I'm gonna make you my Joust-bitch.

Here's a nice little article on the one Christmas gift I lust after the most. Forget iTunes (of which I am a devotee); the invention of 2003 has got to be the Atari 10-in-1 joystick.

When I was four years old, my father gave me his Atari 2600. None of this Colecovision crap for me; nay, I had taste. Dad hooked it up to a black-and-white TV with a 19-inch screen, and I was in heaven. The Atari became my drug of choice. I played all the time.

I played Pong, Pac-Man, Asteroids, Indy 500, Circus Atari, and my favorite, Joust. I bet I can still kick your ass at Joust. For those who've forgotten or who never had the pleasure of playing it, Joust was a game in which you were a little guy on the back of a flying ostrich-type bird, and you had to kill the other ostrich-riders by flying into them at a slightly higher altitude. In my own opinion, there is no better game. I even ended up breaking down and buying a Gameboy when I was 13 because I found a Gameboy version of Joust on the Internet.

Anyway, back to my precious Atari. I loved it dearly, but it finally gave up and died the summer after my kindergarten year. I cried, and the 2600 was lovingly placed somewhere in the back of the attic, where it remains to this day. Perhaps I'll sell it on eBay for parts. Who knows? My grief, however, has finally been lifted with this marvelous little toy (though sadly, it does not include Joust). Make your own life a little less meaningless, and buy an Atari 10-in-1 joystick here.