Yesterday's Haiku attempted to describe Nolan Bushnell's breakthrough while designing the first coin-op. He had played Space War on the PDP-x computers at the University of Utah, and that, along with his long days working as a carnival barker, inspired him to merge two types of entertainment into one.Bushnell's first inclination was to us a computer inside his arcade machine, but in 1971 that was nearly impossible. The size and expense of a computer at the time would make it impossible to use a full fledged computer as the heart of his video game. In fact, it would not be until 1975 with the Intel 8080 that this would become a feasible reality.Instead of a full computer, Bushnell designed his game as a series of logic ics on a printed curcuit board. This "discreet logic" approach meant that Bushnell was not using a programmable computer at all, but designing a specific machine for the purpose of playing his Space War knockoff named Computer Space. This was a huge breakthrough. Bushnell took a step backwards technologically (he was not using a microprocessor by-God!) but for the purpose of a consumer-grade product, it was a giant leap forward. The discreet logic approach his game affordable to manufacture, and the first video game was born.