Ask Game Publisher for Chip's Challenge 2

To get information about Chip's Challenge 2, and to encourage the publisher that there is a viable market for the game, please send e-mail to chips2info@ledeffects.com. Your e-mail will be forwarded to the publisher.

Current Version: v3.11 6/22/98

View README
View CHANGES
View REPAIRS.TXT CC Bug Fixes by Don Gregory
E-mail publisher - Ask for CC-2!(See below)

New Features in V3: Scroll bars added to map and piece palette windows; Cut and Paste Map Section; Cut and Paste one or more levels; Clear and Fill Selected Area commands.

Chip's Challenge is a popular game included in the Windows Entertainment Pack. Now you can create your own Chip's Challenge levels or you can modify the levels in the original game. The editor also allows you to print level maps, and to display concealed walls and buried objects.

NOTE: Chip's Challenge is copyrighted software sold in Windows Entertainment Pack #4; it is also included in the Best of Microsoft Entertainment Pack - still carried by CompUSA as of 6/30/98. It is illegal to distribute the software freely via the Internet, but you may be able to purchase the software online at

http://shop.microsoft.com . Search for "Entertainment Pack".

No, I cannot send you Chip's Challenge.

This site has NO information about the levels, passwords, hints, or the data file format. Other people have already done a pretty good job with that; for the data file layout see Greg Heier's site (the sleuthing actually appears to have been done mostly by < anonymous > I have not solved any of the remaining mysteries identified there). Passwords to the levels are also posted there. For descriptions of each level and solutions please visit Richard Field's Chip's Challenge Level Solutions Page . Online maps with embedded solutions are provided at the "Fish-of-Gold" [CC] Pages. I have posted a file by Don Gregory, who has looked into some of the Clone Machine and Trap bugs in the game and offers solutions for fixing them. Click here to see this file.

For those who keep tabs on such things, I have solved all of the levels; I found level 91 ("JUMPING SWARM") by far the hardest; and level 144 ("FIREFLY") was my favorite - and not because it was the "last" level.

The .ZIP file which downloads the editor includes a help file. You are advised before you begin editting to back up your existing CHIPS.DAT file.

I ask anyone who downloads this file to please send me e-mail. It is completely free; I'm just interested in knowing who is using the editor and what sort of success (or problems) they have had (and where you're from!). I'm good about replying to problems, and it's the e-mail people who got me to add Cut/Paste, something I had no plans to do on my own.

The editor does permit construction of levels which do not obey the apparent conventions of Chip's Challenge levels. For example, the editor will allow bombs to be placed under water. The game engine does not handle all such situations effectively, however. Brown blocks pushed into such "mined" waters will produce a bomb underneath Chip when he "packs" the dirt; if he comes back he gets blown up. But Chip can swim through the water without being harmed (the bombs will disappear, as shown by trying to push a brown block onto the square AFTER you've swum through it). The editor is initially configured to block unconventional layouts (with warnings), but the both warnings and the blocking may be disabled by menu options.

WARNING: Please make a backup copy of your CHIPS.DAT and CHIPS.EXE files. I cannot send copies of these files to users who inadvertently deleted them.

Instructions and Download Page

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Contents:

               Notes and Tips

               Playtest Setup and Usage

               Running Under Windows 3.1

               Known Bugs

               Future Work Items

               Reporting Problems

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes and tips:

Starting CHIPEDIT for the first time

If you start CHIPEDIT.EXE and do not specify a file, you must either

open a file with the FILE/OPEN menu option or use FILE/NEW to set up

a new data file.  The editor does not start a file for you by

default.

PLEASE do read at least the first HELP page or two; although some of

the help items are incomplete they are for the fairly basic dialogs;

the general information in HELP is fairly complete and accurate.

Windows 3.1 Users need to get the Win32s version of Help; search

the web for PW1118.EXE.

