Electronics Hack Mini-Game

This is mostly an engine test: a small remake of one minigame from Covert Action, written in Go with raylib, mainly to check that the same code builds and runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and in the browser. It is complete and playable, but it is just the one minigame. The game is public domain (Unlicense).

Game history

Covert Action is a spy game by Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley, published by MicroProse in 1990. One of its minigames, the "electronic hack", simulates tapping a phone line: you rewire a circuit board so the phones you need carry current and the alarm bells don't, against a time limit. This project reimplements that minigame, following the original's documentation. It uses no assets from the original game.

Gameplay

Current enters the board at the +5V lead and flows left to right through the wiring and the chips. The wiring is fixed; only the chips can be changed. You have one spare chip: swap it with a chip on the board to change where the current goes. Get power to every phone without powering any alarm, before the clock runs out.

• Twelve logic chip designs: pass, cross, combine, split, and inverters; plus hardwired chips and unknown chips that reveal their function after one swap
• Ten levels, boards are always solvable; the status line shows the minimum number of swaps (par)
• Three complexities: unlimited swaps, a switch budget, or exactly par
• One clock for the whole run, per-complexity highscores, save games
• Nine interface languages (English, Español, Deutsch, Français, Italiano, Русский, 简体中文, فارسی, עברית); the Persian and Hebrew interfaces mirror the board right-to-left
• Mouse, touch, keyboard and gamepad all work

Platform support

Steam Deck

The Linux AppImage and Flatpak were tested on the Steam Deck. Playable by touchscreen, gamepad or keyboard. Should work on other Linux variants as well.

macOS Catalina (x86)

The Intel build runs on macOS 10.15 and newer (a separate Apple Silicon build needs macOS 11+). The application is unsigned, so macOS will block it on first launch. Right-click and choose Open, or approve it in System Settings → Privacy & Security, or run:

xattr -cr "/Applications/Covert Action.app"

Android

An APK (arm64 and armv7, Android 5.0+), landscape fullscreen, playable by touch. Not on Google Play — you have to sideload it and allow installs from unknown sources. It is signed with a self-signed certificate, so updates install over older versions.

There is also a browser build — the one embedded on this page.

Known bugs

• No automatic on-screen keyboard on SteamDeck: the save-name and highscore-name prompts are awkward. On the Steam Deck you can use the overlay keyboard (STEAM button → Keyboard).

External assets

Fonts

• Share Tech Mono — primary Latin interface font (SIL Open Font License 1.1)
• JetBrains Mono — Cyrillic and accented Latin (SIL Open Font License 1.1)
• DejaVu Sans — Hebrew and Arabic (Bitstream Vera license / public domain)
• Noto Sans SC — Simplified Chinese (SIL Open Font License 1.1)

Music

The background track is from the Jump Pack — Music Loops free pack by Dani Maccari (Tallbeard Studios).