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Bill Darrah

Revision as of 22:21, 13 June 2020 by 174.21.89.222 (talk) (Include quote from Chuck about Bill's contributions)
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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.

In the words of Chuck, "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; 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