Rayguns in Fiction - Types

Types

The following is a partial list of notable rayguns or types of rayguns mentioned in various science fiction scenarios:

  • Blasters are the standard raygun of the Star Wars universe.
  • Disruptors or disintegrator rays, weapons disruptive of the molecular structure of matter, are used in Star Trek and in Star Wars, among other works.
  • Phasers are the standard raygun of the Star Trek universe; see also Weapons of Star Trek.
  • Plasma rifles, shooting bolts of very hot ionized gas (plasma), are described by many works of fiction. One well-known example is the BFG 9000 in the Doom video games.
  • Pulse rifle is the name for a wide range of fictional weapons in various works.

The ray is usually stated to be one of the following:

  • Laser
  • A real type of particle beam, e.g. protons and/or neutrons from the proton packs in Ghostbusters
  • A fictional type of particle beam, such as:
    • "Minovsky particles" in the Universal Century Gundam series scenario, where Minovsky Physics always operate; in the Mobile Suit Gundam 00 series, they use "GN particles" (a byproduct of a fictional topological defect baryon decay); and other timelines use other unknown particles.
    • Nadions, in the well-known Star Trek phaser
    • "Greek letter" rays other than the well known real-world alpha ray, beta ray, gamma ray. This includes delta rays and epsilon rays, which however have been given real-world meanings.
  • Plasma; see also plasma rifle
  • Defined by a word not known in real-world science, e.g. "disruptor".
  • Concussion beam: A generic term often applied to energy beams when the nature of the weapon is unknown. They are often non-lethal and only disable an opponent temporarily by knocking them out. They are often seen in television cartoons where realistic conventional weaponry is usually disallowed due to restrictions of violence.
  • See Blaster (Star Wars)#Technology for an attempt (using unreal technology) at describing how a type of raygun works.
  • Undefined

Rayguns are often one-handed, sometimes two-handed, and often artillery-sized fastened to a spaceship.

Rayguns powered by a backpack powerpack are described from time to time in science fiction.

Read more about this topic:  Rayguns In Fiction

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