Interview with David Crane, Garry Kitchen, & Dan Kitchen of Activision

[@pikuma]

This was amazing! Thank you. 🙂

[@justynsgames2682]

David Krane also wrote A boy and his blob...I loved that game

[@GregsGameRoom]

Yes he did! Also David Crane’s Amazing Tennis for SNES!

[@Valentine82]

I passed on buying Zelda as a kid in favour of Boy and his blob. What a mistake that was. 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@Atari2600_Dude]

Great interview, the Atari 2600 was such an important part of my childhood, and i still love it.

[@GregsGameRoom]

Me too! I still have my childhood system (the 6 switcher seen in the video.)

[@Svante]

Loved the interview! The Atari 2600 and the Activision games was a huge part of my childhood, and I still love playing their classic 2600 games.

[@GregsGameRoom]

Me too! I was getting a little teary eyed at the end!

[@briancherry8088]

Keystone Capers was always an absolute favorite of mine. I didn't own it, but boy did I play it for hours on friend's machines. Activision made most of the best games I grew up with. They had such a style - a unique identity. The programmers were artists and those games were their art. I miss that. I stared at the Activision catelogue for HOURS dreaming of how great it must be to play these games. I sure wish my job was to create the amount of joy this group of gentleman created.

[@GregsGameRoom]

If only everyone’s job could be this memorable!

[@effyiew7318]

Great interview with some giants. David Crane in particular just loves games from within. I remember getting Pitfall on my atari 2600 and in the instructions David had mentioned to drop him a letter to let him know how you were getting along with the game. Even waaayyy back then he was always interested in connecting with the people who played his games.

[@GregsGameRoom]

He was wonderful! They all were!

[@TampaJay]

So happy for you buddy that was awesome!

[@GregsGameRoom]

Thanks man!

[@Jolt7800]

Thanks so much for this priceless interview! Really enjoyed you digging down on Pitfall 2. I am also fairly certain I met you at Florida Free Play and you took took my picture for me with my cell phone with these awesome legends. So what an extra bonus as well.

[@GregsGameRoom]

Thanks for watching, glad to be of service for all your photographic needs! :D

[@JoedeLange]

Thanks for this is. What a treat to see all three these legends together.

[@datacipher]

I read an article interview with Gary kitchen back in the early 80’s about donkey Kong, and how he really pushed it to get the resolution he did - that he tried half the resolution and the ramps looked like steps…and how if he added another level then the first two would suffer greatly….

[@jameskelvin6720]

Great interview, man!!!

[@GregsGameRoom]

Thank you! I was an honor meeting them!

[@captaincorleone7088]

You omitted that David also programmed Ghostbusters! Awesome interview - it deserves more likes and views.

[@retrohead]

Awesome interview! and amazing guests 👏 They're so humble and down to earth, you wouldn't think they wrote some of the biggest games in video game history.💙

[@GregsGameRoom]

Definitely legends! But very nice and down to earth.

[@retrohead]

@@GregsGameRoom yea 😊

[@culttelevision]

The early days of computer game development were amazing. I wrote 8-bit soundtracks back in the late 80s and it was a cottage industry . Everyone knew each other in same way, shape or form.

[@KaroKoenich]

Great interview. Hope this gets a tad more views.

[@GregsGameRoom]

My next interview is scheduled for today at 5:15. :-)

[@eriks3260]

Great interview!!!! Great guys!!!!! Made great games!!!!

[@SinistarPro_Mike]

I've been watching this one off & on throughout the day, and man, so many good chunks of our gaming history are in there! No doubt that I could listen to David Crane talk for hours. Quite an awesome interview, Greg!

[@GregsGameRoom]

Thanks man! All three were easy and awesome to talk to and I think they really appreciate the classic gaming fans!

[@Nopcode42]

Great to get more information about Pitfall 2, thanks for asking David about it. It was the first game I got for my 2600 and played it like forever when I was a kid.

[@MoviemaniaNick]

Nice interview! I played Pitfall a lot as a kid.

