Buttons

A button is a utility tile connected to one or more other tiles, such as walls, monsters, traps, wires, and clone machines. The color of a button determines its specific function, but all buttons share the following characteristics:

• Buttons are pressed when a movable object enters the same tile as a button.
• Buttons can be held down as long as a movable object remains on them. Holding down a button may have no effect depending on what color the button is and to what the button is connected.
• In most versions of the game, an audible noise is made when a button is pressed. One notable exception is the green button in the original Microsoft's version of Chip's Challenge. This noise can be helpful feedback if a button is being pressed out of sight of the player.
• There is no guarantee a button is connected to something nearby. Many levels use buttons as an element of the puzzle where the player must determine its effect through observation or experimentation. Occasionally, button presses can introduce hazards to the player and need to be avoided.

Machine buttons

Red button

Red button

MSCC Image(s)
CC2 Image(s)
Found in	Chip's Challenge 1 Chip's Challenge 2
MSCC Index	36
Steam ID	57
Multi-directional?	No
Moves?	No

The red button, sometimes called a clone button, activates a corresponding clone machine as specified by the level designer exactly once. Holding a red button down after initially pressing it has no effect. To activate the clone machine a second time, the presser must leave and return to the tile with the button. While more than one red button may activate the same clone machine, a single red button cannot activate more than one clone machine.

If a level designer connects a red button to more than one clone machine, only the first connection is valid. To change the connection to a different clone machine in a level editor, either erase the clone machine and red button and re-add them (in ChipEdit), or go to the "Clone Connections" menu and disconnect the tiles (in CCEdit or CCLD). In addition, ChipEdit will automatically connect a clone button to a clone machine if one is created directly after the other.

Under the pedantic Lynx ruleset and in Chip's Challenge 2, red buttons are connected to the next clone machine in reading order at the start of the level. In Chip's Challenge 2, red buttons cannot be wired to clone machines, but pink buttons can.

Various things happen when a red button is connected to a tile that is not on top of a clone machine. To clone, the tile must be a monster or clone block, and the direction it is cloning has to be clear, or the clone will have no effect and the button must be pressed again.

In MS, if the red button is connected to a monster that is not in the monster list, the red button will add that monster to the monster list and also cause it to start moving in the specified direction, assuming that move is legal. If the move is illegal, or if the monster is already in the monster list, the red button will have no effect.

If it is connected to a clone block without a clone machine under it, it will clone only one copy of the block before the original clone block disappears and reveals anything that may be underneath the clone block, assuming once again that the direction of the clone block is legal. If it is illegal, nothing happens.

Brown button

Brown button

MSCC Image(s)
CC2 Image(s)
Found in	Chip's Challenge 1 Chip's Challenge 2
MSCC Index	39
Steam ID	58
Multi-directional?	No
Moves?	No

The brown button or trap button releases the trap to which it is connected, if any, when pressed by any object. If the brown button does not have a connected trap, it has no effect when stepped on. More than one brown button can release the same trap, but a single brown button cannot release multiple traps except in MS.

Under the pedantic Lynx ruleset and in Chip's Challenge 2, brown buttons are connected to the next trap in reading order at the start of the level. In Chip's Challenge 2, brown buttons cannot be wired to traps, but pink buttons can.

The brown button is the only button not affected by the Button Smash Glitch in a specific case. Only currently trapped items will fail to be released when the button is "smashed".

Orange button

Orange button

CC2 Image(s)
Found in	Chip's Challenge 2
MSCC Index	Unknown edit
Steam ID	97
Multi-directional?	No
Moves?	No

The orange button or flame jet button is a button introduced in Chip's Challenge 2. Each time they change from unpressed to pressed or vice versa, they invert the state of a corresponding flame jet. Consequently, if multiple orange buttons connect to the same flame jet, they interact with each other in an exclusive or-like fashion: if an even number of them are held down, the flame jet maintains its original state, and if an odd number of them are held down, the flame jet maintains the opposite state. Flame jets also toggle their state when a nearby gray button is pressed or a wire connected to it changes from unpowered to powered; these are independent interactions which effectively change the "initial state" that orange buttons see.

An orange button connects to a flame jet in a diamond grow pattern, prioritizing the rightmost flame jet and then searching in a counterclockwise fashion. However, this search seems to stop before the distance exceeds the maximum of the width and height of the map.

Orange buttons only switch from pressed to unpressed, and vice versa, when they detect something moving onto or off of them. Destroying an entity holding down an orange button using a bowling ball or dynamite will keep the button pressed, because the destroyed entity never actually moved off of the button. This permanently reverses the state of the affected flame jet, as though it were activated by a gray button or wire. Something similar to this can happen with black buttons, but their behavior will return to normal as soon as something moves back onto them.