Putting pieces on the map

Do not drag pieces onto the map from the piece window!  Rather, click

on a piece, then click over the squares on the map where you wish to

place them.  This is explained in HELP.

What is CHIPEDIT.INI?

CHIPEDIT.INI is a file which the editor writes when it exits.  The

file contains state information such as the file you were working in,

the level you were working on, and the value of the check options.

The next time you start CHIPEDIT, CHIPEDIT.INI will be read and your

state will be restored.  CHIPEDIT.INI also contains other options

which tell it where to find files relevant to Playtesting, features

to enable or pesky warnings to disable, and other user-configurable

information.  The .INI file parameters are documented in the help

file.

Where is CHIPEDIT.INI found?

CHIPEDIT.INI is read from the directory which contains CHIPEDIT.EXE,

regardless of your working directory.  When CHIPEDIT exits,

CHIPEDIT.INI is written to the same directory.

Using Multiple OSs

If your system is dual-boot and you use CHIPEDIT on multiple OSs, the

same CHIPEDIT.INI file will be used.  One of the options which can be

set up in CHIPEDIT.INI is where to find the ENTPACK.INI file for

Playtesting.  The option is ENTPKINI_DIR.  If you run Chip's

Challenge on multiple OSs, each version may read a different

ENTPACK.INI file, in the appropriate system directory for each OS.

It is no longer necessary to specify ENTPKINI_DIR in the CHIPEDIT.INI

file if ENTPACK.INI is in the default location on Windows NT or

Windows 95.  There is no default location on Windows 3.1, so it must

be specified for that OS.

If you must use multiple OSs, and if you wish to use Playtest, you

may need multiple copies of CHIPEDIT.EXE in separate directories,

each with its own CHIPEDIT.INI, in order to insure that each reads

the appropriate value for ENTPKINI_DIR.  If you are running only

Windows NT and Windows 95, you may not need 2 copies if ENTPACK.INI

is in the system directories; you can just leave ENTPKINI_DIR out of

the CHIPEDIT.INI file/.

If you have a choice of operating systems - and are willing to choose

one, run the editor under Windows NT.  The bitmap scaling feature of

WinNT handles changing the size (so you can fit a whole map on the

screen) much better than Windows 95.  Even the Windows 3.1 scaled

images look better than Windows 95.

Shrinking the Palette Window Tiles

NEW: You can adjust the size of the Palette window tiles with '(' and ')'.

There is no menu item to choose a particular scale.

THANKS!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Playtest Setup and Usage

"Playtest" is the ability to start Chip's Challenge from within the editor.

to test your level.

The editor writes your data file to a CHIPS.DAT file, writes a

startup state to ENTPACK.INI, and runs Chip's Challenge on your test

level.

On Windows 95 and Windows 3.1, the system call which invokes Playtest

do not wait for the Chip's Challenge process to complete; on Windows

NT it does.  Because Chip's Challenge saves .INI file information,

Playtest posts a dialog to pause itself until you have terminated the

playtest session.  If you press OK in the dialog before terminating

the playtest, you may lose all of your high scores.  The editor does

provide the option of making a backup copy of your high scores, but

it does not know if the data file contains real data or data from a

previous playtest session.

To those users of version 2.02 who may have lost their high scores before I

discovered this problem, I humbly apologize.

There appears to be a bug triggered by Playtesting which causes the

redraw system routines to update the top left corner of the screen,

rather than the top left corner of the editor window.  Switching out

of the editor and back in, or minimizing and re-entering the editor

seem to cause the window to resume updating correctly.  This only seems

to occur when the scale is larger than 32.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Running Under Windows 3.1

Chip's Challenge Editor seems to be happy only if it is the only process

running.  Running another program in a different window can hang both windows

(generally recoverable with CTRL-ALT-DEL - delete either process).  The

problem seems more pronounced with other Win32s applications, although

the SOL.EXE which ships with Windows 3.1 is a 16-bit app and exhibits the

problem.

