The New Running Game Where 'Zombies' Chase You

The Zombies, Run! iPhone app is a running game and audio adventure set in a post-apocalyptic world.

Part I  

Part II 

（文本为音频大致内容，可能与音频并非完全一致，欢迎大家贡献听写稿^^）

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST: I have just walked outside the main NPR headquarters building, and we're in downtown D.C. It is a bright, clear day. I've just laced up my sneakers because I'm about to get chased by zombies. All right. Now, this is a new game. We're going to test it out here. And I've got a button here, start mission. All right. Here we go.

NAOMI ALDERMAN: So you'll see the township as we look around. Not much more than a few fences to keep the zoms out.

KELLY: All right. So I'm not sure which is going to be the bigger danger here: getting caught by the zombies or the traffic that's heading my way from that (unintelligible). Let's pick it up.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Listen, if you're alive, if there's anyone alive...

KELLY: Oh, yeah. I'm alive.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: ...this is Sam Yeow(ph) from Able township. You've come down in a nest of hostiles.

KELLY: Hostiles.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Unintelligible) They're coming. There are 30 - oh, no, 40.

KELLY: Oh, dear. That does not sound good.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Your next path is towards the tower.

KELLY: The tower.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: You should be able to see that from where you are.

KELLY: I see a safeway.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: If you are right there, just run.

KELLY: I see Chipotle.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Run.

KELLY: Right. I'm running. I'm running. I'm running.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

KELLY: So happily, I did manage to outrun the zombies - that time - and live to tell the tale. It is all part of a new running game called "Zombies, RUN!" and it's designed to encourage folks to exercise. The game is the brainchild of British writer Naomi Alderman, and she says the idea came to her when she signed up for a class for amateur runners.

ALDERMAN: The start of the course, they said to us, why do you want to learn how to run? And one woman said, I want to be able to outrun the zombie horde. Then I thought, ah, this would be a good idea for a game.

KELLY: Well, I got a little bit of a taste of it this morning. I was doing laps around the NPR building. And I was very focused on not getting caught by the zombies, but I gather I was also supposed to be on some sort of mission collecting things. Explain to us how this game works.

ALDERMAN: So the idea is you are one of five. You come from a small base, the last shivering remnant of humanity. You have to go out running, or you can do it by walking - we want to be open to people of all fitness levels - you have to go out to collect supplies for your base.

So as you're going, it goes, bing, you've got some toilet paper. Bing, you've got some bottled water. And when you get back home on your phone, you'll see, OK, you picked up seven batteries, allot them to a difference place in the base. So that gives every run that feeling of, I'm doing something important. I'm growing my base.

There's also an ongoing story where at some point somebody will say to you, runner five, runner five, there's a child stuck in no man's land. Run, run, run to get there before the zombies come. (Makes noise)

KELLY: So these are all these voices that I was hearing as I was running, giving me specific instructions and speed up and slow down. And I have to admit, I mean, you know, it gets you moving. I think I managed to complete level one.

ALDERMAN: Hooray.

KELLY: But if you stick with it, you're going to go through various levels and keep getting different assignments, but they're all going to involve trying to get away from the zombies. Is that right?

ALDERMAN: They are.

KELLY: Now, one thing I was worried about was, yeah, I'm running my fastest, but I don't know if these zombies are sub-six minute milers or what.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

ALDERMAN: They're hunting with the speed of zombies. Basically, we have something that is called hardcore mode, where if you switch it on, then, yeah, the zombies are going to chase you, but you can also turn off hardcore mode. And then there's also a different story.

KELLY: Yeah, I was definitely not in hardcore mode.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

KELLY: I was in still need my coffee mode.

ALDERMAN: Excellent.

KELLY: I was a bit worried before I went out and actually did it how you do a game just through a narrative. Now, you know, no images that you're looking at here.

ALDERMAN: Yeah. That was very important to us because there are other sort of running games that might, like, put some kind of monster in your path, but you have to be looking at the screen in order to see it. And we're just like, this is not safe. So that was where we started. We started with the idea that we wanted to do something where it was all audio.

And I would say also, if you have the hardcore mode on where zombies are going to catch you, we very strongly advise you not to do it in traffic.

KELLY: Not to do it. That was my fatal error, near-fatal error, I should say...

ALDERMAN: Oh, no.

KELLY: ...as I was out testing it. Now, I did manage not to get caught by the zombies. Tell me exactly what happens if they catch you.

ALDERMAN: Well, the first time they catch you, it's just going to say, the zombie has caught you. But after a number of times they catch you, then you have failed this mission. You have to start the mission again...

KELLY: Oh, dear.

ALDERMAN: ...which means more running, so it's good for your heart.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

KELLY: Which is the whole point here anyway, so there you go.

ALDERMAN: Well, exactly.

KELLY: That's writer Naomi Alderman. She writes a weekly column on games and technology for the Guardian newspaper, and she created the new game "Zombies, RUN!" The app is out for the iPhone February 27th. Naomi, thanks for a great workout.

ALDERMAN: Great talking to you.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE")

WEDNESDAY 13: (Singing) I walked with a zombie. I walked with a zombie. I walked with a zombie last night. I walked with a zombie. I walked...

声明：音视频均来自互联网链接，仅供学习使用。本网站自身不存储、控制、修改被链接的内容。"沪江英语"高度重视知识产权保护。当如发现本网站发布的信息包含有侵犯其著作权的链接内容时，请联系我们，我们将依法采取措施移除相关内容或屏蔽相关链接。