Frequently Asked Questions
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Is this site official?
How do I get my name on the list?
What is a bold score?
How easy is it to get certain scores in certain levels?
Why are some people reporting times on untimed levels?
How much does it cost to get my name on this site?
How accurate is the information on this site?
Are there any levels past level 144?
Can I get my name on this site even if my scores suck?
My scores suck. Can you suggest how to improve them?
My dumb idiot sibling/friend/co-worker chose new game from the menu and now I've lost all my scores.
I had Chip's Challenge on my old computer but now I've lost it. Can you send me a copy?
Have other people made their own level packs for this game? How can I play them?
How can I play other level sets or let others play on my computer without tainting my ENTPACK.INI file?
What is CCLP2?
Why does the game sometimes crash when I'm playing certain levels?
Is Chips Challenge Compatible with Windows XP?
How do you want me to report my scores?
I keep getting an error when I try to open downloads of CC. The error is a 16 bit windows subsystem error that says winnt\system32\autoexec.nt file not suitable for running DOS/Windows applications. What do I do?
How do you view a TWS?
How do I compare two versions of the same levelset?
What would it take for the real CC2 to be released?

Is this site official?
This is the only level high score list in existence at this time. I try to keep this site as accurate as possible, but if you want to see an official list of overall high scores and the first person to get bold in each level, go to http://home.no.net/rspaans/chip/qst-times-new.html.

How do I get my name on the list?
E-mail your scores to me at [email protected]. Include your name as you would like it to appear on the list.

What is a bold score?
I didn't invent this terminology, but from what I understand, bold is either the highest possible score in a level or the highest score reported for a level (whichever is lower). The terminology was invented when the Charter Chipsters kept a spreadsheet listing everyone's scores, and the top scores were in bold. There is now a similar spreadsheet on my site. The terminology makes sense, of course, because in most levels you need to act boldly in order to get the bold. For example, in level 136, a score of 925 is theoretically possible. However, nobody has ever done better than 909, so 909 is the bold score. In level 2, on the other hand, 90 is the highest possible score, but some people have reported getting 91. 90 is the bold score. To find out how many bolds you have, compare your level times to the times listed on this site. 120 level have time limits, but you can get up to 149 bolds if you work very hard at it and have superhuman skills. You can also use T-chip to test your skills on the untimed levels and see how many untimed bolds you can get. To my knowledge, nobody has more than 119 timed bolds, but Pekka Lassila does have 117 (all timed levels except 73, 89, and 146), David Stolp has 119 (All timed levels except 23), and Evan Dummit has 117 (all timed levels except 23, 89, and 126).

How easy is it to get a certain score in a level?
Well, that depends on how fast your fingers are and how good your memory is, depending on the level. Check the high score page for the level in question and see how many people have gotten that score or better.

Why are some people reporting times on untimed levels?
They are likely using a program called T-chip which puts a time limit of 999 on the untimed levels. Their overall scores, however, are scores they would have without using T-chip (i.e. 0 time bonus on untimed levels).

How much does it cost to get my name on the list?
Nothing. I'm just doing it for my personal satisfaction.

How accurate is the information on your site?
I double-checked the information on each level (i.e. level name, password, time limit, and chips required), so that should be correct. As for people's scores, the only ones I'm sure of are my own. I trust people wouldn't report false scores, although if someone reports impossible scores (and it has happened), I don't include those on my site. If you find errors, please report them to me.

Are there levels past level 144?
Yes. There are 5 more levels. TONY is the password for level 145. The password for level 146 can be seen if you make a map of level 34 (CYPHER).

Can I get on the list even if my scores suck?
Yes. Since there are very few names on the list, I'll take what I can get for now. But if the list becomes very large, I will start limiting who gets on the list to just the best players.

My scores suck! How can I improve them?
You only get the full level bonus for a level if you solve it on the first try. If you fail a level, the best thing to do is exit Chip's Challenge and get back into it. This way, not only does the computer think you're on your first try again, you also get to make full use of your first second. Sometimes if you play one level right after another, the first second gets cut short by time used from the last level you played. Also, your score won't be much good until you have solved ALL 149 levels. If you play a level more than once, the score the computer remembers is the highest one you've gotten so far, so your score can only go up, never down. Also, you should make sure your keyboard speed is set on its fastest possible setting in your control panel. This way, you can go 5 steps per second on ordinary tiles and 10 steps per second on ice, teleports, and force floors. Remember that you lose a fifth of a second every time you bump into a wall, so keep the oofs to a minimum. Learn the movement patterns of the monsters. This too will help you in your game. And finally, some advice which really helped me get my score up: Don't constantly switch from level to level in an attempt to get your score up. Just play one level over and over and over until you have the best score you can get in it, then move on to another level. This will slow down your progress in the short run, but will greatly improve your score in the long run. Check the scoreboard regularly to see how you rank compared with other players and set a goal for yourself not to have any scores below a certain rank number. And be sure to practice your boosting. This is the practice of getting an extra move (which must be done very quickly) when you step off of ice, force floors, or teleports. Note also that the fastest possible keyboard delay rate is 0.25 seconds for the first step, so if you need to move in the same direction while boosting, it might be faster to press the arrow key repeatedly rather than holding it down, but any steps you make after that will probably be quicker if you hold down the key.
Another important word of advice: Make a map of those levels that you need to improve your score in. A map will make it easier to see what you have to do to get to the exit and where the shortcuts are. Work it out backwards... in other words, first find the exit(s), then examine what obstacles you must pass in order to get to the exit, and what items you need to get in order to get past those obstacles. Don't do any more work than is necessary (i.e. don't get chips if there is no chip socket, don't get 2 red keys if there is only 1 red door, etc.).
Some more good advice: Go to http://chips.kaseorg.com/avi and watch the videos there that show how to get excellent scores in most of the levels.

