speculating, what modern gb equipment would look like.

Equipment Proton Packs
1

Hello all!

I’m probably going to get flamed right off the boards for this, but I was asked to lone out my pack this year and it got me thinking about what 2009-10 ghostbuster equipment would look like.

It’s about 20 years later, and everything has gotten smaller, more powerful, and you can order custom fabricated items off the internet. So I decided to apply these factors to the Ghostbusters equipment.

My pack is based on the RGB cartoon packs (1987), which I always considered to be a refined design version of the movie packs. Then I looked at the extreme Ghostbusters packs (1997) (not my favorite technical designs) then I tried to evolve all 3 of those concepts into modern hardware.

This is what I came up with, and it’s still very much a work in progress.

The proton pack is slightly smaller in components, its lighter, it employs metallic conduits to prevent exposure of wires to damage and elements, as well as help facilitate heat dissipation. The nuclear fuel is now stored in a replaceable cartridge on the pack, and the pack is now modular so damaged parts can be quickly removed and replaced, even by someone with little technical training.

The proton gun, I have yet to add the details for the remote control for the trap.

The new PKE, this is my favorite design in the group. It’s basically the XGB version thinner with an ergonomic case. I will be building one of these later this year.

The upgraded ghost trap, with a remote controlled trigger located on the proton gun and an idea I sort of barrowed from XGB with the canisters. the idea is that when the ghost is captured the canister is ejected out of the side of the trap and the next canister is auto loaded into place, so the trap is ready to be used again (very useful when you don’t have to carry 100lbs of equipment all over the place plus 5 or more traps). The full canisters clip onto the rail on the bottom of the proton pack for easy transport.

These are essentially my first drafts of the devices, I would appreciate feedback.

2

I dunno man. If it’s got a particle accellerator, then it’s got to have a cyclotron or some circular track somewhere. That’s where I felt th XGB packs went way off track.

Give it a cyclotron!

G

3

Why would it need a cyclotron? Cyclotrons aren’t the only type of particle accelerators.

4

They should be made of unobtainium.

5

I like your thrower idea, or atleast where it’s going. Some tweaks here and there, but yeah the pack will need to grow on me more…I’m too accustomed to the one we all know and love.

But I challenge you to build this pack! Honestly, I’d love to see it!!

6

With reference to the 2009 video game and its creators, I think they did a great job infusing the “upgrades” on a classic looking pack. I do like what your doing with the designs. I tend to think that modern equipment would have a very military-tech look and feel to it. Not alot of exposed parts and hoses, more technically recessed details like Iron Man’s armor from the movie last year. Food for thought.

-J

7

I really like the idea of the trap and it holding multiple ghosts, it would be cool if the trap would sequentially fill the canisters on its own without the need for one to be ejected out of the side and hung on the pack. That design could explain how the traps in the game were able to hold multiple ghosts since the busters only ran around with one magically spawning trap on their uniforms. Again I really like the idea of the trap. The wand has a great design as well, a little more ergonomic than the original. The pack will have to grow on me though… Keep this going!

8

some dude here made a future pack, with a shotgunlike neutrona wand and all his components were contained and cased up in this really slick silver structure. no wires to be yanked fellas. no nuclear things to drop off and blow up. its all covered.

i wasnt down with his uniform though, really strange. and i probably woulda stuck with black/semiglossblack/gloss black for the pack, but he made it work. totally original.

this guy, protonsurge

http://www.gbfans.com/fans/props/other/2985/

9

someone once said “its the low tech that made the Ghostbusters what it is”… I agree with that.

10

Technically, low-tech high tech.

The big question is, did they manage to get some real industrial design firm to help them re-do the equipment? Or did they just add upgrades and build it themselves? I think making everything too slick will make the equipment look like props in many sci-fi movies, that seem to have been mass-produced in a factory.

11

I was attacking this from the angle of the Ghostbusters 20 years on having at least a few franchise’s and therefore needing packs that are quick to assemble from modular parts, that can easily be shipped out to the franchise offices in whole or just the defective part.

If I built the circuitry I can order every part on that pack design custom fabricated for me the enclose them in.

So other than the lack of a cyclotron and lose wires everywhere, is there anything missing form the pack that would make it “feel” more realistic?

The idea I had for the trap was that when it hits capacity, you simply replace the spent canisters with empty ones, that way you only have to keep spares with you, kind of like a grenade belt, rather than a whole other trap. When I think about it, the idea makes more sense in a capacity sense, kind of like spare memory cards for digital cameras. Rather than just filling up a really dense memory card you keep multiple cards with you.

can you be more specific as to what tweeks?

once i have this information ill update my 3d images.

thanks!

