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LTTP LTTP: Chip's Challenge

(Late to the party)

Abzeronow

Koopa
Pronouns
he/him
For the last few weeks I've been playing through the Evercade's Atari Lynx collections and have been mostly underwhelmed especially by what Songbird Productions put on the first collection. Things started to look up when I got to the Epyx developed stuff. Played through the first 10 levels of Chip's Challenge for the Lynx today and well, this one is a keeper. This was a 1989 launch title for the Lynx which unfortunately got overshadowed and outsold by the Game Boy (which was economical as far as battery life and hardy as a brick) and the Game Gear (that SEGA attitude and cache really helped it although it sold nowhere near the Game Boy). Chip's Challenge is a puzzle game, it has some actiony stuff and some things where you essentially have to do the Sokoban thing and push boxes to advance.

I had heard this was good before but playing it I definitely got hooked into it very quickly trying to safely collect each chip and exit. Chuck Sommerville definitely created something special here, and I'm glad that it picked up an audience after the Lynx died off. I do like some other Sokoban inspired puzzle games like the Adventures of Lolo, but Chip's Challenge has also definitely made my Top 10 favorite puzzle games list. So anybody else here on Famiboards like this game?
 
In my QBASIC programming class back in high school, we all installed Chip's Challenge, JezzBall, and DX Ball on the computer lab PCs and played those nonstop when the teacher wasn't looking (which was all the time). All time greats, Chip for Smash Bros!
 
I actually had a Lynx lol So the system was definitely not that great but it did have some really good games, Chip’s Challenge being one of them. I played the heck of it back in the day and it was just a blast to play through. Some really clever and fun puzzles in there. I was thinking the other day I really wanted to replay this game, but I don’t have my Lynx anymore, but I may get it for another console.

Lynx did have a few games I really enjoyed.

Nina Gaiden, which was a pretty good port of the arcade game.

Batman Returns, a side scrolling brawler.

Todd’s Adventure in Slime World (personal fave)

California Games for quick arcade fun.

Xenophobe, a really solid port of the arcade game.

Warbirds, a dog fighting game Red Baron style.
 
Like a lot of people, my first exposure to Chip's Challenge was from the Entertainment Pack for the Windows, which was essentially the best game of the collection because it has a lot of uniquely-designed levels compared to the rest, which either are arcade-like (have progressively difficult stages in a set layout) or don't have a lot of layouts. Much later on there was a free alternative called Tile World which is basically Chip's Challenge but it has the option to use the Lynx ruleset, which as I discovered was pretty different from the Windows one. For one, movement in the Lynx format is smoother so it's easier to gauge movement. It's a good thing that the Steam version of the first Chip's Challenge is based on the Lynx version, as while it's used the Chip's Challenge 2 engine, it's still faithful and uses the first game's mechanics. Some of the levels are, as a result, not broken by the bugs found in the Windows version.

Speaking of that, Chip's Challenge 2 finally had a release (on Steam), and what is basically different with that game is how much variety for the elements there are. This allows for more compact levels and may possibly be the reason that Chuck's Challenge also have levels that are small, since with so many elements a large level is not a necessity, unlike the first Chip's Challenge. That game is also more complex because not only do you have many types of items like the helmet (shields players from monster), there is inventory management and swappable characters, which essentially upped the complexity.

Thank you for reading.
 
I actually had a Lynx lol So the system was definitely not that great but it did have some really good games, Chip’s Challenge being one of them. I played the heck of it back in the day and it was just a blast to play through. Some really clever and fun puzzles in there. I was thinking the other day I really wanted to replay this game, but I don’t have my Lynx anymore, but I may get it for another console.

Lynx did have a few games I really enjoyed.

Nina Gaiden, which was a pretty good port of the arcade game.

Batman Returns, a side scrolling brawler.

Todd’s Adventure in Slime World (personal fave)

California Games for quick arcade fun.

Xenophobe, a really solid port of the arcade game.

Warbirds, a dog fighting game Red Baron style.
Todd's Adventure in Slime World is also on the same Evercade cart (Atari Lynx Collection 2). I'll let you know if I enjoy it. I've played California Games already, BMX is kinda fun, Surfing might be a little better than the same on T & C Surf Designs for the NES. I've seen footage of Xenophobe for the Lynx and it looks like a better arcade port than the NES version which I didn't really enjoy as a kid.
 
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I have a complete Lynx Collection apart from some homebrew which only had a release of about five copies.

Never really got into Chip's Challenge. I like the idea but the overall execution wasn't that much fun.

Rampart
Zarlor Mercenary
Warbirds
Alpine Games
California Games
Battlezone
Raiden
Rygar
Hydra
Hard Drivin

Those are all worth a play.
 
Wow, what a throwback. My grandparents had like 50 games on their old Windows desktop and I have dozens of cousins and every time we visited them we’d go through so many of those games. We all loved Chip’s Challenge but I don’t think we ever beat it. Great memories.
Like a lot of people, my first exposure to Chip's Challenge was from the Entertainment Pack for the Windows,
Did the entertainment have tons and tons of games? Wondering if that’s what my grandparents random cache of games was. No disc, they were all loaded on the drive
 
Wow, what a throwback. My grandparents had like 50 games on their old Windows desktop and I have dozens of cousins and every time we visited them we’d go through so many of those games. We all loved Chip’s Challenge but I don’t think we ever beat it. Great memories.

Did the entertainment have tons and tons of games? Wondering if that’s what my grandparents random cache of games was. No disc, they were all loaded on the drive
There are two Entertainment Packs with this game: one is the 4th Entertainment Pack, and the other is the "Best of" which contains more games across the entire series.

Entertainment Pack 4 contains the following (besides Chip's Challenge):
  • Chess (Self-explanatory)
  • Dr. Black Jack (basically Black Jack)
  • Go Figure! (A game about figuring out equations)
  • JezzBall (Area control game to contain bouncing marbles, kind of like Qix where you need to shrink the area)
  • Maxwell's Maniac (Herd the bouncing marbles into the like-coloured areas)
  • Tic Tac Drop (Similar gameplay as Connect Four, except with customisable boards)
Best of Entertainment Pack contains the following:
  • Tetris
  • FreeCell
  • Pipe Dream
  • Chip's Challenge
  • Taipei
  • Tut's Tomb
  • Rodent's Revenge
  • TriPeaks
  • Golf
  • SkiFree
  • JezzBall
  • Dr. Black Jack
  • TetraVex

Thank you for reading.
 
There are two Entertainment Packs with this game: one is the 4th Entertainment Pack, and the other is the "Best of" which contains more games across the entire series.

Entertainment Pack 4 contains the following (besides Chip's Challenge):
  • Chess (Self-explanatory)
  • Dr. Black Jack (basically Black Jack)
  • Go Figure! (A game about figuring out equations)
  • JezzBall (Area control game to contain bouncing marbles, kind of like Qix where you need to shrink the area)
  • Maxwell's Maniac (Herd the bouncing marbles into the like-coloured areas)
  • Tic Tac Drop (Similar gameplay as Connect Four, except with customisable boards)
Best of Entertainment Pack contains the following:
  • Tetris
  • FreeCell
  • Pipe Dream
  • Chip's Challenge
  • Taipei
  • Tut's Tomb
  • Rodent's Revenge
  • TriPeaks
  • Golf
  • SkiFree
  • JezzBall
  • Dr. Black Jack
  • TetraVex

Thank you for reading.
Definitely had Jezzball and Skifree. One I remember that's not on that list is "Hover!" Absolutely insane how many they had, it was dozens. I wonder if they had multiple of these "Entertainment Packs" installed.
 
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