Atari 2600

By Wilson Rothman

PRODUCT The wildly popular 1980s video-game console is making a comeback as a must-have retro device

HOW IT STARTED Once a staple of garage sales, it began turning up on nostalgic websites and online auctions

JUDGMENT CALL It'll never be what it was in 1982, but could earn chic rebel status as the anti-PlayStation

Asteroids. Frogger. Centipede. Long before PlayStation was a twinkle in Sony's eye, these primitive video games with their blips and beeps and crude graphics, hallmark titles for the Atari 2600 game console, earned a sentimental spot in our hearts. And though the Atari 2600 more or less vanished 15 years ago, it's re-surfacing among nostalgic video-game enthusiasts.

In the past month, nearly 10,000 items relating to the Atari 2600 have shown up on eBay: joysticks, manuals and rare games, plus the systems themselves, which in good condition usually sell for $25 to $50. (Atari's old opponent Colecovision, in contrast, had fewer than 1,000 listings.) On the swap site Switchouse, the number of people with a 2600 to trade are outnumbered nearly 2 to 1 by those looking for one.

Those who get their hands on the device are sharing the retro fun. At '80s-themed parties it's common to see a 2600 wired to the TV set and guests jumping at the chance to rediscover their first video-game experience. And they don't seem to mind the primitive visuals. "You've got people shouting and screaming and having a great time," says Blake Fisher, an editor at the video-game magazine Next Generation, "even though the graphics are just huge blocks on the screen."

--By Wilson Rothman