Playtest is not working under Windows 3.1, due to the problem above.

The menu item is disabled by default.

Some print drivers hang when printing.  The results I have seen:

* Panasonic KX-P 1124 (dot matrix BW printer) works

* Epson Stylus 800 works if printing B&W

* Epson Stylus 800 prints a map but the tiles are corrupted.  It takes

  a long time and may appear to be hung.

The help file is 32-bit help and there are no plans to make WinHelp

work in Windows 3.1; the Help Compiler I have only generates WINHLP32

files.  You need to get the Win32S version of WinHelp to view help;

search the web for PW1118.EXE.

There still are some stability problems.  Save early and often, and do

not run other applications in other windows while running the editor.

I am not able to effectively debug the program in Windows - I have to

reboot to Windows NT, build, reboot to Windows, and I can't use a

debugger to look at the internal state of things so everything has to

be checked with MessageBox.  This is extremely time-consuming and the

programmers among you will realize that this is simply not reasonable.

I am aware of many of the problems.  If you have the opportunity to

use the editor on Windows NT and 95, please do so.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Known Problems:  [Windows 3.1 only problems not included here]

Color Printing works on my Epson Stylus 800 under Windows NT 4.0, but

not under Windows 95.

Clone buttons and machines may be properly connected, yet the game may still

fail to release certain monsters when the clone machine's red button is

pressed.  This is a problem in Chip's Challenge, not the editor; for an

example please play level 135, "Trust Me".  It isn't supposed to be as

easy as it turns out to be.  There is a similar problem with traps.

When the scale is larger than 32 and Playtesting occurs, the editor may

update the top left corner of the screen instead of the top left corner

of the editor map window.  Generally minimizing and reopening the editor

will fix the problem, and you will have to cover all of the other affected

windows to get them to repaint themselves.  This does not seem to occur if

the scale is 32 or less.

When you finish level 149, you get a fancy animation sequence indicating

you have finished the game.  This is regardless of the number of levels

actually in the CHIPS.DAT file you are playing.  You can jump to levels

beyond 149 with "Goto Level".  If the number of levels is other than 149

the game does not handle "finishing" the last level very well: you get

a "missing or corrupt data file" message.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Future Work Items:

The Windows PRINT dialog has a scale option which is ignored.  [29]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reporting Problems and Comments:

Please send comments and report problems to elion@wssnet.com.  If you

are reporting a software bug, please include the following:

1.  Basic description of problem

2.  The data file you started with (zipped if possible).  If you

started with a new data file please indicate how many levels you

created.  This is very important; I am able to decode the data file

outside the editor to see if it has been corrupted; this HAS been

very helpful.

3.  The series of steps you took to see this problem.  (Can YOU

reproduce the problem by starting with the data file and following

this series of steps?  If not, then I probably won't be able to,

either.)

4.  The version of Chip's Challenge Editor as reported in the About

Box.  I do keep old versions and their source so I can verify

problems.

5.  The operating system on which you are running the editor,

including version and any service packs or updates you may have

installed.  (i.e., Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT 3.51 Service

Pack 3, Windows NT 4.0)

I appreciate all comments and problem reports and will usually make

an effort to fix them; I will reply to confirm that I have reproduced

your bug and let you know when a fix is available.  Comments do make a

difference; I never had any intention of implementing scroll bars, they

were added solely as a result of numerous requests.

==============================================================================

Changes in v3.10

The backspace key (or Ctrl/H) now removes the tile(s) under the cursor,

replacing them with floor. Multiple such replacements are grouped and

can be undone as though they were one change. Help has not yet been

completed for the new feature.

UNDO is no longer enabled when you first enter a level.

The page up/page down vertical scroll feature of the map window used

the horizontal window size to determine the adjustment, resulting in

odd scrolling behavior if the map window was not square. The other

scrolling mechanisms in vertical scrolling worked properly. This

has been corrected; scrolling behavior SHOULD scroll one "screenful"

minus one line. i.e., on a scroll down, the bottom line will normally

become the top line; this "overlap" is intended to provide a visual cue

to your relative movement. (Thanks for your persistence, Don.)

