David Crane
Walter Day Lifetime Achievement Award
Class of 2017 Inductee
David Crane is one of the most successful designers of entertainment software in the world. His award winning video games, led by Pitfall!, Ghostbusters, A Boy and His Blob, and Amazing Tennis are acknowledged as some of the most innovative and popular in the interactive entertainment industry. Crane, a founder of Activision in 1979, has consistently produced superb products, as evidenced by his worldwide sales of over 10 million games and wholesale revenues near 200 million dollars. Prior to his days at Activision, Crane was employed at Atari, where he wrote such hits as Outlaw, Slot Machine and Canyon Bomber. He was also instrumental in the design of the Atari 800 computer’s operating system.
Crane’s hardware accomplishments are equally impressive. In addition to a variety of custom development systems, Crane has designed two integrated circuits for video game use – The Display Processor Chip or DPC, which was awarded a patent for its unique video memory system, and a chip which offered the most innovative method of bank selecting in the industry.
He is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Skyworks Technologies, Inc.
In 2010, Crane and Kitchen began work at AppStar. Kitchen served as president and CEO while Crane was the company’s chief technical officer.
Early in 2021, Crane, Garry Kitchen and his brother Dan Kitchen launched Audacity Games https://adgm.us/portal/index.html, a company dedicated to making new games for old consoles. Their first title, Circus Convoy, was released in 2021 for the Atari 2600.
Wikipedia Link:
Major Accomplishments:
In January 1983, The Video Game Update awarded David Crane as the Designer of the Year for Pitfall! in their Awards of Excellence for 1982.
In February 2010, Crane became the first recipient of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Pioneer award.
IGN listed David Crane on their list of the top 100 game creators of all time at number 12.
2017 IVGHOF Ceremony Acceptance Speech:
Walter Day Trading Card Spotlight:
