The author's mother, who declared 40+ years ago that Atari games are a waste of time.
This is an article about hypocrisy and asymmetry of importance. The author views his mother's gaming habit as hypocritical given her attitude towards video games when he was young. His mother may not even remember telling at him to get off the video game and go outside because it was just another of innumerable occasions during which she had to scold her child.
I've had this conversation with my own now-elderly mother, and her response was, "well, it was 30 years ago, and you were a child. It doesn't matter now, just let me play sudoku on my phone". Which is frustrating to hear after the decade or so I spent listening to her describe my video game hobby as a waste of time every opportunity she had.