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I grew up in Northern Ireland, right up in the very, very north end of it there,
我從小在北愛爾蘭長大，就在愛爾蘭島的最最北邊
where it's absolutely freezing cold.
那里非常冷
This was me running around in the back garden mid-summer.
這張照片是一個夏天我在我們家后院玩的時候拍的
I couldn't pick a career.
我不知道該選擇什么樣的職業
In Ireland the obvious choice is the military,
在愛爾蘭，最正常的選擇應該是參軍
but to be honest it actually kind of sucks.
但是，說實話，部隊里太沒勁了
My mother wanted me to be a dentist.
我媽希望我成為一個牙科醫生
But the problem was that people kept blowing everything up.
但問題是，那個時候人們一直在到處亂扔炸彈
So I actually went to school in Belfast,
我去了貝爾法斯特的一個學校讀書
which was where all the action happened.
所有的騷亂就是在那兒發生的
And this was a pretty common sight.
這張照片上就是當時常見的景象
The school I went to was pretty boring.
我上學的那個學校特別無聊
They forced us to learn things like Latin.
我們被逼著學了像拉丁語這樣無聊的東西
The school teachers weren't having much fun, the sports were very dirty or very painful.
學校的老師也都很沒勁，學校里的體育項目又臟又累
So I cleverly chose rowing, which I got very good at.
于是我就非常聰明的選擇了賽艇，后來我劃得還不錯
And I was actually rowing for my school here
照片上我正代表我的學校參加賽艇比賽
until this fateful day, and I flipped over right in front of the entire school.
直到災難性的那天，我翻船了，當著全校師生的面，我翻船了
And that was the finishing post right there.
其實比賽的終點就在那兒
So this was extremely embarrassing.
那個時候我覺得特別特別尷尬
But our school at that time got a grant from the government,
不過后來我們學校從政府拿到一份津貼
and they got an incredible computer -- the research machine 3DZ --
然后他們買來一臺驚人的計算機，用作研究的機器--3DZ
and they left the programming manuals lying around.
當時他們就把編程手冊扔在那兒
And so students like myself with nothing to do, we would learn how to program it.
于是像我這樣無所事事的學生就會去看手冊學習怎樣在那臺計算機上編程
Also around this time, at home, this was the computer that people were buying.
那個時候，我家鄉那里的人們都會買這樣的一臺計算機
It was called the Sinclair ZX80. This was a 1K computer,
它叫做Sinclair ZX80，是一臺只有1K（內存）的計算機
and you'd buy your programs on cassette tape.
然后你就可以去買存在磁帶上的程序來運行
Actually I'm just going to pause for one second,
我要在這暫停一下
because I heard that there's a prerequisite to speak here at TED
我聽說要在TED演講必須有一個條件
you had to have a picture of yourself from the old days with big hair.
就是要有演講者必須有一張自己以前留著蓬松長發的老照片
So I brought a picture with big hair.
根據要求我帶來了這張照片
I just want to get that out of the way.
我就是想趕快先完成這個要求
So after the Sinclair ZX80 came along the very cleverly named Sinclair ZX81.
接著說，在Sinclair ZX80那臺計算機之后，他們又推出了一臺新的機器，這臺機器名字很有創意叫做Sinclair ZX81
And -- you see the picture at the bottom?
大家看到底下的那張照片了嗎？
There's a picture of a guy doing homework with his son.
照片上是一個人在陪他的兒子做作業
That's what they thought they had built it for.
這是廠商原來推出這臺計算機的目的
The reality is we got the programming manual and we started making games for it.
而事實上，當我們拿到編程手冊的時候，我們就馬上開始在這臺機器上做游戲了
We were programming in BASIC,
我們當時用的是BASIC語言編程的
which is a pretty awful language for games,
這個語言非常不適合用于游戲編程
so we ended up learning Assembly language
于是我們就開始學習匯編語言
so we could really take control of the hardware.
因為匯編語言可以讓我們完全控制所有硬件
This is the guy that invented it, Sir Clive Sinclair, and he's showing his machine.
這就是發明那臺機器的人，Clive Sinclair閣下，照片上他正在展示他的機器
You had this same thing in America, it was called the Timex Sinclair1000.
你們美國當時有一種同樣的機器叫做Timex Sinclair1000
To play a game in those days you had to have an imagination
那個時候要玩游戲，你必須有一定的想象力
to believe that you were really playing "Battlestar Galactica."
要相信自己真的在玩《太空堡壘銀河號》
The graphics were just horrible.
那個時候的圖形畫面非常差
You had to have an even better imagination to play this game,
要想玩這個游戲，你得有更強的想象力
"Death Rider."
這是《死亡騎士》
But of course the scientists couldn't help themselves.
當然，科學家們可忍不住了
They started making their own video games.
他們開始做自己的游戲
This is one of my favorite ones here, where they have rabbit breeding,
這是我最愛的游戲之一，這個游戲是關于養兔子的
so males choose the lucky rabbit.
雄兔選擇走運的雌兔
It was around this time we went from 1K to 16K, which was quite the leap.
差不多這個時候，計算機從1K跳到了16K，這是一個非常大的跨越
And if you're wondering how much 16K is, this eBay logo here is 16K.
如果你在想16K到底有多大，這個eBAY的圖標就有16K
And in that amount of memory someone programmed a full flight simulation program.
就在那么大的空間里，有人寫出了一個完整的飛行模擬程序
And that's what it looked like.
那個程序看起來就像這樣
I spent ages flying this flight simulator,
我花了好久在這上面開飛機
and I honestly believed I could fly airplanes by the end of it.
到后來，我真的以為我可以去開真的飛機了
Here's Clive Sinclair now launching his color computer.
這是Clive Sinclair發布他的彩色（屏幕）電腦
He's recognized as being the father of video games in Europe.
他被當作歐洲的電子游戲之父
He's a multi-millionaire, and I think that's why he's smiling in this photograph.
他是個千萬富翁，我想這就是為什么他在照片里笑得那么開心吧
So I went on for the next 20 years or so making a lot of different games.
在接下來的20年里我一直在做不同的游戲
