I just finished creating another level in my set which was adapted from another game. This brings my total to 19 so far in my set, and I know that some other people have done the same thing, like for instance rotation from Riven. What games have you adapted into cc levels?

Even more bolds!

I Slide: Fairly simple-there's more than enough time on the long ice slides to remember/reference a set of notes, resulting in a fairly easy bold.

Traffic Cop: Another very easy bold to obtain, a nice breather level among breather levels. As a kid I never though to bridge across water with a block...

Grail: Another really fun level to play, despite the heavy randomness of the start. Didn't take too long to pull off.

Potpourri: The wiki hyped up the ice section to be really difficult, but I got the boosting down instantly and took only 3 attempts to that point-one failed boost, and one where I derped and moved UL into a ball.

Deepfreeze: Aside from one attempt where the I forgot the double ice slide en route to the skates, the bold came smoothly.

Strange Maze: Another first try bold. I was beginning to wonder when the next challenging level would come up, but I had forgotten about...

Loop Around: ...which proved to be nowhere near as hard as I expected. The 50s are definitely on the easy side for bolds. Took a couple tries to pull off, but it was definitely on the easy side again.

Hidden Danger: 2 tries, the first boosted past the teleport.

Slo Mo: Having already done level 60 and 61 being untimed, Slo Mo ramped up the difficulty again...with luck. I blew one attempt literally 2 spaces from the exit, though 3/4 of the time it would have worked, luck was not on my side, as nearly every time I was next to a blob, the blob would move onto Chip at 1/4 odds...until the winning run, where Chip ran past no less than 3 blobs. I did not expect that.

Block Factory: The boosting at the start took a couple tries to get down, as usual, but oddly I never stopped messing up the chip grabs off the force floors. Humorously, one attempt failed by going on the long ice slide below the last chip. The wiki says that waiting [1/2] before pushing the final button is easier, but I could never get that timing (scoring 476.8) whereas every time I tried the [1/2] wait before the button, I got it. After throwing 3 attempts to the "easier" method, I scored 477 first try using the "harder" method.

Spooks: The first of the non-public bold routes...well, I scored the old bold of 547, and then started looking for potential improvements to see if I could find the 548 route...unfortunately, every different start I tried was unable to pick up a chip, and Luc's route is incredibly tight-whatever pieguy found, I'd sure love to see it...

Amsterdam: Another pair of false difficulties-this one is ranked at 3 stars, while the 547 route for Spooks is ranked 4 stars. This is a hard one. Like, a really really hard one. I scored 395 easily enough (using the 397 route), scored it again, and then scored 396 (-2 moves) on what I thought was perfect. Re-watching my 396 and the 397 in the public TWS revealed to me that I lost 1 move (maybe both?) in the section with the single tile ice slide. Further attempts and studying were able to save the first move and pinpoint where the second was, but actually scoring the bold was no easy task-including one try where I ran into a wall with 16 chips to go. *sigh*. Then I scored a -.1, failing only the single ice tile (accidentally boosting past it until of turning south), chaining together each half of the level on a separate run. It was only a matter of time...but I couldn't get it. So I stepped back for a couple days, and then scored the 397 literally first try when I went back. That always seems to be how these things work...

It was at this point that I went through the existing bold difficulties and adjusted them to be for respective of their actual difficulty to obtain-I'll mention any further old rankings I seriously disagree with.

Chipmine: Made a map similar to Mishmesh, played the level a few times to work out the best path to take to reveal pathways based on other opened pathways, scored 518 fairly easily. I personally wouldn't rank it 4 stars, but I can definitely see why it was ranked that high-the fact that I could reference back and forth between an edited map and the game itself definitely helped, and the maze...it's a hard feeling to describe, I want to say I already knew the maze, but I didn't. This was one of my favorite levels as a kid, so maybe I subconsciously remembered a few of the pathways? Either that or the spacefilling nature (2 dead ends, each only 2 tiles long) made the required turns simpler to 'guess'. Regardless of why, I coasted through a level I expected to be difficult, despite running into a wall once.

Eeny Miny Moe: Pretty simple bold to score, took a couple tries to remember the bridge section route, but from there it was just 2 and a half minutes of movement. No big deal.

Bounce City: The wiki overcomplicated the key grabbing section-I just ran through, and due to the ball towers I could even forget where I was going for a second and still easily score the bold.

Nightmare: Literally first try. The force floor right before the red key I deliberately dropped the boost, noting that there was a wait up ahead and that failing the boost would result in a swift plunge into the water.



