David Crane

Born in 1954 in Nappanee, Indiana, David Crane attended the DeVry Institute of Technology. He began his professional career as a hardware designer at National Semiconductor before joining Atari as a programmer. At Atari, he designed games like 'Outlaw' and contributed to the Atari 800 operating system. His deep technical background in both hardware and software design allowed him to push early console technology to its absolute limits.

David Crane is a prominent American video game designer and programmer who fundamentally changed the gaming industry. Before co-founding Activision in 1979, Crane worked at Atari, where he was frustrated by the company's refusal to give developers credit or royalties for their multi-million dollar hits. Seeking creative and financial freedom, he left with three colleagues to form Activision, the world's first independent third-party video game developer. At Activision, Crane achieved legendary status by creating 'Pitfall!', one of the first platform games, which topped the Billboard charts for 64 weeks and sold millions of copies. In 1986, he left to co-found Absolute Entertainment, continuing a long career as a pioneer in the interactive entertainment industry.