My dumb idiot sibling/co-worker/friend (anyone but me) pressed new game from the file menu, and I lost all my scores!
If you were keeping track of your scores in a spreadsheet (which is the smart thing to do), you can edit your ENTPACK.INI file (in your Windows folder) and put all your old scores back in. Ideally, your spreadsheet should contain a row for each level and a total row. The columns should include level number, level name (optional), your time, world record time, your score, world record score (10*record time + 500* level number), difference between your score and world record score (optional - this column would be useful for telling you which levels you need to work on the most). You might include other columns too, such as password, time limit, and number of chips, but that's all optional.

I got a new computer and lost Chip's Challenge. Can you send me a copy of the game?
I don't think that would be legal. However, it doesn't seem to be available in stores anymore. See if you can find a site where you can download it. When you got your new computer, you should have been able to copy the game over from one computer to the other. If you would like to buy the game in a store, look for Windows Entertainment Pack #4 or Best of Windows Entertainment Pack.

Has anyone else made their own level packs? How can I play them?
Join the Yahoo group (it's on my links page). Click on Files. You will find level sets there that were posted by other players. Most of them are solvable, but there's no guarantee that they all are. Download the file, then unzip it if necessary. Rename your chips.dat file and replace it with the custom level set .dat file. Also, you may want to rename your ENTPACK.INI file so that you can keep track of your scores from different level sets separately.

How can I play different level sets and/or let others play on my computer without tainting my entpack.ini file with their scores?
You can use programs such as ChipPlay or MyChips for this purpose. I'm a simple man and I prefer to use a batch file which renames the appropriate files, and then renames them back when you're finished. Suppose for example you have a friend named Jay who wants to play CCLP2 on your computer. Here is what the batch file (name it jaycclp2.bat) might look like (stuff in square brackets is my commentary only - do not include it in your batch file):

@echo off
cd\windows
ren entpack.ini temp.ini [ren is short for rename]
ren jaycclp2.ini entpack.ini
cd\bowep [or whichever directory you store your Chip's Challenge files in]
ren chips.dat temp.dat
ren cclp2.dat chips.dat
echo Jay, you may play Chip's Challenge now. When you're finished,
pause [this prompts the user to press a key. Use alt-tab to switch back to Windows mode]
ren chips.dat cclp2.dat
ren temp.dat chips.dat
cd\windows
ren entpack.ini jaycclp2.ini
ren temp.ini entpack.ini

If you play a level which causes your system to crash (this might happen if you attempt to pick up a key while a monster is going over it), you may have to manually rename the appropriate files before running Chip's Challenge again.
If you're not comfortable with this method, alternate methods are discussed at http://chips.kaseorg.com/faq/cache/16.html.

What is CCLP2?
CCLP2 (Chip's Challenge Level Pack 2) is the official sequel to Chip's Challenge. It contains 149 levels that contain the same elements you will find in the original 149 levels. CCLP2 can be downloaded from the files area of the group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chips_challenge.

Why does my game sometimes crash while I'm playing?
Errors can occur if 3 transparent tiles are all in the same square at the same time, such as you and 2 keys, or you, a key, and a monster. Most levels are designed to avoid this bug, but some levels, such as CC1 levels 99 and 104, and CCLP2 level 124, contain monsters that may travel to squares that are occupied by keys. The way to avoid this error is to avoid picking up keys while there is a monster traveling over them. Generally, you will want to avoid hitting monsters anyway. A good level designer will not put 2 keys on the same square, nor will he place keys underneath unmovable monsters. Boots are also considered transparent tiles, but luckily, monsters will not attempt to travel over boots. There will be different types of errors, which will have somewhat unpredictable effects on your system, possibly depending on which direction you entered the square from, which color key you took, which type of monster was occupying the square, and which direction the monster was facing. Luc Longpré says that this kind of error seems to be caused by dereferencing an undefined pointer, so the effects really would depend on what happens to be at that address, which would depend on factors external to the game and on how the operating system deals with it. Another thing that will cause errors is if you attempt to play a level that contains too many movable monsters, connected red buttons, and connected trap buttons. I don't know exactly what the limit is, but if you find out, let me know.

