List of electromagnetic projectile devices in fiction

Electromagnetic projectile devices which use electromagnetic means to accelerate solid materials, often appear in fictional literature, especially science fiction where they are described as Kinetic energy weaponry, Gauss guns, Mass drivers or Railguns. However, their fictional behaviour rarely matches that of real life projectile devices, which are typically much less powerful and far more bulky.

1 Realism of depictions
2 Literature
3 Film
4 Television
5 Tabletop role-playing games and wargames
6 Computer and video games
7 See also
8 External links
9 References

Realism of depictions

The kinetic energy of a projectile is $(\frac{1}{\sqrt{1 - (v/c)^2}} - 1) m c^2$ , where c is the speed of light.

Some fictional sources describe the projectile as moving at significant fractions of the speed of light. This speed implies a largely unrealistic amount of energy.^[1]

Literature

In the 1955 novel Earthlight by Arthur C. Clarke, an electromagnetically propelled piece of molten metal is fired from a fortress at an advanced warship, astounding a nearby observer who sees a beam of light (on the airless Moon) stabbing the warship and destroying it. Later it was shown that molten metal cannot be accelerated by a magnetic field as metal loses its magnetic properties in a molten state, and Clarke admitted his error gracefully.
In Harry Harrison's book The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge gauss rifles are the standard armament of Cliaand soldiers.
The first mass driver known in print was actually called the "electric gun" and described in detail as a way to launch vehicles into outer space from the Earth's surface in the 1897 science fiction novel A Trip to Venus by John Munro and published in 1897 by Jarrold & Sons, London.^[2] In the book Munro describes in great detail multiple coils fired in sequence by solenoids at proper timing to achieve acceleration without too high g forces to the passengers. The gun would be angled on a hillside if desired. Amazingly this book also describes in detail combinations of electric gun launch for a passenger capsule with onboard rockets, compressed gas jets and even retrofired bullets as a means to increase velocity and change direction and the use of planetary atmosphere aerobraking and parachutes for landing on a planet.
The Big U (by Neal Stephenson) A character builds a mass driver as part of an academic project.
In Robert A. Heinlein's classic novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, rebelling Lunar colonists use a kilometers-long mass driver system that delivers grain to Earth to instead deliver metal-clad rocks as an orbital bombardment system.
In the Star Wars and Halo franchises, many vehicles and starships use Mass Driver cannons.
In the novel The Two Faces of Tomorrow by James P. Hogan, a Maskelyne mass driver based in the Sea of Tranquility is used by the TITAN supercomputer to easily destroy a lunar ridge that needs to be cleared for the construction of a second mass driver site.
In the novel Warrior's Blood by Richard S. McEnroe, an ancient alien mining colony awakened from stasis on the Moon uses a mass-driver intended to launch massive blocks of iron ore into lunar orbit as a makeshift (but very effective) weapon of mass destruction, attacking the Earth with crude projectiles which emulate the effect of asteroid strikes.
In the novel Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds, the crew of the Rockhopper use mass drivers to send comets back to earth for processing into water and other resources.
In the novel Thunderstrike! by Michael McCollum, a mass driver is used by a lunar city.
In the novel series Buck Rogers, the protagonist uses railguns on the planet Luna.
Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds; early in the novel, various factions use railguns that fire foam-phase hydrogen (which explodes on impact) and other munitions; these weapons range from small ship-to-ship devices to thousand kilometre installations.
Count Zero (by William Gibson): The characters speculate that a huge explosion was triggered by a railgun, and they describe the railgun's inherent instability: "You can rig a railgun to blow itself to plasma when it discharges."
Crest of the Stars and Banner of the Stars (by Hiroyuki Morioka): Railguns are called Irgymh in Abh Empire, and used as a main armament of the combat warship in the Laburec.
Black Cat (Anime/Manga series): The protagonist Train Heartnet is capable of shooting a railgun with his revolver after being enhanced by nanobots.
StarFist series: Railguns are used to great effect by the alien Skinks in combatting human soldiers.
Succession series (by Scott Westerfeld): Railguns are fired from the orbiting Lynx to kill the Rix commandos who took Child Empress Anastasia Vista Khaman and her court hostage.
Old Man's War (by John Scalzi.) The CDF ships are equipped with railguns along with various other weapons.
In the Legacy of the Aldenata series of books by John Ringo, the alien race known as the Posleen are equipped with a large number of man-portable rail guns in 1 mm and 3 mm versions. These are in contrast to the Grav guns with which some elements of humanity are supplied.
In the light novel/anime/manga series Toaru Majutsu no Index and its spin-off Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, key character Mikoto Misaka by virtue of her power of electricity control is capable of firing arcade tokens as projectiles similar to a rail gun, which became her nickname.
In Neal Asher's Polity stories, railguns are among the weapons used by Earth Central Security. In the short story, "Alien Archaeology," the main character mentions that ships hiding with chameleonware near ECS warships might find themselves the victims of a mishap involving a railgun test fire.