Scrolling *generally* snaps the map so that the top left corner is on

a square corner boundary. Situations where this does not happen is

when you scroll to right or bottom edge, or where the map window is

smaller than one tile in width or height.

Tiles "Gravel" and "Dirt" can be buried, so that Chip may be placed

on top of them to start.

==============================================================================

Changes in v3.03

Added prompt for certain accelerators missing from the menus.

Added missing accelerators to the Help file

"About" in version 3.02 reported 3.00(1726).

Most recent change did not survive Playtest for Undo.

Added information about teleports to the FAQ.

==============================================================================

Changes in v3.02

Certain tile checks were incorrect. In particular, the editor would not

permit you to:

* bury the exit square

* bury the floor tiles which is blocked "SE".

* bury blue floor tiles

* bury water tiles

* bury ice tiles

* conceal non-floor tiles under Chip.

You could work around this by turning off CHECK, but the Information Window

still reported these combinations as "INVALID".

Extension .DAT defaulted in File/Open and File/Save dialog. The

Open/Save dialog handles the error without ending if an invalid path

is specified.

Alt-P accelerator was fixed to invoke Playtest.

==============================================================================

Changes in v3.01

Corrected Options menu item listing: '1' and '2' were reversed. To preserve

order of numbers, menu items were also switched.

"Cancel" in the Confirm/Lose Changes dialog (which appears during an Exit,

Open, or New when the current file has been changed) caused the current level

to be erased due to an interaction with code under development. This has

been fixed.

==============================================================================

Changes in v3.00

Added Scroll bars to the Map Window.

Added Scroll bars to the Pallette Window and permit dynamic rescaling

with '(' and ')'. (No, I didn't add Scroll bars to the Info window!)

Added items to the Edit menu:

Renamed UNDO to REVERT: Still reverts to the way the level was when it was

last entered and it still has the same restrictions.

Added UNDO; most of the ways a level can be changed provide for a copy of

the level to be saved as editted before the change is made; UNDO restores

the level to the saved copy. UNDO only works 1 back 1 step; multiple UNDO

is not supported. The following operations can be undone: tile placement

(single mouse click or mouse sweep count as one placement); Connect,

Disconnect, Cut Map Section, Paste Map Section, Erase, Fill, Properties.

Undo, Order, New Level, Delete Levels, Cut This Level, Cut Multiple Levels,

and Paste Levels cannot be undone.

Added SELECT to select a map section for Cut, Copy, Erase, and Fill

Implemented CUT to cut a map section selected with SELECT. Moving monsters

and trap and clone machine connections completely contained within a selection

are included in the CUT. CUT tiles are replaced with empty floor tiles.

Implemented COPY identical to CUT except selected tiles are not replaced with

empty floor.

Added CLEAR to replace tiles in a map section, selected with SELECT, with

empty floor tiles.

Added FILL to replace tiles in a map section, selected with SELECT, with the

currently selected tile.

Added Cut This Level to copy the entire level to the clipboard and delete it.

Added Copy This Level to copy the entire level to the clipboard.

Added Cut Levels to raise a dialog with a listbox of all the levels (similar

to order). Multiple levels can be selected; all the levels are posted to the

clipboard and then they are deleted.

Added Copy Levels identical to Cut Levels except the levels are not deleted.

Added Paste. Paste is enabled either when the clipboard contains a map

section (Paste Map Section) or one or more complete levels (Paste Levels).

The various Cut and Paste operations and Erase and Fill are disabled when

the file is READONLY.

.INI file option CB_NEWPASS=0 to paste levels without changing the password.

Changed some accelerators so ^C (formerly Connect), ^X (formerly Exit), and

^V conform to Copy/Cut/Paste of other Windows applications; Connect changed

to Alt-C and Disconnect to Alt-D.

