No doubt many of you are familiar with the Thief series – our old friend Garrett the master thief sneaking around an alternative history of swords and arrows, castles and steam power, rooftops and electrical lighting. Like a strange Medieval-Steampunk crossover, the world of Thief is both strange and familiar – it works. Which is just as well, as in this game force of arm will not be the keys to your success, but understanding the world and keeping to its shadows, will.

What I was not aware of (and you may be in the same situation) is that a lively and apparently very skilled modding community still surrounds the Thief games. A reader by the name of Jeff was kind enough to point out the Through the Looking Glass page, which has discussions on all the Thief games (and other Looking Glass games – oh System Shock 2, how I miss thee) and reviews on the 400 or so community made maps. These add-on adventures expand the world of Thief, bringing horror and mystery, seasonal cheer and comedies, and other new facets to Garrets adventures. And with each one, this world of gears and guards becomes richer. So if you can set aside the now dated graphics, maybe you will visit again as I have had to do!

Mr J Gaynor reminded me about the Japanese anime, Last Exile – which has some distinctly Steampunk themes to it. Now, I’ve only watched the first episode, and I have to say that it didn’t immediately grab me and refuse to let go. I’m not sure if anime series are generally slow burners, because I often can’t justify watching multiple episodes in the hope that it’ll get better. I mean, I could – but I don’t want to inflict such uncertain observation on those that watch with me.

But despite that – it’s proven to be quite popular with others, and it certainly has a good Steampunk vibe about it. There’s young destitute heroes who fly their peculiar air-vehicle with maverick skill and courage – desperately trying to make ends meet and be able to buy the next mechanical part. One is a pilot extraordinaire, the other a brilliant mechanic and they live in a strange world of floating military bases and organised wars/deaths. Of course, that’s just the setup – it gets far bigger from there.

In July of 1894, in a London borough and in front of many specially invited guests (Prince of Wales, Rudyard Kipling, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells) the above steam powered vehicle created by Hiram Stevens Maxim accellerated up to 42mph and with the help of the ‘aeroplanes’ (or wings as we refer to them – but the first mention of the aeroplane word) the Maxim Flyer did indeed lift it’s own weight from the ground – restrained as it was 9 inches off the ground by the safety rail. Wondering if it could have gone higher if the rail wasn’t there? Well, the rail broke and it indeed DID go higher! Admittedly it was fairly out of control at this point, but it had lift to spare.

While it was uncontrolled and did eventually crash, it’s up there in the hotly contested realm of claims to the first powered human heavier than air flight title. (Which a previous post also addressed – with the Éole from Clement Ader). Note that the page here about the Maxim flyer, states as fact that Maxim was first. I advise that you decide for yourself.

No, your eyes do not deceive you – it is in fact a steam powered moped! That most maligned of two-wheeled vehicles aquires a clumsy nobility in being powered by our favourite form of water. I can tell that Andy_W was quite impressed when he sent me the link, as he was full of “Vroom”s and “Bruum”s when he did so!

Details can be found on the Steam Car Club of Great Britain (how did I miss that one?!) website. With a maximum cruise speed of 20mph and a more forgiving cruising speed of 15mph, I’m sure it’s one of the most peculiar but charming methods of getting around reasonably slowly! (Although, a perfect speed for housing estates and outside schools.) Broom broooom!

You will probably remember the video of the Steampunk mechanical, ridable lion (sic) that I posted about some time ago – well, it transpired that it wasn’t a lion, it was a tiger called Shiva. I apologise, Shiva.

However, via the Spanish blog TauZero, I rediscovered Shiva and its creator – from the Kezanti Art Gallery. While there’s nothing there quite the magnificience of the walking mecha-tiger, there are several humanoid sculptures that are in the same style. The above one I liked the best – a mechanical man with voltage dials on his chest and arms and some kind of porthole/dial for a head. All he needs now is to be steam powered and filled with cogs, and he’d be the poster child for Steampunk. Oh, and apparently Shiva will be getting a new friend soon – I’m looking forward to that!

Mike ST (creator of the lovely real brass goggles) sends word about the Steam Clocks around the world – the one above being from Vancouver in Canada. Wikipedia has a good page on the existance of these clocks, rare as they are, and I was surprised at their modernity! Apparently most of them were created to look Victorian and installed somewhere around the 1970′s. As Mike points out, they’re powered by Stuart engines – and Stuart as a steam engine company are still around today, based in the Channel Islands.

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Very short, but quite sweet – this video clip found on Google Video by Mr S Field shows the start up of an early 1910-1920′s steam plane (watch for the smoke chimney).  I love the little salute the man in uniform gives!

Sometimes, my heart swells with longing – such as when I first heard about the historic journey of the Spirit of Dubai, largest commercial airship currently in the skies. It doesn’t hurt that on the airships MySpace page, they’re playing a lovely version of ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’ that just makes me think of lifting off in a tropical landscape and gently brushing past candy-floss clouds. sighs

The airship, which was renamed and repainted for the promotional journey from London to Dubai, commemorating the creation of the Palm landmass in Dubai, usually operates in tours in Switzerland with Skycruiser. Maybe a holiday destination for me next summer, perhaps.

sings “trouble melts like a lemon drop, high above the chimney tops…”

Many thanks, Mr J.E. Park for sending in this wonderful link! The Cornell University’s digital library for kinematic models (whew!) is a perfectly wonderful collection of pictures, histories and even occasional videos demonstrating kinematic components and movements so that even a layperson like myself can understand them! The model above is Q03: Spur Gears, Involute Teeth Profiles, and features a video of it moving too. Looks lovely moving – very smooth indeed for something that looks so clunky (despite being stop-motioned). Thanks Mr Park – it’s an amazing resource!

Mr N Barnes and Mr Q Walpole both independently sent word about a new game from the creators of Puzzle Pirates – Bang! Howdy! I had been in the beta some time ago, but abandoned it after being unable to get past the tutorial without it crashing – I submitted the bug (the duty of every tester, of course) but forgot to return to it. Foolish of me, really!

So now it’s free open beta – and the bugs have been well and truly squished (for the most part, I’m sure). The game is set in a rather cute Wild West, with you defending your territory from invading bandits and other players – it’s time to rustle cattle and stake gold claims in a turn based, persistant multiplayer strategy kind of way. As for Steampunk – they’ve got dirigible units and steam gunners (almost steam robotic artillery) to cover that base. Nice little game – and I did like Puzzle Pirates – quite innovative.