David Crane
The man who made Pitfall!
Activision co-founder David Crane created Pitfall!, pioneered third-party publishing, and proved one programmer could change an industry.
Overview
David Crane was one of the four programmers who walked out of Atari to found Activision, creating the third-party publishing industry. His games—Pitfall!, Ghostbusters, A Boy and His Blob—demonstrated that individuals could create hits. Pitfall! alone sold over four million copies, making Crane one of the most commercially successful game designers of the early era.
Fast facts
- Born: 1954 in Nappanee, Indiana.
- Education: DeVry Institute of Technology.
- Atari years: 1977-1979, created multiple successful titles.
- Activision co-founder: 1979, alongside Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller, Bob Whitehead.
- Signature game: Pitfall! (1982), over 4 million sold.
- Later work: Ghostbusters (1984), A Boy and His Blob (1989).
- Industry impact: helped establish programmer credit and royalties.
The Atari years
Crane joined Atari in 1977:
- Created games that sold millions
- Received salary, no royalties, no credit
- His games generated approximately $20 million in revenue
- His annual salary: around $22,000
When management dismissed programmers as interchangeable “towel designers,” Crane and three colleagues left to prove them wrong.
Founding Activision
The Activision founders had simple goals:
- Credit: their names on the games they made.
- Royalties: share in the success they created.
- Independence: control over their work.
Atari sued. Activision won. The victory created the third-party publishing model that still defines gaming.
Pitfall!
Crane’s masterpiece took about 1,000 hours to develop:
- Algorithm-generated worlds: 255 screens from minimal code.
- Smooth animation: Harry’s run and swing felt fluid.
- Perfect difficulty curve: accessible start, challenging mastery.
- 4KB limit: everything fit in four kilobytes.
The game sold over 4 million copies, earning Crane royalties that vindicated leaving Atari.
Technical philosophy
Crane approached programming as engineering:
- Efficiency obsessed: every byte mattered on 2600 hardware.
- Visual clarity: readable sprites despite resolution limits.
- Design through constraints: limitations sparked creativity.
- Completion focused: games shipped polished and complete.
Beyond Pitfall!
Crane continued innovating:
- Ghostbusters (1984): licensed game that actually worked; business simulation meets action.
- A Boy and His Blob (1989): puzzle-platformer with transforming blob companion; cult classic.
- Little Computer People (1985): proto-Sims life simulation.
Each game tried something different. Not all succeeded commercially, but all showed creative ambition.
Legacy
Crane proved programmers mattered. His success at Activision demonstrated that talent, properly credited and compensated, would produce better results than anonymous corporate labour. The royalty model he helped establish changed how the industry valued creators.