CHIPEDIT no longer disables Help for Windows. A Win32S help engine is

available off the Internet; search for "PW1118.EXE". The HTM file will

no longer be released with CHIPEDIT.

Modified map window display further: a bitmap is maintained the same size

as the map window, to which redraw operations are performed. Then the

backup bitmap is rendered to the map window in one fell swoop - this

makes the redraw appear more smooth.

Corrected the spelling of PALETTE throughout the code; the PALLETTE_SCALE

option is now (correctly) spelled PALETTE_SCALE.

Added Select All and Unselect All buttons to the Select Levels dialog.

Process the system CLOSE messages so that clicking on the X, selecting Close

from the system menu, or pressing Alt-F4 will raise a dialog allowing you to

save changes before exitting.

==============================================================================

Changes in v2.25 (not released)

New and Delete level menu items now affect the changed flag; if you

exit after using these options you will be prompted to save unsaved

changes.

Fixed color printing. (For those who are interested, the problem was that

while a black-and-white bitmap is compatible with most printers, the bitmap

used to draw on a color printer must be created by (to be compatible with)

the printer (device context). All printing (color and BW) will not work if

the printer's device driver does not support StretchBlt (as reported by

Windows' GetDeviceCaps function).

Fixed a scaling problem: at larger scales, if the Top Left Corner was

away from 0, 0, then when you scale down the top left corner doesn't change

and even though the map fits, the same few squares are displayed even though

there may be plenty of room for the whole map. Now, as you reduce scale,

the top left corner is moved if there is room for more squares.

Modified tile display algorithms to substantially reduce overhead; this

is not noticeable in screen printing but made a dramatic difference in

color printing at higher resolutions.

==============================================================================

Changes in v2.24

Removed piece number from information window, since some vital piece

information (monster direction) doesn't fit. Need to revisit this

with a smaller or selectable font.

Allowed CHIP - X (where X is any direction) to be placed on the map

without error checking disabled. One CHIP of any direction is required,

but it turns out that a piece other than CHIP - S can be used to start a

level.

Fixed two bugs in Summary generation: The title of the dialog box is

"Summary" instead of "Save As", and the summary subroutine no longer

clears the Changed flag (as it shouldn't). Unfortunately, this was

found by someone who inadvertently clicked SUMMARY instead of SAVE AS.

Since the CHANGED flag was cleared the editor allowed the user to exit

without having saved his data file.

Lowered the default Autosave count from 1000 to 100.

==============================================================================

Changes in v2.23

Some of the tile names had incorrect directional suffixes. Fixed force field

and clone movable block names.

Information window displays (current) hex piece number as well as piece name.

Hex piece number corresponds to position in pallette grid. With the new piece

dialog it's not terribly useful to most users, but may at the very least help

catch additional piece name errors.

If a filename was specified on the command line, and the filename included

either a "\" or ":" character (drive or path specifier), then CHIPEDIT.INI

would not be able to find the .INI file. This has been fixed. (Use

GetModuleFileName instead of GetCommandLine.)

==============================================================================

Changes in v2.22

If neither CHIPSEXE_FILE nor OS was specified in the CHIPEDIT.INI file, then

the default value for CHIPSEXE_FILE was computed before the operating system

was established. This caused a program assertion to fail, so that CHIPEDIT

would start with an "abort/retry/ignore" dialog. The error was ignorable, but

this has now been fixed.

Used SHELLEXECUTE to start Playtest session in Windows 3.1.

Renamed Chip Editor menu from CHIPMENU to CHIPEDITMENU.

==============================================================================

Changes in v2.21

Disabled BACKUP after first playtest.

If ENTPKINI_BACKUP starts with other than A: or B:, do not prompt for

a floppy in Drive A.

Fixed sense of PLAYTEST_WARN test in Playtest() function; it was

reversed.

