked in (Assault on Questworld). Questworld was headquartered in the lighthouse of the Quest Compound.

Questworld is capable of facilitating incredible operations, and is a supercomputer in its own right. A few of its uses included deciphering the whale-song of cetaceans, analyzing and reassembling a broken head from a statue of Apollo, facilitating communication with an alien race in Gamma Centauri, uncovering the musical secret of rongorongo engravings, and allowing access to the inner minds of several people as represented in virtual reality. Anyone could log on to Questworld by putting on a simple visor. The Questworld Visor weighs 3 oz., has 3 inch length / 4 inch diameter, and is "cellularly" powered. Questworld was introduced in the episode Escape to Questworld, in which the teens gave access to Jeremiah Surd in exchange for information that would save Dr. Quest and Race Bannon from Surd's nerve gas. Surd, paralyzed in 1978, enjoyed moving freely, and began using Questworld for his own evil ends. The system was presumably destroyed in The Robot Spies with the Quest Compound.

Peter Lawrence Dialogue

What was the genesis of QuestWorld?

When Takashi came on board, and with the encouragement of the merchandising and licensing people, who wanted more 'stuff,' we came up with the whole Virtual Reality world. Surd. A new (then) take on VR. A world which our characters could enter via technology (and Hadji via his own mental development). A world in which there was real jeopardy because, in addition to everything else, while you are in that VR world, your physical body is powerless and vulnerable in the real world. Much of this material has gone out of my head, but we could regenerate it with Takashi, who was the driver of these VR elements.

To clarify, VR wasn't originated in itself by the licensees. We - Takashi and I - were asked to expand the range of characters and the world of Quest. I was very much against a running villain, or series of villains, which seem to me to be such a cliché. The licensees, however, love those set characters and, in fairness, I can see why. Audiences, too, like them. So we caved in and, in searching for those additional characters and mileus, came up with VR.

Reception

Peter Lawrence and Takashi envisioned Questworld as an expansive, unlimited setting for storytelling that could use "endless props, weapons and vehicles", as well as any conceivable scenario or plot. The show's troubled development led to rushed production of the first season's Questworld sequences, done by Buzz F/X, which couldn't spare the personnel or meet the demanding schedule to deliver Hanna-Barbera's requests for scenes. (Buzz F/X later went into bankruptcy.) Season two sequences were handled by Blur Studios, which had an existing team and new Intergraph hardware with which to complete scenes; the quality improved as a result. Nonetheless, the appearance of Questworld scenes seemed already outdated for the time. For more background and criticism, see: