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[Armok]

Steampunk is defined as fiction in wich pre-information-age technologies can do things such technologies obviously realistically could not. For example, a purly mechanical (clockwork or steam powered usually) device is capable of things that would require advanced electronics and/or vastly better materials than are portrayed, or a in practice magical device that have the aestetics of such technologies and/or requires the same types of resources (coal/steam/electricity as a power source, mechanical parts for it's creation, engineers for maintenance/handling the device resembles factory work).

[de5me7]

what is now refered to as steam punk was originally just sci fi. H G wells wrote in the early 20th century many of the ideas he had seemed vaguely feasible to him. He predicted the rise of air power as the dominant force in modern warfare.

William gibson and Bruce Sterling wrote a novel called the difference engine (havnt read it) supposadly this is where the name steam punk comes from. In the early 1980s William gibson coined cyberpunk with his novel neuromancer (which i have read and recommend).

I like steam punk particually studio ghibli's take on it

http://www.onlineghibli.com/laputa/

quite afew of there other films feature steam punk stuff as well

dont know of many games tho, whish there were more

http://angband.oook.cz/steamband/steamband.html

http://www.squakenet.com/abandonwarering/site.asp?idgame=5738&idsite=107&url=http://www.hotud.org/component/content/article/46-simulation/46/22579

[G-Flex]

To me, steampunk is a highly overrepresented genre.

Hell, not even genre, more like style.

I mean, I get steampunk itself. There's nothing wrong with it. But you have so many goddamn people who enjoy what I call a sort of cargo cult steampunk, where they think it means having a lot of steam-powered crap around and gluing capacitors to pens (seriously, I've seen this) and wearing gears as necklace pendants and reading Girl Genius a lot.

[Areyar]

I don't get your cargocult reference.
I guess you are against pretending and posing, etc. But isn't this what all 'style' punks are about? punk/metal/goth etc. In any case the roleplay-esque / cosplay guys never have any functioning crap, it goal just to look the part.
Mostly it is just about look and feel of stuff, not how it works, though there are some guys that are into real steam-powered stuff. I think it is mostly a feeling that modern items are flimsy and cheap. Nostalgia for a bygone era of quality. Not that affordable consumer products were any good back then.


Steampunk as a genre has been around longer than the difference engine.

Many anime are Steampunk, of the magical kind mostly at least generally they have a magical method to counter gravity.
Escaflowne (steampunk mecha and flying ships),
The Last Exile (steampunk airships)
Secret of Blue Water (steampunk)
etc.

edit: steam boy (magical super steam)

[kcwong]

Sakura Wars is another one.

[Grand_Marquis]

To reiterate:
Steamboy
Watch it.

In any case the roleplay-esque / cosplay guys never have any functioning crap...

Heheh, ohhhh that's so incredibly not true. 
My favorite were the three steampunk ghostbusters I saw at Comicon.  There was moving parts, actual steam and everything.  Also, they were ghostbusters.
The important thing to remember about the principles of steampunk is: Accuracy < Awesome.


It's interesting how steampunk seems to perpetually be a "fad".  It's been around since the 80s, and yet when I first learned about it around 97, I was told it was a recent thing that's going to go away soon.  And every couple years, I hear that same thing over and over again, like some jerk just invented it  yesterday, it garnered far too much attention too fast, and should be dead any minute now. 

Strange.

[Areyar]

Funny how that works. 

There also was a cool anime which had blue glowy rocks that levitated.
But I forget the title.

My room is full of retro crap, brass candelabras glass bottles, vials and defunct laboratory gear, mortar&pestles, jars of dried herbs and flasks of tinctures etc.
I don't think I like the steampunk PC/laptop mods I've seen though. It just doesn't make sense for me. The keyboards are sweet though.
A continuing dream is to someday live in a mansion with a cast-iron victorian conservatory...such as seen in the movie RoseRed. (ps. I can't stand the psychic trope, it also annoys me in WH40K, there it is thankfully possible to imagine it magic)
At other times the dream mutates into a cyberpunk hydroponic house. At least there my PC won't clash with the style...but it might get shortcircuited.

[kcwong]

Funny how that works. 

