美国国家公共电台 NPR Retro-Games And Consoles Are The Latest Craze In The Gamer World

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

Nintendo has a new gaming console. Well, it's kind of new. The Super NES Classic is basically just a smaller version of a system that is almost 30 years old. Despite that, it sold out in hours, which is evidence maybe of a retro gaming craze. NPR's Adhiti Bandlamudi has the story.

ADHITI BANDLAMUDI, BYLINE¹: Kelsey Lewin is a 23-year-old gamer in Seattle, Wash. She owns over 70 different gaming systems, and her collection keeps growing. She wants to play every game on every console. She's a huge fan of Nintendo and finds the Nintendo 64, another kind of console, is especially important to her collection.

KELSEY LEWIN: If you go back to the beginnings of when I started falling in love with video games, the Nintendo 64 was a really big part of that. So I do collect from some nostalgic reasons. But, yeah, a lot of it is also just because I know that I haven't played everything, and I would really like to someday.

BANDLAMUDI: Lewin co-owns Pink Gorilla² Games, a retro and imported videogame store. She says when she orders old consoles her customers buy them right away. A lot of it, she thinks, has to do with nostalgia³.

LEWIN: I definitely think that's a part of it - a big part of it, even. But a lot of it is still that it just holds up today as well. So they still enjoy playing the NES not just because they remember playing it as a kid, but because it's still fun.

BANDLAMUDI: Brian Kim is a 25-year-old gamer from Virginia. He's playing "Contra," one of the classic games that comes pre-downloaded on the Super NES he just bought.

BRIAN KIM: When I was younger, my best friend had a Super Nintendo. And I used to go over to his house and I used to play that a lot. And there were a lot of times where I actually - because I didn't have the system I wanted to go to his house, and he wouldn't want to play because he had them.

BANDLAMUDI: But these old games aren't easy to play. The controls on these old consoles aren't as sensitive to players' movements as new consoles are. Kim is struggling to play "Contra."

KIM: The annoying thing is you can't move and shoot at the same time. You either shoot or you move. Oh, shoot. I fell into the fire.

BANDLAMUDI: And along with the revived popularity of these old consoles, there's a growing interest for the games that were played on them, too. "Contra" is just one of the games that's part of this revival⁴. But people who collect these games and consoles aren't necessarily getting them to play them over and over again.

KIM: It's more so of just being able to say, like, I have this system. I have it as, like, a collectible and have it kind of displayed for myself.

BANDLAMUDI: This trend is sweeping⁵ the gamer world. Fans are buying other old consoles like the Atari and the Sega Genesis, too. And they're not cheap. When Nintendo brought back the Super NES, it sold for about $80. But if you're trying to get one now on eBay, you could spend anywhere from $150 to $200. Adhiti Bandlamudi, NPR News.

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1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 gorilla   

n.大猩猩，暴徒，打手

参考例句：

• I was awed by the huge gorilla.那只大猩猩使我惊惧。
• A gorilla is just a speechless animal.猩猩只不过是一种不会说话的动物。

3 nostalgia   

n.怀乡病，留恋过去，怀旧

参考例句：

• He might be influenced by nostalgia for his happy youth.也许是对年轻时幸福时光的怀恋影响了他。
• I was filled with nostalgia by hearing my favourite old song.我听到这首喜爱的旧歌，心中充满了怀旧之情。

4 revival   

n.复兴，复苏，（精力、活力等的）重振

参考例句：

• The period saw a great revival in the wine trade.这一时期葡萄酒业出现了很大的复苏。
• He claimed the housing market was showing signs of a revival.他指出房地产市场正出现复苏的迹象。

5 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？