Posted by Migo on Jan 24th, 2008
Modding has always been something I’ve wanted to try my hand at, but I lack any sort of oh what’s the word? Money! Yes, that’s it, money. I lack the money to get started. So, I tend to live vicariously through others when it comes to making spiffy new junk out of old junk. Today is no exception, and I thought I’d share a few of the nicer mods I found on my searches with you. There’s a couple of old and a couple of new bits of modded goodness in this article, all very impressive. So sit back and enjoy the ride. Click the pictures or links to be taken to the pages that house these fantastic mods.
First, the old:
Remember the Victorian Era? Era of trains, steam power, and proper dress? No, of course you don’t. If you did you’d be 170-years-old, and even if you managed to live that long you wouldn’t remember anything as senility had long since settled into your cranium. Luckily for you there is a movement that tries to bring the style from portions of that era back for us to enjoy, and that movement is Steampunk. It’s a little fantasy and a little future all rolled into one.
The two computer mods I’m going to show you now are perfect examples of steampunk inspired modding.
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The Steampunk Laptop This speaks volumes for the artist who built it as laptops are notoriously difficult to work with. If I had a laptop that looked this good, I’d carry it around with me everywhere I went and force people to have their pictures taken with it…but that’s just me. Regardless of my eccentricities, this laptop is still pretty friggin’ cool and I have to say I definitely wouldn’t mind having it. |
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Telecalculograph They’ve managed to do some pretty impressive things with LEDs while keeping it from looking like LEDs are in play. I’m not entirely sure the smoke stack is EPA approved, but I’m not going to mention it. The last thing I need is a bunch of angry steampunks banging down my door because I had one of their own locked up. It goes without saying that I wouldn’t mind having this PC either. In a geek household you can never have too many machines, especially when they look this good. |
…and now for the new:
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Victorian Era Justice League Calling these figures ‘Gaslight Justice League‘ and it’s hard to believe that these weren’t factory made. If I were DC, however, I’d look at these figures for inspiration for future JLA character Elseworld comics. I would definitely buy graphic novels of these characters during the Victorian Era. |
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Now it might seem that I’m only focusing on the steampunk stuff, but that’s not true. This next mod is a PC mod that makes me happy deep down in my geeky little heart. For all you fans of Portal out there, this next mod is specifically for you. So I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Weighted Companion Cube PC I know, you can play video games on your computer, but that’s not nearly as cool as having a computer that looks like it belongs in the game. That’s about a million times cooler. Magnus posted the article earlier this week and shows you pretty much step-by-step how he went about creating his very own Weighted Companion Cube. If you want to build one for yourself check the article out and get to building. |
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Devin de Gruyl
January 24, 2008 at 9:56 pm
I would be remiss if I didn’t add to this mix the Steampunk Keyboard, a mod of the legendary IBM Model M “clicky” keyboard (the one that doubles as a blunt instrument in a pinch) to give it that “Space: 1889″ feel.
Jules Verne would be so proud.
Migo
January 25, 2008 at 10:31 am
That keyboard is commonly called the “Von Slatt Original” or VSO keyboard, very cool indeed. Doc, who made the steampunk laptop is also building and selling an entire line of keyboards.