David Crane interview - working at Atari, founding Activision, and making blockbuster games (PCGI)
50This interview was taken as part of my research for PC Gaming Chronicles - my new documentary series about the early days of computer gaming. First episode is available now, be sure to check it out!
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00:00 0. Intro
01:14 1. David's background and how he got his first job at Atari
04:08 2. How the video games have been made in the late 70s-early 80s
07:14 3. Reasons for David's departure from Atari
09:33 4. Designing Atari 8-bit home computers
12:30 5. Founding Activision
15:35 6. Atari's lawsuit and reverse engineering Atari 2600
18:27 7. Why Activision wasn't porting their games on home computers before 1984
21:36 8. The publishing process of Activision in the 80s
24:58 9. Jim Levy's marketing, and how Activision invented game achievements system
30:29 10. How comparable were game's sales between consoles and home computers
32:08 11. Video game piracy
36:09 12. Making of Pitfall!, and how the protagonist got his name
46:02 13. Making of Little Computer People, and is it true that every copy of the game is unique
57:59 14. Making of Ghostbusters!, a good (!) movie licensed game
01:06:05 15. How David made a guest appearance on Computer Chronicles TV show
01:08:08 16. The downfall of Activision 1.0
01:18:18 17. David's department from Activision and co-operation with Garry Kitchen
01:24:26 18. David's future projects, and is there a chance that his game would become available on GOG and Steam
01:29:39 19. Outro
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