With that, I was "halfway" through the game, only down 3 bolds (4, if you count untimed levels) and a score of 1,666,230. The real question of if I can keep up this pace of scoring when the levels get harder will be answered...eventually. I have a CCLP1 race in an hour! and you can watch on my stream too! twitch.tv/ihavenonamesda

The wait is over - CCLP1 has been released to the world! You can download it here:

CCLP1 site: http://jamesa7171.net/cclp1/CCLP1.dat


CCZone: http://cczone.invisionzone.com/index.php?/files/file/374-cclp1/


Key features:

- 149 levels that will tickle your brain and your fingers

- An all-new, epic story with new characters who reveal more about Melinda the Mental Marvel and the Bit Busters Club

- Lots of amazing CHALLENGES

- Rooms to explore that are so spacious, you'll want to pack up and move into one

- This one really hard puzzle that you won't get but you'll look it up online and not tell anybody

- All your hopes and dreams

To quote the great Larry Jackson:

"Please follow the score reporting rules.

Please enjoy the new level set.

And when the sparks start flying, please be polite and remember the best advice I ever heard about Chip's Challenge. It may seem heretical at this point, but it is still true.

This is only a game.

Happy Chipping. Good Luck. Bon Appetit. Get some sleep along the way.

And, most of all, enjoy."

- J.B.

File category: Official Sets

The third community-produced official level pack for Chip's Challenge, originally released on March 28, 2014. This set contains 149 levels that can be played in the MS and Lynx rulesets and is meant to serve as a legal alternative to Chip's Challenge 1 that introduces new players to the game.

Key features:

- 149 levels that will tickle your brain and your fingers

- An all-new, epic story with new characters who reveal more about Melinda the Mental Marvel and the Bit Busters Club

- Lots of amazing CHALLENGES

- Rooms to explore that are so spacious, you'll want to pack up and move into one

- This one really hard puzzle that you won't get but you'll look it up online and not tell anybody

- All your hopes and dreams

Confirmed solvable? Yes

• Initial release.

Attached Files

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  CCLP1.zip (Size: 153.35 KB / Downloads: 537)

Sadly, any one of these panels does describe a day in the life of a Chipster.

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Hey, everyone. In preparation for the release of CCLP1, I'd like to lay down some guidelines for those of you wishing to report scores on the new set. With a couple minor exceptions, they'll be the same as they were for CCLP3.


1) All scores must be achieved within the official CCLP1 set, no exceptions. Scores achieved by playing a CCLP1 level in its original custom set, for example, will not count.


2) For the first week after CCLP1's release, each player will be limited to one score report per ruleset per hour.


3) For the first week after CCLP1's release, each score report will be limited to ten levels per ruleset.


4) For now, all score reports must be made at the newsgroup. Score reports via CCZone, email, etc. will be accepted in the future after the initial rush dies down.


5) As always, please specify or imply MS or Lynx when reporting your scores to avoid mix-ups.


Other notes:


- The CCLP3 ban on sharing solutions until at least 3 people finished the set will not apply for CCLP1.


- Sorry for the inadequate site updates recently. Everything should finally be in order again before CCLP1's release.


- Have fun, and please remember to enjoy CCLP1 responsibly.

Shortly after Chip's Challenge Level Pack 3
was released three years ago, I promised to write a review of the collection of 149 custom levels. As the next such set is upon us, I thought it is finally time to make good on that promise. I'll try to recall my initial feelings for the set, as well as how it felt going back to the levels and optimizing them. I have a few comments on what I think are great aspects of the set, and a couple about its shortcomings. I have to admit that I am a bit biased to write this review, because I just simply love the set. I further claim that there is nobody in the world that has played it as much as I have, since I have actively been working on improving my scores in both MS and Lynx modes for quite some time. If you can forgive me for these two faults, read on!

It was Christmas. We were visiting my in-laws and the only computer I could use was in a room with two teenagers sleeping. It was just before 2 am. As quietly as I could, I snuck in the room and I turned on the computer. The room filled with a sharp whirl of the fan that luckily soon died down to an acceptable level. I downloaded the set and the accompanying fresh version of Tile World. For the rest of the night I immersed myself in exploring the challenges Chip faced and the story presented in new screens between levels. I was excited after each level to see what the next one was. Every level I had not played earlier was particularly enjoyable.¹
I was not concerned with optimal times, but rather just wanted to first see how the set felt. The newsgroup was vibrant with score updates from others. Those updates did not come in level order and many of the records were from the CCLP3 staff. Clearly not all people were playing the set through in order and without an editor, as I had chosen to do. As everyone else started waking up around me, I had to suspend my progress. I had had a great first night and had no doubt that the set would be a great success.

