5.彩弹游戏
The game of paintball that we know and love was invented in the 1970s by two friends, Charles Gaines and Bill Gurnsey, who found an alternative (and painful) use for the paint-pellet guns that until then had only been used by farm workers to mark livestock.
我们所知道且喜欢玩的彩弹游戏是查尔斯·盖恩斯和比尔·格尼赛（二者是朋友）在20世纪70年代发明的。他们发现当时仅被农民用来标记牲畜的彩弹枪还有另一种（很疼的）玩法。
But, if you'd lived in the early 1900s, you might have played an earlier form of paintball known as wax dueling: a sport where men would partake in duels using pistols that fired wax bullets. Competitors were required to wear specialist armor to (ideally) protect them from any serious injury. Indeed, an issue of the Pittsburgh Press (dated August 1908) describes how one player had "the soft piece of flesh connecting the thumb and forefinger" of his right hand shot out, and also warned that spectators risked being blinded by ricocheting rounds. Nevertheless, this sport soon became so popular that it even made an appearance at the 1908 Olympic Games in London.
但是，你如果生活在20世纪早期的话，或许有可能玩过一种彩弹早期形式的游戏，这种游戏叫做蜡弹大战：在比赛中，参加运动的运动员使用可以喷射蜡制子弹的手枪。要求比赛者穿着特殊制服以保护他们免受任何重伤。其实不然，《匹兹堡新闻》（日期为1908年8月）的其中一期就描述了一位运动员将自己"连接拇指与食指的肉"甩出去的情景，并且还警示说，观众存在被反弹过来的子弹打瞎的风险。即便如此，这项运动很快受到人们的喜爱，甚至还在1908年的伦敦奥运会上露了面。
4.蛇和梯子
The only way someone wouldn't know about Snakes and Ladders would be because they're more familiar with it as Chutes and Ladders.
有人不知道《蛇和梯子》的唯一原因可能是他们更熟悉叫这款游戏《梯子和滑道》。
But we're betting that you didn't know that the game has existed in some form since the 16th century. Originating in India, the objective for players back then was still the same—reach the end of the board by climbing ladders and avoiding snakes—but in this version, the ladders symbolized the virtues of faith, reliability, generosity, knowledge, and asceticism. Meanwhile, the snakes symbolized vices such as vanity, theft, rage, greed, pride, murder, and lust. The game aimed to teach players that in order to reach salvation (the end of the board), they must perform virtuous acts throughout their lives, as opposed to indulging in the aforementioned vices. For this reason, there are more snakes/sins on the board than ladders/virtues. The makers wanted to reinforce the idea that a virtuous life was harder to attain—and therefore more worthwhile—than a life of vice.
但是，我们敢打赌，你不知道这个游戏在16世纪就已经以某种形式出现了。这个游戏起源于印度，当时玩家的目标也是一样——爬梯子的同时绕过蛇，最终到达游戏界面的终点端。但是，在早期的版本中，梯子象征着信念、可靠、慷慨、智慧和禁欲等美德。同时，蛇象征着像虚荣、偷窃、狂怒、贪婪、骄傲、凶杀和淫乱等罪恶。游戏的目的是教育玩家，想要得到救赎（游戏界面的终点端），必须终生行善，而不是沉溺于上述所说的各种罪恶。鉴于这个原因，游戏界面上的蛇或罪恶要比梯子或美德数量多。游戏制造者想要强调这样一个理念：相比于一生行恶，一生行善更难达到，而且也就更有意义。
3.火药帽玩具枪
You might think that cap guns are a relic of the 1940-50s. After all, that was the great age of the cowboy movie, when children clamored to relive the adventures of onscreen cowboys such as Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, and Hopalong Cassidy.
你可能会觉得火药帽玩具枪产生于20世纪四五十年代。要知道，当时是伟大的牛仔电影时代，那时孩子们都抢着要重温荧幕上牛仔的冒险经历，如《罗伊·罗杰斯》、《独行侠》、《何帕龙·卡赛迪》。
Actually, cap guns have a history that predates the American Civil War. In 1859, the J & E Stevens Company—a toy manufacturer that specialized in the production of cast-iron toys—released a firecracker pistol similar in design to the modern-day cap gun. Several years later, and after achieving great success with this product, Stevens began producing novelty cap guns in the 1890s, including a model shaped like a sea serpent (which, on pulling the trigger, detonated a cap placed on its jaw) and another shaped like a monkey, which would trigger the cap by slamming a coconut-shaped hammer into it.
