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Also, when it comes to Cyberpunk, you should never forget to point out Akira and Ghost in the Shell, to add Japan to the mix.
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Except Gibson was more than a decade late to the game.
Cyberpunk as a genre can be traced back to "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K Dick (1968), which was adapted into the Ridley Scott movie Blade Runner (1982).
There were many other novels and novellas, short stories, graphic novels, and comics, all published prior to 1984, that were subsequently categorized as Cyberpunk.
Heck, some even consider the movies Escape from New York (1981) and Tron (1982) as Cyberpunk.
The actual coining of the term "Cyberpunk" dates back to 1983 with a Bruce Bethke short story.
All of which predates Neuromancer in 1984. But what Neuromancer did was popularized the concept of cyberspace within Cyberpunk.
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Also Appleseed and Gunnm(Battle Angel Alita)
- Oct 23, 2016
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Oh, I think it did a lot more than that, but that is, of course, just my subjective opinion (even if based on facts).
Like several posts on this page made clear, there are many influences that predate Cyberpunk as a genre and as is often the case with literal genres, it is hard to even define which stories and novels and films really are part of it, or were forerunners or just introduced some of the later concepts.
Let me say, that I didn't ignore earlier stories (some of which were also by Gibson, of course), that is why I wrote "basically began" though I could also have used "popularized" or something like "introduced to a larger audience" and the publication date for the novel was just in there, to make clear that the Cyberpunk RPG wasn't the start of the genre Cyberpunk.
There's definitely a difference between the first stories that play with ideas and the defining of a genre for it.
Just think about Cyberpunk's little cousin, Steampunk. It's very hard to try to pinpoint when the genre really emerged, especially considering that you could take many Jules Verne novels as Steampunk novels, also parts of HG Wells' work, then there were science heroes in pulp fiction, modelled after people like Tesla or Edison, but with adventurous lives, which also read like Steampunk from today's POV and yet the genre AS a literal genre surely didn't exist back then, no one called it that, no one had defined what roughly constitutes Steampunk.
- Feb 19, 2019
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Taking about Steampunk, there of course Gibson was highly influential as well, with the novel The Difference Engine, co-written with Bruce Sterling.
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Hey! Hey! WTF??? We are discussing Gibson here and no one called me? 
By the way there is something that always puzzled me. How foundative are cyborgs for the cyberpunk genre? Because, for istance, in 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheeps' there aren't any. Actually, there aren't androids as well, since replicants are by no means 'mechanical'.
By the way there is something that always puzzled me. How foundative are cyborgs for the cyberpunk genre? Because, for istance, in 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheeps' there aren't any. Actually, there aren't androids as well, since replicants are by no means 'mechanical'.
- Oct 23, 2016
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Hey! Hey! WTF??? We are discussing Gibson here and no one called me?
By the way there is something that always puzzled me. How foundative are cyborgs for the cyberpunk genre? Because, for istance, in 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheeps' there aren't any. Actually, there aren't androids as well, since replicants are by no means 'mechanical'.
By the regular definition, Androids don't have to be "mechanical" as long as they are artificial constructs which look like humans, they can be defined as androids. Theoretically they could be completely made of meat and flesh and bones and still be Androids.
As for Cyborgs, and sorry if this seems like a lecture, it's not intended to be, just trying to clarify my reasoning; Cyborgs or rather the connection between artificial and natural components is one of the core concepts of Cyberpunk, as is stuff like Virtual Realities, Megacities/Sprawls, a criminal subculture composed of samurais/warriors and hackers/deckers/riggers etc.., artificial intelligence of some form, Corporations replacing or at least surpassing governments, a relatively bleak outlook to the future and several other tropes or elements.
However, most people would agree that you don't need all of these components to classify a piece of media as Cyberpunk, you just need to use enough to paint a picture that resonates with the genre in general.
FE. many Cyberpunk novels have very little connection to space travel and yet, some of the defining novels, especially those by Walter Jon Williams feature FTL travel and space flights to a large extent, or books like Richard K. Morgan's Takeshi Kovac's series have FTL travels, ancient alien civilizations, human colonies in space and many other concepts which are usually more fitting in the genre of Space Opera or maybe even HARD SF (depending on how they are presented), yet the series also has enough elements of Cyberpunk that many people define it as part of the genre or at least as so-called Post-Cyberpunk (which I think should rather be called Neo-Cyberpunk tbh, like Neo-Noir).
