“电子宠物”回归，是复古还是炒冷饭？

For those who are too young to know what a Tamagotchi is, it’s an egg-shaped plastic device with a black-and-white screen on which appears a little pixelated pet. With the three buttons below the screen, you can feed the pet, care for it and clean up its mess. And just like a real pet, it gets sick and dies if neglected.

年纪小的孩子们或许没有都听说过“拓麻歌子”这款电子宠物。这是一款有着蛋形塑料外壳的游戏机，在它的黑白屏幕上有一只小小的像素化宠物。你可以通过屏幕下方的三个按钮喂养、照顾、清理这只宠物。它和现实生活中的宠物一样，如果你疏于照顾，它会生病，甚至还会死亡。

When it was first released by Japanese company Bandai in 1997, this virtual“pocket pet” was so popular with schoolchildren that it was frequently sold out at stores all over the world. For many people, the Tamagotchi was their first ever experience of raising and caring for a “pet”.

1997年，日本万代公司首次推出这只虚拟的“口袋宠物”，那时它在小学生中掀起了一阵风靡热潮，在世界各地的商店经常断货。对于不少人而言，拓麻歌子带给他们人生中第一次饲养、照顾一只“宠物”的经历。

A lot has certainly changed in the last 20 years – especially when it comes to technology – so would it be a good idea to reintroduce the Tamagotchi to today’s world?

过去的20年发生了很大的变化 —— 尤其在科技方面 —— 那么，如今让“拓麻歌子”这款游戏重出江湖会是个好主意吗?

Bandai obviously thinks so since it’s going to re-release it next month, marking the device’s 20th anniversary. “We’re going after that nostalgia,” said Tara Badie, director of Tamagotchi’s brand management, according to The Verge.

很显然，万代的答案是肯定的。在拓麻歌子推出20周年之际，万代将于下月重新发售这款产品。据科技媒体The Verge网站报道，拓麻歌子的品牌管理总监Tara Badie曾表示：“我们正追寻那种怀旧之情。”

Modern features

现代功能

Nostalgia is all the rage these days. Just look at Nintendo’s Pokemon Go – the 2016 smartphone game derived from its 1996 version – and Nokia’s 2017 version of the 3310 – the mobile phone released in 2000 that it seems nearly everyone in the world owned. But these companies didn’t just simply copy from the past – they managed to update the old version and adapt it for the modern world.

怀旧如今风行一时。任天堂2016年发行的手游“精灵宝可梦G0” —— 这款手机游戏源于其1996年的经典版本 —— 诺基亚3310机型的2017复刻版 —— 这款机型最初于2000年发售，几乎全世界的人都曾拥有过这款手机 ——看看这些你就知道了。但这些公司并非简单地从过去复制粘贴 —— 他们都尝试着升级旧版本，使其适用于现代世界。

With Pokemon Go, Nintendo successfully combined cutting-edge augmented reality technology with the game’s original storyline.

任天堂成功地在“精灵宝可梦Go”这款游戏中，将原来的故事线与前沿的增强现实技术结合在了一起。

“Pokemon Go tells us about the future of software and the nature of reality – and how they integrate into what we think of as entertainment,” technology writer Om Malik wrote on The New Yorker.

“‘精灵宝可梦Go’向我们展示了软件的未来以及现实的本质 —— 以及如何将两者整合成我们的娱乐方式，”科技作家Om Malik 在《纽约客》杂志上写道。

And although Nokia’s new 3310 stayed faithful to the original phone’s design, it added a few modern features like a color screen, camera and internet access. It even kept the iconic game Snake, which many of today’s adults would have spent hours playing as teenagers.

而尽管诺基亚的新版3310机型忠于原来的外形设计，但它也加入了一些现代功能，如彩色屏幕、照相机以及网络连接等。它甚至还保留了标志性的游戏“贪吃蛇”，不少成年人如今还会像青少年时那样玩上好几个小时。

But while nostalgia is certainly a selling point to many people, not everyone is a fan.

但尽管怀旧对许多人来说的确是个卖点，但并非所有人都买账。

“I’m so sick of nostalgia as a ploy for profit. From the ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan, to the endless Star Wars and X-Men movies, we’ve become a world obsessed with looking backward for lazy sources of joy,” wrote tech reporter Thomas Ricker on The Verge.

“我受够了将怀旧作为盈利的噱头。从‘让美国再次伟大’的口号，到无穷无尽的‘星战’和‘X战警’系列电影，我们这个世界已经沉迷于回首过去，寻找怠惰的欢愉之源，”科技记者Thomas Ricker 在The Verge 网站上写道。

But will the magic of nostalgia work with the Tamagotchi? According to Julia Alexander, an editor for video game website Polygon, it seems pretty unlikely.

但怀旧的魔法会在拓麻歌子上起作用吗?电子游戏网站Polygon的编辑Julia Alexander认为，这一切看起来不大可能。

After trying the new product, Alexander soon found out that little has been changed since the original.

在试用过这款新产品之后，Alexander发现这款新品和原版相比，并未作出多大改变。

“I grew up and, unfortunately, the Tamagotchi didn’t,” she wrote.

“我长大了，但不幸的是，拓麻歌子并没有，”她写道。

So when it comes to nostalgia, maybe the fond memories of our favorite childhood products are best left as that – fond memories.

就怀旧而言，我们对待童年时所喜爱产品的最好方式，或许就是让它成为美好回忆吧。