Subject: CHIP'S CHALLENGE/TILEWORLD/EDITORS
I have both Good news and badnews.
The good news is I've found the freeware editor programs that work with Chip's Challenge (thanks to several yahoo groups and programmers on this topic). They are as follows:
The original editor can be found at:
http://www.stage62.com/chipedit/chipedit.htm
The more advanced set of editing tools can be found at:
http://cctools.translucentdragon.com/
The Yahoo group where you can find several files and links is:
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/chips_challenge/
A separate yahoo news group is:
http://chips.kaseorg.com/newsgroup/
There is also a freeware version of Chip's challenge which keeps track of several levels at once as well as having better graphics.
NOTE: It may have (minimal) a few bugs (but they've never really been a problem to me when I used it).
For instance certain enemies are slower.
Tileworld can be downloaded at:
http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/software/tworld/
The bad news is Chip's challenge is not abandon ware or freeware (this can be confirmed by the news group:
http://chips.kaseorg.com/newsgroup/
Experts of the site are currently looking into this.
I quote:
"No. Chip's Challenge is copyrighted software and cannot be legally copied or downloaded. (And so-called "abandonware" is just a myth; current U.S. law gives copyrighted works protection for at least 70 years.)"
"A much better option is to get Tile World, a free (and legal) clone of the game."
True EPYX unfortunately went banktrupt but another company has taken over. I now refer to it in the quote below:
"There is in fact a Chip's Challenge II. It was written by Chuck Sommerville, the same person who created the original Chip's Challenge when he worked for Epyx. The game is finished, and Chuck desperately wants to release it; unfortunately, he does not own any rights to the game. When Epyx went bankrupt in 1991, it was sold to Bridgestone Multimedia (now Alpha Omega Publications,
http://www.aop.com/) along with the rights to all Epyx games, including Chip's Challenge. Bridgestone is refusing to publish Chip's Challenge II or allow it to be published by anyone else unless Chuck puts up some of his own money. That has been the situation for a few years, and this is not likely to change.
"However, there is some good news. Chuck is currently working on another game, called Puzzle Studio. Since it avoids use of the Chip's Challenge trademark and code, the legal issues that plague Chip's Challenge II will not be a problem. Not very much information is currently available about this game, other than that it will be a long time in development. To sign up for Chuck's mailing list about his games, send an e-mail message to <chips2info@ledeffects.com>.
Also, you may want to check out Tile World, a free clone of the original Chip's Challenge written by Brian Raiter , and Chip's Challenge Level Pack 2, the sequel to the original level pack created by Chip's Challenge fans...
anders@kaseorg.com"
Thanks for reading!!! Please reply if you've read this message.
From A.L. (first name NOT Andrew)