事实是，火药帽玩具枪的历史比美国内战还要早。1859年，一家从事玩具制造的公司——J and E史蒂文公司主营铁铸玩具，推出了一款爆竹手枪。这款手枪在设计方面与当今的火药帽玩具枪相似。几年后，随着这款产品取得了很大成功，史蒂文森在19世纪90年代开始制造新型火药帽玩具枪，其中有一款模型的形状很像海蛇（扳动扳机，就会引爆放置在海蛇下巴上的火药帽），还有一款模型的形状酷似猴子，用一个椰子形状的锤子敲打，就可引爆火药帽。
2.地产大亨
Monopoly, for those of you who have actively avoided all forms of popular culture, is the fun, hyper-capitalistic game that's been tearing families apart since 1934.
对于那些主动避开了所有流行文化形式的人来说，地产大亨是唯一的乐趣。自1934年以来，这款超级资本主义化的游戏不断使得许多家庭破裂。
However, Monopoly was itself inspired by a 1904 board game called The Landlord's Game. Created by Elizabeth Magie, The Landlord's Game was intended to teach people about how property owners at the time made vast fortunes at the expense of tenants like themselves, many of whom were already a hairs-breadth away from poverty. Magie hoped that any children who played the game would recognize the inherent unfairness of this system and be able to protect themselves against it in later life. Magie later sold the patent to the company Parkers Brothers in 1934, who obviously abandoned her initial goals. The major company had recently acquired the rights to produce Monopoly and wished to gain ownership of any patents which could prove problematic in the future.
然而，地产大亨本身是受到1904年的桌游《地主游戏》的启发。由伊丽莎白·玛吉创造的《地主游戏》，意图是想教育人们了解当时的资本拥有者如何从向他们一样的租客身上赚取大量金钱，当时的许多人距赤贫仅有一步之遥。玛吉希望所有玩过这款游戏的孩子都能意识到资本主义体制与身俱来的不公平性，并在以后的生活中有能力保护自己不受这种体制的压制。1934年，玛吉把游戏的专利权出售给了帕克兄弟公司，很明显，这家公司抛却了玛吉最初的目的。这家大公司获得制造《地产大亨》专利权不久后，就希望获得未来有可能产生问题的所有专利。
1.猎鸭
Duck Hunt is regarded by many as being one of the greatest games ever. Released in 1984, it pits players against an army of (admittedly harmless) ducks to shoot—as well as a dog that will taunt you into your grave. Luckily, players were armed with a lightgun: a gun-shaped controller that mimics any real-life movements onscreen and allows wannabe hunters to blast any wayward ducks.
《猎鸭》被许多人认为是到目前为止最伟大的几款游戏之一。这款游戏于1984年发布，玩家需要射击一队（得承认，它们是无害的）野鸭，还有一只会疯狂嘲笑你的狗。幸运的是，玩家会拥有一把激光枪，实际上就是一个枪支形状的控制器，它会把实际生活中的激光枪发生的任何动作都模仿到游戏机的荧屏上，让想成为猎人的人打中那些不听话的鸭子。
Incredibly, this wasn't the first time that people had the opportunity to shoot fictional ducks with imitation firearms for the purposes of entertainment; that honor instead goes to 1936's Ray-O-Lite Rifle. Created as an arcade game, punters were handed a lightbeam-firing rifle and tasked with shooting as many wooden ducks as they could within a given time. To add an extra element of difficulty to the proceedings, the ducks were also able to move around the shooting gallery courtesy of a hidden conveyor belt. The makers, Seeburg, also created several other varieties of this game, where targets included bears, chickens, and—in an edition made in 1942—even Adolf Hitler himself.
令人意想不到的是，以娱乐为目的，让人们有机会用模拟枪械射击虚拟的鸭子，这款游戏还不是第一款；这个荣誉我们应该颁给1936年的Ray-O-Lite-Rifle。这是一款街机游戏，顾客手持激光枪，任务是在规定的时间内尽可能多的打中木鸭。如果要增加这个游戏的难度，借助传送带就能让野鸭在射击场内来回飞动。制造商Seeburg公司也创造了这款游戏其他不同的版本，其中靶子包括熊、小鸡，在1942年的版本中靶子竟然是阿道夫·希特勒。
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