15-Feb-2014, 2:36 PM
This is going to be a looooong blog post.
I first played Chip's Challenge way back in 1998, when I was 3 or 4 years old. My mom and I were able to beat most of the levels, and managed to get all the way to and through Special, albeit by skipping a few levels. I remember we never beat Cake Walk, Mind Block, Mix Up, Mixed Nuts, Totally Unfair, Stripes?, The Last Laugh, Eeny Meeny Miney Moe and Icedeath. There were probably other levels we had to skip that I can't remember, but we had fun playing through. Even then I wasn't satisfied with simply "beating" the game, I wanted to beat every level, despite not being skilled enough to at the time. So I kept playing to have fun, not really having any other games to play at the time-my favorite levels included All Full and I Slide. Then at the turn of the millennium we got a PS1 and I shifted to playing Spyro, Crash Team Racing and Ape Escape, and the next year a PS2 which added more games to the list I would play. Chip's Challenge faded from most played to hardly touched, though I still went back every so often and picked off another level or 2. Until about 2004 this cycle continued, and the computer Chip's Challenge was on stopped being used, its monitor needed for another computer. I had beaten every level barring Totally Unfair, Icedeath, and Cake Walk despite (perhaps due to?) an uncle hitting F2 to start a new game, not realizing that going back to level 1 would have the same effect. It certainly got me to go through the torture that was On the Rocks.
A couple years later, in 2007, I got a laptop. It didn't take too long for me to remember Chip's Challenge, and I searched for it on the internet and found a download. Unfortunately, I wasn't too smart when it came to being safe on the internet and the download contained a virus. I'd also spotted Tile World, and grabbed that too off of Mike L.'s site. Also linked there was a nifty little program that offered the impossible dream of being able to design your own levels: ChipEdit. I immediately began work on a sort of test set, known as 25 levels.dat. I believe I posted this to the Yahoo group, but I can't find it on the internet anymore. The levels in it were all very simple or had rather lame concepts, outside of Level 6: Gauntlet. That's the oldest level I'm actually happy with, even if it is pretty simple, I utilized a few concepts that at the time seemed pretty rare, including a miniature maze of toggle buttons where hitting one would result in the level being cooked.
It was around this time that I caught wind of CCLP2, and I started playing that. I didn't get too far though, as the levels just weren't that enjoyable to me. I did realize I could load the set into an editor and get the password for the next level, and did so. Still, I beat very few levels as I felt the designs were rather cheap. It did open my eyes to the idea of invalid tiles, an idea I used with abandon while making levels in my next set, meant to be a full 149 level set. This is to date my best set, Ultimate Chip.dat. I'm working on a much better one that's been announced with some teasers, with luck I'll have it out before CCLP1. I worked on this and banged out 149 levels then made a bonus level after, which I still feel is one of my better levels. The process took a month and a half...most levels had very little effort put into them and were made because I wanted to make a level, without having a real idea for it. This is best exemplified with Mega Bomb, which I fully admit is a terrible level and it should not exist.
Shortly after that I found out about CCEdit, and made a quick 10 level set in a day to test out its features. Rather than keep this to myself like a sensible person, I posted it to pieguy's site. It was at this point that I played every set I could find, at least trying every level...once. CCEdit's test feature that let you skip between levels at will was exactly what I needed, and I still use it to test today...despite having switched to CCDesign. There were a few levels I liked, a few sets I liked, but nothing really stood out to me. Nothing ever really captured the feeling of going through CC1 for the first time. I found MLMaze and PC Block Dude and played those, made a few levels in each (which no longer exist) and actually beat one of the best move scores in Block Dude (but didn't submit because I didn't realize how). Then I began work on a set that was meant to be the greatest CC set ever created, 999 levels with no blank levels. This was a foolish endeavor.
