Bill Pitts of Stanford University and Hugh Tuck of California Polytechnic University used a PDP-11 minicomputer to make one of the first video games: Galaxy Game, which debuted in the Stanford cafeteria in October 1971. They charged a few coins to play. The game was a hit, and long lines formed to play. But the computer cost $22,000 and would never pay for itself. Atari’s Bushnell took a different approach, developing the entire system in hardware to reduce costs. And commercial success was not long in coming.
