Starting in the late 1970s, portable music players capable of producing sound at very high volumes (known as “boomboxes”) appeared on the market and quickly became popular with urban youth. This led to the slightly-derogatory slang term “ghetto blaster” being coined to describe these devices, as well as to advocate for their banning from public spaces.

At their most basic, these devices typically featured an AM/FM radio and either one or two cassette decks. For the kids out there, a cassette is a type of physical media format that housed a reel of magnetic tape inside a protective plastic shell. Sound was recorded onto the magnetic tape and could be played back in linear order by the machine.

The joke of a ghetto blaster being an actual weapon was stolen from the 1987 James Bond film The Living Daylights, and its forced dancing effect is heavily inspired by the Dubstep Gun from the 2013 videogame Saints Row IV. Thematically, it would've been more appropriate for this weapon to play hip-hop music, but I figured disco was a better match for the base-game dance moves.

Parts Used

I started with the base game ham radio mesh and rearranged the pieces to fit the TwoHandLauncher animation set. I then replaced the front face with the faceplate from the vintage radio, placed a holotape behind the glass, and added the handle from the Missile Launcher.

Perks and Challenges

The following properties, perks and challenges apply to this weapon:

• Curios and Relics
• Indian Love Call
• Open to Experimentation

Usage Notes

The dancing effect lasts for 60 seconds and does a final -1000 points of Fatigue damage when it wears off.

Procurement

This weapon must be purchased from Dr. Quarton, and cannot otherwise be obtained without console commands.

Dr. Quarton's Notes

The terminal entry in Dr. Quarton's laboratory notes the following:

Project #E-1307-Q - "Ghetto Blaster"

Experimenting with acoustics has produced this device, which uses infrasound
to temporarily disrupt and override the neural impulses in the human brain,
forcing it to "reboot".

During this reboot process, the individual becomes unresponsive to external
stimuli and will convulse spasmodically until control is regained.

An unfortunate side-effect is that the convulsions can be physically
exhausting, so most subjects will simply collapse unconscious by the time
the effect wears off.

Credits

“Disco Sting” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

“Ether Disco” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

“Stringed Disco” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/