That was the early 1980’s. Computers were a Very new thing.
Atari was the most advanced computer thingy that most of these young men had ever seen.
Funny you should mention that. I was an engineering student in the late 70s. Our Univac computer (fortran) cost the school ~$1 million. While I was at Murray State (Ky), Radio Shack introduced their TRS 80 for ~$300. It outperformed our computer.