Developer: David Crane
David Crane began programming at Atari in the late 1970s and left in 1979 to co-found Activision, the company founded by programmers who had left Atari. He became one of the best-known designers on the console, and the site has 14 games that carry his name.
His Atari years include the western duel Outlaw, his first finished game, the 1979 Canyon Bomber port, Slot Machine and an unreleased Boggle prototype. At Activision he made Dragster and Fishing Derby for the company’s first releases in 1980, then Freeway, Laser Blast and Grand Prix. A few highlights:
Pitfall! (1982): the jungle adventure that became one of the best-selling 2600 games.
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns (1984): the sequel, with a custom chip in the cartridge that made four-voice music possible.
Freeway (1981): a chicken crossing ten lanes of traffic.
Dragster (1980): a drag race that lasts only seconds but demands perfect gear changes.
The Activision Decathlon (1983): ten track-and-field events powered by waggling the joystick.
Outlaw (1978): two cowboys shooting it out, still best with a friend.
His credit on Kaboom! is for the graphics, as Larry Kaplan designed the game, and Ghostbusters is Dan Kitchen’s 2600 conversion of Crane’s computer original. Pick any of them below and play it in your browser.
Canyon Bomber
Canyon Bomber is Atari's 1979 Atari 2600 version of its 1977 arcade game, programmed by David Crane. Planes fly across a canyon full of coloured bricks, and all you decide is when to drop a bomb. It is…
Play ▸Slot Machine
Slot Machine is a 1979 Atari 2600 cartridge that turns the console into a three-reel casino slot machine. It was programmed by David Crane, who later co-founded Activision, and Sears sold it under the name Slots. There is…
Play ▸Pitfall II: Lost Caverns
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns is David Crane's 1984 sequel to his own Pitfall!, published by Activision. Pitfall Harry leaves the jungle and goes underground into a huge cave system below Machu Picchu in Peru. With no time limit,…
Play ▸Outlaw – Gunslinger
Outlaw is a 1978 Atari 2600 western shootout designed by David Crane at Atari. Sears sold the same game under its Tele-Games label as Gunslinger. Two cowboys face each other across the screen with a cactus, a wall…
Play ▸Laser Blast
Laser Blast is a 1981 Activision shooter designed by David Crane, one of the company's founders. You fly a saucer over a planet's surface and trade laser fire with three enemy ground bases at a time. It is…
Play ▸Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters for the Atari 2600 is Activision's 1985 cartridge version of the game based on the 1984 film. David Crane designed the original for the Commodore 64, and Dan Kitchen converted it to the 2600, keeping most of…
Play ▸Grand Prix
Grand Prix is a 1982 racing game for the Atari 2600, designed and programmed by David Crane and published by Activision. You drive a Formula One car along a track seen from above, weaving through slower traffic and…
Play ▸Fishing Derby
Fishing Derby is a fishing contest programmed by David Crane and released by Activision in August 1980, as one of the company's first four cartridges alongside Dragster, Checkers and Boxing. Two anglers sit on opposite piers above a…
Play ▸