Film

In the film The Last Starfighter a meteor gun, also described as a mass driver, is used to destroy the Starfighter base.
The blockbuster film Eraser starring Arnold Schwarzenegger is about a defense contractor employee who has stumbled on a secret conspiracy to sell a deadly new weapon to terrorists. This weapon is a hand-held railgun with an X-ray scope, designed to complement the gun's ability to penetrate through almost any barrier.
Earth Star Voyager: A Disney film about a deep space exploration mission that runs into trouble soon after departure from Earth. The crew of Earth Star Voyager uses a railgun to send a tracking device on a course different from their own, to elude an unknown pursuer. Subsequently, the same railgun is used to disable a military spacecraft (the Triton Corsair) in pursuit of Earth Star Voyager.
Black Mask: An action film starring Jet Li. The main villain in the film uses a railgun.
Demolition Man: A film starring Sylvester Stallone. The main villain, Simon Phoenix, uses a weapon called the "Magnetic Accelerator Gun".
In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, a railgun is used in the final battle. Former Agent Simmons believes that a nearby US battlegroup is bound to have one and contacts the ship (namely, USS Kidd) to use it. The railgun is used to destroy Devastator in a single shot.

Television

In Babylon 5, the Centauri used mass drivers to orbitally bombard the Narn home planet. This usage is considered an atrocity in-universe, as orbital bombardment has the power to destroy whole cities at a stroke, making them weapons of mass destruction.
In the anime Macross, the SDF-1 has four heavy rail guns on its "shoulders" when it is in the transformed humanoid form (Attack mode). Also its complement Monster Mark II Destroids each have 4 heavy rail guns on their top mounts that travel 4000 km/s in space, so fast that making the warhead explosive would be redundant.
In anime Gundam series such as Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, railguns of various sizes are mounted on both space warships and smaller one-man machines called mobile suits and mobile armors. The projectile is typically animated as a yellow streak, and doesn't have the speed and destructive properties of railguns depicted in other mediums. Mass drivers are also commonly used as a method of assisting the launch of shuttles from earth.
In the anime RahXephon, the Vermillion is equipped with a combination weapon containing a continuous fire railgun and a beam weapon.
In the first season of the television series Stargate Atlantis, a railgun prototype is used against the Wraith's Darts. Intended to be used as a point defense weapon in the first generation of Earth's space ship, Prometheus, Stargate Command (SGC) was ordered to send the prototypes to Atlantis in the Pegasus galaxy before the Wraith attack. Commented as having a magazine size of 10,000 rounds and delivering an impact velocity of mach 5 at a distance of 250 miles, the weapons are a natural choice for defending the city from the waves of Wraith darts. The fully motorized railguns are mounted onto wheeled trailers, much like field guns to allow them to be moved to tactical locations around the city. At the beginning of the second season, the Earth battlecruiser Daedalus arrives and displays an armament of similar railguns. In later seasons of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, all the Daedalus class are equipped with railguns.
In an episode of the cartoon network show Justice League titled "Maid of Honor", DC comics supervillain Vandal Savage takes control of Kasnia by marrying its princess and uses a rail gun built in to the international space station to take control of the world. The rail gun is subsequently destroyed by the League and Savage is once again defeated
In episode 5 of the Dirty Pair OVA from 1988 a mass driver is used to fire asteroids at a nearby uninhabitable planet. The points on the planet where they impact are used to determine numbers for a gambling game called Meteo. After the game is found to be rigged one of the scammed players goes on a rampage in the casino and damages the controls to the mass driver, which then fires several asteroids at a local inhabited planet and destroys large areas of its surface.

Tabletop role-playing games and wargames

The venerable Traveller role-playing game features a variety of "gauss" weapons used as personal weapons or vehicle weapons.
In the tabletop version of Heavy Gear, railguns are often found on main battle tanks and landships while the largest gears can carry a smaller version.
In the fictional future depicted in the role play game Cyberpunk 2020, a mass driver had been installed on the Moon in the so called Tycho colony.
In the role-playing game Tal'Vorn, railguns and mass drivers are used as part of the High Technology once owned by humanity and still part of the armoury belonging to the Northar race.
In the post-apocalyptic role-playing game Rifts, the Glitter Boy character class is an individual who pilots a large armoured suit equipped with a railgun (colloquially referred to as a "Boom Gun" in game terminology). The suit has a mechanism whereby it anchors itself into the ground when firing so as to avoid being knocked backwards by the gun's powerful recoil. Other Rifts character classes, specifically robots and cyborgs, have access to railguns. Though not the most formidable weapons available in Rifts, railguns are touted as the futuristic replacement of modern projectile firearms.
In the world of Warhammer 40,000, the Tau make use of rail technology with one of the largest and strongest guns in the game, and have recently perfected hand-held rail rifles. Tau Rail Guns come as Sub-Munition, firing a packet of hyper-velocity solid slugs (only on vehicles), or Solid Shot, firing one hyper-velocity rod. The Manta Missile Destroyer and Tigershark aircraft employ these in a long barreled version, and the Tau Hammerhead gunship has two different variants. XV-88 Broadside Battlesuits carry high-power twin-linked shoulder railguns. The Necrons wield "Gauss" weaponry, but that is only a name given to a process as yet unknown to the galaxy at large, that does not in fact utilize traditional Gauss weaponry. Instead of firing projectiles they use the electromagnetism to strip an opponent's molecules away one layer at a time. The Imperium of Man arms its Apocalypse-class battleships and Space Marine Strike Cruisers with the Nova Cannon, which accelerates projectiles at near light-speed.
In the BattleTech and MechWarrior series of tabletop, roleplaying and video games, many of the BattleMechs are equipped with "Gauss Rifle" weapons. Various tanks, DropShips and WarShips are also equipped with these including a variant scaled up to act as a Warship primary weapon.
In the Infinity tabletop wargame, several of the Tactical Armored Gears are armed with Hyper-Rapid Magnetic Cannon or HMC. This weapon fires 3 mm tungsten darts at extremely high speed and with a fast rate of fire, capable of easily piercing even the toughest armor.
In the miniature game AT-43 the Red Blok, one of the games factions makes extensive use of "Gauss" Weaponry, ranging from "Gauss" Submachineguns to the mighty Heavy "Gauss" Cannon. However despite the reference to coilguns, the description of their operation indicates that they are in fact railguns.
In Thing-Thing, a gauss gun may be acquired.
In the classic role-playing game Space Master, railguns are a common projectile weapon in 10th millennium combat. In the context of the game world, they are called Magnetic Linear Accelerators, abbreviated as MLA.
In the anime Dragonar, the Giganos Empire uses a giant mass driver on the moon to attack Earth although it was originally used for transporting large rocks. Before dying, the Giganos leader, Giltorre, orders Meio Platt to destroy it.
In the Starfire series add-on "Alkelda Dawn" the interstellar race known as the Umbra of Vestrii used kinetic weapons.
In the Miniatures games Urban War and Metropolis, as well as their predecessor Void 1.1 the standard weapon for the more technologically advanced races is the "Gauss Rifle" and is accompanied by larger and smaller versions like Sniper Rifles and Pistols.

Computer and video games

Some computer games feature railguns as weapons. The most popular type of ammunition for these railguns are depleted uranium slugs. A common trait shared by many railguns in different games is the ability for a slug (or other ammo type) to hit and pass though multiple enemies with one shot as well as allowing one to see, one shot kill, and/or shoot though solid matter by use of some type of x-ray or even a thermal aiming device (mainly in first-person shooters).

