Chip's Challenge Hall of Fame

When you have won the Chip's Challenge and completed all 149 levels, let me know your name and I'll add you to the Chip's Challenge Hall of Fame below.

Starting From January 1, 2000 - Most recent first

(let me know if you want your e-mail address put in with your message)

Submitted May 2007. My name is Mary Smith, and I am from Columbus, OH. I have been playing Chip's Challenge on and off for many years (since the early 1990's.) Recently I was playing the game with my nephews and that rekindled an interest in finishing all the levels (including ones that I had previously skipped). Many tired fingers and late nights later, I have finished all 149 levels! What I like about this game is that it is much simpler in concept and graphics than the expensive games available now, but it is also really challenging. (I got my copy of Windows Entertainment Pack off the back of a cereal box for $5.00 plus UPCs, and Chip's Challenge has kept me entertained for many years). I discovered your website when I was stuck on a level and was looking for help. I am fascinated to learn that there is a Chip's Challenge Level Pack 2, and am about to embark on another 149 levels. My final score for CC1 was 3,772,865 points, but I did finish all the levels! In my opinion, the hardest levels were level 105 (SHORT CIRCUIT), level 136 (DOUBLEMAZE), level 140 (ICEDEATH), level 142 (PENTAGRAM), level 143 (STRIPES), level 147 (FORCE FIELD), level 149 (SPECIAL). I hate drawing maps and use that as a last resort, and these were the levels I couldn't solve without maps. I'm glad I'm not the only one out there who is addicted to this game!

Submitted June 2003. Hi, my name is Linus Olsson, and I'd like to be put in the Hall Of Fame, since I've finally completed all 149 levels! I solved almost everything by myself. I only used a few hints from my friends on some levels, but no map or guide at all! The levels I find the hardest are the ones that require speed and precision, and therefore, level 23 - BLOBNET, level 91 - JUMPING SWARM and level 133 - BLOBDANCE nearly drove me crazy! But I'm proud of one thing: I actually solved level 147 - FORCE FIELD all by myself, without a map or anything! And I completed level 136 - DOUBLEMAZE by just moving around until I made it. Took me nearly two hours, but I did it! Another thing that's funny is that I never have had any trouble with level 31 - KNOT, and level 88 - SPIRALS, like other people seem to have. My final score isn't that high (4033843), but I'm not focusing on records, the only thing that matters is that I finally solved the whole game. My favourite levels are level 75 - STEAM, level 90 - PLAYHOUSE, level 45 - MONSTER LAB plus a few more. Mail me at Linuso@hotmail.com if you wish.

I'm Peter and last day I FINALLY played out level 147. My score is now 5,945,410 but I'm still improving my scores. The levels I had most trouble on were: GOLDKEY, BLOCK BUSTER and (of course) FORCE FIELD.

I am Mike L. and my score (right now) is 5,969,560. I have a website: http://chipstips.homestead.com/index.html. I've also worked hard on making 133 levels. (actually, not all of them were made by me.) Those are at the Yahoo group. and I'm working on a new set with 149 levels...58 done so far.

Hi. I'm an avid fan of Chip's Challenge, and I'd like to request to be added to your hall of fame. I've solved all 149 levels without any outside help. My score so far in the game is 5,958,180, but I'm still not giving up. [Now at 5,972,160.] I used to think some of them were impossible, but I finally figured out a way. I think the hardest level is level 91, JUMPING SWARM. It's annoying and I hate it. Heh, heh. I made maps of all 149 levels (most of them before I discovered Ruben Spaans' mapmaker program). I have tied the high scores in the following levels: LESSONs 1 - 6, LESSON 8, BRUSHFIRE, NICE DAY, KNOT, CYPHER, BEWARE OF BUG, TRAFFIC COP, SLO MO, BOUNCE CITY, SUICIDE, LOBSTER TRAP, and TRUST ME. Jimmy Vermeer. See his site at http://www.geocities.com/purpletentacle1977ca

As of February 2004, Jimmy's score is now 5,976, 020.

From Keith: "Your site was great, it inspired me to go beat the few levels I hadn't beaten yet, and all of a sudden, poof I was done, after all those years of failure :-) My current total is 5898850. Hopefully to be rising soon, thanks.

Brad McCleary writes that "my final score on CC1 is 5,951,400; this is the best I can do." So that seems to be the practical limit of the high score on Chip's Challenge. The 6 million point mark is an elusive dream.

