<!-- فقرة 2 -->كان بيتس مفتونًا بالحاسوب وكان قد أخذ عدة صفوف بالحاسوب تمهيدية، وأقنع رئيس المشروع [[ليه إيرنست]] للسماح له باستخدام الحاسوب بعد ساعات. Fascinated by the computer and having taken several introductory computer classes, Pitts convinced the head of the project, [[Les Earnest|Lester Earnest]], to let him use the computer after hours. Soon, Pitts had ceased going to classes, instead spending his nights in the computer lab interacting with the graduate and postgraduate students and playing ''Spacewar'' on the PDP-6. Pitts often played against Hugh Tuck, a student at [[California Polytechnic State University]] who was a friend from high school.<ref name="Replay70s"/><ref name="StanfordGG"/> During one ''Spacewar'' session that took place, depending on the source, between 1966 and 1969, Tuck remarked that a coin-operated version of the game would be very successful. Such a device was still unfeasible due to the cost of computers, and the pair did not pursue the project. In 1971, however, Pitts, who by then had graduated and was working at [[Lockheed Corporation|Lockheed]] as a [[PDP-10]] programmer, learned of the 1970 DEC [[PDP-11]], which was sold for around US$14,000. While this was still too high for a commercially viable product, as most electronic games in [[amusement arcade|arcades]] cost around US$1,000 at the time, Tuck and Pitts felt it was low enough to build a prototype to determine interest and optimal per-game pricing.<ref name="Replay70s"/><ref name="StanfordGG"/><ref name="VGHnutty"/>
