DHBirr Wrote:I've mentioned this once before, a couple-three years ago, but in a novella Eric Flint wrote (as a sequel to David Drake's Ranks of Bronze), there's a scene that's almost certainly a shout out to Yamato, featuring the Missouri turned into a spaceship with X-ray lasers firing through her 16" guns.
Quote:Again, there was an exotic combination of old and new technology. The three great turrets of the ancient battleship swiveled, just as if it were still sailing the Pacific. But the ... incredible laser beams which pulsed out of each turret's three retrofitted barrels were something new to the galaxy.... Only a ship as enormous as the old Missouri could use these lasers. It took an immense hull capacity to hold the magnetic fusion bottles....
Oooh sweet.
What's the name of this story? Novella you say? Is it part of a larger anthology?
Heh. Shock cannons. That reminds me of something. Steering back on topic sort of. Funny story time -
This is another bit of shameless SMOF-ing here. But I am directly (along with Dave G. Wilson, Amy Howard's husband) responsible for the name of a common drink mix that shows up at "Dessloktoberfest" held at Anime Weekend Atlanta as well as other Star Blazers/Yamato fan shindigs from time to time.
We were having a fun back and forth at a panel at AWA (the 1999 one I believe) on a panel with the voice actors. Amy (Nova) and Tom Tweedy (Venture) were there. And a discussion on voice acting drifted into talking about sound and sound effects in general. I was pointing out how innovative some of the distinctive sounds of the show were and wondering/speculating about how they were produced at the time since the show originally came out in '74 or so. And though there was -some- electronic sampling of sound possible with it being the dawn of the synthesizer age (Moog) and all. Still - one had to wonder how certain sounds came to be. After all, the distinctive sound of the TIE fighter's blasters in Star Wars had been partially produced via Ben Burke going out and whanging on high tension support wires for antennae towers and recording that for sampling!
How then were certain sounds like the shock cannons and wave motion gun done? We didn't know the answer at the time. But we were having fun speculating for a few minutes. I was trying to think of some real world sounds that could have been mixed together to produce such sounds. I was enthusiastic, but slightly flummoxed at how to describe in words what the main gun turrets/shock cannons of the Yamato sounded like, when I blurted out,
"... I mean, really? Where DID they get that sound? It's like... like... Liquid Blue Electric DEATH!!!"
Which for some reason, Dave found enormously funny. (He later said it was my vocal delivery. The way my voice rose in volume/emphasis across the phrase "Liquid Blue Electric DEATH!" that killed him.) And he fired back, laughing, "that sounds like an awesome mixed drink! Liquid Blue Electric Death!"
And someone else chimed in, "yeah - but it's got to be LITERALLY blue! Like a Gamilon drink!"
"Ooh! Kahlua? Gotta have a REAL kick to it though, mixed with vodka maybe?"
And I was laughing and getting into it now, "Oh yes, certainly! Liquid Blue Electric DEATH! Two shots of this and you're GOING DOWN!" ^_^
And so it is - at many Yamato parties at cons. And most certainly at Dessloktoberfest at AWA, look around. There should be a punch bowl of brightly, nearly neon blue alcoholic punch. I've had some. It tastes great!
Watch your ass, drinking that stuff, though, because it's Liquid Blue Electric DEATH!!! ^_^