==============================================================================

Changes in v2.20

After discovering that "_spawnl" does not work on Windows 3.1, it was

changed back to "_system". Then it was discovered that "system"

doesn't "wait" for the Chip's Challenge game to end before the

Playtest routine resumes, restoring ENTPACK.INI and risking user data

loss.

The following was added:

* OS - parameter to specify an operating system, so different code

paths could be specified (WinNT works, why make it worse for the

user?)

* ENTPKINI_BACKUP - file to back ENTPACK.INI to

* Menu options to explicitly create and restore a backup of

ENTPACK.INI * Moved Playtest to same Menu Bar menu as these options

* Require backup on Win95 and Win3.1. Let user restore prior to exit.

* Use _system to spawn test process on Win95, _spawnl on Win3.1 and

WinNT.

* PLAYTEST_WARN defined to defeat warnings. Someone doing a lot of

playtesting (like ME, during testing) will not want to see the

warnings every time, if they know they have a good backup.

==============================================================================

Changes in v2.10

If CHIPEDIT.INI does not set CHIPSEXE_FILE, it automatically searches

for C:\WEP, D:\WEP, and E:\WEP in that order upon startup. If

CHIPEDIT.INI does not set ENTPKINI_FILE, it automatically searches

%SystemRoot%. Assumed values are not saved. Users who accept

standard setup parameters when installing software need not set up

playtesting.

Debug version no longer automatically opens CHIPEDIT.LOG on startup;

waits until first write, in case there are none.

Fixed bug generating name of .INI file from 2.02.

Used _spawnl instead of system RTL function to invoke Chip's

Challenge subprocess during playtest. This gets rid of the

unnecessary DOS box which system generates to "type" the Chip's

command.

CHIPSEXE_FILE is a required CHIPEDIT.INI file parameter. It

specifies where CHIPS.EXE lives. It is no longer necessary to copy

CHIPS.EXE (or the WEP Utility DLLs) to the Playtest directory.

Now that the editor uses %TEMP%, the editor will overwrite CHIPS.DAT

without warning. If the user installed the Windows Entertainment

Pack in his %TEMP% directory then losing CHIPS.DAT will be the least

of his problems. HOWEVER: The editor does currently delete CHIPS.DAT

from the temporary directory when it is done. It could leave it in

case the user fails to save his changes; or, leaving stuff in the

temp directory is considered bad programming practice. There are

enough safeguards in place that the user's changes are not likely to

be lost unless he wants them to.

PLAYTEST_DIR is now obsolete. The previous change left the temporary

copy of CHIPS.DAT as the sole file in the Playtest directory, so it

is simply saved in the directory referred to by the environment

variable %TEMP%. This is a system variable, but if it is not

specified then %TMP% is used. If %TMP% is not specified then

Playtesting will fail.

If PLAYTEST_DIR is specified, an informational message appears

alerting the user that PLAYTEST_DIR is being removed from the .INI

file (it will simply not be written when the editor exits). The user

may delete the directory if he created a temporary playtest directory

for a previous version.

Instead of raising a fatal error, Playtest will ask the user if it

may overwrite a CHIPS.DAT or ENTPACK.CED file it has found. The

default is NO (the safer reply); but the user can choose YES and

allow playtest to continue.

==============================================================================

Changes in v2.02

.INI file read from CHIPEDIT.EXE directory rather than working directory.

==============================================================================

Changes in v2.01

Added HELP buttons to the dialogs. (HELP button not seen in NT 3.51,

not sure about Win95). On all platforms, F1 now works to bring up

context-specific help.

==============================================================================

Changes in v2.00

Dialog to allow you to re-arrange levels. Includes Insert Level,

Delete Level, and Properties, as well as Clone and Renumber. You can

back out of ALL changes made during the Order dialog with Escape -

including those made in the Properties subdialog. [7]

Make RENUMBER adjust level names of the form "Level ###" to correspond

to the actual number of the level.