From Thomas DaSilva: "I'd beaten all of the Chip's Challenge levels about a year ago, and just a few days ago I started playing again to improve my scores. I've improved my score to 5,218,145 so far. I couldn't have done half of the levels without help from you and other Chip sites. Thank you! I discovered the Chip's Challenge game three years ago at my neighbor's house, just before I entered fourth grade. I loved it and soon I got my own copy. I did pretty good, but somewhere along the line my computer had some kind of problem and I lost all my progress. I started again, and ended up beating all of the levels, but with a score somewhere only in the 4 millions. I haven't been playing much since until a few days ago. My plan is to do all the levels over again in order. I found I'd improved over those few years and got lots of new bonuses. The first level I had trouble on was EENY MINY MOE, but I eventually found a way to do it. Now I'm striving over ALPHABET SOUP- I can't handle the teeth behind the blue door. I'll figure it out soon, though. I'm worried about the upcoming BLOCK AND ROLL, I remember it was very tough
for me.

This is Dale Bryan <conaire@hotmail.com>. I have been playing Chips Challenge for about three years now. After completing the game (including levels 146-149, which I found from CYPHER), I began searching the web for the missing sound files (Thief and Bomb), and for the missing level 145. Your site was the first one I visited. The high score posts have inspired me to improve my score, which is now at 5,951,020.

From Jim Meehan and family. CC has been a family project for the past year, since we discovered it. Yesterday, I finished the last level, 147. Our final score (I should say "so far") is 3,565,713. Your site, by the way, helped us get to the invisible levels after we finished 144. Thanks! Anyway, all four of us contributed strong points to the cause: my younger daughter kept at it with determination to learn paths; my older daughter had the best finger dexterity for all the trickiest levels; my wife played enough repetitions to figure out the bugs; and I was the map-maker and map-reader (for about a dozen levels). Seeing the help by level on your site gave us encouragement to go on and finish the game. We knew of nobody else doing it, and thought we were pretty high (in the 70 - 100 range) and then found that there were others past us, and there was a source of help if we really needed it. I'm not sure we even used it, except as a curiosity or comparison thing on a couple levels. Of the two maps you provided for level 147 (Force Field), the Excel-type one (by Patty Sawyer-Ethen) helped me the most. I got to where I could get down to 5 pretty easily, but hit a wall. I couldn't get past it, until I really studied the map. Patty's map had one typo (W19 should point up [now changed so that it does-RF]). I couldn't get the color jpeg map to print the whole thing. Also, my two contributions on that site: I did the whole thing with arrow keys, except two times I needed the mouse (clicking to go up from U12 to U4, and clicking to go right from Y8 to AC12). Thanks again for your help!

Hi. We are Martin and Jan from Aachen in Germany. We have completed Chip`s Challenge, but we did it on 2 computers and gave the passwords to each other, so the finaly score on one of the computers is 1111493, on the other it is a little bit higher. Could anyone from Aachen, Muenster or Freiburg who play Chip`s Challenge please write us at mofrax@gmx.de

Hi. My name is Patrick Knowles II from MI. I have completed all 149 levels of Chips Challenge pretty much all by myself. My final score is 5,897,180. I can't quite hit the 5,900,000 mark!!! I had very few hints from various web sites including yours on certain levels that I had found to be unbelievably difficult. Most of those hints were used mostly to improve scores and times of levels I had already beaten or made those levels easier.

List from startup to Dec 31, 1999

David Helkowski on an Atari Lynx

Asa Ehinger Berling (all levels except 147)

Kathy LaPier

Ron Judge

Alice Voith

Jeff Keele

Dan Weingardt

Sherri Farris - found 52 "The Last Laugh" the hardest and 147 "Force Field" (also called Level XXX) the most annoying.

Courtney and her mom Linda Denman have completed all levels with a total score of 4,510,145.

Ben Olenick and his mom Lois have completed all levels with a total score of 4,725,809.

Danny and Richard Field, total score 4,332,556.

Cliff Lowdenback, a 20-year old Dentistry major at the University of Kentucky, total score of 2,629,705.

Keith R Campbell

Melody & Jef Tittle have solved all 149 levels of the challenge with a total score of 5,915,090.

Dick Beck has completed all Chip's Challenge levels, with a total score of 5,966,120.

Sean Rogers, 12 years old, has completed all 149 levels on Chip's Challenge-all by himself! His total score was 5,809,415.

