Sorry I digress.
With this discovery it appears to me that I will need to purchase the SR 2050 book, and hunt down tons of older books to achieve the Gritty, Cyberpunk feel and themes, unless i want to do a tremendous amount of reworking the SR4 world, which I neither have the time, Knowledge of the Universe or desire to do. After researching different books and forums this pursuit seam a bit overwhelming. The shear number of Adventures, and Sourcebooks from the 1-3 editions is astronomical not to mention the amount of books that are out for 4th. From my perspective they all look great! While i do have some experience with the universe and love it, after 10+ years away from SR I am basically a noob to the universe and consequently have very little concept of what adventures/sorcebooks best convey the feeling, flavor, themes and vital high points of the setting throughout the SR timeline. I am left with the impression that it will be nigh impossible to catch up on the universe if I want to achieve the Gritty Cyberpunk feel AND use the newer streamlined rules. Either I skip the first 3 editions and all of the Cool Cyberpunk themes or I start fresh with the newer SR4A universe, or lastly wait until SR5 later this year. Either way I am missing what feels to be a huge part of the experience of Shadowrun. To refer to my prior example, I only get to watch the Phantom Menace.
This endeavor began with my plan of running a campaign beginning in 2050, utilizing the SR4A, and SR 2050 books, Running a few published adventures from each edition, touching on the highlights of the timeline presented during each edition to get myself and my players a well established and fleshed out understanding of the rich history of the SR world over the last 20 years, to arrive at the SR 5th editions doorstep shortly after it is released. I was basically thinking of a year long campaign to catch up, and then run 5th, however like I mentioned above having very little experience with the SR world every adventure/book looks to be Invaluable. This is making it impossible to discern what books are important to the setting, and which books are after thoughts. If this were a video game RPG, Which books are the Story Missions and which ones are the Side Missions?


Which books are "MUST HAVES"?
P.S.
These are the books I have on order. SR4A and The Sixth World Almanac.
Thanks All
Gary