Properties dialog: Generate random passwords for new levels. [37]

Added documentation of .INI file switches to the help file.

File Menu: Generate summary files. [36]

File Menu: NEW prompts for a number of new levels to create. [4]

Properties dialog: Generate LEVEL ## names for new levels. [38]

Open File: Read READONLY attribute from file [30]

Piece Dialog: The Select Piece dialog would not permit you to set a

piece number higher than the current level. The Set Scale dialog

behaved the same way. Alternative methods to adjust these values did

exist. These problems have been fixed. The Select Piece dialog has,

however, been superseded by a dialog which allows you to select a

piece by name. [31]

Piece Dialog: Displays selected piece bitmap along with name in dialog.

Open/Save File: Added status checks to I/O operations in Open and Save

routines. Previously the only type of file read or save error had

been a bad file name or directory. [32]

An error message is generated when a file read or file save fails. [33]

Level Menu: The Level Menu options are grayed:

1) NEW is grayed when there are MAX_LEVELS (currently 256) levels present

2) DELETE is grayed when there are 0 levels present

3) NEXT is grayed when the current level is the last level (unchanged)

4) PREV is grayed when the current level is the first level (unchanged)

5) GOTO is grayed when there is less than 2 levels.

6) PROPERTIES is grayed when there are 0 levels present.

7) ORDER is always enabled (since you can create levels in this dialog

8) PLAYTEST is enabled when there is at least 1 level.

[34]

.INI File: The readonly status of a file is now saved in the .INI file.

If the file is protected (has read permission but not write permission)

it will be treated as read-only but this status will not be recorded

in the .INI file. If a file is specified on the command line it is

assumed to be writable. [39]

Levels Menu: The PLAYTEST feature was written. [41]

File Menu: The SAVE menu item is grayed (disabled) when a file is

READONLY. The SAVE AS option can still be used. [35]

The SAVE AS dialog has a readonly option which is ignored. When

SAVE AS is used, the readonly status of the file is changed to the

value of the check box in the SAVE AS dialog. SAVE AS can be used

to save a read only file to a new file name, thereby enabling

edits. [40]

NEW:

Implemented autosave.

The current piece is saved in the .INI file.

Options Menu: Added READONLY to the options menu, allowing you to

begin (or stop) changing a read-only file. The SAVE menu item is

disabled while a read-only file edit is in progress, even if the user

unchecks the read-only menu item. This forces the user to use SAVE AS

to specify a filename.

Dialogs (general): Added HELP buttons to most of the dialogs.

Exit: SAVE AS dialog appears if the file was marked READ ONLY and you

choose YES when, on exit, the dialog to Save Changes appears. If you

cancel from that dialog or if the SAVE fails, you do not exit.

Properties dialog: Implemented NEW (Password) button.

Properties/Order dialogs: Disabled OK for read-only files.

There is currently no way to add a level after the last level. [15]

If an editting session is ended while viewing a read-only file, the

next session will start with the same file but it will not be marked

as read-only. [6]

READONLY attribute is not working on level menu options.

RENUMBER button in order dialog should only be enabled when changes

have been made since the last renumber. Properties changes do not

enable RENUMBER because it does not change the order of the underlying

levels. [28]

==============================================================================

Changes in v1.04

Fixed crash when a monster was replaced on a level with >64 monsters. [42]

Reset limits for monsters to 255/2, traps to 255/10, and clones to 255/8,

the architectural limits of the data file. Limits were 128 for each, this

caused ASSERT and corrupt data files. [43]

==============================================================================

Changes in v1.03

The release version no longer creates a file called CHIPEDIT.LOG. [27]

The information window is now updated when accelerators or keystroke-

mouse commands were used to change levels. (i.e., a mouse movement

event did not occur). [26]