As the holidays progressed, I only had limited amounts of time to work on the levels and it seemed every day I could only advance a few more levels. This was also due to how involved the levels were becoming, and I was not even to the half-way mark yet.²
The set was getting crazily difficult, but as I was familiar with most of the difficult levels I managed to complete the set in a month. I was exhausted but wanted to revisit many levels to see on which ones I could match the records. This turned out to be a learning experience and a lot of work that is not yet complete. I was lucky enough to etch out a few scores under my name, but the speed and consistency that the veterans were doing the same was on a completely different level. At some point I turned to playing in Lynx and slowly started reporting those scores too. There are still many Lynx scores there for others to improve upon, though I hope I haven't made that too easy.

So that's my first contact with the set. I was there at the release and all of that was a new experience for me. I don't imagine anything can quite match the novelty of that first time again. I don't want to get into analyzing individual levels here, so I will stick to five general points about the set.

1)
The levels included in the set are all very well designed. There were over 2,200 levels in the initial voting pool and clearly some of the best individual levels made it into the set. As Chip's Challenge is a puzzle game at its core, many of the highest voted levels turned out to be puzzles. It's apparent in the final product that the staff was very restricted by the voting results of a community that could only see one level at a time, and not the full experience of what the set would feel like. This resulted in a set that feels very heavy, particularly if one does not know what to expect. Later levels in the set that deviate from a heavy puzzle emphasis are very welcome. The flow of the set has it's positives too though, like the throwbacks to CC1 levels in certain slots. Among these, the results of the Level 1 and Cypher Level Contests were nice to see.

2)
The updates made to levels, in particular the name changes and time limit re-evaluations, were inspired. I loved the new names of levels. Connecting the Jumble and Replay levels as series was neat. All the time limits worked well, being tight enough on levels where it made sense. It was a good move to allow some levels to be untimed, which was not a given as CCLP2 did not choose to do this. Several levels were updated to avoid busts, but in some cases this resulted in a very different level than the one that was voted on. I was surprised that no updates were made to levels after the release, even though some designers requested this and new major busts were discovered. I understand this in a way, but would have preferred that such a thing would have been made clear during the release. For example, saying that an update may be made during the first three months, but after that time no updates will be considered would have worked very well. Overall I felt the set was put together expertly and connected to a story very well.

3)
The Tile World update was also a very welcome thing. The user interface was an improvement, though I missed some keyboard shortcuts. The ccx-files allowing a story to be told and crediting the designers was an essential upgrade. Some things were missing, like clear indication of odd/even step, or even random force floor direction at the start of a level in Lynx. The death messages were cool. I missed a simple way to change the graphics and a good way to compare one's scores to the bold. At least some love was shown for competitive play with the "copy score" function. The best new thing in my opinion was the ability to fast-forward replays of solutions, though a full map view during playback is still just a dream. The biggest let downs were the lack of a simple all-in one download which I thought was promised, as well as the lack of even the smallest update later on to fix small yet annoying bugs.³

4)
I truly admire the work done on the scoreboard at the release of the set. Everything worked just like it should. There was a reasonable restriction on how many scores one could report at first, and the restriction of releasing solutions only after three people had completed the set was a step in the right direction. Maybe it should not have limited casual solutions, though, but only competitive ones. After the initial ban on solutions, I still felt there was not clear enough stance on which routes should be allowed to be released and which would be better left for players to discover for themselves.⁴ It is my understanding that the staff did not optimize the levels before the release, which sounded fair but probably let a few unfortunate details on some levels slip through the cracks. Too many levels that contain randomness require almost perfect luck. Some other levels are simply ridiculous to optimize due to other factors and might have been better off if they were untimed if they had to be included at all.

5)
If I take a step back from the set itself, I can see that the process of creating it was not simple. The people that announced the opening of submissions were not the same as those that released it in the end. I am glad J.B. stepped up to the plate and organized a team around him to get the job done. There had to be a tremendous amount of work to be done behind the scenes between the closing of the voting and the release of the set. It is too bad that after this point some of the follow-up work was a bit sloppy. I've already mentioned the lack of an update to the set or Tile World, or clear guidelines on competitive play, but also there was no information released about the voting results. These results and other information about the formation of the set would have been interesting to hear and possibly could be useful to know for future projects. Additionally, there was no decent support for new players trying to solve the levels for the first time, like perhaps with proper hints and help on the Chip's Challenge Wiki or a page explaining what to expect within the set. As far as I know, there was very little promotion of the set anywhere. Maybe everyone was too busy enjoying the set itself to think about these things. At least I was.

