Game and Guns.

Coeloptera · 12-22-2007, 09:51 PM

Stuck at work, found a fun site with two amusing articles on guns in video games and movies. What I found interesting was that these are written by someone who obviously knows firearms and tried to match real-world equivalents either directly, or trying to figure out what they might be modified forms of.

Games: Firearms in Games

Movies and TV: Firearms in Movies

So, any favourites? I myself would love Hellboy's Samaritan, or the SOCOM used in Metal Gear Solid.

- Coeloptera

Cyrano · 12-22-2007, 11:13 PM

The article didn't comment on Princess Leia's blaster. Seen in Episodes IV and VI, it's obviously a P-08 Luger with a compensator added by the props department; but the toggle joint is unmistakable. Presumably it operates on the same principle as Han's Broomhandle Mauser blaster. (Didn't the original Han Solo blaster used in the closeups recently sell on eBay for something like a quarter of a million dollars?)

As far as Firefly goes, one of the major problems I had with the series was with the firearms so prevalent in that society. Not with the fact that they were prevalent; but rather with the fact that with the exception of Mal's pistol and a couple of handheld laser pistols, every firearm plainly came from "Earth-that-was."

Firefly is set, what, 500 years from now? For them to be using Winchester 94s, Colt Revolving Rifles, AKs, Glocks, .50 BMG sniper rifles and various kinds of 12-gauge shotguns stretches the Believability Factor past the breaking point. The seires armed the players with weapons from a timespan of about 150 years, and didn't even attempt to disguise them as Star Wars did Han's and Leia's blasters. Gene Roddenberry said it best: You don't give a species hyperlight spaceflight capability and then have them grapple and board an enemy ship with cutlasses and flintlock pistols. In a futuristic series, the weapons must be futuristic too.

I know that Joss Whedon was proceeding from the premise that he was following a Confederate soldier as he tried to reestablish a life following the end of the Civil War. Gene Roddenberry's premise for the original Star Trek was "Wagon Train to the stars." But Roddenberry used that premise only as a framework; he fleshed it out and built a whole universe. Whedon simply took a Rebel soldier and plunked him onto the bridge of a spaceship - but he didn't bother with rebuilding things so it was not plainly obvious we were watching a Western. Replacing the wagons and stagecoaches with spaceships, and the Indians with Reivers, does nothing to disguise the genre. I think that is part of why the series failed to find its audience until its release on DVD.

Sorry to go afield like that.

troy2000 · 12-22-2007, 11:55 PM

What? Are you saying they won't be using 1911's five hundred years from now? I'm willing to bet they will be...if something works, it works.

Consider the dagger. Once the optimal design had been worked out, a thousand years or more of evolution and progress didn't do anything but maybe improve the materials it's made of...

12-22-2007, 09:51 PM	#1
Coeloptera Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 2,133	Game and Guns. Stuck at work, found a fun site with two amusing articles on guns in video games and movies. What I found interesting was that these are written by someone who obviously knows firearms and tried to match real-world equivalents either directly, or trying to figure out what they might be modified forms of. Games: Firearms in Games Movies and TV: Firearms in Movies So, any favourites? I myself would love Hellboy's Samaritan, or the SOCOM used in Metal Gear Solid. - Coeloptera

12-22-2007, 11:55 PM	#3
troy2000 Resident Armed Liberal Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Southern California Posts: 9,937 Images: 9	What? Are you saying they won't be using 1911's five hundred years from now? I'm willing to bet they will be...if something works, it works. Consider the dagger. Once the optimal design had been worked out, a thousand years or more of evolution and progress didn't do anything but maybe improve the materials it's made of... __________________ I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting you really believe what you just said. WF Buckley, Jr

12-22-2007, 11:13 PM	#2
Cyrano Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: New York Posts: 2,865	The article didn't comment on Princess Leia's blaster. Seen in Episodes IV and VI, it's obviously a P-08 Luger with a compensator added by the props department; but the toggle joint is unmistakable. Presumably it operates on the same principle as Han's Broomhandle Mauser blaster. (Didn't the original Han Solo blaster used in the closeups recently sell on eBay for something like a quarter of a million dollars?) As far as Firefly goes, one of the major problems I had with the series was with the firearms so prevalent in that society. Not with the fact that they were prevalent; but rather with the fact that with the exception of Mal's pistol and a couple of handheld laser pistols, every firearm plainly came from "Earth-that-was." Firefly is set, what, 500 years from now? For them to be using Winchester 94s, Colt Revolving Rifles, AKs, Glocks, .50 BMG sniper rifles and various kinds of 12-gauge shotguns stretches the Believability Factor past the breaking point. The seires armed the players with weapons from a timespan of about 150 years, and didn't even attempt to disguise them as Star Wars did Han's and Leia's blasters. Gene Roddenberry said it best: You don't give a species hyperlight spaceflight capability and then have them grapple and board an enemy ship with cutlasses and flintlock pistols. In a futuristic series, the weapons must be futuristic too. I know that Joss Whedon was proceeding from the premise that he was following a Confederate soldier as he tried to reestablish a life following the end of the Civil War. Gene Roddenberry's premise for the original Star Trek was "Wagon Train to the stars." But Roddenberry used that premise only as a framework; he fleshed it out and built a whole universe. Whedon simply took a Rebel soldier and plunked him onto the bridge of a spaceship - but he didn't bother with rebuilding things so it was not plainly obvious we were watching a Western. Replacing the wagons and stagecoaches with spaceships, and the Indians with Reivers, does nothing to disguise the genre. I think that is part of why the series failed to find its audience until its release on DVD. Sorry to go afield like that.