DELETE_LEVEL caused an assert if you tried to delete a level after all

the levels had been deleted. If you tried again it crashed. For now,

DELETE_LEVEL will not operate if there are 0 levels; in the future

DELETE_LEVEL will be disabled when there are 0 levels and INSERT_LEVEL

will be disabled when there are MAX_LEVELS (currently 256 - I have not

investigated what the game engine does with a dat file with more than

150 levels.) [23]

When an .INI file containing a filename with embedded spaces was read

(i.e., "C:\My Documents\Chips.Dat"), it truncated the filename at the

space character and would not open the file. Then, when CHIPEDIT exitted,

it wrote a new .INI file with "C:\My" as the filename. This has been

fixed. [5]

The "Print To File" checkbox in the Print dialog had no effect.

It has been fixed so that the system will prompt you to for a filename

(i.e., fixed rather than disabled). [21]

The information window is now updated when a Connect is completed. [25]

The caption of the SELECT PIECE dialog was corrected. [19]

Labelled the current coordinates and added Top Left Corner to the Info

display. Also, the current piece has a text label for its name. The

arrangement of the items was adjusted to accomodate the new fields. [22]

Added an option PALLETTE_SCALE to the .INI file configuration items, and

a corresponding field to the options structure. The Information Window

will print the bitmap to this scale; users can set the value down if

the image will not fit on their screen. [20]

When "-" is used to shrink the scale, previous versions left remnants

of the larger scale bitmap when the map shrunk so that its bottom or

right edge fit within the map window. This has been fixed. [18]

==============================================================================

Changes in v1.02

The editor now writes CHIPEDIT.INI to the initial working directory

(working directory at program start), even if the actual working

directory changes due to activity in the Windows Open File or Save

File dialogs. [16]

The editor does not read filenames with embedded space characters

from CHIPEDIT.INI. [5?]

Added filters (*.dat, *.*) to the Open and Save File dialogs. [14]

The arrow keys now are repeatable. [process keydown messages

instead of keyup messages for arrow keys]. [8]

When scrolling occurs, the current coordinates displayed in the

info window are now updated to reflect the fact that the map has moved

underneath the mouse. This also happens when the scale is changed with

'+' and '-'. [13]

The password edit control converts all characters to uppercase

as they are typed. This should avoid assertions for entering lower

case letters. Deleted code for fix for bug 10. [11]

The Properties dialog does not accept titles or hints longer than

255 characters. You will not be able to press OK if the hint or title

is too long. Note that these limits are absolute limits due to the

layout of the data file; the practical limits are actually much lower. [12]

The command line was not being read properly. Now when a file

name is specified on the command line, it is accepted and the filename

and level specified in the CHIPEDIT.INI file is ignored. [14]

The password edit control converts all characters to uppercase

when the dialog is dismissed with OK. [10]

Thanks to Brandon Kirsch and Steven Renich for their help catching the

bugs in the early released. Steven has also submitted suggestions

for future improvements.

==============================================================================

Changes in v1.01

The about box identifies the version number, so that (with more

than one version now floating around) I can identify whether a problem

has been fixed or go back to a particular version to confirm a

problem. [1]

The "current piece" remains displayed in the information window even

when the mouse is not over a map tile.

FILE/NEW now automatically creates the first level for you. [4]

There was a problem with FILE/NEW and FILE/OPEN in that it

disabled the menu commands which make changes when the file was

write-enabled and enabled the menu commands when the file was

read-only. For changing existing files, you could save the file and

re-start, since CHIPEDIT reloads the file you last worked on but does

not restore the READONLY bit. The menu commands are now correctly

grayed when a file is read-only; the read-only bit is still not

restored when a session is restarted. (It's nice to have a workaround

when one is necessary.) [3]

The sequence of steps to connect a trap button to a trap was not

working after the trap button was selected. [2]

The Piece menu commands have been assigned keyboard accelerators:

Connect=CTRL-C, Disconnect=CTRL-D, Select Tile=CTRL-T.