What I mean by that is, there aren't completely clear-cut lines, what is important or what makes something cyberpunk, but I think no one would argue that some form of cybernetic organism, bioware or cybernetic improvements are definitive foundations of the genre.
- Mar 31, 2022
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Exceptional point, my friend!Hey! Hey! WTF??? We are discussing Gibson here and no one called me?
By the way there is something that always puzzled me. How foundative are cyborgs for the cyberpunk genre? Because, for istance, in 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheeps' there aren't any. Actually, there aren't androids as well, since replicants are by no means 'mechanical'.
I've always accepted the role of AI and other technology based intelligence to be native and inherent to the cyberpunk genre. It can include cyborgs and androids from the humans with technology installed in them like Elysium, Johnny Mnemonic and Cyberpunk 2077 and run the full gambit all the way up to full synthetic entities like A.I. Artificial intelligence, i-Robot or Ex Machina and those that are a mix of technology and synthetic living tissue like Terminator or the Cylons in Battlestar Gallactica to those who only exist within the construct of a computer program like HAL 9000 in Kubrik's sci fi fantasy, "Mother" in Alien and the various androids in the Alien franchise to those who totally transcend technology and bridge with human beings as we see in Transcendence. These are all examples of AI that can exist within the realm of cyberpunk and depends solely on the story the author wishes to tell. Admittedly, not all of the examples I gave were from cyberpunk titles yet all of these examples could freely exist in a cyberpunk story. Anyway... just my two cents
Adventure ever on my friends, PhatPS/Update: Serious kudos for the Takeshi Kovac name drop! Love that character!!!
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- Oct 23, 2016
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See, you know at least a bit of William Gibson, after all, you know Johnny Mnemonic.Exceptional point, my friend!
Anyway... just my two cents
The girl, Jane, played by Dina Meyer, is called Molly in the original short story, and she is one of the major characters of Neuromancer.
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I know the films but I read so much in my youth that I don't read much these days. But, I do enjoy the filmsSee, you know at least a bit of William Gibson, after all, you know Johnny Mnemonic.
The girl, Jane, played by Dina Meyer, is called Molly in the original short story, and she is one of the major characters of Neuromancer.
Serious kudos for the Takeshi Kovac name drop! Love that character!!!
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Who wouldn't go anywhere where Molly Millions is?after all, you know Johnny Mnemonic.
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Who has time? But lately i've been listening to audiobooks driving to work and back and damn if i hadn't the chance to read a lot of Asimov, Gibson, Herbert, Dick... a lot of stuff i've always wanted to and i even re-read something from my youth.
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we forgot your phonenumber?Hey! Hey! WTF??? We are discussing Gibson here and no one called me?
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- Apr 7, 2020
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Well, i do have a phonewe forgot your phonenumber?
Just it doesn't belong to me. My own have been stolen a few months ago, but when i was heading for the shop to buy a new one, i realize i don't actually need to own one, so i went dual sim on my office phone.I switched computers since the last update so i replayed this game from the beginning. I have to say that this game is by far - i mean by far, far, far the best adult VN. The renders, the graphics and the overall atmosphere is simply in a league of its own. Also the way the story is branched is also genius work. There are no harshly different paths, but the way certain actions delicately influence the story and lead to different outcomes with the different ppl in the game is amazing. This is the game where you do replay the whole thing with a different choice in chapter 1 or 2 and you end up with a different situation in chapter 12. Also i like that the scenes are not only vanilla but you can indulge into a bit of rough stuff if you like to.
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My recommendation, get a big pendrive an play your games from there. When you erase one keep the savegames folder. So you don't depend on your pc's user folder for the previous version saves.
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don't need that big unless plays all possible paths. my cotbd saves folder takes bit over 12 megs of space.
- Mar 31, 2022
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I agree, my friend. I picked up an external Toshiba ssd with 1 TB of storage. I keep all of my AVN's and porn videos on it. Currently, I have around 300 GB of AVN games and stories stashed on it and another 200 GB of porn video. Eventually, I'll need to get one for each but I still have over 400 GB left at present. This ssd allows me to play my games as last saved on my laptop as well as my tower by just swapping the USB cable. The external ssd was right around $40 USD, just under $45 with tax and free shipping. This allows me to play City of Broken Dreamers and all my other favorites on any PC I have available.
I also have several usb thumb/pen drives as well. 256 GB size run about $15 USD, still under $20 with tax and free shipping.
Have a great day, my friends. Adventure ever on, Phat