Livewire

Livewire is a variant of the arcade game Tempest for the Atari 8-bit platform. You play as a logic probe that is attempting to find and eliminate electronic faults in your computer. There are six types of faults: arcs, surges, transients, voltage spikes, resistances and shorts.

The game takes place on the surface of wires of various shapes, that extend into the screen. You can move about the circumference of the wire, avoiding enemies that climb towards you up the circuit lines, and getting into position to return fire with electron bursts. Each of the different fault types have their own type of behaviour. Arcs can travel between circuit lines while surges can move only up and down. Transients turn invisible for periods of time, while voltage spikes become shorts once they reach your side of the circuit. Resistances and shorts can only be destroyed using a "zap", which can only be activated once per level, and rids the entire screen of faults. Once all of the enemies have been defeated, you move onto the next level with a different wire shape. There are 64 levels in all, with the first eight shapes corresponding to letters from the title "LIVEWIRE".