Had a realization about the .44 Magnum Mega Class

[baudrillardboy]

I always thought it was weird that the .44 Magnum was depicted with a scope that was unusable in-game. Plenty of the weapons have details just to look cool, but putting a scope on a pistol also doesn't fit with the way the Security Officer tends to use it (especially when using two at once).

However, I don't think it's a scope. I think it's a laser sight.

Back in the '80s, Laser Products Corporation (now SureFire) put out the first laser sight. It was designed for law enforcement use, and mounted on top of a .357 Magnum.

This sight received limited use within the LAPD, and later caught the eye of a propmaster working on the film Terminator. Laser Products Corporation hand-built a rig to mount the laser on a .45 AMT Hardballer Longslide. To get the laser to show up well on camera, they had to increase the power and connect it to a battery pack hidden in Arnold's trenchcoat (hence the cables).

t800_lasersight.png (147.91 KiB) Viewed 1374 times

Looking from behind, you see a rounded end cap similar to the .44 Magnum Mega.

Other than the obvious benefit of looking awesome, I think the .44 Magnum Mega Class "scope" is actually inspired by Terminator, in which another cyborg used a similar device to shoot with extreme accuracy without aiming down sights. I've seen many people refer to the Marathon pistol as having a scope (myself included), and plenty of scenarios have done very cool things with making the scope transparent, but I've never seen anyone point out this similarity. Frankly, I'm not sure how I missed it all these years despite being a huge fan of both Marathon and Terminator.

[Pfhorrest]

Nice find!