Other traits can include the these weapons having to ability to do electrical or EMP based damage due to fact most railguns in video games use electromagnets as a main power source.

Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies: The "Stonehenge" superweapon is a battery of railguns designed to shoot down asteroids, but is also effective against aircraft.
Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation: The "Chandelier" superweapon is an immense railgun in a fixed position that fired giant warheads containing cruise missiles (similar to MIRV missiles) at the Emmerian capital city, Gracemeria. The Estovakians' superfighter, the CFA-44 Nosferatu is also armed with a pair of aircraft-mountable railguns, officially referred to as 'Electromagnetic Launchers'.
Alien Legacy: The mass driver is a planetary facility used for transporting ore from one mass driver to another remote mass driver.
Aliens vs Predator 2: human players have access to a scoped railgun used as a sniper rifle with a very loud report. In addition, the lack of muzzle flash on Predator spearguns and that they allegedly fire spears at relativistic speeds (impossible to conventional projectile weapons) point towards them being railguns as well.
Armored Core games: "Linear Rifles" and "Linear Cannons" are part of an ACs inventory of equippable weapons. They fire high-powered rounds at speeds high enough to visibly distort the air around them.
Battlefield 2142 (computer game): The Rorsch Mk-S8 is a stationary anti-vehicle railgun.
Battlezone II: Combat Commander: certain Scion craft can be equipped with Gauss Cannons; in addition, both the game and its predecessor contains a weapon named MAG Cannon (Magnetic Acceleration Gun) whose power depends on the amount of ammo used up before firing.
Brute Force (first-person shooter): When Hawk joins the player's team, one of her standard weapons is the Rail RVR.
Crysis and Crysis 2: one of the weapons in the game is a bolt action Gauss Rifle, which can kill any human in a single shot and an alien with two or three well placed shots. The weapon emits a purple cloud when fired
Command & Conquer: Renegade: When playing as Brotherhood of Nod forces in multiplayer mode, selecting the character, General Raveshaw, will enable you to use a Rail Gun as an extremely lethal weapon shot anywhere on the body.
Command & Conquer: Tiberian series: The units "Ghost Stalker" and Mammoth Walker Mark II are equipped with rail guns. These railguns sport the same bullet trail (tight spiraling smoke in a straight line between shooter and target) as those in the film Eraser. Such a visual effect, however, is not representative of actual railgun operation. Cutscenes showing the Mammoth MkII in combat show the railgun shots instead as plasma-like energy with no visible bullet trail. In Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars as well as in Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath, GDI Zone Troopers and GDI Commando are armed with portable rail guns, although the Commando's rail guns play a decidedly anti-infantry role. The GDI Predator tanks, Mammoth Mk-III, Guardian Cannons, Battle Base, and Titans can be upgraded with Railguns.
Dark Reign: The Future of War (game): Several Freedom Guard units and buildings use railguns, including Mercenaries, Triple Rail Hover Tanks and Railgun Platforms.
Descent 3: In this game the railgun is used primarily as a long distance attack weapon that leaves a momentary white trail.
Deus Ex: Invisible War: A weapon called the Mag Rail can fire a powerful energy beam which can kill most human targets with a few shots. An alternative fire is an EMP blast which can be fired through walls and other obstacles, and which does heavy damage to all non-shielded electronic components.
In the Tom Clancy video game EndWar the United States Joint Strike Forces, and the European Federation forces can equip several of their vehicles with railguns, or Rail Cannons. Most notably their artillery platforms.
Eve Online (a space-based MMORPG from the Icelandic software house CCP): Railguns are a popular turret weapon fitted to a variety of ships particularly favoured by the Gallente race. The main advantage of railguns in Eve Online is their extreme range of up to 250 km. The ammunition for these weapons are titanium containers filled with different elements (e.g. iridium) for different properties.
Escape Velocity Nova (a space role-playing game developed by Ambrosia Software): The Auroran Empire makes heavy use of railguns as ship-mounted weaponry. The railguns are offered in 100 mm, 150 mm, and 200 mm varieties, and are the farthest-shooting projectile weapons in the game. The 100 mm comes in a turretted version, found on the AE Carrier.
