Chip
Chip, full name Chip McCallahan, is the main character in the Chip's Challenge game.
Chip can be killed indefinitely, never dying permanently, but each death decreases the points available on the level unless it is reset. It follows that the use of either clock setting or Fullsec is very desirable, and it is indispensable to the expert or even intermediate Chipster.
It can be determined if a player does not have the full level bonus on all levels by looking at their total score; all scores that have full level bonuses on all levels end in 0, although not all scores that end in zero have full level bonuses on all levels.
In Chip's Challenge 2, Melinda becomes a playable character on certain levels, however Chip remains the main character.
Background
In both MS and Lynx, Chip is a highly intelligent "geek" who shows an affinity for puzzling. Additional back story about Chip is revealed by the Decade messages.
In MS, Chip was obsessed with the exclusive Bit Busters Club that Melinda ran, and wanted membership to the club. Since he was willing to do anything to get membership to the club, he was given the task of navigating through her "clubhouse" to gain exclusive access to her exclusive Club. This clubhouse is a series of 149 puzzles, or levels, which generally become increasingly difficult. In Lynx, Chip wanted to join the Bit Busters Club just like in MS, but he also wanted to take Melinda out to the E-Prom (a pun on EPROM).
Controls
In MS, Chip can be controlled by either the keyboard or the mouse. If controlled by the keyboard, the arrow keys indicate which direction he is to move. If controlled by the mouse, he takes a path similar to teeth, flanking the space clicked on by moving either horizontally or vertically, in the direction with more spaces, and vertically if tied. Chip will stop receiving a mouse command if he runs into an obstacle.
The mouse is very highly discouraged, as it is difficult to control and will usually not work properly in many situations, such as maze levels or teleport levels such as Blink. However, there are specialized uses for it, such as the Mouse Panel Glitch and Teleport Skip Glitch, and when clicked on the first move of the game, a [1/2] wait is triggered. This pays unexpected dividends on Icehouse, which requires Chip to wait [1/2] before stepping into the teleport, and makes Shrinking slightly simpler.
Other Chips
In a level, there is only one moving Chip that the player can control. If there happen to be two or more Chip tiles in a level, the "real" one is determined by the first Chip tile in reverse reading order. The other Chip tiles will not be controllable, but will still cause the level to restart if any of them die in any way. Non-moving Chip tiles are completely ignored by monsters unless they run into one; teeth will only chase the moving Chip. If any Chip is killed by a monster or block, the same Death message will be displayed as if the moving Chip was killed.
If there are no Chip tiles in a level, the game will activate the Non-Existence Glitch; see the page for more information on this complex instance.