打砖块

One day in early 1975 Al Alcorn was sitting in his office at Atari when Ron Wayne burst in.

1975年初的一天，阿尔·奥尔康正坐在雅达利公司的办公室里，罗恩·韦恩冲了进来。

"Hey, Stevie is back!" he shouted.

“嘿！史蒂夫回来了!”他喊道。

"Wow, bring him on in," Alcorn replied.

“天哪，快让他进来。”奥尔康回答。

Jobs shuffled in barefoot, wearing a saffron robe and carrying a copy of Be Here Now,

乔布斯光着脚走了进来，穿着一身橘黄色的袍子，手里拿着一本《此时此地》，

which he handed to Alcorn and insisted he read.

他把书递给奥尔康，坚持要他也看看。

"Can I have my job back?" he asked.

“我能回来工作吗？”他问。

"He looked like a Hare Krishna guy, but it was great to see him," Alcorn recalled.

“他看起来像个哈雷·克里希纳寺的僧人，但见到他我很高兴，”奥尔康回忆，

"So I said, sure!"

“于是我说，当然！”

Once again, for the sake of harmony, Jobs worked mostly at night.

为了公司内的和谐，乔布斯再次被安排上晚班。

Wozniak, who was living in an apartment nearby and working at HP, would come by after dinner to hang out and play the video games.

沃兹尼亚克当时在惠普工作，就住在附近的一处公寓，他会在晚饭后去找乔布斯玩游戏。

He had become addicted to Pong at a Sunnyvale bowling alley,

他在森尼韦尔的一家保龄球馆里爱上了《乒乓》游戏，

and he was able to build a version that he hooked up to his home TV set.

他还开发出了一个版本，可以连接到自家的电视机上。

One day in the late summer of 1975,

1975年夏末的一天，

Nolan Bushnell, defying the prevailing wisdom that paddle games were over,

对当时盛行的“球拍类游戏即将完蛋”的言论嗤之以鼻的诺兰·布什内尔，

decided to develop a single-player version of Pong;

决定开发《乒乓》的单机版本：

instead of competing against an opponent, the player would volley the ball into a wall that lost a brick whenever it was hit.

玩家不再跟对手竞争，而是将球击向一堵墙，每击中一次，墙上就会减少一块砖。

He called Jobs into his office, sketched it out on his little blackboard, and asked him to design it.

他把乔布斯叫进办公室，在自己的小黑板上画出了草图，然后叫他去设计。

There would be a bonus, Bushnell told him, for every chip fewer than fifty that he used.

布什内尔告诉他，如果使用的芯片少于50个，那么每少用一个，就会有一笔奖金。

Bushnell knew that Jobs was not a great engineer,

布什内尔心里清楚乔布斯并不是一个伟大的工程师，

but he assumed, correctly, that he would recruit Wozniak, who was always hanging around.

但是他猜测---也猜对了---乔布斯会招来总在附近晃悠的沃兹尼亚克。

"I looked at it as a two-for-one thing," Bushnell recalled. "Woz was a better engineer."

“我把这看做是买一赠一”，布什内尔回忆道，“沃兹是个更加优秀的工程师。”

Wozniak was thrilled when Jobs asked him to help and proposed splitting the fee.

当乔布斯邀请沃兹帮忙，并提出两人平分收入的时候，沃兹很兴奋。

"This was the most wonderful offer in my life, to actually design a game that people would use," he recalled.

“这是我人生中受到的最美妙的一次邀请，我可以真正设计一款人们会用到的游戏。”他回忆说。

Jobs said it had to be done in four days and with the fewest chips possible.

乔布斯说任务必须在4天内完成，并且要使用尽可能少的芯片。

What he hid from Wozniak was that the deadline was one that Jobs had imposed,

乔布斯没有告诉沃兹，截止日期其实是自己定的，

because he needed to get to the All One Farm to help prepare for the apple harvest.

因为他需要赶去团结农场帮忙迎接苹果丰收。

He also didn't mention that there was a bonus tied to keeping down the number of chips.

他也没有提到少用芯片会有奖金。

"A game like this might take most engineers a few months," Wozniak recalled.

“这样的一款游戏需要耗费大多数工程师几个月的时间，”沃兹回忆说，

"I thought that there was no way I could do it, but Steve made me sure that I could."

“我觉得我肯定完成不了，但史蒂夫让我相信自己一定可以。”

So he stayed up four nights in a row and did it.

于是他接连4天没有睡觉，完成了任务。

During the day at HP, Wozniak would sketch out his design on paper.

白天在惠普上班的时候，沃兹就在纸上画设计草图。

Then, after a fast-food meal, he would go right to Atari and stay all night.

下班之后，匆匆吃上一顿快餐，他就会赶到雅达利，在那儿待一晚上。

As Wozniak churned out the design, Jobs sat on a bench to his left implementing it by wire-wrapping the chips onto a breadboard.

沃兹尼亚克在设计的时候，乔布斯就坐在他左边的凳子上，将芯片布线到电路板上。

"While Steve was breadboarding,

“史蒂夫捣弄电路板的时候，

I spent time playing my favorite game ever, which was the auto racing game Gran Trak 10," Wozniak said.

我就玩我最爱的赛车游戏《极速赛道10》“沃兹尼亚克说。

重点讲解：

1.burst in

闯进；闯入；突然冲入

例句：The door opened suddenly and the children burst in.

门突然打开，孩子们闯了进来。

2.in barefoot

光着脚

例句：Who won the olympic marathon race in barefoot?

谁光脚获得了奥运会马拉松冠军？

3.hang out

闲逛；闲荡；出去消遣

例句：I just came by to see whether you wanna hang out with me .

我过来看看你是否愿意和我一起出去玩。

4.hook up

接洽妥当；连接

例句：Alternatively, you could hook up your laptop or smartphone to the mini projector and the run the presentation that way.

另外，你可以把自己的笔记本电脑或智能手机连上投影仪，然后以那样的方式运行演示。

5.sketch out

描绘，勾勒

例句：It helps you sketch out what the problem is like, and what sorts of things you need from a solution.

这会帮助你勾勒问题的轮廓，是你明白你要从方案中得到些什么。