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TDE EP42 - Atari UK Cofounder Alistair Crooks

TDE EP42 - Atari UK Cofounder Alistair Crooks

The Ted Dabney Experience · The Ted Dabney Experience

July 19, 2025

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Show Notes

Despite lacking any knowledge whatsoever of the amusement industry, Kellogg’s sales manager Alistair Crooks and eccentric former RAF airman Phil Smith convinced a young Nolan Bushnell that they were the right men to introduce Atari’s Pong to the United Kingdom in 1973. Swiftly moving from importing to manufacturing, the company arguably grew too fast and was ill positioned to weather the perfect storm of the OPEC Oil Crisis and the Three Day Week, ultimately lasting only fourteen months. This is a nuts-and-bolts yet captivating tale of what might have been, recounted with modesty and good humour.