In the end, I am a sucker for difficult puzzles (in the right context), so I felt this set was made for me. I still love it, but I kind of fear it as well.⁵ I felt the staff did an outstanding job compiling the set and I appreciate all their efforts. I want to thank the CCLP3 staff and anyone else who was part of realizing this whole experience for me. There are some aspects of the set that understandably people do not like as much as I do, unfortunately to the extent that some seem to hate it entirely. I like to think that in the right context and time, anyone could learn to love this set as one of the greatest works humanity has ever produced. I would not trade it for anything.

-Miika Toukola



¹ I had taken part in the voting process of CCLP3 but I did not get to play even half the levels in the voting pool. Almost a third of the levels in the set were new to me when I played it for the first time.

² I have since learned that the half-way mark is at level #75 if you count by level number, at #95 if you count by how long it takes to watch the quickest solutions, at about level #100 if you are solving through the set after knowing the solutions, and at about level #140 if you are solving the levels for the first time without help.

³ Literally as I write this, an update like this has been released!

⁴ For example, maybe the second person who scores a route shouldn't be allowed to release the solution. This would allow the first scorer some say in the matter and yet once enough people, like three, have scored the route successfully, then it could be released if they want.

⁵ I have fewer than half the bolds in MS and still need to work on all the others. It is such a tremendous task to optimize the whole set that its proportions are hard to comprehend.

Tile World 2.1 has been released. This release was created by Eric Schmidt (me), with assistance from Madhav Shanbhag.

http://www.pillowpc2001.net/TW2/download.html

From the Changelog:

* Main window layout changed; in particular, passwords are visible.
* Fixed Lynx toggle wall bug: if a level stopped running the instant a toggle button was pressed, the walls would toggle the next time play started.
* When selecting a level set, the game now tries to start on the level the player left off from, rather than the earliest unsolved level.
* MS mouse emulation bug fixed. (report and fix from David Stolp)
* Some "stuck key" problems fixed, such as Alt-Tab on Windows 7.
* The fileio.c patch, which fixes a .tws corruption problem on 64-bit Linux, has been applied.
* Added the ability to disable the display of CCX text when visiting or completing a level.
* Added ability to view CCX text via menu options.
* Messages displayed when winning, dying, or running out of time are now customizable via external file.
* When playback of the solution to the last level in the set finishes, the congratulatory message box wouldn't appear. Now it does.
* In Lynx mode, it is now possible to select the starting direction for the "random" force floors, by using the "f" key.
* Added settings file. There are currently two settings: (i) whether to display CCX text, and (ii) sound volume.
* Debug/cheat keys completely disabled for releases.
* In pedantic Lynx mode, when an entity attempts to leave the map, rather than play being halted, a warning is printed on stderr, and play continues as in non-pedantic mode.
* "Goto" menu item renamed "Enter Password", and greyed out during play. (Before, it could be selected, but it would not do anything.)
* Miscellaneous code changes not visible to users, to eliminate compiler warnings and for other reasons.

TW2 is available as a precompiled binary for Windows. In Linux, you have to compile it yourself.

However, someone added TW2 to the ArchLinux User Repository (AUR). This makes it easier to compile it in ArchLinux and its deriviates, like Manjaro.

Here are some instructions:

1: Make sure yaourt is installed. You may do this by typing the command "sudo pacman -S yaourt".

2: Download TW2 by typing "yaourt -S tworld2".

3: Whey you will be asked if you want to edit pkgbuild, choose yes. You may use any text editor, but I recommend Mousepad or GEdit.

4: Remove the lines "patch -p1 < ../../tworld2-iceblock.patch" and "patch -p1 < ../../tworld2-vimkeys.patch".

5: Save the file and close the editor.

6: If you are asked again if you want to edit pkgbuild, choose no.

7: Choose yes at all future prompts and enter your password when requested.

And TW2 should work fine! You may then install CCLP2 and CCLP3 by typing "yaourt -S tworld2-levels-cclp".

Please ignore the quotes for all commands.

Unfortunately, this is for TW2.0. It does not work with the newly released TW2.1.

I hope this will be useful.

First up: Let's Play.


I'm fully aware this is probably not what was intended for claiming this award but it is 20 official CC levels, let's played.

2nd: Psst

http://cczone.invisionzone.com/index.php?/gallery/image/213-ultimate-chip-2-level-132-solution/

3rd: Blue Ribbon

http://cczone.invisionzone.com/index.php?/files/file/373-blue-ribbon-ihnn/

Back to working towards the CC1-CCLP2-CCLP3/bold/bit buster awards