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Mr Hildebrandt took a trip down his memory lane recently, and recalled a programme that he caught on the cathode ray tube called Jack of All Trades.  It features Bruce Campbell as a lovable, patriotic rogue, with a sharp wit and a glint in his eye in a 19th Century world with strangely out of time inventions sprinkled in for good measure.  No – not Brisco County Jnr. but Jack of All Trades.

This time, he’s an American spy on a fictional and French controlled island, teamed with a pretty and inventive British spy and out to stop Napoleon’s dastardly plans.  Of course, there’s a lot of famous people dropped in for good measure, many inventions out of place, and a surfeit of witty one liners.  So – it sounds great to me!  Apparently only lasted two seasons though – you can see the opening credits above.  Quite a jolly and silly pirate/sea shanty flavour to it, and hopefully I can engineer a way to watch the two series’ myself. (Amazon.com has the DVD, but it’s only Region 1.)  Thanks, Mr Hildebrandt – I hope you know I’ve got that stuck in my head now.  sings

Mr Wall, while a member of the medical profession by day, does 3d modelling in TrueSpace by night – wonderfully twisted, Victorian-fictional medical contraptions that put the fear back into Steampunk medicine. Surprisingly, Mr Wall had been operating (no pun intended) in somewhat of a vacuum, and had no idea that his genre had a name – but his very unique takes on Steampunk medicine speaks for itself. More Shelly than Verne, more Stevenson than Wells – still Steampunk, and well imagined indeed!

Mr Pack sends word of his creation – the Steampunk Clockwork Rifle, and a handsome (and purely decorative) contraption it is too! With a hand carved stock, clockwork gears and a spyglass for a rather shiny looking scope, the Clockwork Rifle is loosely based on the classic Kentucky rifle. (I’ll take your word for it, Mr Pack – alas, I do not know much about anything other than computer game guns). It’s impressively good – and it apparently has still got more work to be done on it! Mr Pack – you have impressed this native, that’s for sure.

Baron Von Fogel and Mr Kraft (and also from someone at my work) forwarded a link to the new trailer for Gentleman’s Duel animated short that we looked at a while ago. Apparently the Baron Von Fogel has had the pleasure of actually seeing the whole thing, and speaks very highly of it indeed! When it was sent around the office, some wag commented that it was definitely something worth fighting for – if you watch the trailer, you’ll see what the rascal was on about. laughs I must say though with giant Steampunk mechanised suits – I’m not sure I could be happier!

Datamancer kindly pointed out some of the beautiful PC case creation and modding done by Mr Stephenson. From PCs in oversized old-fashioned microphones, to PCs in bakelite-like radio cases, to the above pen display PC with custom pen catelogueing software installed on it – and it keeps your pens warm to boot. chuckles Apparently pen collectors don’t really like PCs, but do find them handy for keeping track of collections – the pen warmer aspect was no doubt quickly invented to deflect the fury of pen collectors snubbed in this increasingly digital age.

Some very innovative PC creation over there – you may even have seen the Humidor PC before!

When I posted about another gear based game a while ago, Mr Moores remembered a little flash game that he’d encountered in the past that he thought I might like – Gear Puzzle. It’s a simple little game, where I had to use trial and error mostly – but I warn you, when you bring down the cage, imagine that the lock on the base has broken, but the cage is still heavy. You may know what to do then (because getting the cage down isn’t the whole story). What we need now is a cog/gear game where the actual gear ratios make a difference, hmm. Thanks, Mr Moores!

Mr Hildebrandt pointed out the post over at Spy’s Spice blog on the sand sculptures of Kirk Rademaker, such as the one above. Now, while I can barely erect a small castle with all the edges intact – with a bucket to help me, Mr Rademaker can construct tall, perfectly angled constructions of organic and mechanical fusions. What that means is; I’m in awe of his ability to make giant sand cogs. It amazes me that not only does he construct what looks like the fossilised remains of giant Steampunk sea creatures, beached on land and gently uncovered by the tide, but that these are by their very nature temporary. They may last longer than my usual cuboid-disaster castle, but eventually, they’ll be reduced to sand again. What a medium to use.

Most of the time, Steampunk is set in the western Victorian era – set often either in Europe or North America, during the 19th Century – but at the same time other countries were going through an as interesing (if not more interesting) changes too – Japan being a prime example with the opening up of the country during the Meiji period. The above is an image from Akira Yamaguchi, from a collection of drawings representing war technology that never existed – hence a Meiji-era warrior with a mechanical mono-wheeled and horse headed ‘steed’. While I cannot find any more images from Mr Yamaguchi from that series, apparently his work is/was being displayed as a series of humerous postcards – combining traditional painting styles and more modern technology. Thanks Mr Addison for finding a lovely example of non-Western alternative history!

Rare indeed is the Steampunk fan who would turn down the opportunity to visit the inside of the infamous Captain Nemo’s submarine – the Nautilus. But rarer still is the 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea fan who comissions the creation of a Nautilus themed home cinema, like the one above! Mr and Mrs Moran of Dallas, however, decided that was exactly what they wanted – and the results are stunning. A cigar shaped room with velvet seats, Victorian-ballroom style carpeting and faux metal rusting support ribs, as well as recreations of diving suits, make this one of the most amazing Steampunk creations I’ve seen outside of films. You can read a lot more about it, including the items and companies involved, over at Home Entertainment magazine. Utterly amazing, and more than I could ever wish for. Thank you very much, Mr Adams for pointing this out – your eye is keen indeed!

When Mr Hildebrandt created his Telecalculograph Steampunk PC mod, he discovered that the usual sounds that come from your average OS, just didn’t really fit with the now stove-pipe and furnace sprouting machine that he now had. So, having requested and been given permission by the lovely people responsible for the UT conversion, Damnation: Hell Breaks Loose, he created a collection of far more Steampunk sounds! While I generally run silent, I do very much like the sounds for Start Windows and End Windows – clunky, hissing wonderful sounds! Download the SteamSounds.Zip here, or should you prefer alternative location for your downloads, you may also find them here. They’re all .wavs, and there’s a readme in there too. Thank you, Mr Hildebrandt – now your PC must sound as good as it looks!