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retro futurism
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retro futurism
Streamlined Cars Blaze at 120 mph in 1930s Future City
Here's a brief, animated glimpse of a future city where torpedo cars rocket along on elevated highways. It comes from a 1930s industrial film on automotive streamlining, hence the awed tone of wonder in the narrator's voice when he describes the completely streamlined car of the future - alas, "entirely impractical" on today's streets.
car wars
If you've ever played Car Wars, the pen-and-paper game of post-apocalyptic vehicular combat, chances are that you probably love it despite all its flaws. Now, imagine playing it on a 12' by 8' 3D city block filled with skyscrapers, ramps, an overpass and carnage, not to mention 15 other psychotic drivers. Scared yet? Drop your flaming oil and warm up the missile launchers - this is Car Wars: Rogue Arena.
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Car Wars the Way It Was Meant To Be Played
If you've ever played Car Wars, the pen-and-paper game of post-apocalyptic vehicular combat, chances are that you probably love it despite all its flaws. Now, imagine playing it on a 12' by 8' 3D city block filled with skyscrapers, ramps, an overpass and carnage, not to mention 15 other psychotic drivers. Scared yet? Drop your flaming oil and warm up the missile launchers - this is Car Wars: Rogue Arena.
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blood car
In the not so distant future, gas prices have skyrocketed to a crushing 30 bones a gallon. The prices forces one good-natured vegan to get creative and find alternate means of fuel but instead of building a car that runs on veggies, he accidentally invents a car that runs on blood. Now that's the kind of gory thinking they should have used in the Death Race remake: more blood, less common sense. Click through for the full Blood Car poster and trailer.
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New Bloody Topless Joy Riding Poster For Blood Car
In the not so distant future, gas prices have skyrocketed to a crushing 30 bones a gallon. The prices forces one good-natured vegan to get creative and find alternate means of fuel but instead of building a car that runs on veggies, he accidentally invents a car that runs on blood. Now that's the kind of gory thinking they should have used in the Death Race remake: more blood, less common sense. Click through for the full Blood Car poster and trailer.
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This Spaceship Car Doesn't Drive Quite Fast Enough To Get Away From The Haters
Finally, an electric car that looks fully demented. Greg Zanis decided to make his Dream Car pyramid-shaped because it sort of looks like a spaceship — possibly from the aliens who actually built the pyramids. Sadly, it only goes about 40 miles per hour. But the good news is it can go 240 miles on one charge, and can survive any collision thanks to 12-inch I-beams all around. An upgraded version may be able to go up to 200 miles per hour and last 500 to 1,000 miles on one charge. Pyramid power! [CBS 2 Chicago]
Hover Car Racer
More Future Racing Movies for the Scifi-lite Car Genre
A 15-year-old with a heart of gold enters a highly competitive racing school to become a race master. No, it's not Ender's Game, and it's not Speed Racer 2. It's Disney's new movie Hover Car Racer , based on Mathew Reilly’s scifi teen novel. Indie writer/director John Sayles (Lone Star, The Spiderwick Chronicles) announced that he'd be adapting the scifi-lite novel at at a film festival. Our one plea to Sayles: Please let's stop making tame future race movies. Either give us the full-on cute, kid-oriented Star Wars pod racing, or give us death on wheels. More »
retro futurism
A Prototype Sky-Car Lifts Off in 1960
In 1960, helicopter pioneer Frank Piasecki successfully test drove his Piasecki VZ-8P Sky-Car (aka the "flying jeep") for the very first time—and True magazine was there. According to Piasecki:We already have plans to turn this into a consumer product. A driver and three passengers could ride it its enclosed cockpit. The wheels will be powered so it can be driven into and out of garages. It could be flown over mountains, but we believe it will work best near the ground so that civilian operates would not have to learn complicated navigation.More »
space metals
Zero-G Metals Will Put a Flying Car In Every Garage
Get ready for the first gadgets to be stamped with the words, "Made In Space." The European Space Agency has plans to manufacture lightweight metal compounds under zero-gravity conditions on the International Space Station. The new materials could boost the efficiency of hydrogen engines and make aircraft faster, more powerful and less expensive to build. If we can achieve the proper thrust-to-weight ratio, jet-powered aircraft could become cheap enough that everyone can afford one. More »
found footage
Vegans Kill to Drive Cars and Have Sex in a Dystopian Future
The aptly-named Blood Car is a near-future tale about peak oil and bloodthirsty vegans. Gasoline is so expensive that it takes almost 500 bucks to fill your tank, and most cars have been abandoned in vast "car graveyards." Archie is a nice vegan guy who wants to help the world by creating the first engine that runs on wheatgrass — but instead, he accidentally invents an engine that runs on human blood. More »
concept art
Once we finally have flying cars, authorities are going to have a bitch of a time keeping people from doing what these two hotshot pilots are planning: scaring the ever-living shit out of a pleasure boater. Granted, these are minijets with funky wings and not flying cars, but it makes you think about what might start happening in the skies once anyone can just flit around.
