''Electrician'' is a

platform game A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...

written by David Bunch for the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

and published by

Synapse Software Synapse Software Corporation (marketed as SynSoft in the UK) was an American video game development and publishing company founded in 1981 by Ihor Wolosenko and Ken Grant. It initially focused on the Atari 8-bit family, then later developed for th ...

in 1984. Synapse sold the game as a "Double Play", with the game ''

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

'' on one side of the

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...

, and ''Electrician'' on the other.

Kemco Kemco (abbreviated from Kotobuki Engineering & Manufacturing Co., Ltd.) is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher established in 1984. It is headquartered in Kure, Hiroshima. One of its best known franchises is the ...

adapted the game for the

Family Computer Disk System The commonly shortened to the Famicom Disk System or just Disk System, is a peripheral for Nintendo's Family Computer home video game console, released only in Japan on February 21, 1986. It uses proprietary floppy disks called "Disk Cards" f ...

, and republished it in 1986. David Bunch later co-designed the 1988 game ''

Skate or Die! ''Skate or Die!'' is a skateboarding game released by Electronic Arts (EA) in 1987 for the Commodore 64. It is EA's first internally developed game. Ports for the Apple II, MS-DOS, Amstrad CPC, and ZX Spectrum were released the following years. ...

''.

Gameplay

The

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

is an

electrician An electrician is a tradesperson specializing in electrical wiring of buildings, transmission lines, stationary machines, and related equipment. Electricians may be employed in the installation of new electrical components or the maintenance ...

named Richard Light. He must install

electrical wiring Electrical wiring is an electrical installation of cabling and associated devices such as switches, distribution boards, sockets, and light fittings in a structure. Wiring is subject to safety standards for design and installation. Allowable ...

in apartment buildings. In each building, Richard navigates service corridors to link the electrical wires between each room, As he does so, animals threaten to chew through the wires. When an electrical connection is complete, the live wires illuminate the connected rooms and electrocute the animals on contact. If Richard touches any of the rats, bats, or giant insects in the corridor, he loses a life. In the buildings, the player earns points by illuminating rooms and electrocuting any rats, bats, and insects. Occasionally, a burglar appears; intercepting him rewards the player with bonus points and an extra life. After wiring all the rooms in an apartment building, the player exits and navigates a dark sewer to the next building. In the sewer, the player must avoid alligators. A flashlight reveals walls that block passages.

Reception

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite web, title=The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers, url=https://dadgum.com/giantlist/, last1=Hague, first1=James {{cite journal, last1=Powell, first1=Jack, journal=Antic, date=July 1985, volume=4, issue=3, url=http://www.atarimagazines.com/v4n3/SynapseGames.html, title=Eight New Synapse Games

External links

''Electrician''
at Atari Mania 1984 video games Atari 8-bit family games Electricians Famicom Disk System games Kemco games Platform games Synapse Software games Video games developed in the United States Video games set in the United States Single-player video games