I got up to about level 200 by making every level part of a series consecutive to the one before it. This was lazy designing, best shown with a series I was calling "+1-x", where x was the level in the series. The first of these was literally dodging 2 balls and stepping into the exit. Thankfully (though I didn't think it at the time), I lost the set to a bug with set saving, which is why I've been backing up everything I edit now. I was pretty mad because of this and left to go do other stuff, but not before submitting Ultimate Chip.dat for consideration in CCLP3. At the time, I thought it was a guarantee I'd have some levels in, though looking back I'm shocked any got in. Anyway, I left the scene for a couple years, then by chance I stumbled on a CC video on Youtube. In the related videos was a rockdet LP of 25 levels.dat. I just had to watch to confirm if it was mine or someone else's.
It was my set. I did a bit more looking around and found James A.'s started LP of Ultimate Chip, and watched what he had for that. This was enough for me to dig up the old CCDesign (which I'd downloaded shortly before taking a break) and began work on the real Ultimate Chip 2, working in bursts. When I release the set I'll give a bit more insight into what I was thinking for each level, it's kind of interesting to see how my design process has changed. I also saw the wiki page for CCLP3 and immediately did a double take. I was credited for a level in it? What could it possibly have been? Well, Recess. I'm going to be completely hoenst, that level took me less than 10 minutes to create. I guess it does show one criteria often overlooked these days: simplicity. Sometimes a simple level with a minor challenge can be fun, and clearly that's why it made it in. CCLP3 was much better than CCLP2, though I didn't get even a third of the way in before stopping. I had also discovered speedrunning around this time, and Touhou shortly later, so CC again took a backseat, with Ultimate Chip 2 sitting at ~50 levels.
2011-2013 were marked by no CC play or design outside of a level idea here and there until around November. I took a class on board game design, and came up with an idea for a level that required you to go through it twice, but a bit different the second time. I didn't do as much with the concept as I could have, but I hand drew the level so it was a bit tougher to design-I couldn't move a tile if something went wrong. I also mapped Icedeath out as the computer with CC1 was still running, albeit lagging after a few minutes. It took a day to map the stage on graph paper, I solved it on the map and the next day executed the solution. This left Pain and Cake Walk as the only levels I had never solved, though I'd done the top half of Pain. Still, I didn't really mess with CC too much until this February, when of all things seeing the existence of the CC1 149 level blind race on SRL got me interested in trying again. I dug out the old CCDesign, did some research and began designing levels again. I had 80 levels or so done, and now I'm sitting at 110 or so. I had a lot of ideas that I was able to implement, which is why my progress was so rapid.
A couple days ago someone I met through speedrunning asked if I wanted to blind race CCLP2...to which I had to answer it would be blind, and I explained why it wouldn't be a good race-invalid tiles and such. I also mentioned CCLP3 wouldn't be a good idea, but CCLP1 would be perfect...if it existed. That resulted in checking up on the CC community for the first time since 2010-2011, finding this site, seeing a release date set for CCLP1, and just generally rekindling an old interest. I joined this forum, kept designing levels, and now I'm trying to take a more active role. Hopefully CCLP1 can recapture that feeling of playing though CC1 for the first time. I know I'm trying to do that to the best of my ability with my set, with a mix of puzzles, aesthetically pleasing levels, some overlap, some melee, all mixed throughout.
That's pretty much my story of how I got here. Now, if anyone could suggest a fun set that's not too hard for me to just play through, I'd appreciate that. It's been a while so I have no idea what the best ones are any more :V
I first played Chip's Challenge way back in 1998, when I was 3 or 4 years old. My mom and I were able to beat most of the levels, and managed to get all the way to and through Special, albeit by skipping a few levels. I remember we never beat Cake Walk, Mind Block, Mix Up, Mixed Nuts, Totally Unfair, Stripes?, The Last Laugh, Eeny Meeny Miney Moe and Icedeath. There were probably other levels we had to skip that I can't remember, but we had fun playing through. Even then I wasn't satisfied with simply "beating" the game, I wanted to beat every level, despite not being skilled enough to at the time. So I kept playing to have fun, not really having any other games to play at the time-my favorite levels included All Full and I Slide. Then at the turn of the millennium we got a PS1 and I shifted to playing Spyro, Crash Team Racing and Ape Escape, and the next year a PS2 which added more games to the list I would play. Chip's Challenge faded from most played to hardly touched, though I still went back every so often and picked off another level or 2. Until about 2004 this cycle continued, and the computer Chip's Challenge was on stopped being used, its monitor needed for another computer. I had beaten every level barring Totally Unfair, Icedeath, and Cake Walk despite (perhaps due to?) an uncle hitting F2 to start a new game, not realizing that going back to level 1 would have the same effect. It certainly got me to go through the torture that was On the Rocks.
