Lynx Ruleset

From Chip's Challenge Wiki, the Chip's Challenge Encyclopedia

The Lynx Ruleset is the ruleset used in the original 1989 Chip's Challenge for Atari Lynx. It contains many differences from the MS ruleset, many of which affect the methods of playing the level, its mechanics, or alter the level itself in some occasions.

Contents 1 Differences between the MS and Lynx ruleset 1.1 Tile rules 1.2 Mechanics 1.3 Tile functions 1.4 Movement 1.5 Compatibility 1.6 Miscellaneous data 1.7 Differences from the MS version of Chip's Challenge 1 in Lynx

[edit] Differences between the MS and Lynx ruleset

When Chip's Challenge was ported to the PC in 1992, the gameplay was changed significantly. Many differences result, which alter strategies considerably.

[edit] Tile rules

• In Lynx, the hint, yellow key and green key are all monster-acting walls, and fire is now an acting wall to everything but fireballs.
• Hints, boots and exits are now block-acting walls.
• Blue keys are erased by all objects, not just Chip. This is the reason for the flippers in Catacombs, as Chip would have to walk around the block L off the blue key.
• The random force floor is not a monster-acting wall in Lynx.
• In MS only, ice corners will allow Chip to skate over them from within the tile.

[edit] Mechanics

• Boosting, Slide Delay (and thus cross-checking and block echo), the ram and flick, and the monster order and monster list are all MS-exclusive mechanics. Block slapping is a Lynx-exclusive mechanic.
• When the exit is reached, the clock runs down for one more turn before stopping.

[edit] Tile functions

• In MS, the connections between brown buttons and traps are explicitly specified by the level designer, but in the original Lynx, if a button is not connected to something else, it is automatically connected to the next trap or machine in forwards wrappable reading order. Tile World's Lynx mode behaves like the MS version.
• In MS, a random force floor will randomly select one of the four directions. In Lynx, the random force floor will cycle through the directions in a clockwise manner throughout a play session.
• In Lynx, blue buttons only apply to currently stationary tanks. In MS, a blue button applies to all movable, non-sliding tanks, with the exception of a glitch known as the Frankenstein Glitch.
• In Lynx, a trap is open at any point after the correct brown button is touched. In MS, a trap is only open on the turn its button is being pressed, or during the turn the object moves off the button.
• In Lynx, a teleport which has no legal exit and no legal move across the teleport will cause a monster to stick in it and erase the teleport from the network. In MS, the object will bounce back to its original tile.
• In Lynx, a monster clone machine blocked from cloning at the time of the red button hit will still clone if the obstacle is removed. Similarly, in MS, a monster that cannot move out of a trap, even though the brown button has been hit, is released on the turn after the acting wall in front of it is removed (except for tanks, and of course blobs and teeth on their non-moving turn).
• In Lynx, opened traps act as ice to objects. This allows the Lynx time for Ladder to be eight seconds greater than the MS version, and is the reason why Torturechamber is still solvable in Lynx (in MS, the block remains on the sliplist and will slide when released).

[edit] Movement

• In Lynx, it takes 1/5 of a second for Chip and monsters to move from one tile to the next, while the movement in the MS ruleset is instantaneous though at the same overall speed.

• In MS, if Chip or a monster runs into an obstacle, he must wait until the next turn to make a move. Under Lynx, Chip can make a move instantly after a failed move. However, one exception to this is if Chip touches anything that acts as a wall to him while sliding on force floors; this acts as a failed move and slows Chip down. An example would be Ping Pong, or such levels where Chip holds an arrow key to bust through an upcoming fake blue wall or other opening. In MS, such moves do not cost anything.

• In MS, blobs and walkers will not choose a direction that would result in an illegal move on this turn. In Lynx, they will attempt to make any move, so a blob or walker may remain stationary on a space.

• In Lynx, when a monster moves onto a force floor or ice, their speed will double; in MS, all monsters, including the teeth and blob, will move at Chip's sliding speed of 10 moves per second.

• In Lynx, a more rudimentary variation of boosting exists; Chip can only override force floors when previously sliding on other force floors, and only when attempting to make a sideways move.

• In Lynx, all monsters will exit a trap in the direction they are facing. In MS, bugs, paramecia, and teeth may behave differently, and blobs can still move out of the trap in any legal direction.

• In Lynx, an animation plays when a bomb explodes or a block is placed in water, which blocks Chip from stepping on the space for 3/5 of a second or unless a monster touches the space first. This behavior is solely responsible for making Teeth unsolvable.

• In the original Lynx version, the path of random-moving monsters is fixed, and will not change with continued play of the level. In MS, the path is randomly chosen every time the level starts.

[edit] Compatibility

• In MS, any tile can be placed on another tile. In Lynx, there are many restrictions which can make levels invalid; all tiles and combinations labeled Invalid in ChipEdit, except for specific newer tiles (fake exit, Burned Chip, Drowned Chip and Swimming Chip), will all make a level unplayable. The fake exit is read as an exit, and everything else is read as a wall.

[edit] Miscellaneous data

• Puzzle Studio is being programmed to use Tile World Lynx rules.
• CCLP3 will be Lynx and MS compatible. Any invalid or impossible level in Lynx, or any level where the altered mechanics change the basic route to a significant degree, is excluded from voting.

[edit] Differences from the MS version of Chip's Challenge 1 in Lynx

• Lesson 6, Brushfire, Ping Pong and Paranoia have different passwords; the latter is done to avoid confusion with Four Square's identical password.
• Some versions of Spirals are corrupted.
• Some of Catacombs's buttons are wired a bit differently.
• Time Lapse contains some errors in the trap connections.
• Perfect Match contains an extra patch of ice in the bottom left corner.
• Room 5 in Skelzie is one row shorter.
• Thanks to... does not exist at all; instead, the password MAND will produce a Mandelbrot generator.
• In addition to the Decade Messages seen in the MS version, additional messages are given after Brushfire, Tossed Salad, Mishmesh and Floorgasborg are completed.