Bob Karpan writes: WHEW! I finally completed all 149 levels. My final score was in the 3 million range, but I haven't gone back to improve the earlier scores. I've had quite enough of Chip for one day. I want to thank you, your family and fellow chipsters for your collective assistance. I wouldn't have made it through Level 115 Oversea Delivery, Level 117 THE MARSH or Level 136 DOUBLEMAZE without your help. I completed Level 147 FORCE FIELD without a map, but I don't recommend this approach. I had to leave my computer on overnight because I only had 4 chips left to find. In general, my favorite levels were those requiring problem solving or dexterity (Level 82 SOCIALIST ACTION and Level 31 KNOT come to mind). I didn't care for levels like 87 CITYBLOCK which required so much work before getting into a hit-or-miss situation going to the exit. Having just revisited Chip, I have now increased my score to a more respectable 4,727,739.

Adrian and Andrew Smith -- My 11 year old son and I have just completed the 149th level. Without your help my brain would be fettucine, my fingers would be spagettini and my eyes would be sun dried tomatoes [guess what I had for dinner?] My son Adrian and I have had a system for about the last 50 levels, I figure out how to do them, with his advice over my shoulder, then he goes "Oh! that's easy." Then he does it about 20% faster than my creaky old fingers can move. So while I figured out new levels, he jacked up the scores. At the completion of our last level our score stood at 5,918,820. Now comes the fun of making it better.

Chris Rotio has completed all 149 levels with the help of your codes. I can't believe I did it. I am working on making some new levels for Chip's Challenge II. I have a some good ideas in mind and hope I can put them to use. Thank you for your help!!

Jeffrey Smith has done Chip's three times now. He writes: "My daughter Allyson (now 14) and my sons Graham and Brendan (now 13 and 10) first got me hooked about four years ago when they discovered it and couldn't solve some of the levels. They sort of lost interest, but I completed it. I never did figure out how I got to the upper levels; Graham broke in somehow. I had a different philosophy -- I would never skip a level until I was ready to destroy the computer, they skipped willy nilly whenever they were offered the chance -- but I did get to the end and then gave it no thought for awhile. I next worked through it again about two years ago with a partner of mine at work -- we would swap hints and solutions. My old scores had been wiped out by my kids, but this time around I discovered the restart trick for the first time bonus and so I went for a high score. I don't remember what I got, but I do remember being what I thought was tantalizingly close to six million. Some glitch in my LAN at work, an update to something, wiped out my scores again over a year ago. A couple of months ago, my partner showed me your web page and I got inspired again. I've even started taking the .ini back and forth between home and work and have gotten Graham interested in helping. I'm very intrigued by your "can't get to 6 million" theory, and, since I can't even get to your theoretical 5,967,930, I believe you -- I'm at 5,942,830, struggling to gain a second or two here or there, and, although there are a few maze levels I need to do again with aid of mapped out planning, I don't really see how I can get an extra 25,000, never mind 48,000. The most dramatic score changing hints I got from you were the flippers in Castle Moat (18) and the "skip the chips" evasion in Scoundrel (60). From the site for which you set up the hyperlink, I also learned of the "skip the chips" evasion in Tossed Salad (20). Unless there are more of those kinds of time savers, I don't see how to get to 5967930! Although I must admit I like Adrian and Andrew Smith's idea on your list of having younger fingers go for the speed -- I will enlist my 13 year olds' help when he returns from summer camp. At best, however, that's an average improvement of 1 or 2 seconds per timed level, for a total of only 120 or 240 seconds or, say, 1500 points. Worth going for, but not 25,000. My toughest levels when going for time: Blobnet (23) for timing unpredictability; Refraction (44) and Knot (31) for finger slips; Blockbuster (89) and Goldkey (137) for timing difficulty. General toughest: Spirals (88) I hated it and died a thousand deaths; Torture Chamber (109) the timing at the very end was extraordinarily difficult for me; and, of course, Level XXX. I found Mugger Square (48) very hard to figure out the first time through, also Miss Direction (118). Thanks for reviving an old flame and giving me a target to aim for.

Vicky Eberle has completed all but level 147, with a total score of 5,507,475.

Here is a note from Dave Robinson, a 17 year old who finally completed Chip's Challenge on September 10th 1997. He writes: "I'm based in England (yes, Chip even has fans across the pond). Tough levels? Well, most of the toughies were those that required shoving blocks round all over the place. Level 33 (On The Rocks) comes to mind; I spent ages over that, and also Writer's Block. (level 81). I found level 147 (or XXX) astonishingly easy. Once you've worked out the paths, it's a piece of yes enough said I think. I didn't even need a map. I got seriously miffed off when we had our computer upgraded; Windows 3.1 was removed from the system and replaced with Windows 95. Not too bad, but the ENTPACK.INI was also deleted. 6 months of work obliterated. AAAARRRRGGHH! I've got to 5,918,180 points so far, and working on improving. Oh. and I seriously doubt that 6 million points is at all possible."

