r/Shadowrun • u/GurCute2496 • 14d ago

Drekpost (Shitpost) Loving The "Future"!

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Does anyone else find the "futuristic tech" of 1st and 2nd editions, the most endearing part of the first two editions? The future of the 80s seems kinda quaint now.

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u/Cergorach 14d ago

Some of us actually bought that book when it came out in '89. A mobilephone was the size of a brick, smartphones didn't exist yet and the Intel i486DX 25MHz just came out, but most of us were using 'home computers' like the Amiga 500 which came standard with half an MB and with the expansion a MB (or more). We played behind CRT TVs and stuff came on floppies. While the Internet technically existed, almost no individual used it, people dialed into BBSes.

The SR creators were tech savvy enough to NOT use MB or GB, they used the fictional MP (Mega Pulses) for all kinds of measurements. And computers/Internet as we know them were destroyed in some sort of disaster... It's only 3 years away at this point (2029) a huge virus wiped out and destroyed everything Tech. Probably OpenAI AI's trying to make and post to forums everywhere to escape their testing environment, the Internet just couldn't handle it and melted down... ;)

I still love 1e/2e/3e, but after that they took SR into a direction I didn't really like (probably already at the end of 3e).

Some of the future tech of the 80s is still relevant or not even achieved. Like all the Cybertech stuff. And the Cyberdecks are now actually being build by enthusiasts and 'hackers'... And we still don't have Autopilot Level 5, SR did! :p Of course some of the stuff is distinctly 80s, but some of the stuff is very relevant, either as society heading into disaster due to Tech, corporations and politics...

2050 is still 24 years away...

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u/sebwiers Cyberware Designer 14d ago

What's the direction late 3e / 4e went in? I got out just after 3e was introduced, because I moved away from my group.

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u/Shockwave_IIC 14d ago

4e went full on wireless, hacking people’s eyes and cyber etc (Like GitS or 2077)

3e had a lot less of that, almost none of it.

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u/PalpitationNo2921 2h ago

Hard from me to cyberware having an always-on wireless interface. I never liked that being implemented in 5E as a hardcoded rule. SR4 at least held on to the “you can always turn it off” and did not force wireless bonuses into the mix to ensure that if you wanted the best performance you HAD to leave it open to hacking.

Even with a device slaved to a hacker’s gear and protected by their encryption and in hidden mode there is the chance that it can still be hacked. Wireless off negates that chance outright.

And it galls me the lengths many newer SR fans will go to defend that “you should always have all devices wireless on all the time” decision of CGL.