State-toggling buttons

Green button

Green button

MSCC Image(s)
CC2 Image(s)
Found in	Chip's Challenge 1 Chip's Challenge 2
MSCC Index	35
Steam ID	31
Multi-directional?	No
Moves?	No

The green button, informally known as a toggle button, causes all toggle walls contained in a level to switch state. If a green button is pressed by any moving object, the walls switch, but two separate presses of different buttons on the same turn will cancel each other out. Therefore, if an odd number of presses occur on the same turn, the wall will switch; if it is an even number, nothing appears to happen (the latter case is one of the only two possible ways to solve Perfect Match in CC1, the other being the Concussion Rule).

In Chip's Challenge 2, green buttons also cause green chips and green bombs to switch state in addition to toggle walls.

Green buttons do not switch toggle walls on clone machines or toggle walls that began the level on the lower layer under anything other than a monster, although they will switch toggle walls that become displaced to the lower layer.

Toggle walls are not fatal to Chip or monsters if they turn closed when Chip or monster is on them, but they will protect Chip from monster impacts and sliding blocks, and the wall rather than the monster will take effect if Chip tries to step onto the closed toggle/monster tile.

Gray button

Gray button

CC2 Image(s)
Found in	Chip's Challenge 2
MSCC Index	Unknown edit
Steam ID	71
Multi-directional?	No
Moves?	No

The gray button, known sometimes as an area control button, is a button introduced in Chip's Challenge 2. It changes the state of objects in a 5 by 5 square centered at the button, even if the tiles are already wired. Tiles that can be changed include toggle walls, switch doors, flame jets, force floors, swivel doors, and train tracks. Clone machines can be activated by gray buttons, even though they have no distinct "switched" state. Traps, transmogrifiers, red teleports, green chips, and green bombs are not affected by gray buttons.

Tank control buttons

Blue button

Blue button

MSCC Image(s)
CC2 Image(s)
Found in	Chip's Challenge 1 Chip's Challenge 2
MSCC Index	40
Steam ID	32
Multi-directional?	No
Moves?	No

The blue button, sometimes called a tank button, reverses the direction of all moving tanks, with some exceptions, in the current level when stepped on.

In MS, tanks which are sliding when a button is pressed are not reversed. Additionally, tanks on clone machines which are not considered moving will not reverse. A tank on a clone machine is considered moving if a corresponding clone button has been pressed but a new tank has not left the clone machine yet. In this case the tank can turn around while still on the clone machine; this is known as the Frankenstein Glitch. Tanks which land on blue buttons immediately after sliding can cause the Tank Top Glitch to occur. A tank which presses a clone button which clones a block that immediately lands on a blue button causes the Spontaneous Generation Glitch.

Yellow button

Yellow button

CC2 Image(s)
Found in	Chip's Challenge 2
MSCC Index	Unknown edit
Steam ID	100
Multi-directional?	No
Moves?	No

The yellow button or yellow tank button (not to be confused with the switch (below), which is also yellow) is a button introduced in Chip's Challenge 2. When pressed, every yellow tank in the level will attempt to move in the same direction as the object that pressed it. If the button is immediately surrounded by any walls such that pressing the button from a certain direction is obstructed, the yellow tanks cannot be moved in that direction with that button.

The yellow button is the only button that reacts differently depending on the direction from which it is approached, and the only button without a standard appearance.

Wiring buttons

Pink button

Pink button

CC2 Image(s)
Found in	Chip's Challenge 2
MSCC Index	Unknown edit
Steam ID	94
Multi-directional?	No
Moves?	No

The pink button is a button introduced in Chip's Challenge 2. While held by a movable object, it activates any wire it is connected to.

Pink buttons do not relay currents, unlike black buttons and blue teleports.

Black button

Black button

CC2 Image(s)
Found in	Chip's Challenge 2
MSCC Index	Unknown edit
Steam ID	135
Multi-directional?	No
Moves?	No

The black button is a button introduced in Chip's Challenge 2. It has the opposite behavior of a pink button: it activates any wire it is connected to except while held by a movable object.

If a black button receives a current from any side, it will relay that current to the side opposite of that from which it is received.

Black buttons only switch from powered to unpowered, and vice versa, when they detect something moving onto or off of them. Destroying an entity holding down a black button using a bowling ball or dynamite will keep the button pressed, because the destroyed entity never actually moved off of the button. As soon as another entity steps onto the black button, its behavior goes back to normal. This does not occur with pink buttons. Something similar to this can happen with orange buttons, but the affected flame jet will reverse its on/off polarity as though activated by a wire.

Switch

Switch

CC2 Image(s)
Found in	Chip's Challenge 2
MSCC Index	Unknown edit
Steam ID	136 (off) 137 (on)
Multi-directional?	No
Moves?	No

The switch (not to be confused with the yellow button) is a special tile in Chip's Challenge 2. When set to the on position, a current will be output through wire that is connected to the switch. When set to the off position, no current will be output. Switches can be toggled by any movable object.