Quote from: Ravenswing;681194The Boston Museum of Science, in the late 80s, had a brilliant exhibit called "Yesterday's Tomorrows," which focused on what people in the 1950s predicted the contemporary world would look like.  We were -- 25 years go, that is -- to have paper disposable clothes, to punch our eating choices into the FoodOTron, to commute to work in our personal helicopters, to converse with one another on our videophones.

One out of four, not too bad, and fast food industry is pretty much a FoodOTron with people inside the machine, innit?

While we give Cyberpunk a hard time, oddly enough, a lot of those predictions came about true actually. I mean, Google Glass is pretty much a more elegant head Jack - In port, and we're a few steps away from it, apparently.

There aren't quite as many neons and mud everywhere, but hey - give politicians those 8 years, eh?

Quote from: StormBringer;681161How difficult would it be to impart the 'feel' of the 80s onto someone (younger) who is new to Cyberpunk 2020, Twilight:2000, or Top Secret?  Maybe the problem isn't the setting itself, it's that no one wants to experience that setting anymore in the original context.

But then, who wants to experience 70s sword & sorcery and other fantasy subgenres in their original context?
Today it seems there's always Drizzt, Assassins's Creed, Tidus, Locke Lamora, not Conan, Grey Mouser, Sparrowhawk/Ged, or Morgon of Hed.

Quote from: StormBringer;681161Interesting.  Many of the games people mention are light sci-fi or 'modern' settings.  How difficult would it be to impart the 'feel' of the 80s onto someone (younger) who is new to Cyberpunk 2020, Twilight:2000, or Top Secret?  Maybe the problem isn't the setting itself, it's that no one wants to experience that setting anymore in the original context.

Maybe present the setting as a slice of history instead of trying to advance them to our current understanding.

T2k works for me (and I realize it doesn't for a lot of people, particularly those younger than me) because I have a connection to the Cold War in that I was a gamer when T2k was written and released.  In 1985, even as a kid (and it was reinforced by adults), common wisdom of the man on the street was that the solution to the east/west issue was that there would be a nuclear war.  It would "just happen someday".  The question on many folks' mind wasn't "if" but "when" and "how" and T2k was written to address that (which it did, poorly) and how people would survive afterward (which it did admirably).

It's an alternate history game from a time in history where it seemed like a probable history game.

The screw up with T2k was, to me, later editions tried to retcon into later game fluff the insanely rapid change of global politics from rapprochement to thaw to end-of-cold-war that happened in a mere 3 years.  I mean, you can make a case that the attempts by the Communists to seize power under Yeltsin might have put the "CCP" back in the CCP, but fact is even given that it isn't like the genie could be put back in the bottle.  The USSR went out of business in 1989, period, and later T2k trying to say..."But then, the west heard a horrifying laugh behind them and they turned around, and the corpse of the USSR stood up and said 'Foolish mortals, jeans and walkmans can't kill me! Muah-ha-ha-ha!'- and the cold war started again!"...was just kind of dumb.  

It didn't help that T2k as a game was on it's trembly, newborn game legs when the cold war did end...the whole sense of panicked happiness and realization that we'd stood on the brink of nuclear annihilation for so many decades and that it was finally ending probably put even the most gung-ho gamers in no mood to jump back 3 years and play a game where the Bomb had been dropped.

Now, though, I view T2k - at least the timeline of v.1 - as being like playing one of those "Weird War 2" games, or a sort of steampunk WWI/LXG type thing.

Don't get me started on 2013 though (the background, I mean, not the mechanics).  Ugh.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;681685T2k works for me (and I realize it doesn't for a lot of people, particularly those younger than me) because I have a connection to the Cold War in that I was around when T2k was written.  In 1985, even as a kid (and it was reinforced by adults), common wisdom of the man on the street was that the solution to the east/west issue was that there would be a nuclear war.  It would "just happen someday".  The question on many folks' mind wasn't "if" but "when" and "how" and T2k was written to address that (which it did, poorly) and how people would survive afterward (which it did admirably).

It's an alternate history game from a time in history where it seemed like a probable history game.

The screw up with T2k was, to me, later editions tried to retcon into later game fluff the insanely rapid change of global politics from rapprochement to thaw to end-of-cold-war that happened in a mere 3 years.  I mean, you can make a case that the attempts by the Communists to seize power under Yeltsin might have put the "CCP" back in the CCP, but fact is even given that it isn't like the genie could be put back in the bottle.  The USSR went out of business in 1989, period, and later T2k trying to say..."But then, the west heard a horrifying laugh behind them and they turned around, and the corpse of the USSR stood up and said 'Foolish mortals, jeans and walkmans can't kill me! Muah-ha-ha-ha!'- and the cold war started again!"...was just kind of dumb.  

It didn't help that T2k as a game was on it's trembly, newborn game legs when the cold war did end...the whole sense of panicked happiness and realization that we'd stood on the brink of nuclear annihilation for so many decades and that it was finally ending probably put even the most gung-ho gamers in no mood to jump back 3 years and play a game where the Bomb had been dropped.

Now, though, I view T2k - at least the timeline of v.1 - as being like playing one of those "Weird War 2" games, or a sort of steampunk WWI/LXG type thing.

Don't get me started on 2013 though (the background, I mean, not the mechanics).  Ugh.

Well, to their defence, I don't think that many people expected the Rise of Putin to occur so fast .

(that does sound like a name for some modern espionage - politics - mercenaries campaign, doesn't it?)

Quote from: Elfdart;678722Here's another: Nato 7.62 battle/assault rifles couldn't fire full auto.

That was true IRL. The L1A1 (FN-FAL) 7.62mm as used in eg the 1982 Falklands War by the UK had a limiter that stopped it firing full auto, as it was regarded as uncontrollable.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;681685Don't get me started on 2013 though (the background, I mean, not the mechanics).  Ugh.

The adventures of Yesterday's Tomorrow - TODAY!

I could go for a 90s nostalgia game about now. Something that involves trench coats & katanas, Gen X pseudo philosophizing and edgy people vs evil conspiracies.

Quote from: Justin Alexander;676109My favorite part of that is when they break into the TARDIS so that they can hack their way into the holodeck.

Just me or was that the Space Needle at about the 3:07 mark?

Awesome-

Firefly and Buffy seems more dated than T2k.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;676086Oh oh oh, every fucking word of Cyberpunk:2020.  And Shadowrun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GPGQoR6f6w

especially Shadowrun.
.

What...what...what the hell is that? Why was it made? Its like vintage porn without the sex!

Quote from: Justin Alexander;676109My favorite part of that is when they break into the TARDIS so that they can hack their way into the holodeck.

And then briefly get pursued by one of the spheres from Phantasm.

That whole matrix sequence makes about as much sense as the 2ndedition rules did I guess...

Quote from: TristramEvans;681988And then briefly get pursued by one of the spheres from Phantasm.

That whole matrix sequence makes about as much sense as the 2ndedition rules did I guess...

I think they stole the music from Overdrawn at the Memory Bank.  And most of the film crew, it looks.

Quote from: TristramEvans;681987What...what...what the hell is that? Why was it made? Its like vintage porn without the sex!

It's like a hair metal video.  Without the sex.

JG