"Before electro was retro, when a calculator was a kind of super computer, five pixels constituted a challenging game. For some of us, it still feels that way".

Atari inc. was founded in 1972 and revolutionized consumer culture when it marketed the first home video game console. Living rooms around the world were redesigned as combat zones, becoming ersatz televisual operation centres. Friendships were formed and destroyed over arguments about playing times.

Atari didn't just produce video games, it invented genres that hadn't previously existed with every new game. Thirty years later, Sony, Sega and Nintendo now compete over pre-defined market sectors like racers or beat-'em-ups, relying on huge teams of programers, designers and marketing personnel. Only rarely does a brand new game break the monotonous mediocrity of the mainstream game industry. Meanwhile, the inarticulate beeps and pixelized graphics of the original Atari games have been put to use as the raw materials for the art and music of a generation that heard them in the womb and saw them as soon as it opened its eyes.

For those who still feel the electric currents of Atari running through their veins, Performance.Art, Jerusalem hosted an evening curated by Pettek, Pil and Galia Kollectiv and Zax, devoted to the wonderous Atari. An open championship was followed by live gigs and a DJ set inspired by the sounds of Atari and accompanied by a free play zone and an exhibition of classic models. Gelbart, who also won the Atari championship, played new songs from his e.p. Tokomon, While Metallika Electroband performed a special live set inspired by old video games and Pogo Soundsystem introduced Atari sound effects into their improvised DJ-ing. When the thumbs of the audience participants were ready to drop from several rounds of Asteroids, Pacman, Breakout and Centipede, everyone was invited to dance to DJ Poingy's set of electro mixed with game theme songs.