A couple years later, in 2007, I got a laptop. It didn't take too long for me to remember Chip's Challenge, and I searched for it on the internet and found a download. Unfortunately, I wasn't too smart when it came to being safe on the internet and the download contained a virus. I'd also spotted Tile World, and grabbed that too off of Mike L.'s site. Also linked there was a nifty little program that offered the impossible dream of being able to design your own levels: ChipEdit. I immediately began work on a sort of test set, known as 25 levels.dat. I believe I posted this to the Yahoo group, but I can't find it on the internet anymore. The levels in it were all very simple or had rather lame concepts, outside of Level 6: Gauntlet. That's the oldest level I'm actually happy with, even if it is pretty simple, I utilized a few concepts that at the time seemed pretty rare, including a miniature maze of toggle buttons where hitting one would result in the level being cooked.
It was around this time that I caught wind of CCLP2, and I started playing that. I didn't get too far though, as the levels just weren't that enjoyable to me. I did realize I could load the set into an editor and get the password for the next level, and did so. Still, I beat very few levels as I felt the designs were rather cheap. It did open my eyes to the idea of invalid tiles, an idea I used with abandon while making levels in my next set, meant to be a full 149 level set. This is to date my best set, Ultimate Chip.dat. I'm working on a much better one that's been announced with some teasers, with luck I'll have it out before CCLP1. I worked on this and banged out 149 levels then made a bonus level after, which I still feel is one of my better levels. The process took a month and a half...most levels had very little effort put into them and were made because I wanted to make a level, without having a real idea for it. This is best exemplified with Mega Bomb, which I fully admit is a terrible level and it should not exist.
Shortly after that I found out about CCEdit, and made a quick 10 level set in a day to test out its features. Rather than keep this to myself like a sensible person, I posted it to pieguy's site. It was at this point that I played every set I could find, at least trying every level...once. CCEdit's test feature that let you skip between levels at will was exactly what I needed, and I still use it to test today...despite having switched to CCDesign. There were a few levels I liked, a few sets I liked, but nothing really stood out to me. Nothing ever really captured the feeling of going through CC1 for the first time. I found MLMaze and PC Block Dude and played those, made a few levels in each (which no longer exist) and actually beat one of the best move scores in Block Dude (but didn't submit because I didn't realize how). Then I began work on a set that was meant to be the greatest CC set ever created, 999 levels with no blank levels. This was a foolish endeavor.
I got up to about level 200 by making every level part of a series consecutive to the one before it. This was lazy designing, best shown with a series I was calling "+1-x", where x was the level in the series. The first of these was literally dodging 2 balls and stepping into the exit. Thankfully (though I didn't think it at the time), I lost the set to a bug with set saving, which is why I've been backing up everything I edit now. I was pretty mad because of this and left to go do other stuff, but not before submitting Ultimate Chip.dat for consideration in CCLP3. At the time, I thought it was a guarantee I'd have some levels in, though looking back I'm shocked any got in. Anyway, I left the scene for a couple years, then by chance I stumbled on a CC video on Youtube. In the related videos was a rockdet LP of 25 levels.dat. I just had to watch to confirm if it was mine or someone else's.
