Bill Darrah

Bill Darrah is a professional puzzle designer 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.

In the words of Chuck Sommerville, "I hired [Bill] as a contractor to design levels for CC1. He was the only contributor who wasn't a full time Epyx employee. I knew him, because we were already friends and he had a passion for designing puzzles, and had written for 2 text adventures."

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, as even he does not fully remember. In a series of emails in 2020, Bill was able to confirm the following levels with varying degrees of certainty:

Bill Darrah is certain he made these levels

#	Name
18	Castle Moat
23	Blobnet
73	Morton
88	Spirals
105	Short Circuit
136	Doublemaze
138	Partial Post
139	Yorkhouse
142	Pentagram

Bill Darrah thinks he probably made these

#	Name
10	Brushfire
16	Cellblocked
25	Blink
30	Mishmesh
32	Scavenger Hunt
44	Refraction
47	Pier Seven
61	Rink
67	Chipmine
81	Writers Block
85	Telenet
100	Colony
101	Apartment
103	Memory
143	Stripes?
144	Fireflies
147	Force Field