ray gun

A sort of gun, used most commonly by alien invaders and humans from the future, which shoots out rays, beams, or lasers of some sort. The effect of the ray is usually heat-related; it will either scorch a small hole straight through what it hits, or melt what it hits into a pile of molten goo.

The aliens tend to make their guns very flashy and awkward, with blinking lights and sound effects attached.

Ray guns, as used by aliens, are generally differentiated from one another by their planet of origin of the beings who use them (information as culminated from a brief sampling of old 50's sci-fi films):

• Mars
  
  Martian ray guns are usually pistol-shaped with trigger guards, and the main body designed like a series of spheres (balls) linked together so the effect is they do not look so much like weapons as they do adult novelties.
  
  
• Venus
  
  Venoid or Venetian ray guns are more artistic then serviceable. They are vaguely wedge-shaped, with the sides of the wedge curving slightly from the widely flared butt to the forward 'flaming death apeture'. They are always green. Always.
  
  
• Alpha Centauri
  
  Centaurian offensive weapons usually take the form of a rifle rather than a pistol. They have large, awkward and bulbous scopes whose only purpose seems to be to make it impossible for the soldier firing the weapon to hit the desired target.
  
  
• Planet X
  
  The weaponry of Planet X is also rifle shaped, but this time they bear an amazing resemblance to a WWII service Rifle, except that they are silver and fire (probably highly caustic) glitter as opposed to bullets.