"Chip's Challenge" Levels Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tossed Salad

Tossed Salad has 15 chips and the level tells you that you need to get the 15 chips. But, since there is no chip socket, you actually don't need to collect any of the chips. The level goes by more quickly if you don't collect the chips, and if you don't get out of the first part of the level in time, you will be stuck.

Answer: Oorto Geld

It's an anagram for TOGLE DOOR. There should be a 2nd "G" somewhere in the name of the level but there isn't. There is a sequel to this level in "Chip's Challenge 2."

Answer: On the Rocks

If you played "Chip's Challenge" as a kid, there is a good chance you remember this level. It is only level 33 out of 149, yet it is one of the most frustrating levels in the whole game.

Answer: Memory

I love Cypher. It is a perfect breather level after On the Rocks. You go from one of the longest, most frustrating levels in the game to one of the easiest levels. You go from a level that is hard enough to be in the 80s to a level that's easier than level 10.

But, there's more to Cypher than meets the eye. The layout of the level gives you the passwords to three levels. This is presumably so you can skip two of the hardest levels in the game and find the hidden levels. I wish I knew this as a kid because I was permanently stuck on Writer's Block. Man, I could have discovered so much more of this game if only I knew the secret to Cypher. But then, did anyone figure that out without the internet?

Personally, I wish you could skip ahead to memory because Icehouse is one of the worst levels in the game.

Answer: Brown

The brown button is supposed to open bear traps. However, for some reason, sometimes it doesn't. Examples of levels where the bear traps don't always work are Problems and Nightmare. In Problems, there is a paramecium that wanders through a thin wall maze and eventually hits a green button. You have to collect all the red keys before the paramecium hits the button or you will be killed by a swarm of pink balls. When you get to the second half of the level, there is a brown button you can't avoid. When you hit it, it is supposed to release the paramecium from the bear trap so it goes through the thin wall maze again and eventually hits a green button and releases another set of pink balls. However, for some reason the brown button doesn't work. The paramecium doesn't release, and the second half of the level is ridiculously easy. You could say Problems has its own set of problems.

In Nightmare, the bear traps sometimes work and sometimes don't. Why this is the case I do not know.

Answer: Icedeath

Amazingly enough, Icedeath, which some people consider to be the hardest level in the game, has no special dispatch, while three of the easiest levels in the game do. Actually, Cypher has special dispatch for good reason. It's meant to draw your attention to the fact that there is more to that level than meets the eye. Why the other two levels have special dispatches is a mystery to me.

These special dispatches give you some previews to levels you may not have seen yet, but are otherwise mostly useless. The only one that helped me was the one for Nuts and Bolts. The rest of them just tell me what I already figured out on my own. The one for Glut isn't even true. You don't have to set a teeth free at all. You can just find an exit guarded by chip sockets instead of teeth for an easier win.

Icedeath really could have used one.

Answer: Meeny

The titles of the level have to fit in small boxes. Sometimes they don't fit, and words get cut out making for a nonsense title like Eeenie Miny Moe. Another level where this happens is level 112, which is called "Fortune Favors The." I'm pretty sure something is supposed to come after "The" (presumably "Brave"). Coincidentally, these are two of the hardest levels in the game in Microsoft mode.

Answer: Invincible Champion

This level has a bug path that was supposed to be inaccessible without glider interference. But, a bug was misplaced when this level was designed, leaving a big gaping hole in the bug path. Thus, level 77, which is beyond the halfway point of the game, is one of the easiest levels in the game.

Actually, once you beat Four Plex, you will begin a set of three straight levels that are strangely easy despite being levels 77-79. Levels 78 and 79 are NOT broken levels but they are still fairly easy and should have come up earlier in the game, in my opinion.

Answer: Think

The blocks spell "Think" not "Block." Go see for yourself. And they aren't kidding. You REALLY will have to think to beat this level. The level gives you just enough usable blocks to beat it. If you waste one usable block, the level is unwinnable. It's a very long level, and if you make it almost to the end and run out of blocks, you will have to do this long level all over again.

This level is where I gave up as a kid. I didn't beat it until I was an adult.

Answer: Two

Those two levels are Block Buster and Totally Fair.

Block Buster is a badly designed level that suffers from a thing called slide delay. There is a section of that level that is based on timing, but because of slide delay, it is impossible to time your moves correctly and you can only do it by luck. Block Buster 2 does not have this problem so much, so it actually might be easier than Block Buster 1. Yes, level 116 might be easier than level 89. It doesn't matter much to me. They are both two of my most hated levels.

The sequel to Totally Fair is not called Totally Fair 2. However, there is a level shortly after Totally Fair that was obviously meant to be a sequel to Totally Fair, which has the same layout but is more difficult, called Totally Unfair.

Cypher and Oorto Geld have sequels in "Chip's Challenge 2". If you took those into account when you answered this question, read what I wrote in parentheses more closely.

Answer: Icehouse

Icehouse is a challenge right from the beginning. You have to time the first move perfectly. If you move a second too soon or a second too late, you will die right at the start. The rest of the level after that isn't so easy either, so if you screw up later in the level, you will have to time that first move perfectly again. Good luck! I hate this level.

Answer: Time Lapse

Level 111 is another broken level. The bugs in that level are supposed to go around and hit a green button and a fireball cloner. But, since the bug cloners weren't placed properly, they don't go around the loop and get stuck, making the level unintentionally really easy.

Answer: Skelzie

You have to be careful in this level. If you stand in one place, a pink ball might come through the teleporter and kill you before you realize what just happened. It takes a fair amount of practice to figure out how to do this level.

Answer: Trust Me

Trust Me is a level with many yellow keys. You only need one to reach the exit. The only one you are supposed to be able to get is on the other side of the start and the exit, so you are supposed to go to the other side of the board, get that key, and come all the way back. If you try figuring it out that way, you will find that this level is hard enough to justify being level 135. However, there is an easy solution. At the beginning of the level, there is a clone machine with a red button and front of it and a yellow key right below that. If you think that you can't get that key without activating the clone machine and getting yourself immediately killed or stuck, that's exactly what the designer wanted you to think. However, because of an error in the game, the clone machine in Trust Me doesn't start cloning right away. The cloning is delayed just enough. So you can get that yellow key and beat the level in about 10 seconds. What an embarrassingly easy level for level 135.

If you answered Goldkey, I tricked ya! That is NOT the level I am talking about.

Answer: Five

When you beat Fireflies and you see the ending, know that Fireflies is not the last level. There are passwords for other levels hidden in the game. In the Microsoft version, in the "About Chip's Challenge" section of the game hides the password for level 145, which is called "Thanks To..." It's a credits level and not a real challenging level but you can play it.

The layout of Cypher gives you the password for Cake Walk, and from there on you can play levels 146-149 (or levels 145-148 in the Lynx version). Beating the real last level gives you the same ending as beating the fake last level.