Different engines - Steampunk modding

Posted at: Wednesday 2nd April 2008 by Amanda Jeffrey

For some modders, breaking free of the 21st century's fascination with brushed aluminium and factory-issue beige means travelling back in time to be inspired by Victorian science fiction. Amanda Jeffrey takes a look at the old kid on the block, Steampunk, complete with brass mice, typewriter keyboards and cog-filled laptops.

You may have seen Steampunk mentioned on websites such as BoingBoing (www.boingboing.net) and Digg (www.digg.com), along with pictures of strange-looking objects and people who look like a cross between the antique and the modern, and wondered what it was all about. Sit back, gentle reader, and we'll take you on an adventure in which you'll discover what Steampunk is, where it came from and why Steampunk PC modding is one of the most skilled, beautiful and envied styles right now.

From whence it came

Steampunk began as a sub-genre of science fiction, and it's keenly aware of its roots. Science fiction is a funny beast. For one thing, it has two fathers: H.G. Wells and Jules Verne are both blessed with the title 'The Father of Science Fiction', as before their creations, there wasn't really much in the way of popular adult fiction featuring advanced sciences or visions of the future. In the late 1800s, Wells and Verne introduced Victorian readers to time machines and nuclear submarines, scientists and gentlemen pirates. They went to the moon and around the world - and, as with all matters sci-fi, the journeys to the future were replete with contemporary trappings and style.

In the 1970s and 1980s, long after science fiction had become a popular and sprawling genre, writers such as Michael Moorcock and Bruce Sterling started writing science fiction set not in the future, but in an alternative Victorian era. Drawing on the period when sci-fi was born, they imagined a Victorian era dramatically changed through the intervention of super-advanced science, essentially fusing modern inventions such as the computer with the brass and steam creations of the 1800s. Verne and Wells wrote about trips to the moon, discoveries of dinosaurs, time machines and Martian invasions, but they did so in a manner that was strongly rooted in their own era, so readers experienced terribly civilised Victorian trips to the moon and English gentlemen discovering dinosaurs, plus time machines with levers, gears and upholstered seats. It's this culture clash that made it such a distinctive and rich source from which to draw.

The term Steampunk was a play on Cyberpunk, the name of another sci-fi genre, but instead of the near 'cyber' future, this was a steam-powered world. Although Steampunk was innovative, the idea of writing science fiction in a historical setting wasn't without precedent; you might not have heard the term 'retro-futurism' before, but you've definitely encountered several examples, such as 'The Flintstones', 'The Mysterious Cities of Gold' and the Fallout series of games, to name but a few.

What now?

Steampunk was the name for Victorian retro-futurism, but it wasn't content to remain as this. If you imagine retro-futurism as a party, Steampunk is the grungy but chic Victorian inventor chatting over a glass of absinthe to the tin foil-clad 1950s space-girl who has just parked her flying car. Steampunk may have started off as sci-fi with a Victorian twist but it has gathered momentum -due in no small part to its evocative but flexible name. The 'punk' in Steampunk is ignored by some, and emphasised by others; to some it means rebellion and fighting the authorities, to others it signifies an independent, DIY ethic. It's also viewed by some as an unnecessary relic and simply shorthand for retro-futuristic.