Eureka Seven vol.1: New Wave and Eureka Seven: New Vision features as expansion guns for the LFO's various types of railguns.
XG3: Extreme G Racing (videogame): A railgun weapon that shoots a round with such velocity that the kinetic heating turns it into a white-hot stream of plasma.
Fallout: there are several Gauss weapons in the series. Fallout 2 features the PPK12 Gauss Pistol and the M72 Gauss Rifle, both said to be of German design. Fallout Tactics additionally features the MEC Gauss Minigun while Fallout 3 features another Gauss Rifle with a scope, the former being of Chinese design. Fallout: New Vegas also features a Gauss Rifle that is similar, but less efficient than the one in Fallout 3 as well as the unique YCS/186 Gauss Rifle.
Final Fantasy VIII (game): A coilgun is used at Lunar Gate on the Esthar continent to launch pods containing individual persons into space.
GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (game): The Mag-Rail is a rail-handgun that fires a depleted uranium spike roughly the size of a tent peg. Though capable of passing through multiple enemies, walls, and objects, they are unable to pass through vehicles and energy shields. They can be dual-wielded and cause roughly the same amount of damage as the Harpoon RL's rockets. When fired, the barrels open as a new spike is loaded and then close, venting what is possibly a coolant gas through the gill-shaped holes behind the barrel.
Half-Life modification Team Fortress Classic: Railguns are the secondary weapon for the engineer class. Although the projectile moves at a slow rate and leaves a green trail behind it.
Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3:ODST, Halo: Reach, and Halo Wars: In Halo 2, the beginning level, Cairo Station, the player has to traverse a large coilgun, or a Super MAC in the Halo universe, to deactivate a bomb planted on the station. The M12G1 Warthog LAAV has a back-mounted M68 Gauss Cannon, a scaled down version of MAC technology. The human ships in the series are all armed with Magnetic Accelerator Cannons as well. In the second to final level, of Halo: Reach, a bus-sized mass driver coilgun is used to destroy hostile dropships and a battlecruiser until your allies, the cruiser Pillar of Autumn, can launch.
Heavy Gear: Railguns can be used by the largest of the game's mecha while even bigger railguns are used by tanks and landships.
Heavy Gear II: The New Earth Government (the antagonists in the game) use a large orbital mass driver to propel asteroids at planets.
Heli Attack 2 and Heli Attack 3 (games): Railguns fire a green beam of light, which can go through walls. In Heli Attack 3 there is also a railgun called the Anytime that shoots explosive projectiles.
Homeworld: Many ships in the game utilize mass driver weaponry. Weapon designs range from smaller rotating mass drivers to larger turret-based ones. There are no ammo limitations.
Hostile Spawn: There is a Railgun available that can shoot through multiple enemies. Collectible energy cells are used for ammunition.
Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 - the majority of weapons from pistols to 800-m spinal guns of dreadnought starships combine magnetic accelerators with the titular mass effect technology: the fictional Element Zero can be used to increase or decrease the mass of the slug via dark energy, allowing to accelerate it to phenomenal (usually relativistic) speeds with little recoil, hence "mass accelerator weaponry". The projectile used is at the size of a grain of sand, and is sheared off a large piece of metal - that lasts for thousands of shots - by the internal systems. Ammunition capaity is thus rarely an issue, heat is, managed by passive cooling in the first game and ejecting single-use "thermal clips" in the second. The rail gun nature is confirmed by the upgrade names "Extended Rails" and "SCRAM Rails".
- Similar weapons had been in use by the Reapers and the species they exterminated for at least 37 million years. One such weapon left a mark at the size of Valles Marineris by a glancing blow planet in a system hundreds of light-years away from the intended target. An NPC can be heard warning a few recruits about the unlimited range of space-borne mass accelerators and inevitable collateral damage: "...you are ruining someone's day - somewhere, sometime!"
Master of Orion, Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares, and Master of Orion III: Warships in this series can be equipped with mass drivers and gauss cannons, once the appropriate technologies have been researched. Their distinguishing feature is that the shots do not diminish in strength no matter how far across the battlefield they travel.
In the MechAssault Xbox games and the Mechwarrior series developed by Microsoft, several Battlemechs are equipped with Gauss rifles.
