Airships are Back

Posted in News, SteamPunk, Technology on August 9th, 2010 by Dr. Warthan
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Airships have made their comeback, and in more than one way.  Lockheed Martin has been developing the High Altitude Airship (HAA) which can reach 60,000 feet and provide advanced tactical information.

And there’s more.  Cargo, Passenger, Satellite, and other airships.

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Motorcycle Concept

Posted in Art, SteamPunk on August 9th, 2010 by Dr. Warthan
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Steampunk motorcycle concept by Solifague.  Too bad it’s not real, but there’s a way around that. It’s a very sexy concept, but there are some obvious design flaws like the drive system and brakes.  But, that’s what concepts are for.  Perhaps you’ve seen the TV show about Orange County Choppers.  OCC is one of the best custom motorcycle shops I’ve seen, and they could easily take this concept and turn it into reality.  However, they already have a custom ride called the “Black Widow”, so the name will have to be changed.

Lord Vader

Posted in Art, InterWebs, SteamPunk on July 14th, 2010 by Dr. Warthan
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I’ve seen a LOT of SteamPunk interpretations of Star Wars.  This is by far the best Darth Vader I’ve seen done.  It seems that Greg Peltz has real talent.

In fact, if you look at Peltz’s blog, you’ll see he’s quite the artist.  There are other Star Wars renderings as well as a varied collection of other works.  Too bad he uses Blogspot (terrible); he should be using WordPress, like ME.

League of S.T.E.A.M.

Posted in Humor, InterWebs, SteamPunk on July 14th, 2010 by Dr. Warthan
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Supernatural and Troublesome Ectoplasmic Apparitional Management (S.T.E.A.M.), of course…

The GhostBusters League of S.T.E.A.M. commercial is an intelligent recreation of a 1980’s movie in the 1880’s Victorian style.  Normally, I would make fun of this kind of thing, but I can tell that these guys put a lot of work into this.  Plus I wouldn’t want to make fun and then have real ghosts show up; that would just be embarrassing…

SteamPunk Game: Aqua

Posted in Game, SteamPunk on May 24th, 2010 by Dr. Warthan
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There’s a new game on Xbox LIVE Arcade (XBLA) called Aqua, a SteamPunk naval-action shooter.  It’s not bad at all, except I would have done it with sky-pirates.

Aqua is a stylish steampunk naval-action shooter for Xbox LIVE Arcade. The game is driven by an entertaining story-campaign with beautiful hand-drawn comics and features a unique, distinctive neo-Victorian art-style. Steer your ship into the middle of a raging naval war, where masses of enemies and allies engage in real-time operations over large, multi-screen maps. Equip your ship, choose your tactics and form your own special squadron to support you in battle, issuing offensive and defensive orders to overcome huge fleets of enemy ships, submarines, airplanes and defensive installations.

Aqua is a good deal at 800 Microsoft Credits, or $9.99.  While it’s not as intense a game as Toy Soldiers, nor as mind-bending as Portal, it’s easy and fun.  The storyline and plot are straightforward, and the voice acting makes me feel like the game is aimed towards pre-teens, but I don’t care.  It’s nice to have a milder kind of game to play.  I give it 3 out of 5 Omegas.  The good news is that like any XBLA game, you can download the trial version and try it for free.

Visit the game’s official website: http://aqua-the-game.com

The Marionette Unit

Posted in Movie, SteamPunk on May 4th, 2010 by Dr. Warthan
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Have a look at the teaser trailer for the upcoming SteamPunk movie “The Marionette Unit”.  It looks intriguing, and the production quality reminds me of something older, like a TV serial shot in England 10 to 20 years ago.  The overall atmosphere is warm, and there’s a certain realistic feel that I like.  Awesome job for a trailer.

I can only surmise that these villains are turning this poor girl into some kind of puppet, and the first connection reminds me of the Matrix.  What the Hell is going on?  I want to see more!  Excellent…

Via SteamPunk on Facebook from The Marionette Unit.

Museum Exhibition

Posted in Art, SteamPunk on April 26th, 2010 by Dr. Warthan
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The SteamPunk exhibition at the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford.

It’s a very nice exhibition with an excellent explanation of what SteamPunk is.  If you’re new to SteamPunk, or have friends that are, this is an excellent video to start with.

VTR Controller

Posted in Art, InterWebs, SteamPunk, Technology on April 25th, 2010 by Dr. Warthan
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Some bored engineer at HiTechSys has converted one of their high-end VTR controllers into a completely operational Victorian-styled device.  Probably because it was NTSC which was replaced by ATSC a.k.a. HDTV, now 4K soon to be 8K. STOP THE MADNESS. All I want is to be able to watch the VHS pre-enhanced Star Wars on my SD 13-inch analog TV.  They gave the guy who did it an award and then showcased it at the NAB trade show.

Not bad.  Really pretty good, and I even like the telegraph.  But green phosphor CRT’s instead of LCD’s would have impressed me more.  And vacuum tubes instead of integrated circuits would have really impressed me.

Via: DVICE

Goggles the Cat

Posted in Fashion, Humor, SteamPunk on March 29th, 2010 by Dr. Warthan
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Awl…  It’s so CUTE!  Now Fluffy can be a more effective fur-coat-razorblade with this adorable set of SteamPunk goggles, as the goggles are excellent protection against human blood splatter. Important Safety Tip: A cat is a miniature tiger that lives inside your house.

I don’t know who the cat is, and I’m not sure this cat is particularly happy about humans dressing it up.  I do know that if you feed the cat a Cheezburger, it’ll be content with whatever pink tutu you put on it.

Suicide Girls SteamPunk

Posted in InterWebs, SteamPunk on March 28th, 2010 by Dr. Warthan
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There’s a SteamPunk group within the Suicide Girls website.  To be clear, SG is an NSFW adult site, generally erotic and nude but not pornographic. SG membership is not free, but the SteamPunk group is a nice carrot to justify the cost.  The group is fairly active posting interesting images and a decent amount of threads discussing various SteamPunk topics.  SG in general is very social and participates in charities and community activities including (but not limited to) Suicide Girls Must Die and Suicide Girls Pinups for Soldiers.

Warning: SG has boobs and cha-chas everywhere.  Use of SG without the oversight of your significant other could cause serious injury or death.

For those of you that don’t know what SG is:

“SuicideGirls is a website that features softcore pin-up-style photos and text profiles of goth, punk and indie-styled young women (although styles reminiscent of the 1940s and ’50s pin-up models are also incorporated) who themselves are known as the “Suicide Girls”. The site also functions as an online community with member profiles and message boards, and features interviews with major figures in both popular and alternative culture. Access to most of the site requires a paid membership.”  SuicideGirls. (2010, March 26). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 22:48, March 28, 2010

Here’s an example of some of the eye candy I picked off of the group:

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