Alpha Waves - Version Differences

Version Differences

Alpha Waves was initially released on the Atari ST. This version is notable for allowing two players to compete simultaneously. It lacked music entirely on the Atari 520ST, because of insufficient memory to store the music samples. On Atari 1040ST and later models, the theme song played during the intro. The music was stored on the second side of the floppy disk, since any Atari ST with enough memory also had a dual-sided floppy drive. A promotional version of the program was distributed by a French magazine on single-sided floppy disks, crashing any machine with more than 512K of memory.

The Amiga port was second and added a theme song at the title screen. The interface is similar, but the zone select in Emotion has been redone. Beyond this, it is very similar to the original - including the retention of the split-screen two player mode.

The MS-DOS version was the last one, and contains a number of improvements. This version supported AdLib/SoundBlaster sound cards. Despite the fact that these used the more limited FM synthesis of the Yamaha YM3812, compared to the PCM synthesis of the Amiga, Alpha Waves is one of the rare exceptions where the AdLib sound quality is superior. The soundtrack was also expanded to play in-game, and each zone had its own music. Additionally some of the mobiles have been changed, level layouts tweaked, and the camera tilting toned down for easier viewing. The menus and level selection screen have been redone again, and are noticeably enhanced. The DOS version also includes a two player Action Mode (turn-based as opposed to the split-screen of the other two versions).

The DOS version lacks a mechanism to regulate speed when played on systems faster than it was intended for (essentially causing it to play in fast forward on newer hardware). However, when played on a properly configured system or emulator, this can be considered the superior version, for solo play especially.