Larry Kaplan

Larry Kaplan held a profoundly elite, highly specialized background in advanced assembly language programming and complex early console game design. Having intensely developed massive hit titles for the Atari 2600, this incredibly rigorous background in optimizing severely limited hardware architecture provided the precise technical mastery required to successfully launch Activision's independent software catalog.

Larry Kaplan is a highly brilliant American video game developer and one of the legendary four founding programmers fundamentally responsible for launching the massive Activision empire. Working as an incredibly elite programmer at Atari during the late 1970s, Kaplan and his colleagues (known as the 'Gang of Four') were responsible for generating massive, highly lucrative profits for the company. Deeply frustrated by Atari's draconian refusal to provide royalties or creative recognition, Kaplan aggressively resigned in 1979. Partnering with his fellow rogue developers and executive Jim Levy, he successfully co-founded Activision, completely revolutionizing the entire industry by establishing the world's first independent, third-party video game developer. His incredibly advanced programming mastery was absolutely essential in breaking Atari's software monopoly.