Alpha Beam with Ernie 12-22-82

 

This prototype is a very early version of Alpha Beam (it's unknown if they even had Ernie in mind for the game yet).  while you can pick up and beam the letters into the ship, the game doesn't advance boards and there are a number of glitches that still need to be worked out.

Differences
The spaceship on the title screen bounces back and forth with the letter 'A'.  In the final version the spaceship moves left to right across the screen with a new letter
There are 15 variations, but the variation number is not shown on the screen.  Only the letter the green spaceship is holding changes to indicate the variation (A-O)
There are no sounds
The game is always set to two players even if there are only openings on the ship for one player
The letters always move, even on the level select screen
There are no lower case letters
There is no slot in the spaceship for the letter 'E' even though the letter is on the screen
Beaming the letters into the ship takes much longer
There are lines above and below the spaceship
The player can capture a new letter even if they are currently holding one.  If this happens the old letter vanishes
There is no way to complete a level
The second player (green spaceship) starts the board with a letter
The second player can beam letters into the sides of the spaceship to destroy them
When pushing the select switch to change variations, the letter 'B' briefly turns into the letter 'V'
There is no intermission screen
The spaceship is purple
There appears to be two control sticks in the spaceship window
There are no stars on the bottom of the screen
The letters for the slots do not appear on the ship

 

This ship just bounces back and forth

 

There are always two ships

 

A V C D E?  Who taught these guys their alphabet?

 

Oops!  This should not be allowed.

 

 

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