The opposite of steampunk - "streampunk" - is there a word for this?

[Pushkin]

@E-Sabbath

The PC game was based off the Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator, with about 20% more horsepower than needed. It was fun, you could torque-steer your plane. Like doing handbrake turns in midair, only with the prop.

Just saw your post on preview, it was a great game (although I didn’t get too far into it before misplacing my disc of the game). I can see the MS Flight Simulator influence, the mechanics felt very good for something that was so much like an arcade game.

[BrainGlutton]

One word for it is Raygun Gothic.

[BrainGlutton]

Zany Afternoons, by Bruce McCall, features illustrations of autogyros, tank polo, and Zeppelin shoots.

[DocCathode]

@Just Some Guy

Interestingly enough I was just reading about some proto-pulps from the nineteenth century that were extremely steampunk-esque. The stories had things like steam driven mechanical men, giant attack zeppelins, and souped up prairie schooners. Sadly my attempts to locate any collection of these works has completely failed. They probably aren’t very good but finding out that steampunk existed back when it was just steam makes them facinating.

Have you tried searching for Edisonades? That term covers a lot of steam powered automatons and what not.

Back To The OP

Even though I’d never heard of the story until this thread, I also thought of Hugo Gernsback. Founder of Amazing Stories, the man was responsible for a lot of Raygun Gothic. White Wolf’s Sons Of Ether are as dark deco/ retro futurism/ raygun gothic as you can be. I’ve posted to this board many times in my persona as EtherPsychologist- a man capable of altering your mind through Hypnosis and the use of devices filled with vacuum and nixie tubes.

One of these days, I will get around to building my life-sized replica of a 1920’s style Death Ray. I have most of the parts. I understand the deco requirements. I will need to borrow a digital camera to photograph the thing though.

[Autumn_Almanac]

@Argent Towers

I think it would be super-badass to have an alternate-history, retro-future movie with the premise being that the Nazis won World War II and New York is totally taken over by the Nazis culturally, and hyper-developed by the Nazi architects in all kinds of crazy retro-future styles. Slick, shiny black buildings towering towards the sky. Giant swastika flags hanging from balconies. Huge projection screens displaying Nazi propaganda. Sleek, silent black trains transport citizens through the city, and the streets are filled with 1930s and 40s-era Mercedes and BMWs. SS units patrol the streets at night, wearing black armored exoskeleton-suits with glowing red spotlights on the side of their helmets.

You might want to check out the anime film Jin-Roh. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but your description above reminded me of it-- particularly the armored police element (screenshot). It’s set in an alternate-history 1950s Japan, though I don’t remember the specifics.

[Lumpy]

@Just Some Guy

Interestingly enough I was just reading about some proto-pulps from the nineteenth century that were extremely steampunk-esque. The stories had things like steam driven mechanical men, giant attack zeppelins, and souped up prairie schooners. Sadly my attempts to locate any collection of these works has completely failed. They probably aren’t very good but finding out that steampunk existed back when it was just steam makes them facinating.

Wiki’s article on the subject: Edisonade - Wikipedia One the external links is to a downloadable copy of “The Huge Hunter Or, the Steam Man of the Prairies”. Be warned though, almost the entire genre is unabashedly colonialist, imperialist, and racist to a “Birth of a Nation” degree.

[JRDelirious]

One creator that has worked the DecoFuture style in the Graphic Novel genre is Spain’s Daniel Torres, author of *Sir Opium * and Rocco Vargas (serialized in Heavy Metal in the 80s/early 90s).

[TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW]

“Gaslight Romance” is the accepted term

[Hey_It_s_That_Guy]

@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW

“Gaslight Romance” is the accepted term

I’ve heard that as another term for steampunk, which actually makes sense due to the commonality of actual gaslights, but it doesn’t really fit at all for the retro-futuristic stuff.

[sturmhauke]

@Autumn Almanac

You might want to check out the anime film Jin-Roh. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but your description above reminded me of it-- particularly the armored police element (screenshot). It’s set in an alternate-history 1950s Japan, though I don’t remember the specifics.

Jin Roh has very good art and animation, but the story collapsed under the weight of its own pretentious bullshit.