Metal Gear Solid: The main weapon on the massive bipedal walking battle tank, Metal Gear REX, is a railgun (although the way it is described it seems more like a coilgun in operation) mounted on the tank's right "arm." It is discovered that the rounds it fires are actually nuclear warheads.
Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel: Similar to Metal Gear REX above, the larger Metal Gear GANDER possesses two railguns to fire nuclear projectiles (and succeeds in doing so.) It is potentially a more feasible design to REX, owing both to its increased size and the dependency on a devoted power station to fully function.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty: One of the boss characters, Fortune, a member of Dead Cell uses a railgun as her weapon.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots: Boss enemy Crying Wolf uses a railgun as her main weapon. It becomes available to the player after she is defeated. Also, the previously mentioned railgun (from Metal Gear Solid) becomes a central plot point, after Liquid Ocelot steals it and attaches it to the ship Outer Haven.
Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Night The Volt Driver is a form of handheld railgun
Mission Critical (a 1995 science fiction adventure game by Legend Entertainment): Railguns are portrayed in considerable detail as part of the CICS. This a suite of relatively short-range weapons employed by early 22nd century United States Navy warships in space.
Oni: You can equip your character with a weapon called the Mercury Bow. The Mercury Bow is an advanced sniper rifle that uses railgun technology to propel a frozen mercury sliver. In addition to the trauma caused by impact, your enemies are purported to suffer from mercury poisoning afterwards.
Outpost 2 (a strategy game by Sierra): Eden's medium weapon is a railgun.
Parasite Eve II (videogame): Aya Brea, the main character, can use "Hypervelocity", a railgun as a secret weapon. It also appears as a secret SDI weapon used by the U.S. government to rescue the world from a pandemic on a global scale, but proves fruitless as the main character ends up stopping it herself.
Pawn Tactics: A gun known as the 'Gauss Rifle' can be used as a primary weapon in the Lancer class. It is said to be capable of penetrating thick steel and does more than normal damage against heavily armored classes.
Perfect Dark (for Nintendo 64): One of the available weapons, the Farsight, is a railgun with an X-ray scope, allowing the player to shoot and see through walls. Also, in Perfect Dark Zero for Xbox 360), contains a sniper rifle called a Shockwave also has an X-Ray scope that both allows you to see and fire charged particles though walls.
Policenauts: Jonathan Ingram and his partner, Ed Brown, stow themselves away in a shuttle launched by a lunar mass driver to escape the Tokugawa plant on the Moon after finding incriminating information.
Project Snowblind: The antagonistic organization "The Republic" uses automated railguns to shoot down helicopters of the coalition where the player serves. The Republic develops a portable "Rail Cannon" that the player later acquires.
Quake series:-
- Quake II: A railgun (having the appearance of a small vacuum cleaner with red-tinted electronics on top) was included as a weapon in the game. It fires a Depleted Uranium slug with a silver smoke trail and a blue spiraling plume. This incarnation of the weapon most directly was modeled after the Railgun in the movie Eraser.
- Quake III Arena: A nearly identical weapon. The spiraling blue plume was eliminated and the color of the smoke trail was customizable by the player. The spiraling plume was re-added as an option in a later release, also with customizable color via modifying 'console variables'.
- Quake 4: The railgun has a more compact redesign and recolored to a dark red and comes equipped with a scope. It still takes uranium slugs as ammo but now shoots a momentary green line with a spiral around it which fades quickly. The weapon later gets a power boost, giving the weapon the strength to penetrate multiple enemies and render weaker enemies into a small cloud of blood in one shot. Multiplayer allows for rough color customization via the game menu with a much finer customization with 'console variable' tweaks. Quake 4's Railgun also features a zoom scope to aid the player in long-range engagements. The Railgun is arguably the most powerful weapon (per shot) in the game - easily taking 100 hit points from an armored opponent.
- Enemy Territory: Quake Wars: The Strogg Infiltrator has a railgun similar in design to the Quake II one, though both parts of the trail are colored orange.
