• merc@sh.itjust.works
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    8 days ago

    In real life they’re mounted to vehicles.

    AFAIK, you can thank the 1987 movie Predator for the idea that someone could walk around with a minigun as a personal weapon

    Now I’m going to have to go watch that movie again. Not only was it so influential that it introduced the idea of miniguns as human-portable weapons to games, it’s the source of this meme and what’s not to love about a movie with Ventura, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers.

    • TheSeveralJourneysOfReemus@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Huntdown has a hidden special weapon in a level known as Portable Howitzer. Now if you have an idea of what a howitzer is or looks like, the idea of a cyborg almost losing his shoulders with this thing is comical. I have roamed around the game and there seems to be only one of these ridicoulus machines, there’s even an achievement.

    • Bongles@lemmy.zip
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      7 days ago

      The beginning of that movie always takes me out. So they fly in on a helicopter, there are 3 visible helipads (well, 2 and then sand) in a line and they land on the one to the right (from the water perspective).

      They get out, get in jeeps, drive for a few seconds to the left side of the helipads driving onthe ocean side and then get out?! Movies used to just do random shit for vibes and logic could go to hell.

      I mean, 2 of the jeeps go somewhere else but it’s just Arnold and the driver in his.

      • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        They spent most of the money on Arnold and the predator effects. Reshoots on establishing shots wouldn’t have been in the budget, so they make do with what they got on the day.

    • ameancow@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      So many games and movies ignore both the weight of the ammunition required to fire one of those things for more than 3 seconds, and the weight of the batteries required to spin the barrels. You would need more than even a power-suit, you would need some kind of frame on self powered wheels… a “vehicle” of some kind.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        7 days ago

        Technically, it could be done. Someone did the math from the scene in the movie Predator. He could carry a weapon that heavy, including the ammo and batteries. It would be about 40kg for the gun and 25kg for the ammo. That’s very high, but not absurd, as long as he’s carrying almost nothing else. It could fire for 45s without running dry. And if you limited it to reasonable bursts of say 3s, that ammo would last a while.

        It’s not practical, but it’s possible.

        • ameancow@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          It probably would have been more of a ground asset in the last century or when dealing with invisible aliens. I can’t imagine how excited a drone operator in the modern climate would feel seeing a dude lumbering through a field carrying a heavy weapon.

          • merc@sh.itjust.works
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            7 days ago

            OTOH, if you’re trying to create an outpost near the enemy lines, maybe it makes more sense to have a soldier carry the minigun you want to use at that outpost through the jungle, rather than risk using a vehicle to deliver it.

            A soldier lumbering through a jungle with a big weapon is a target, but a helicopter making a delivery, or a truck making a delivery is going to be a much bigger and more visible target with fewer things to hide behind.

            • ameancow@lemmy.world
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              7 days ago

              I’ll take “Things they make you do in Ranger School for fun,” for 500 Alex.