May 23, 2018
Youth Advisory Board: John Dickerson
This is the third episode in a series of interviews with the
kids of Atari's Youth Advisory Board. A quick recap: In 1983, Atari
formed a Youth Advisory Board, selecting 20 teenagers from around
the United States to share their opinions about computers and video
games, test software, and promote Atari's computers at events. The
group consisted of kids aged 14 through 18, mostly regular kids,
some computer geeks, and a couple of celebrities.
This interview is with John Dickerson, who was one of the
computer geeks.
There was an article about the Youth Advisory Board in the
March 1984 issue of Enter magazine, with a quote from John:
"'We were an added dimension to what they already do,' says
14-year-old John Dickerson. 'Atari's problem is that they don't get
close enough to the consumer. We'll bring them a lot closer. But,
so far, we haven’t found out which of our decisions they really
listened to.'"
This interview took place on April 16, 2018.
If you were a member of the Atari Youth Advisory board, I'd
love to hear from you: email
antic@ataripodcast.com.