popular thinking

ATARI....WHOA-OH-OH-OH: File this one under your past always comes back for a visit. For one thing, who knew that having my original Video Computer System by Atari, Model CX-2600, (still in the box in my apartment) would come in handy? But when you write about pop culture and one of the local cinemas decides to hold an Atari 2600 Festival, well, you're ready for it. And then, when you find out that the largest online retailer of old Atari products just happens to be in Chandler, Ariz., back in the hood you just left, then you start thinking about kismet.

Herewith, then, comes my story in today's Boston Herald:

The original Atari 2600 was neither the first nor the best video game console to hit the market.
And yet, 28 years later, after the Intellivision, ColecoVision and Ataris 5200 and 7800 have come and gone - replaced by Nintendo and Sega, then by Sony's PlayStation-2, Microsoft's XBox and Nintendo's GameCube - it all comes back to the Atari 2600.
Visit any major retailer and amid the latest, greatest games you'll find new plug-and-play gadgets such as the Atari Flashback or Namco's 5-in-1 systems that whisk you back to simpler days and simpler graphics. This week's episode of CSI: Miami featured the Atari 2600 as part of a high school reunion murder. And the Atari symbol and name pop up on T-shirts and in band names.
What is it about the Atari?
"Atari was the first home game that most people have,'' said Clinton McClung, program director of the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline. "That's the one I remember kids down the block had before anyone else.''
McClung, 34, fits the old-school video game demographic.
So when he saw his employees holding gaming parties, the nostalgia took hold and begat the Atari 2600 Video Game Festival, which begins at midnight Saturday at his cinema.
The auditoriums will become big-screen Atari tournament sites, with players facing off in timed contests. A year of free Blockbuster Video rentals goes to the grand champion.
A screening of The Wizard, the 1989 video game movie starring Fred Savage, follows at 1 a.m. (although really, The Last Starfighter or Tron would've been more apt choices).

Read the rest of my story here: Keeper of the game (Boston Herald)
Related: Weekly Dig contest
Related: Atari2600.com