Play Alpha Beam With Ernie Online

Game Overview

Remember that old Atari 2600 game where you help Ernie from Sesame Street refuel his spaceship? Yeah, this is the one. His ship's stuck, and you've got to beam letters into these little slots by moving left and right. Sounds simple, but when you're six, telling a lowercase "b" from a "d" can feel like rocket science.

What I liked was how it sneaks in letter recognition without feeling like homework. The controls are just two directions—no fancy joystick moves—so even little kids can get the hang of it. And when you finally slot in that last letter? Ernie zooms off like he just won the space race.

There's a storybook-style manual too, which was basically the 1980s version of a loading screen. Cute for its time, though good luck finding one intact these days.