A little while ago, Mike Thompson contacted me about an article for Ars Technica entitled “The Memories of Our Future” about the Steampunk genre in computer/video games, and I’m very pleased to see that the article has just appeared on the site and I share the honour of being interviewed with Mr Sanders of the Five Fists of Science and (the lovely) Mr Iversen of the Zeitguyz games company!

Touching on why Steampunk has taken a back seat in many games, and looking at why Steampunk games might be getting a lot more interest in the future, it’s a very nice article that I recommend taking a look at!  It might not mention your own particular favourite Steampunk game, but feel free to mention them below.  Thank you, Mike!

Mr Curtis of Ramshackle Games creates miniatures for the squad based tabletop game, Nuclear Renaissance.  A post apocalyptic setting, Nuclear Renaissance has gangs and tribes of people of various styles – and some of them are wonderfully Steampunk.  The most wonderful of these is the above “Isembard Kickass Brunel“, engineer without peer and visionary for a better post apocalyptic future of aquaducts, bridges and railways!  (The real Isembard Kingdom Brunel was larger than life too!)

But there are problems, of course, and some people aren’t sitting idly by while Kickass-B rebuilds and so he needs to defend himself and his creations, using his giant mechanical Huntsman Spider Tank!  Perhaps he’ll encounter the Society of Intrepid Explorers – the most interesting of which much surely be the top-hatted and knife handed Mr Sniketty and his scientist friend, Oliver Sprocket.  Thank you Mr Curtis – better late than never!

Guten Tag my fine compatriots, I hope you’ll forgive me for my lack of posts, however I was been hoping to attend an event before I posted again. Sadly, the fates have been conspiring against me and that was impossible. The event I’ve been itching to attend is “THE JOURNEYS OF PROF. PLEASANT PENNYWHISTLE and his Spatial Relocation Portal”. This show is performed by the fine people of Sound and Fury, and takes place on Thursdays in Los Angeles. I’ll be attending this Thursday (May 29th) and will post a review as soon as humanly possible.

Cheers!

Peter

So, you’ve decided that your Steampunk outfit won’t be complete without a pocket watch, and you’ve started to look around for a nice vintage one to use. What should you be looking for? What should you watch out for? What exactly is that watch you’ve found and is it a good one? Hopefully this first episode of ‘The Horlogical Steampunk” will start to answer those questions. In this episode, I’ll discuss the most visible component, the pocket watch case.

When you first look at a pocket watch, the most obvious component is the case. Generally speaking, the American pocket watch was sold in one of two types of cases: the open face case and the hunting case. The term open face is rather self explanatory in that it simply means that the face of the watch is open to viewing without opening a cover. (more…)

Before I begin my review, I should mention that I met Wil Wheaton at SuperCon on Sunday and told him about Brass Goggles. When I asked him what he thought of Steampunk, he told me to pass on to all of you that he loves it, especially the Steampunk aesthetic and the Victorian feel of it. This just proves once again that Wil Wheaton is awesome. Now, on to the review…

Having noticed that our fearless leader had previously mentioned Last Exile but hadn’t had time to view the whole series, I took it upon myself to sit and observe so that I could provide a concise review to you, my fellow Brass Gogglers.

As the heavenly bodies shift in their spheres, making their eternal music, they occasionally come into alignment, and that alignment can have a major effect on our lives. Recently, the spheres aligned so that I spent my evenings in front of my computational engine, watching a programme until I had exhausted its line entirely. The elements brought into alignment were:

• Consecutive image magic lantern shows from the mysterious Orient, also known as “Anime series;”
• Steampunk, which you, my esteemed colleagues, are all familiar with;
• Dr. Cornelius Netflix’s “Watch It Now” device

When these three things came together, they formed a phenomenon known as “Last Exile.” Add to it a projected rating of over four stars on Dr. Netflix’s “Rate-O-Scale” and I really had no choice but to watch the show. (more…)

Spotted on Gizmodo and created by Tarator on the TopMods.net forum.

Don’t you just love the sight of brass and copper used for something this nice?

(Also suggested by Kristopher, thank you!)

My loved people who dwell in the wonderful areas of NY and my favorite city across the pond, London.

Let’s have an Event shall we? Let’s wave at each other across those thousands of miles dressed as best as we can, thus in a small way talking over that time and space.

I propose to you The International Telectroscope wave!

On June 7th

NYC area people meet up at the telectroscope at 2pm.

London area people meet up the telectroscope at 7pm your time.

Then in an odd way via the telectoscope we are all meeting up at once and can wave at one another!

For any NY area people who come there will be more stuff to do after this.

London people perhaps you should go to Around The World In 80 Days, from White Mischief afterward, this can be your pre-event before the event.

This could be the first of its kind. An email already has been sent to the site about it and so far they seem to love the idea.

Bring your cameras this could be a great deal of fun.

So who’s in?

(Tinkergirl: Thanks to Kai, Scott, Gothamist, Shawn, John, IceSixxx, David, Rory, Jawdy, Steve, Julian, Novelgazer and Ed for suggesting the Telectroscope as a subject for a post!)

Spats are, as any good Victorianist (or neo-Victorianist) knows, an lovely addition to one’s wardrobe, for reasons beginning with “rows of buttons” and ending with “style and panache.” A few tutorials on how to make your own are floating around the æther, including one in Steampunk Magazine Issue 3, page 38, which has a pattern, which is ever-so-helpful. Of course, each set of spats should be made for the individual legs, so if you do venture cutting out your own, measure, make a mock-up, and fit it to you.

However, if you don’t feel up to creating them yourself, I cannot recommend a pair more covet-worthy than this leather pair with delicate cut-outs by Les Frivolites. Simply stunning just to look at, let alone wear, and they have lovely detailing like ribbons lacing up the back, which you can see here. Excuse me while I sit and stare…

Photo taken by Abby Armada

Why the Ghostbusters, of course! This dapper gent answers to the name Josh Freeman and for his attendance to the Comic-Con International 2007, he meticulously constructed this fine wood and brass “proton accelerator” complete with a deployable ghost trap.

Keeping the decorum of a true Gentleman, Mr. Freeman traded in the traditional though utilitarian jumpsuit for a ten button vest, ascot, and top hat which sports a Steampunk translation of the “No Ghosts” standard. You may examine more closely his phantasm extinguishing disguise by clicking thusly: Josh Freeman.

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ILfE4hfYrdU[/youtube]

JingleJoe of our Steampunk Forum has come up with this rather whimsicle “dohicky” that converts audio waves into light. He created it using a circuit that he also made that makes the LEDs in the valves light up. I particularly like the fact that it turns on via a wind-up key. This would be perfect for any nocturnal steampunk-themed party!

More images of this device can be found in JingleJoe’s post to the Steampunk Forum here.