Many Zamorans remember this like it was today.

THE ZAMORA CENTRAL MARKET is a buzz with all kinds of sounds. There’s the persistent chatter of the vendors, the music from the pirate CD shops, and there, over in that corner next to the stand selling kitchen supplies … what is that sound?

Could it be? Nah…

But it is. For the 25 to 30-year-old set, those happy computer generated tones were the sounds of the first Super Mario Brothers video game, and by extension, childhood itself. The bad graphics, the little turtles, the occasional rescuing of a princess - it quickly puts a guy back to the days of snap-on-bracelets, many long afternoons spent without fear of that that despised invention called homework, and the rise of George Bush The Original.

Meet Gaspar Lira Garcia, who sells the video games and thus gets to listen to that “music” all day, thanks to his demonstration TV. To Zamora families without much money, he said, these video games aren’t antiques, but rather a cheaper alternative route to entertainment.

“They’re more accessible,” he said of the old systems, which go for between 170 and 220 pesos, depending on if the machine is old or really old. A year ago, he sold the more modern Xbox (at 5,000-6,000 pesos, which can rent you a nice apartment in Zamora for four months), but the current offering sells better, he said.

The systems come from a wholesaler in Mexico City, and Garcia says that the really old ones - the gray boxes complete with cartridges and the gun for the Mario companion game Duck Hunt - are about to run out, since they’re not in production any more. But suppliers have found a way to keep the original Mario - and the cheap prices - alive. Make a slightly more modern system or marginally higher quality that uses CDs instead of cartridges, and transfer the games.

In a good week, Garcia will sell between 15-20 units, but lately, in the face of a food crisis that has nearly doubled the price of such stables as tortillas, business is down 60 percent, he said. The global financial freak out is not likely to help sales either, since so much of the Mexican economy is tied up in trade with the U.S. and remittances coming from immigrants there.

Still, Sundays are good days and the holidays are coming. He can clear 30-40 units per day in the week leading up to Epiphany, the day when Mexican children are more likely to receive gifts.

It’s not a great living, but with a 100 percent markup it’s not bad either, in this country with a chronic underemployment problem. And the working conditions at the market aren’t bad either, though there is the persistent sound of 1980s electronic video game music.

“You have to get used to it,” Garcia said.