I remember my first love: the Atari 2600, the first popular home video game system. It was 1982, I was 10 years old, and I was broke. I wanted one bad. I had to find a way to get one.
My parents made me a deal: They’d pay me a dollar every time I vacuumed the house. Not just one room, mind you, the whole place. The Atari 2600 cost about $125, before tax, which meant four full months of vacuuming. Vacuums were heavy back then, and we had a lot of carpet (it was the 1980s, after all). It was a big, thankless job. I jumped at the opportunity.
I kept our carpets spotless for 125 consecutive days—that’s four months of vacuuming, no breaks—and got my Atari 2600.
It was the best moment of my young life.
In June, I was reminded of my childhood triumph as I attended the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the biggest video game convention in the world. Tucked in a quiet corner of the convention hall, far from the spectacle of today’s major publishers, was a museum-like display of Atari’s vintage products. My heart jumped at the sight of it…