There also was a cool anime which had blue glowy rocks that levitated.
But I forget the title.

Castle in the Sky, a masterpiece by Studio Ghibli.

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water is another one that fits your description. It is inspired by "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" and Captain Nemo.

[G-Flex]

I don't get your cargocult reference.
I guess you are against pretending and posing, etc. But isn't this what all 'style' punks are about? punk/metal/goth etc. In any case the roleplay-esque / cosplay guys never have any functioning crap, it goal just to look the part.

And you don't even look the part if it looks so nonfunctional as to just be silly. Gears connected to absolutely nothing are a good example, here. It doesn't make you look "steampunk", it makes you look like a tool.

[Areyar]

ah. Like cosplay amateurs with plastic swords.

Though I'd probably buy a brass ring with a cog on it or a necklace of gears, if it looked nice.
Just because it will make me think of DF.
buttons shaped liked cogs likewise.
 
I'm even thinking of carving a cog out of some bauxite I brought back home from Surinam.
Definitely not functional, just DF inspired art.  It will make me a very hardcore DF fan. 

[Starver]

Also: The War in the Air by H.G. Wells.
[img-snipped]

I'm trying to remember what series that picture is from- there's an entire series of pictures that are related, I believe, to a tabletop game.

You're not thinking of Space: 1889, are you?  A grand game of fun and frivolity.  Wish my old gaming group was still in existence.

Also: @de5me7, I was going to mention The Difference Engine.  I have read it, and it's very much along the lines what migh have happened if Babbage had gotten mechanical computers off the ground, but without the more fanciful stuff that others of this thread are a bit edgy about (like 1889's "liftwood" and "aether propeller", which give the "Victorians In Space" aspect to that game).

In some ways, you might also want to look at The Diamond Age (Neal Stephenson), because apart from being set in the future with futuristic nanotechnology, a lot of the social and cultural baggage involved is essentially traditional Steampunk-era, just with nanoscale "machinery" instead of the great hulking stuff you might find in the Wild Wild West setting (and of course with the knowledge of electronics, etc, whereas a lot of steampunk likes to avoid even morse telegraphs, where a speaking tube could suffice for voice telecommunication or vacuum tube for sending hard-copy).

[Leafsnail]

ah. Like cosplay amateurs with plastic swords.

I'm now imagining the alternative of a cosplay professional with a real sword.

The thought is terrifying.

[G-Flex]

ah. Like cosplay amateurs with plastic swords.

No, a plastic sword is meant to represent a functional object. Random cogs taped to your shirt aren't. It's more like when fantasy artists add parts to the fantasy weapons that couldn't possibly serve any purpose. In this case, a better analogy would be people taping sword blades to their hats and pretending it represents something useful.

[Aqizzar]

Alright, you've gone on and on about how stupid you think these "steampunk-posers" or whatever are.  Two things-

One, I have never seen anybody anywhere affect such a style as you describe, with random mechanical bits draped about their person.  Where and when have you ever seen somebody wearing gears as a fashion statement?

And two, what do you suggest they do to show their tastes instead?  Tote around functional mini-steam engines?

[G-Flex]

Alright, you've gone on and on about how stupid you think these "steampunk-posers" or whatever are.  Two things-

One, I have never seen anybody anywhere affect such a style as you describe, with random mechanical bits draped about their person.  Where and when have you ever seen somebody wearing gears as a fashion statement?

Lots of craft websites and stuff. I'm kind of exaggerating for effect, but it's definitely around. Seriously, if you haven't seen people wearing gears in random places for fashion, then you're lucky to have not been exposed to that side of "steampunk". I'm talking about the kind of steampunk that people espouse after they read a couple webcomics or whatever.

And two, what do you suggest they do to show their tastes instead?  Tote around functional mini-steam engines?

Hey, if people think that stuff like that is fashionable, that's fine by me. But the reason they tend to think it's fashionable is because it represents something functional or at least pseudo-functional, like cosplay uniforms or movie props or whatever. It's like the old "sticking feathers up your butt doesn't make you a chicken" adage, except it's more like "sticking feathers in completely nonsensical places doesn't make you any sort of bird at all".