-ash

12

bump

13

Honestly I just don’t see it. Sure they can make stuff smaller… but they’re not in this mass-manufacturing even with the possibility of franchises. What you have looks like a military end product on a market for potential customers. Ghostbusters hand build their stuff. I can understand more advancements, even smaller, stronger, more efficient all of those no problem I’m not an elitist who says anything other than the original simply can’t happen… but that’s a box w/ a couple tubes. I just don’t see anything about that which says hand-built, says particle acceleration, says positron collider :cool: It looks like it IS a licensed nuclear accelerator.

Purely speculation from my point of view, not a jab at you trying to make plausible products from 20 years of advancements in trial and error and technology.

Oh, and for the trap concept. You can take the Ghostbusters Return approach, fan film. They figure that since a ghost is energy they figured a way to convert that into… damn I forget if they did anything like VB coding but probably at least binary sequence. Haven’t seen the movie in a long time. Any ways long story short they can actually transfer a ghost onto a computer hard drive for indefinite storage. Need to hold more ghosts? Get another hard drive. Trap wants to hold multiple ghosts? Give it a larger SD card.

14

hey, you like it, BUILD IT! We see lots of standard proton packs, it’s nice to see something different. Why not fusion? Antimatter? Monkey snot? I’m working on my thrid version of my custom pack line, The Burgh Pack mk 3. I keep forgetting to post pics, maybe when they are done.. It’s a Super-critical Water cooled reactor and doesn’t use a cyclotron (but something that looks like it for nostalgia’s sake)

15

I appreciate all of the input!

Don’t get me wrong I LOVE Ghostbusters, and the “classic” proton packs.

However from allot of what I received as feedback, if I applied the same logic to lets say cell phones

When compared to a 1980’s celphone the iphone shares almost none of the same characteristics

http://www.dialaphone.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/oldcellphones3_18_06_08.jpg

Does it have a screen, speaker, and mic… yes

Is it large, heavy, thick, have a readily identifiable keypad, or a replaceable battery… no

The iphone looks more like a Childs toy (pun) than a cellphone when compared to the 1980’s model.

Both devices perform the same basic functions, however this example shows what 20 years of progress can achieve. I was simply trying to apply that to the proton pack.

Even as a consumer, I could order every part of my proton pack design custom fabricated for me, and have it powder coated before it was shipped to me. All this in under a month.

While I realize my initial design is very rough in fashion, that’s why I came here to try to refine it.

As for the cyclotron, it’s inside the big metal box on the bottom of the pack, along with other equipment. What I was and still am looking to do, am make this design more authentic feeling.

Are there to many conduits?

Should I relocate some parts, should the pack have some other structures? Ect..

I have made a few updates to my designs, if there is interest I will post the updated pics.

16

Cellular phones and industrial equipment are not the same thing.

Check this, if a nuclear power plant is not smaller and more compact than I will accept that the GB equipment needs an upgrade. But guess what? It hasn’t, hence the “design” of the proton pack is still year ahead of anything we have now.

The proton pack was all about hoses, valves and other pnuematic giblits. It was made to look like it worked, and it wasnt filled to the brim with microchips that would later be sized down. Hell, in the video game the proton pack got bigger.

You have a decent design, not my favorite. But build it anyhow, could be fun.

17

the real world is getting closer:

It depends on how you write the “fiction” behind the pack since they really don’t exist in our world. They may keep the casing (for patent/trademark reasons) but things like Legris Elbows, filler plugs, crank boxes, etc may change with the design specs, getting bigger or smaller depending on what the new function is. Have fun with it–it’s a prototype. : )

18

nuclear poweplants have gotten smaller and more efficent in design, however there hasnt been a new one since trinoble, new construction on nuclear power plants not already contracted was banned in most places in the world.

http://www.lacrossetribune.com/news/article_2f157ee6-ad78-11de-9cd0-001cc4c002e0.html

and the game was ste in 91’ still ages ago technologicaly.

however i think i see your point, you saying the design is missing hoses, and analoge bits. is that correct?

would it help if the metal were distressed?

this is not something i know how to do in autocad, but could be planned to be incorperated into the final design.

would you elaborate on where you would place those bits?

i plan on building this, however im tryint to work out most design issues digitaly first.

19

The thing is though logically your version is possibly more accurate to a 20-25yr progressed pack, in theory. The packs for the movie were high tech and simultaneously low tech. High tech for their function, low tech for so many exposed wires and hoses and tubes and massive blocks and such. Which for a product really is bad because that leaves it exposed to dozens of variables that can disrupt its function. But that’s also because they aren’t in this for the consumer market but to build their own and personally use. Prototyping basically. You never make the final casing for a prototype, everything is exposed. Then when all the kinks are worked out THEN you route stuff into a tight configuration and a more compact framework. What you have is more likely a final product where they’ve done a lot of trial and error and “finished” the pack. At least until the next advancement.

20

ok, here are some updated images for what i have so far.

let me know any changes you think that shuld be applied.

also, no one ever said anything about the PKE, am i to assume that this means that the design is fine?