John Cleese, once of the immortal Monty Python's Flying Circus, famously uttered, 'and now for something completely different!' Well, this new blog is certainly very, very different than Realm of Chaos 80s.
Instead of 80s inspired fantasy we have 80s inspired cyberpunk with GW's forgotten car game, Dark Future!
To start with a confession! I never actually played a game of this back in the day. Nor did I know anyone who did. In fact, I knew no-one at all who even owned the boxed game. My relationship with Dark Future existed purely through the pages of White Dwarf and the few GW products that carried an ad for the game.
Looking back now what strikes is the fact that Dark Future has no connection with the Warhammer world. Its set on Earth in the then near future but to us the past, the 1990s. It is perhaps due to this lack of connection that I feel so intrigued with the game. Some months ago I wrote a post for Realm of Chaos 80s about the ear of the BIG BOX GAME! And Dark Future (DF from now on) was an early torchbearer of this era.
So I moved to eBay with little knowledge really, just a curious desire to try something new but still wholeheartedly '80s retro Citadel. After a few evening's browsing, I quickly ascertained that there are plenty of copies of the game out there still in very good, if not excellent, condition. I paid £35 for mine which I felt was a perfectly reasonable price. Its seems that many others out there agree with me as I have seen them continue to sell as I have monitored DF on eBay.
So I won my auction, paid my money and waited a few days in giddy anticipation for the arrival of my next BIG BOX GAME!
Considering that the last BBG I bought was Dreadfleet (which still lurks in my cupboard still on its sprues) I was thoroughly excited by the size and weight of the box when it arrived at my front door.
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| Opening the cardboard box reveals a pleasant note from the seller. |
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| Dispensing with the packaging, I am confronted with a near mint box. No tears, no fading, no damage - it could still be 1988! An iconic image to boot, eh? |
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| The back is just as vivid. All totally new to me... Its like getting a new GW game! |
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| Near mint within too! Just snipped off the sprues really! |
To play a game of Dark Future with fully painted miniatures!
Now this is far easier than with any other of GW classic games. The box contains four cars and four motorbikes. So eight models to paint up! And they are all vehicles (which is something I'm rather excited about) so no fiddly flesh tones or annoying boot straps to paint. A new set of challenges. Just what I am after really.
I suppose I should organise my goals before I leave you! What is it I want to achieve with this blog?
1) Paint up the boxset to a fairly high standard with no conversion work.
2) Explore the written background
3) Play the game
4) Charts and discuss the history of the game and the releases GW put out back in the day- much like I have been doing for Rogue Trader and Warhammer 3rf Edition!
Better get started then!
Orlygg.
Dark Future is one of those near-mythical games that I have read so much about but never been able to lay my hands on. So I am really enjoying your posts on the subject and will be following them with keen interest. Good work!
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris. For some reason, prices for DF stuff online have always been rather silly, especially for the plastic cars that came with the game. Considering you can pick up toy cars for next to nothing for conversion is really a boon for the gamer on a budget and is something I am going to do shortly.
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