Nintendo promised one more big 3DS announcement at E3, and it’s Code Name: STEAM. It’s an original IP with elements from comic books, steampunk, Abraham Lincoln, aliens, and more. Hitoshi Yagami (Fire Emblem, Xenoblade Chronicles) is working with Intelligent Systems (Fire Emblem, Advance Wars) to make a turn-based strategy game with action elements from shooters for movement and attacking. As expected from such a mix of influences, the game’s concept is pretty wild too. Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Jun 19, 2012 in Videogames
There have been several titles I’ve had eyes on over the past few months, one of which is Arkane Studios’ upcoming steampunk action game, Dishonored. From the looks of things, the game plays like a cross between Deus Ex and Assassins Creed, but that being the case, you can imagine my surprise to learn that the game could be completed in just 12 hours. Of course, in order to do so, you have to ignore story elements, and rush from target to target. According to Arkane, the game can easily take twice as long if you actually stop to eavesdrop on your enemies conversations in order to flesh out the plot and immerse yourself in the story. Apparently there are also 40 unique charms throughout the game that give you small supernatural perks, however you can’t collect them all during a single play-through, so perhaps there’s some re-playability to be had there.
This collection of beautifully crafted steampunk animal illustrations are the work of Vladimir Gvozdev, who is a Russian artist known as Gvozdariki. In many ways his work reminds me of those wonderful ink drawings by Murray Tinkelman which go back to the 70s: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 22, 2011 in Star Wars
These wonderful Victorian styled portraits of Star Wars characters were done Greg Peltz whom works at Pixar. And if you’d like to hang these in your parlor you can purchase prints at acmearchivesdirect.com. Read more…
Beautiful isn’t it? This deadly insect was crafted by English designer, and steampunk enthusiast Tom Hardwidge. It’s one of many he’s created over the years — an interesting hobby to say the least. The components he uses to craft these wonders are merely used parts from pocket watches, a nut, bolt, or a piece of copper here and there — oh, and old ammunition. I’m sure something could be said for creating art so beautiful from something so deadly.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 13, 2010 in Fandom, Star Trek
These wonderful Victorian styled Star Trek photos are he handy work of an artist known as Rabittooth. I really love how the artist has matched the role of each character on the show with an appropriate historical counterpart: Read more…
The funny thing about horror films is that they are by nature B pictures — so when you’re looking at a new horror flick you have no idea that you may in fact be looking at a future classic film — and such was the case when I first got to see A Nightmare on Elm Street back in the day. Of course every great horror needs a gimmick to make it stand out from the crowd and for Elm Street this was Freddy Krueger’s nasty metal glove. And looking at this Deluxe Freddy Krueger Metal Glove with fresh eyes I’ve now come to see that the glove design was in fact a brilliant unrecognized early example of cinema steampunk if you think about it. Read more…
Bethesda has always impressed me by their attention to detail. Like much like their latest entries in the popular Elder Scrolls series, the company managed to capture an audience with Fallout 3‘s breathtaking visuals. In addition to re-imagining Washington D.C., their team of graphic designers created a number of weapons to go along with it. Two of which happen to be the AER-9 laser rifle, and even deadlier A3-21 plasma rifle. Flickr user Ryan Palser recently took it upon himself to locate some blueprints and painstakingly recreate them — needless to say, they look amazing. Check out his flickr account for more photos. Read more…
Too often I see fanboys build amazing tributes to the imagination of others — but this rejects the original thing that made science fiction fandom so cool: It’s the idea that the fanboys who grow up reading something become the authors of the next generation of new things. So I was very happy to come across an original Lego creation called Containment which is the handy work of Tyler Clites (Legohaulic) and Nannan Zhang (Nannan Z.). Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 10, 2010 in Fandom, Tech
As both a tech geek and a Space:1999 fanboy I loved this fan made video tribute to Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace. I also found the entire steampunk look of the video quite pleasing: Read more…
Pullip is a fashion doll line that was created by Cheonsang Cheonha (who is from South Korea) in 2003 which reminds me a great deal of both Blythe and Barbie dolls. This latest Pullip Eos Doll features her in steampunk gear — in fact she reminds me a great deal of Jane Fonda in the film Barbarella, although her looks is more Victorian than French comic book.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 20, 2010 in Science
This amazing video shows Mr. Woo a folk artist from China who builds beautiful homemade robots from scratch. What’s even more amazing is that he has no formal engineering training, in other words he a very talented hobbyist with a passion for robotics. By the way my favorite part of the video occurs at 3:40 when a robot stars walking by with a rickshaw. Found via the very talented Angel Wardriver.Read more…
President Obama has been slowly redecorating the Oval Office at the White House — and of course there are the usual bits of history and family photos, but this geeky gem caught my eye:
“Also new to the Obama bookshelves are three mechanical devices on loan from the National Museum of American History’s patent collection: models for Samuel Morse’s 1849 telegraph register, John Peer’s 1874 gear-cutting machine and Henry Williams’ 1877 feathering paddle wheel for steamboats.”Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 2, 2009 in Comic Books
Greg Broadmore is a conceptual designer at the Weta Workshop the New Zealand effects studio that did some amazing work on Lord of the Rings. In his book Dr. Grordbort Presents: Victory Broadmore goes steampunk and has an Edwardian military officer giving a lush tour of a world filled with enemy robots and space aliens. The result reminds me of a cross between old pulp fiction covers and old patent medicine adverts: Read more…
In wilds of suburban New Zealand special effects artist Dean Johnstone has designed a living room worthy of Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea for his client Wayne Eyre. This steampunk entertainment room features “plutonium-leaking” torpedoes, rusting steel beams and giant screen television to keep the ships crew happy: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 6, 2009 in Videogames
Shown above is the new gameplay trailer for End of Eternity a role playing game for the PlayStation3 and Xbox 360 that’s being put out by Sega and tri-Ace (the game is suppose to come out at the end of this year). I’ve got to say that I really love the subtle steampunk look of this game colossal machine-city called Burzel. Below is the first cinematic trailer which came out in April: Read more…
Designed by neoelegance these two steampunk prop guns are available on Etsy. Shown above is the DG-4450 Blaster and below is the Subsonic Immolator. Both weapons are issued to officers on airships in Her Majesty’s Royal Zeppelin Corps and are useful for defending against sky pirates. Read more…