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Damn Kids Joyriding Again in their Flying Cars
Once we finally have flying cars, authorities are going to have a bitch of a time keeping people from doing what these two hotshot pilots are planning: scaring the ever-living shit out of a pleasure boater. Granted, these are minijets with funky wings and not flying cars, but it makes you think about what might start happening in the skies once anyone can just flit around.
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games
There are few things in life quite as satisfying as commanding your cyborg hordes to wage war against the grognard across the kitchen table. Whether you prefer to blast Darkseid with your heat vision or lead a heavy lance in a raid against one of the Inner Sphere houses, miniatures games will meet your need for conquest. Check out our list of the five best scifi games that wil burn up your tabletop.
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Five Scifi Miniatures Games That Are Maximally Cool
There are few things in life quite as satisfying as commanding your cyborg hordes to wage war against the grognard across the kitchen table. Whether you prefer to blast Darkseid with your heat vision or lead a heavy lance in a raid against one of the Inner Sphere houses, miniatures games will meet your need for conquest. Check out our list of the five best scifi games that wil burn up your tabletop.
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dystopia
Yes, it's another dystopian morning filled with the smell of burning chemicals and scorched ideology. And nothing says dark future more than working as a car bomb forensics expert, the detective who gets called in when a car bomb like this one (set off in Thailand over the weekend) goes off. It turns out you can learn an awful lot about who set this bomb off from reading the debris it left behind.
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Career of Tomorrow: Car Bomb Forensics Expert
Yes, it's another dystopian morning filled with the smell of burning chemicals and scorched ideology. And nothing says dark future more than working as a car bomb forensics expert, the detective who gets called in when a car bomb like this one (set off in Thailand over the weekend) goes off. It turns out you can learn an awful lot about who set this bomb off from reading the debris it left behind.
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car wars
The Meanest Car Wins, In Post-WWIII Wasteland
The only way to survive the fall of America is to build the most bad-ass car in the universe, and then roll out and destroy everybody else's cars. Mad Max and Death Race 2000 came to life at the roll of your six-sided dice in Car Wars, the classic 1980s strategy game. You would rack up "points" and use them to add armor, tank guns, fire-proof wheels, mini-engines inside the wheels and nitro-injectors, then you'd duel, either out on the open road or in an arena. Click through for the history of Car Wars. More »
found footage
Giant Alien Woman Swallows Fratboy Whole
Here's the sleaziest and most scifi moment from the unappreciated classic Dude Where's My Car. The two stoner dorks have just "saved the universe" by handing over a big universe-destroying machine to a pair of Arnold Schwarzenegger clones. But the five vaguely identical evil alien women want to destroy the universe, for some reason that's never really explained. So they morph into a single giant, who stomps through the video arcade, munching on fratboys before finally getting splatted. Click through for an even sleazier moment featuring Jennifer Garner. More »
speed racer
People who have seen the trailer for the live-action version of Speed Racer say it looks more like a video game than a movie. But what's wrong with that? If you can make a film feel like the eyeball-blasting you get from a game these days, then the marketing department, the toy department, the sequel department, and yes, even the video game department will fall over backwards trying to kiss you on the ass. So it's no surprise that Speed Racer is getting a video game for the Wii and the Nintendo DS (which unfortunately means that graphics are less than amazing), and you can check out the new images from it in the gallery below.
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Race Through A Day-Glo Hot Wheels Playset
People who have seen the trailer for the live-action version of Speed Racer say it looks more like a video game than a movie. But what's wrong with that? If you can make a film feel like the eyeball-blasting you get from a game these days, then the marketing department, the toy department, the sequel department, and yes, even the video game department will fall over backwards trying to kiss you on the ass. So it's no surprise that Speed Racer is getting a video game for the Wii and the Nintendo DS (which unfortunately means that graphics are less than amazing), and you can check out the new images from it in the gallery below.
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triviagasm
The Mach 5 Could Kick K.I.T.T.'s Ass
While folks are still reeling from the two-hour jolt of pain that was Knight Rider last night, you might as well start pinning your hopes on the upcoming Speed Racer movie if you want a quality story about a boy and his car. Although the Mach 5 is being upgraded with a lot of CGI elements, you'll have to pry that original steering wheel with all the alphabet-buttons on it from our cold, dead memories. Put your mental pistons to work and find out more about the car and the show in our Speed Racer homage below. More »
knight rider
Knight Rider Smashes Our Childhood Memories Without Turbo Boost
NBC aired its Knight Rider TV movie last night. It was a two-hour long Ford commercial disguised as entertainment, padded with lesbians, threesomes, bad acting, questionable technology, and meta-commercials. Whether it was nostalgia beckoning viewers to watch, or leftover Transformers lust, this TV "event" about an artificially intelligent car was Sunday night's biggest draw. Was it worth it? Find out in our spoiler-laden recap inside. More »
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