Learn English with the News – Vintage Video Games Could Be Worth Millions

Video games: fun free-time activity or potential business affair? It seems like collecting vintage video games has become both a serious collection activity as well as a great way to earn money if you have the likes of old Zelda or Super Mario video games. Who knew that these old, pixelated video games could be worth so much?!

Watch the video and then do the accompanying exercises.

The news is a consistent source of entertainment, knowledge and discovery that never ceases to exist and always comes out with more and more material each day. Because it plays such a vital part in our lives and is so important to keep up with, it is without a doubt a piece of your everyday routine that can’t go ignored.

Whether it is to understand the ramifications of recent legislation passed, to hear about recent events and grasp the potential consequences to your country, or simply hear about what is happening in other countries in order to compare them to what’s happening in yours, the news is certainly a staple in our lives and the most consistent way to get information.

This is why Scrambled Eggs has decided to unite two of your biggest worlds: learning English and keeping up with what is happening in the world. We hope our challenging daily exercises, composed of listening, vocabulary and comprehension exercises in English, will satisfy both of those above worlds in a satisfactory and also entertaining way.

So enough about introductions, let’s get to today’s Learn English with the News topic:

Adapted from this article.

Now that you’ve had a listen, let’s put your knowledge to the test with some of our vocabulary and comprehension exercises:

FULL TEXT:

“Collecting retro video games is more than a hobby for some people. In the beginning, many people considered it a fad that would quickly pass, believing it to be a simple case of nostalgia. Others would scour auction sites or connect with niche groups of hobbyists in order to build their collections.
However, in early August of 2021, an unopened vintage copy of “Super Mario Bros” from 1985, set a new world record by selling for $2 million. A sealed copy of “Super Mario 64” sold a few weeks earlier for $1.5 million, and 2 days before that “The Legend of Zelda,” from 1987, sold for $870,000.
Many factors are involved in determining the price of these modern relics: the condition of the box, cartridge, and manual, as well as whether or not it is unopened. These once mass produced items have morphed into unique items over time, like sneakers or trading cards (“Pokémon” for example).
People are more likely to invest in characters such as Mario, Cloud Strife from “Final Fantasy VII” or “Zelda” protagonist Link who appeal to their sense of nostalgia for their childhood; the continuing popularity of these video game franchises attests to the high costs.
The video game industry is moving toward digital-only sales which may lead to physical games becoming extinct. Developers, with the next generation of nostalgic investors in mind, are creating digital collectors’ editions. They believe that, in the future, kids will want to continue to recreate the video game collections or buy what they were not able to acquire as a kid.”