From Brad and Gay McCleary: HOORAY, HOORAY, HOORAY!! My wife and I FINALLY accomplished Level 147. You were right about using the map. We figured out the paths to most of the chips on the right hand side. The chip at AC4 we got accidentally; still haven't quite figure that one out. The one at M4 gives us some trouble too. Our total score is 5,907,400 (only 92,600 short of the magic 6,000,000 number). This means I would have to shave 9,260 seconds off my total time for all levels. I don't think this is possible. I'm going to keep working on improving my scores, but I don't think I'll every reach 6,000,000. E-mail me if you know of anyone who has reached that number. I'm waiting for Chip's II.

Chris R Sayles has beaten all 149 with a score of 5,897,500 (so far). He writes: "The hardest levels for me were 141 (Underground) with all of the paramecium and 89 (Block Buster) was just plain annoying with the blocks moving back and forth. The hardest levels to figure out were 52 (The Last Laugh), 149 (Special), and 82 (Socialist Action). 131 (Totally Unfair) was not very hard, since the hint says "Remember SJUM", which is the password of 122, so you know it is basically the same as 122. I found 146 (Cake Walk) and 147 (Force Field) very easy. 147 was hard without a map, but once I made a map, I beat it easily in about 5-10 minutes. Some other levels that were tough were 33 (On the Rocks), 87 (Cityblock), and 118 (Marsh) just because there were so many blocks to move into the water."

Clint and John G. write to say that me and my brother, Clint, have beaten all 149 levels (approx. 85 since I last wrote you). We found 33: On the Rocks, 91: Jumping Swarm, and 141: Underground, the hardest. We found 147: Force Field to be fairly simple even without a map. We have an overall score of 5,311,305, but are working on improving it.

Ruben Spaans writes "that I played through this game ages ago when I first got the game back when it was still quite new. I got to level 144 and completed it except for 4 levels: 88 (Spirals) and 121 (Perfect Match) were among them), and I didn't access the hidden levels at 145-149. Recently I found all those Chip's pages on the internet, and that gave me inspiration to play the game again. During the latest 2 months, I have completed the game again (except level 88) with a score of around 5.880.000, and I am currently playing every level again to improve my scores. Whether or not it's possible to get 6.000.000 I will still try to get as high a score as possible. There are still many long-winded maze-levels on which I haven't even started to improve my score, so still I have hundreds on hundreds (even thousands) of seconds to shave off. I have installed lots of midi-files in the game so I don't even get bored with the music. The hardest level for me was 88 (Spirals) because I haven't beaten it yet Most irritating are 89 (Block Buster) because I always collide with the blocks in the second part of the level and 147 (Force Field) because the force floors worked against me. Most boring was 33 (On the rocks), which even makes 148 (Mind Block) look like an extremely quick level and 136 (Doublemaze) which took me longer to complete than level 33. Levels I found fun and interesting: 146 (Cake Walk), 138 (Partial Post), 38 (Sampler)

Roy Smith finished finally! with the help of a student of his, Doc Sheaffer. Chip's is a great game, we played it all the time.

Jan Brinkman with a score of 3,474,786.

Blanche Aubin - "Finished all except 147 "Force Field", which I plan on completing, with a score of 5,644,754 points. I found 141 "Underground" very frustrating. Twice I had only 1 chip left to get and I got eaten. I could have cried. But all's well that ends well. I enjoy this game very much."

Ulrich Schimke of Goettingen, Germany bought a PC in 1995 (included was MS Ent. Pack 4) After I had discovered CC I played the game for a month. After dinner and after the children were in bed I played the game for hours. I don't know how long in took me, but I completed all the levels (without help or hints !). Then my daughter (she was about 6 years old) started a New Game ....... Aaaaaah, the entpack.ini was lost - I had made no copy. I was so mad at her (Really, no fun!). After a year I decided to do it again. Then believe me or not my daughter started the game again ... now I think about doing it again (79 levels so far) After having contact to the internet I accessed yours and other sites via search engines. CC is the greatest Computer game I know. The last level I made was 147, still one of the most difficult for me. I used to make maps for some difficult levels. Level 91 is still one of my greatest problems, I could make it only once in 20 tries.