It was my set. I did a bit more looking around and found James A.'s started LP of Ultimate Chip, and watched what he had for that. This was enough for me to dig up the old CCDesign (which I'd downloaded shortly before taking a break) and began work on the real Ultimate Chip 2, working in bursts. When I release the set I'll give a bit more insight into what I was thinking for each level, it's kind of interesting to see how my design process has changed. I also saw the wiki page for CCLP3 and immediately did a double take. I was credited for a level in it? What could it possibly have been? Well, Recess. I'm going to be completely hoenst, that level took me less than 10 minutes to create. I guess it does show one criteria often overlooked these days: simplicity. Sometimes a simple level with a minor challenge can be fun, and clearly that's why it made it in. CCLP3 was much better than CCLP2, though I didn't get even a third of the way in before stopping. I had also discovered speedrunning around this time, and Touhou shortly later, so CC again took a backseat, with Ultimate Chip 2 sitting at ~50 levels.
2011-2013 were marked by no CC play or design outside of a level idea here and there until around November. I took a class on board game design, and came up with an idea for a level that required you to go through it twice, but a bit different the second time. I didn't do as much with the concept as I could have, but I hand drew the level so it was a bit tougher to design-I couldn't move a tile if something went wrong. I also mapped Icedeath out as the computer with CC1 was still running, albeit lagging after a few minutes. It took a day to map the stage on graph paper, I solved it on the map and the next day executed the solution. This left Pain and Cake Walk as the only levels I had never solved, though I'd done the top half of Pain. Still, I didn't really mess with CC too much until this February, when of all things seeing the existence of the CC1 149 level blind race on SRL got me interested in trying again. I dug out the old CCDesign, did some research and began designing levels again. I had 80 levels or so done, and now I'm sitting at 110 or so. I had a lot of ideas that I was able to implement, which is why my progress was so rapid.
A couple days ago someone I met through speedrunning asked if I wanted to blind race CCLP2...to which I had to answer it would be blind, and I explained why it wouldn't be a good race-invalid tiles and such. I also mentioned CCLP3 wouldn't be a good idea, but CCLP1 would be perfect...if it existed. That resulted in checking up on the CC community for the first time since 2010-2011, finding this site, seeing a release date set for CCLP1, and just generally rekindling an old interest. I joined this forum, kept designing levels, and now I'm trying to take a more active role. Hopefully CCLP1 can recapture that feeling of playing though CC1 for the first time. I know I'm trying to do that to the best of my ability with my set, with a mix of puzzles, aesthetically pleasing levels, some overlap, some melee, all mixed throughout.
That's pretty much my story of how I got here. Now, if anyone could suggest a fun set that's not too hard for me to just play through, I'd appreciate that. It's been a while so I have no idea what the best ones are any more :V
My CC1 levelsets: (25, 150, 149, 149, 149, 149, 60, 149, 43, +2 = 1025 total)
25 levels.dat | Ultimate Chip.dat | Ultimate Chip 2.ccl | Ultimate Chip 3.dac | Ultimate Chip 4.zip | Ultimate Chip 5 | Ultimate Chip 6 | Walls of CCLP4 | i^e
IHNN-Ultimate: 147 of my best levels (through UC5), plus 2 entirely new ones. May be overhauled soon.
My CC2 levelsets: (100, ???)
IHNN1 | IHNN2
My CC score tracker. Has lots of cool automated features!
Twitch | Youtube | Twitter
25 levels.dat | Ultimate Chip.dat | Ultimate Chip 2.ccl | Ultimate Chip 3.dac | Ultimate Chip 4.zip | Ultimate Chip 5 | Ultimate Chip 6 | Walls of CCLP4 | i^e
IHNN-Ultimate: 147 of my best levels (through UC5), plus 2 entirely new ones. May be overhauled soon.
My CC2 levelsets: (100, ???)
IHNN1 | IHNN2
My CC score tracker. Has lots of cool automated features!
Twitch | Youtube | Twitter
