Um. Does it refer to semi-modern capabilities executed with older technologies based in the Age of Steam? Babbage's Difference Engine carried forward, some SF works by William Gibson (I know, "cyberpunk", moved back into Sherlock Holmes-era)?
I mean, we don't use steam so very much more as a means of mechanical energy transference, mostly just heat transfer -- and not even that as much as before, even in my lifetime.
(I still have my primary college slide-rule, Napier's Bones having recently been superseded.)
Just went through my library and found a couple of candidate scrolls paperbacks for the trip. The newer one is dated 1985.
Can’t beat the Dictionary!
The pictures Anoreth, Bob, and Darksheare have put up seem to have a lot of gears. I’m not sure what the steam is doing except providing driving obscurity.
As far as I’m concerned, Steampunk is neat for all the wrong reasons.
How could I not like it?