Bill Darrah
Bill Darrah is a professional designer of puzzles who is best known in the CC community for designing approximately 1/3 of the original Chip's Challenge levels, as well as 7 levels that were included in Chip's Challenge 2.
Bill's level design style is often distinctly recognizable for its homogeneity, mathematical precision, and emphasis on sprawling mazes. His levels in many cases are known for being equal parts beautiful, tedious, and difficult (for example Doublemaze, Rink, and Force Field).
Trivia
Bill has an online shop called Yorkhouse Puzzles and Surprises where he designs and sells mechanical puzzles. The logo bears an obvious resemblance to the castles in the [CC1] levels Yorkhouse and Castle Moat.
According to Joshua Bone, there is a word-of-mouth story from Chuck Sommerville about the level Castle Moat. Bill Darrah reportedly designed the level, and then Chuck inserted the now-famous flippers without telling him.
Levels in official packs
CC1
It is not known exactly which levels in CC1 Bill Darrah designed; however due to his distinct design style it is possible to make educated guesses. According to Joshua Bone, these are the CC1 levels that were most likely designed by Bill.
# | Name |
---|---|
16 | Cellblocked |
18 | Castle Moat |
22 | Forced Entry |
23 | Blobnet |
25 | Blink |
30 | Mishmesh |
32 | Scavenger Hunt |
37 | Seeing Stars |
50 | Digdirt |
51 | I Slide |
53 | Traffic Cop |
61 | Rink |
64 | Spooks |
65 | Amsterdam |
67 | Chipmine |
72 | Reverse Alley |
73 | Morton |
75 | Steam |
80 | Vanishing Act |
81 | Writers Block |
85 | Telenet |
88 | Spirals |
94 | Now You See It |
98 | Shrinking |
100 | Colony |
101 | Apartment |
103 | Memory |
105 | Short Circuit |
115 | Oversea Delivery |
130 | Ice Cube |
136 | Doublemaze |
138 | Partial Post |
139 | Yorkhouse |
142 | Pentagram |
143 | Stripes? |
144 | Fireflies |
147 | Force Field |
148 | Mind Block |