Chip's Challenge

Chip's Challenge is a tile-based, puzzle video game for several systems, including the hand-held Atari Lynx, DOS, and Windows (included in Microsoft's Best of Windows Entertainment Pack).

The basic plot of the game is that high-school nerd, Chip, has met Melinda The Mental Marvel in the school science laboratory and must navigate through a series of increasingly difficult puzzles in order to prove his manlihood and attain his access of the elusive Bit Buster Club. Once he gets into the club, he'll get into Melinda's heart and together they can integrate technology.

The design of the original game was done by Chuck Sommerville, who also made about a third of the levels. The game consists of a series of 148 two-dimensional levels (149 in Microsoft's version) which feature the player character, Chip, and various game elements such as computer chips, buttons, locked doors and lethal monsters. Gameplay involves using arrow keys, directional pad or mouse to move Chip about each of the levels in turn, collecting enough chips to open the chip socket at the end of each level, get to the exit, and move onto the next level.

Levels can be skipped by entering an appropriate four-letter case-insensitive password. For the PC versions, game progress is automatically saved. On the Windows version of the game, the passwords can easily be cracked, thus making it a simple matter to skip levels without playing; if one is having a lot of trouble with a level, the game allows the player to skip to the next level. The Microsoft version has another, hidden, option, "Ignore Passwords", that appears in the Game menu when one of several key combinations is pressed, including Control-D.

In the Lynx version of the game, entering the password "MAND" gives the player access to an Easter egg: a Mandelbrot fractal plotter.

Progress is not just measured in terms of completed levels but also in terms of the player's score, which is a sum of the scores obtained on each level. Some level scores can be improved by completion in less time than previously, or by using fewer attempts to complete a level.

Levels

While the same set of rules applies to each level, there are many different kinds of levels. Some are action-oriented and some are puzzle-oriented. Most but not all levels have a time limit. Types of levels include:

Chip solving a block-pushing puzzle (similar to Sokoban) to clear a path to the level exit.
Chip must actively dodge enemies (creatures which move in various ways) and make his way to the end.
Chip must find his way through a maze. The maze can take various forms, such as a path across an icy surface with set points where he can make turns.

The first eight levels are "lesson levels" or tutorial levels.

The ending sequence plays on completion of level 144. There are however four (five in the Microsoft version) levels beyond this which can only be reached by password. On completion of level 149 the ending sequence plays again. The password for level 146 is hidden in an earlier level but level 145 (which is only present in the Microsoft version) can only be reached by cracking or guessing the password (or using the ignore passwords option).

Chip's Challenge 2

The success of Microsoft's version eventually led Chuck Sommerville to create a sequel, Chip's Challenge 2, usually abbreviated to "CC2". CC2 included many new kinds of elements and many new levels in addition to the original ones. However, the game has never been released to the public, as Sommerville and the copyright holder of the game could not agree on terms. Sommerville has since given up trying to release CC2.

Internet community

An informal Internet community of players has developed around the game, particularly the Windows version, producing text, map, and video walkthroughs, FAQs, level editors and screenshots of the game. Most members of the community reside on Usenet at news://news.annexcafe.com/annexcafe.chips.challenge. Chuck Sommerville also posts there. They have produced a second set of 149 levels for the Windows version of the game with the name "CCLP2" (an abbreviation of "Chip's Challenge Level Pack 2") featuring contributions by a large number of people. This version is considered the unofficial sequel in place of CC2.

Other unofficial software produced by them include:

a level editor known as ChipEdit
MyChips. Given a Microsoft CC executable, this creates a new executable identical to it except that it uses a different level file and a different score file. The purpose is to make it easier to play fan-made levels.
ChipCap, a program to assist in recording Chip's Challenge AVI video walkthroughs
an open source emulation of Chip's Challenge known as Tile World which can be used with the Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and BeOS operating systems. Tile World supports both the original Lynx and the later Windows versions, as the ways in which the elements of the game work diverge in many cases.
CCTools, a set of utilities for Chip's Challenge, including CCEdit, a level editor, CCLM, a "level manager", and CCHack, a program which can change the resources in CC.
ChipEnd, a utility to alter a Microsoft CC executable to change which two levels cause the game to play the end sequence when beaten. It is intended to be used for fan-made levelsets, which have varying numbers of levels.
ChipComp, a utility to compare scores and bolds.

External links

Chip's Challenge | Chip's Challenge | Chip's Challenge

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Chip's Challenge

Levels

Chip's Challenge 2

Internet community

External links