[@GregsGameRoom]

We all did!

[@justynsgames2682]

I was more aware of super pitfall on the nes. I didn't get to play the 2600 much.

[@DJ_Blaker]

Wow, great interview! Loved watching it. I remember seeing the Atari 2600 for the first time. My older cousin got it for Christmas. I remember playing Frogger all day! Lol would have been the Christmas of 1981 :) I had just turned 5 years old. My first experience with a video game.

[@GregsGameRoom]

Frogger is one of my few boxed 2600 games. (It wasn’t my childhood one though.) Definitely one of my favorites!

[@GustafStechmann]

wow really good interview! Crackpots, awesome game by Dan Kitchen, one of my favorites

[@captainfuture2882]

Wow it it so great to listen to your stories. Now that I got old I finally can see and listen to the people who made such amazing software. I wished there would have at least been articles in computer magazines about you guys when I was a kid.

[@wtfhellas]

I randomly thought to search for an interview with Gary kitchen and this came up. Just letting them know at the time of Atari 2600 Activision made games far superior than anything else at the time. Just the use of colors and graphics were a great product back then

[@DeconvertedMan]

I LOVE the music from pitfall 2.

[@GregsGameRoom]

It gets a into your head!

[@DeconvertedMan]

@@GregsGameRoom I forget who did Yars Revenge but I loved that game and lost ark was really complex and fun to figure out and solve. Atari 2600 was a thing, oh yes. Good times. :D

[@OptimusNiaa]

At this point, they were already working on Audacity Games. Circus Convoy was in development, along with Gold Rush (now Casey's Gold). And these dudes said nothing. Love it!

[@emilygrae]

Wow! I need to move closer to where things like Free Play happen! Thank you for this awesome interview!

[@GregsGameRoom]

Free Play Florida is an awesome event! I encourage anyone who loves arcade games, pinball, and home consoles to attend!

[@captainfuture2882]

Well that is a reason to visit the U.S. :) After the pandemic I will hopefully be able to come and see Free Play.

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

For me, one of the most impressive things about David Crane is how he crammed over 200 screens into a 4k cartridge for Pitfall. The way he did it* was by using the bit pattern of a byte to determine if a screen had trees or not, had a pit or not, had a swinging vine or not, etc and then used a reversible binomial counter that would spit out a seemingly random number if you put a number in it, but would do the reverse if you put the outputed number in. In other words, going in one direction it would spit out a quasi-random number sequence like 236, 9, 42, 114 etc and then could reproduce that sequence in reverse. So using the example, if you gave it a 236 as input, it would output a 9 and then inputing a 9 it would give a 42 and so on. And if you gave it a 42 it would output a 9, etc to go in the other direction. Then, the bit pattern of each number would be used to represent the layout of the screen. Genius! By the way, if you moved to a different screen below ground (where the scorpions were), the counter would be used 5 times because each screen traveled below ground equaled 5 screens traveled above ground (but you had those scorpions and some brick walls to contend with!). * David talks about the tricks he and the other programmers used in the excellent series, "Stella at 20". The playlist is here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eX-tZmSloLN-p6s Well worth watching if you are interested in the creation of the 2600 but especially if you are interested in the hardware/software aspect of it.

[@GregsGameRoom]

I think the man is a genius. Super nice too. They all wanted a picture with ME!

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

@@GregsGameRoom I'd love to meet all those guys. Check out that playlist I linked above if you're interested in the behind the scenes of creating the 2600 and its games. Very interesting if you're somewhat of a nerd like me.

[@gertrudemcfuzz74]

33:05 Garry lays out everything wrong with game development today. This is exactly why 90% of games now are stale and derivative.

[@GregsGameRoom]

Yep. Big companies can’t afford to take chances. They leave innovation to the small independent groups.

[@dr.awkward9075]

Pitfall 2 made me cry. STUPID BATS!!!!!!!

[@DeconvertedMan]

Cool! :D ^_^