1993 was a significant year for me. For one, I finished school and started an ill-fated and luckily short-lived sojourn into banking. More importantly, I discovered this game, which quickly became my favourite.

The Chaos Engine.

A game that enthralled me from the first time I saw it. I played it for hours on end at a friend’s place, my preferred character was Preacher. Back in 1993 I had never heard of Moore’s Law, and I did not really think much about the development of computer technology although I had witnessed the development in graphics from Pong to Legend of Zelda. Well,I distinctly remember stating something along the lines of “the graphics of this game will be hard to beat”.

The computer I was playing on was an Amiga 500 and the graphics looked like this:

A statement born out of ignorance…

What makes this game significant is the plot: Steampunk!

The backstory of The Chaos Engine draws some inspiration from William Gibson and Bruce Sterling’s novel, The Difference Engine, i.e. an alternate Victorian Age with a sentient thinking machine.
A time traveller on a mission from the distant future becomes stranded in England of the late 1800s, and his technology comes into the hands of the Royal Society led by Baron Fortesque (roughly based on Charles Babbage), a gifted inventor. Unfortunately, one of his inventions is the Chaos Engine, which attains sentience and proceeds to take over and alter the countryside.

The player (or players) are tasked with infiltrating the Chaos Engine’s stronghold and destroy the Engine.

It is really interesting to see, how far back my connection and fascination with Steampunk reaches. It all started with A Nomad of the Time Streams in 1991 or 1992 for me and now there appears to be an ever tighter chain of things connecting a non-defined Steampunkesque past to a full-fledged Steampunk present.

I digress. If you get the chance to play this wonderful retro game, do i. I think it would be just as much fun to play for me now, as it was back then in 1993.

Want to get your children into Steampunk at a really early age? Why not use the Steampunk Alphabet Book:

It is not only a wonderful tool for early exposure to your favourite subculture and an excellent way to teach very early learning skills, no, as you can see, it is also a beautiful work of art.

Well, what I will do is, I will go through this book with my son every evening. Read it aloud to him, teach him the alphabet and also explain the art and depicted technology to him. Get him interested in very basic science, art, steampunk and learning. All with one book. Splendid!

Strangeness is great. After all, we Steampunks are a pretty strange bunch. Now listen to this: Strangeness is a great thing, triggering innovation and change, as Maria Bezaitis will tell you:

So people: Stay strange and help humanity!
Oh, and by the way: Have you noticed the Steampunk decor in the background? Yes, it seems Steampunk really is trending as IBM predicted.

And on the topic of strangeness, here’s a little image called “Tomb of Strangeness” by German artist TheShepster

Let me point your attention to this amazing project:

The Cosmonaut (http://thecosmonaut.org/)

The Cosmonaut is a crowd-funded project, four years in the making. What sets it apart: It is completely CC. Once you get your hands on the material, you can use it for your own purposes.

Here’s what the people behind it, Riot Cinema Collective, from Spain, have to say:

“THE COSMONAUT” begins in 1967 with the arrival of Stas & Andrei, two young friends, to the recently constructed Star City, where the first cosmonauts train to go to space, and where a race against the clock goes on against the Americans in a bid for sovereignty of space.
Stas and Andrei will live first-hand the political intrigues, the power struggles and the successes and failures of the majestic USSR in what has come to be some of the biggest achievements of the 20th Century. They will soon meet Yulia, a telecommunications engineer with whom they will establish a deep friendship, always teetering on the verge of love but without it ever happening.
“THE COSMONAUT” is the story of three characters surrounded by a historical event that lasted for over fifteen years: Successes, failures, accidents, conspiracies, favoritisms and secret missions. From Riot Cinema team, amongst the youngest in the Spanish film industry, we have been working for over three and a half years preparing the portrait of an era which has not yet been told about, filled with unique
locations and a highly detailed photography, production design and acting work.

Also, from what I understand (provided the scenes are not dream sequences) the Soviets make it to the moon first in The Cosmonaut. Grandiose! I am a huge fan and admirer of the, unfortunately cancelled, Soviet manned lunar program, so this is an additional incentive to watch the movie. The other two are obviously the genesis of the project and the wonderful Atompunk setting.

Once I have watched the movie, expect a review here very soon.

This is the trailer:

You will be able to watch the entire movie very soon.

So many great things out of Spain, and in these hard times!

Alex of the Steampunk Magic Book (see below) got back to me and informed me he now has a fundraiser running to get the book in print.
Concerning the fundraiser, I think it is most important to know that the art, all 48 pages of it, is already finished. The fundraiser is for the print run!

A few more details on the book:

FORMAT
Forty-eight color pages of steampunk art.
The book is the result of two years work.
The book is completely finished and laid out,
The format of the book is 20cm x 28cm, hardback cover with full color illustrations are developed with digital techniques.
not have any text, illustrations blood are approaching the edge of the page.