Red Faction, Red Faction II, Red Faction: Guerilla and Red Faction: Armageddon: Railguns that fire through walls with a heat-detection scope much like the X-ray scope in the film Eraser. These are single shot and are called the 'Rail Driver'. In these games, this railgun is capable of one-hit kills.
The FPS Requiem: Avenging Angel features a very powerful rifle-sized railgun. Until well into the final mission, the player only finds ammo and an incomplete (thus useless) railgun.
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis: An experimental military railgun nicknamed the "Paracelsus Sword" is used to defeat the final boss.
In the RT4X game Sins of a Solar Empire, a Gauss cannon is used as an orbital defense platform and as an ability for the Kol class capital ship.
Shadow Warrior: The rail gun found in the game shoots pieces of metal at near light speed, propelled from a magnetic field. This weapon will penetrate multiple enemies, making it powerful and very useful in certain situations.
Skulltag (Online port of Doom): The railgun is one of the most powerful weapons, with customizable rail colours. It is able to instantly gib weaker enemies (Zombies, Imps).
Spy Hunter (game): The Interceptor has a railgun that you can earn late in the game.
Star Wars computer game Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II: One of the available weapons is a "rail detonator", a handheld railgun used to launch explosive charges over long distances.
Star Wars computer games Star Wars: Empire at War and its expansion Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption: The Imperial forces are able to build a Hypervelocity Gun, or a railgun, on the ground which is able to penetrate capital ships' shields in space combat. It can only be destroyed in land combat.
In the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, a computer game: the C-Consciousness developed a functional Gauss gun which is powered by an electric artifact called "Flash".
StarCraft, the Terran Marine is armed with a "Gauss Rifle."
StarCraft II, the Diamondback assault tank has a weapon called the "Eviscerator Rail Gun."
Steel Battalion: VTs in the game can be equipped with railguns, which, although powerful, are extremely heavy.
Steel Sentinels: Gauss guns and railguns deal kinetic damage like normal guns, but use up energy when used.
System Shock: Rifle-sized 'Railguns' are available, but the projectiles travel very slowly, no faster than a thrown grenade.
Tachyon: The Fringe: Special weapon used on Bora fighter-class ships, capable of destroying most unshielded fighters. Due to the game's non-Newtonian physics, railgun shots are faster than lasers.
TimeSplitters: Future Perfect: One of the game's weapons, the Mag-Charger, is a railgun that can can shoot through walls with a special thermal scope for aiming. Its projectiles are charged via electro-magnetic pulse (from which the weapon's name comes from) and does more damage to mechanical enemies.
Total Annihilation: Fido and Krogoth kbots are armed with coilguns.
Vendetta Online: Railguns are one of the weapons systems that can be equipped."
Void Hunters: Mounted on space ships, mass drivers are short range range, rapid fire weapons; railguns are long range and have high projectile speed.
The Wing Commander series features fighters with mass drivers. Strength and energy efficiency is above average, but muzzle velocity and range are lower than many other fighter guns. No ammo limits.
Warzone 2100: During both late-campaign and late-skirmish games, the player can develop and employ a number of railguns, ranging from the early-stage Needler turret up to the immense Mass Driver Fortress. Each version is relatively expensive to produce compared to equivalently sized ballistic or energy weapons, though they do deal more damage per shot than all but the strongest energy weapons. Each railgun technology takes a comparatively large amount of time to research and produce.
Xenogears: It was often used to launch missiles and other items into space, especially during the Zeboim era. This was perhaps one of the key facilities during the nuclear war that ended the Zeboim civilization 4000 years prior to Xenogears. Taura used it to spread nanoassemblers that would deactivate the Limiters of the human race and reverse the effects of the Gaetia Key.
Xenosaga: One of KOS-MOS's weapons is a railgun called the 'Dragon's Tooth'.
X-COM: Terror from the Deep: the titular organisation has access to three Gauss weapons said to operate on the same principles as alien plasma weapons from the game's predecessor but modified for underwater deployment using conventional power sources.

External links

Atomic Rocket: Space Weapons. Practical considerations and calculations for using kinetic weapons.

References

^ [1]
^ Munro, John (1897). A Trip to Venus (2007 IndyPublish ed. ed.). London: Jarrold & Sons. pp. 26–28.