Is Chips Challenge Compatible with Windows XP?
So far it is but it isn't 100% compatible as with the new look with the titlebars. (This answer submitted by Brian Phillips)

How do you want me to report my scores?
  1. If you already have reported scores to me in the past, please do not e-mail me your whole spreadsheet when reporting scores, unless you indicate in some way which scores are new. It is a lot of work for me to go through each score to see whether it has changed or not. Do not send any score reports twice, as this is more of an annoyance to me than anything else. If you've reported scores and found that I haven't updated them, check the date of my last update, which can be found at the bottom of my main page. Scores reported on or after that date don't have to be on my site.
  2. Indicate the level set (CC1 or CCLP2 or other)
  3. Level number and/or level name (both is preferable, just in case you mistyped one)
  4. Time remaining (Do not just say "I got bold", as bolds sometimes change). And check all 3 digits. I often receive score reports that are off by 100.
  5. The amount of increase over your last score report and how far short of bold you are is optional. I don't use this information when updating.
  6. Please indicate your new overall score. Also including your number of bolds is optional, as I take that information from my spreadsheet. Don't just assume that I will calculate your new overall score based on the sum of your level scores. This wouldn't help me to determine whether you have any unreported seconds, etc.
The following is an example of what an ideal score report would look like (I would have the least amount of trouble updating if your score report looked something like this):

CCLP2
Level 10 - Who Needs a Flipper?, 368
Level 91 - Tutti-Frutti, 439
Level 107 - Joyride I, 6
My new overall score: 6,036,690

I keep getting an error when I try to open downloads of CC. The error is a 16 bit Windows subsystem error that says winnt\system32\autoexec.nt file not suitable for running DOS/Windows applications. What do I do?
This happens when the Autoexec.nt file is missing from your C:\Winnt\System32 folder. (this answer submitted by Mike L.)

How do I view a TWS?
Let's say for example you have a tws file called pilevel9.tws for pi.dat level 9. You have two ways to do it:
Method #1: Copy pilevel9.tws into your save folder. Go to pi.dat in TW and press Ctrl-S. Zing! You should now see a list of .tws files, showing pi.tws and pilevel9.tws, with pi.tws selected. (You might also see pi^2.tws in that list, because TW isn't that smart.) Change the selection to pilevel9.tws and press Enter. TW will now display those solutions instead of yours. Go to level 9 and hit Tab to watch. NOTE: Be sure to change back to your own pi.tws if you're going to do any solving!

Method #2 involves the command line, where you can just give the TWS file as an argument. Thus: "tworld .\save\pilevel9.tws". This will substitute the named TWS file for the real one (for that run only). Note that there needs to be at least one backslash in the argument you type in. (Otherwise, Tile World will think you're looking for a pre-installed file.) You might also want to use the -r option in this situation -- this puts Tile World in "read-only" mode, so no TWS files will be changed. (Just don't try to solve any levels while you're in read-only mode -- it'll be very annoying when you come back later and find that your solution wasn't saved.) (This answer submitted by Brian Raiter)

How do I compare two versions of the same levelset?
First, you need to have a "diff" program. A diff program is a general utility that compares two files and displays the differences.

Unix/Linux has a program called exactly that: "diff". DOS/Windows includes a program called "fc" (file compare), which is similar.
Both of these are command-line utilities. There are a number of graphical diff tools available; the one I use for Windows is freeware called "ExamDiff".

diff programs don't know anything about specific file formats. They are typically used to compare text files line-by-line. (Though there is a binary mode for comparing any two files as a sequence of bytes, the output in this case is usually not very enlightening.)

So what you want is another program that can convert levelset .dat files to plain-text .txt files. The c4 program is a command-line utility that has this capability.

Running:-     c4 levels.dat levels.txt
will give you a plain-text representation of the levelset. (This answer submitted by Madhav Shanbhag)

What would it take for the real CC2 to be released?
Many people have asked this question and many people are willing to raise money to help Chuck Sommerville buy the rights to the game back from AOP (or whichever company it is that currently owns the rights - it has belonged to Bridgestone and Alpha Omega in the past). Chuck himself is aware of the discussions and is perhaps the only one who knows the exact dollar amount that they are asking for. All we can say for sure at this point is that it is more than Chuck would be able to make up in sales, and Chuck has refused to give out any exact details. I'd be willing to chip in about $10 (Canadian) myself, but I'm sure that's not enough. Nakamura has offered to suck a thousand maggots through a straw, but I don't think that's what they're looking for either.
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