Some years ago I bought the MS Entertainment pack containing the CC game. I started and got stuck on level 12 where I was standing until I changed my job to the same place where Åsa Ehinger Berling (#2 in your Hall of Fame) works. She helped me through that level and after that I started to play the game again. Every night after work I was stuck in front of my PC at home. I succeeded to pass some levels almost every night. When I got stuck I replayed the old levels until I got some better times. Nowadays I try to increase my points at least once a day. Last Monday at 11:45 PM I finally passed through level 147 which was my last one. It took about 3 days to pass from start to end (Thank Goodness it is an unlimited time on that level) without ever leaving the game. Finally I found a way to get to the lower left quarter and then to the lower right quarter and finally to the upper right corner. When I found the route to these quarters I had the solution to pass the level. My score so far is 5.890.710 points and I hope to pass 5.900.000 later this week. There are a lot of levels where Åsa has a much better score than I have so there is a lot of room for improvements. Anders Bager.

From Tom Rowe: "Thank you for providing your site on Chip's Challenge. My children introduced me to the game about a year ago and I have been hooked on it since. Your site has provided me with the tips on how to go through all of the levels, which I have finally done. My total score at this time is 4,219,866. Now I can concentrate on getting faster times on these
levels to see if I can increase my score. The level that took me the most attempts to complete was 91 - Jumping Swarm. The only level which I match a high time remaining from your site was level 39 - Glut, which I had 14 seconds remaining. Thanks also for the path to Alice Voith's site which was also very helpful."

My name is Mr. VAIN, I am a science student from Adelaide, Australia and I have just completed Chip's Challenge with a score of 4,763,162. Well those 149 levels were very grueling and when I finished 149 I had an incredible sensation almost better than .... with a lot less guilt (laughs).

At last I did it. Well, I just completed the challenge with a total of 5807944 points (that's of course still improvable....). Three years ago, I started and made it to the end. At least I thought so, because I did not find the extra levels. A week ago I found your website, found my old entpack.ini and started the challenge again. The extra levels were no problem, they are indeed cakewalks. But I had skipped 24 levels. With new courage I tried to conquer... until six levels remained. Here, I really needed your tips and tricks. I had no idea how to make 'The last laugh'. 'Block Buster' was terrible difficult, because on my old computer the blocks do not move smoothly but somewhat jerkily. It is discouraging when you have to make a long walk and then get stuck at the last block. (Small tip for alllevel.txt: In the ice-area, touch the block in the bottom-row from below, that will stop it and you have only 3 blocks to beat). 'Jumping swarm' with your starting sequence this was no problem. After 90 minutes of try and death, I made it. 'Goldkey' Using the editor I created a level where I could start just at the force floors. (I used this only for training, of course!) After a couple of training rounds I got the rhythm and toggled to an original version, where I had made it already just behind the four doors. 'Paranoia'. I still don't understand why the second tank stops at the left side, when treated as you told me. 'Perfect match' Here the strategy is clear, but I was unable to realize it. So I tried the aggressive method I found in alllevel.txt: to multiply the fire balls till they get stuck... that works fine: the inner ring needs only a few extra fire balls. Nevertheless, the Challenge was mostly fun. I liked the logical levels best, because I am interested in math. For some levels it would have been great, to save them after you made them to the half. It's annoying if you have an easy but long way to come near the end, and in the last steps you are confronted with some try-and-error-task. Perhaps that's an idea for CC2.0, of course such an option must be disabled for some levels. Well, I am quite happy now and would like to ask, whether I could be placed on your nice hall-of-fame-site. Bye Bye Ben. [Benjamin Friedrich (19), Germany,
benjamin.friedrich@mathematik.uni-rostock.de]

From Harrison Pollock and his Dad on May 17, 1999. My son Harrison, now aged 8½, started playing Chip's Challenge about a year and a half ago. He got me involved at one of the early levels (we disagree on which one) and we were both hooked. Harrison completed most of the levels, only to see his scores erased 3 times by others playing the game. Nevertheless, we persevered right to the end, scoring 4,608,745 points. In reading about others in the Hall of Fame, we noticed that our most difficult levels were rarely mentioned - On the Rocks (33), Morton (73), Oversea Delivery (115) and Block and Roll (126). Chip's Challenge is an absolutely enchanting game, elegantly combining manual dexterity, creativity and logic. It also teaches you perseverance and shows you that, no matter how difficult the puzzle, there is always a solution. Some of the levels like Apartment (101) and Short Circuit (105) proved disappointing as the only way to solve them was to make a map or follow your instructions. We have a lot of favourite levels. Some of them are Knot (31), Nightmare (70), Scoundrel (60), Victim (66) and Playhouse (90). I think we're both suffering from withdrawal symptoms, and we're anxiously awaiting the sequel.