This is some sample art:

And the fundraiser can be found here.

Take a look and contribute, the incentives are not to be scoffed at!

It is with great sadness I report the passing on of Ray Harryhausen, a true Great Old Master of special effects in the pre-CGI era and one of the legends of modern cinema.

He made the monsters in Clash of the Titans, The 7th Voyage of Sindbad and others come to life. Where today, dozens of people are listed in the SFX section of the credits of a movie, in these, it was only him.

What remains are the memories and the love of family, friends and a legion of fans. Mr. Harryhausen, you will not be forgotten.

Ray Harryhausen: 29th June 1920 – 7th May 2013

Raymond Frederick Harryhausen
Born: Los Angeles 29th June 1920
Died: London 7th May 2013.

The Harryhausen family regret to announce the death of Ray Harryhausen, Visual Effects pioneer and stop-motion model animator. He was a multi-award winner which includes a special Oscar and BAFTA. Ray’s influence on today’s film makers was enormous, with luminaries; Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, George Lucas, John Landis and the UK’s own Nick Park have cited Harryhausen as being the man whose work inspired their own creations.

Harryhausen’s fascination with animated models began when he first saw Willis O’Brien’s creations in KING KONG with his boyhood friend, the author Ray Bradbury in 1933, and he made his first foray into filmmaking in 1935 with home-movies that featured his youthful attempts at model animation. Over the period of the next 46 years, he made some of the genres best known movies – MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949), IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA (1955), 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (1957), MYSTERIUOUS ISLAND (1961), ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (1966), THER VALLEY OF GWANGI (1969), three films based on the adventures of SINBAD and CLASH OF THE TITANS (1981). He is perhaps best remembered for his extraordinary animation of seven skeletons in JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (1963) which took him three months to film.

Harryhausen’s genius was in being able to bring his models alive. Whether they were prehistoric dinosaurs or mythological creatures, in Ray’s hands they were no longer puppets but became instead characters in their own right, just as important as the actors they played against and in most cases even more so.

Today The Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation, a charitable Trust set up by Ray on the 10th April 1986, is devoted to the protection of Ray’s name and body of work as well as archiving, preserving and restoring Ray’s extensive Collection.

Tributes have been heaped upon Harryhausen for his work by his peers in recent years.

“Ray has been a great inspiration to us all in special visual industry. The art of his earlier films, which most of us grew up on, inspired us so much.” “Without Ray Harryhausen, there would likely have been no STAR WARS”
George Lucas.

“THE LORD OF THE RINGS is my ‘Ray Harryhausen movie’. Without his life-long love of his wondrous images and storytelling it would never have been made – not by me at least”
Peter Jackson

“In my mind he will always be the king of stop-motion animation”
Nick Park

“His legacy of course is in good hands
Because it’s carried in the DNA of so many film fans.”
Randy Cook

“You know I’m always saying to the guys that I work with now on computer graphics “do it like Ray Harryhausen”
Phil Tippett

“What we do now digitally with computers, Ray did digitally long before but without computers. Only with his digits.”
Terry Gilliam.

“His patience, his endurance have inspired so many of us.”
Peter Jackson

“Ray, your inspiration goes with us forever.”
Steven Spielberg

“I think all of us who are practioners in the arts of science fiction and fantasy movies now all feel that we’re standing on the shoulders of a giant.
If not for Ray’s contribution to the collective dreamscape, we wouldn’t be who we are.”
James Cameron

Source

For all those unfortunate enough to dread or loathe Monday mornings, this is for you:

I, for my part, go to work with a smile.

In the picture below you see an unstoppable juggernaught, going strong after decades of service, long after others have broken down, and a Hetzer tank destroyer.
Lemmy just became even more awesome (how does he do it?).

For all those who do not know the guy in the picture is (and shame on you if you are one of them), go here and here to find out more): He is the frontman of one of the greatest and longest serving Heavy Metal bands of all time: Motörhead
The Panzer he is leaning on is a German Hetzer (Jagdpanzer 38(t)) as mentioned above. It is most likely a Hetzer since it is the most commonly found Nazi-Germany tank destroyer design today. Enough are in private hands to see them frequently at reenactments.
All in all, this is a pretty Dieselpunk combination. Now imagine this: Lemmy commanding a German Panzer Army at the Eastern Front during the Second World War. History would be very different. Most importantly it would mean no Nazis, I do not think they would have let anyone like Lemmy command a Panzer army. Go figure!

Not really Steampunk (and I am not really into Steampunk Star Wars either), but May the 4th is one of those geek holidays I observe.
May the 4th be with you all!

Well, what can I say, it is things like this that make writing this blog more than just worthwhile and have turned it into more than a hobby.
From my ætherbox:

I love you all!